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 COMPORT FOR THE AFFLICTED. 
 
 preface ani Notes 
 
 REV. P. H. GREENLEAF, M. A. 
 
 " I have chosen thee, in the furnace of affliction.".... ISAIAH, 48 : 10. 
 
 BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE : 
 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. 
 
 M DCCC XLIX.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, 
 
 BY P. H. GREENLEAF, 
 in the Clerk's Office or the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 THURSTON, TORBV AND COMPANY, 
 31 Devonshire Street.
 
 AFFLICTION COMETH NOT FORTH FROM THE DUST, NEITHER 
 DOTH TROUBLE SPRING OUT OF THE GROUND. THOUGH THE 
 LORD CAUSE GRIEF, YET WILL, HE HAVE COMPASSION ACCOR- 
 DING TO THE MULTITUDE OF HIS MERCIES. IF YE ENDURE 
 CHASTENING, GOD DEALETH WITH YOU, AS WITH SONS, FOR 
 YOUR PROFIT, THAT YE MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF HIS HOLI- 
 NESS.
 
 LET NOT TOUR HEART BE TROUBLED; YE BELIEVE 
 IN GOD, BELIEVE ALSO UST ME.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE following pages are intended for the use 
 of those, who are under the personal experience 
 of the Divine discipline of sickness or sorrow. 
 They contain such variety of practical and profit- 
 able thoughts, as are adapted to the different 
 aspects of trouble or trial ; and they are designed 
 to form, in this manner, a Manual of Devotional 
 Meditation, which should guide souls, darkened 
 and distracted in the deep night of human suf- 
 fering, to Him, "Who," in the soul-revealing 
 light of his discovered presence, alone, " giveth 
 songs in the night." 1 
 
 It is not necessary to designate, specifically, 
 the sources whence these thoughts were derived, 
 since they are brought together to serve a pur- 
 
 1 Job, IXXT. 10.
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 pose, not perhaps designed by the writers them- 
 selves ; and being selected without reference to 
 theological opinions, the mind is thus deprived 
 of a bias, which, even insensibly, a name might 
 suggest. And hence, there are, beside some 
 original matter, alterations and additions, for 
 which the undersigned is alone responsible. 
 Other works there are in the same department 
 of alleviation. Some, leading the mind to dis- 
 sipate itself in the paths of poetry, indulge the 
 "luxury of grief"; and some, pointing to a 
 " more excellent way," do, indeed, comfort and 
 solace, even while they seem to wound. But 
 this work, containing, as the critical reader will 
 perceive, the writings of Thomas-a-Kempis, 
 Leighton, Taylor, Cecil, Wilberforce, Hall. 
 Manning, and others, will be found to differ from 
 those generally in use ; and it is hoped, will not 
 on this account, prove of less practical applica- 
 tion to the real sources of human pain. 
 
 The work was originally prepared, by a most 
 patient and suffering servant of Jesus Christ, 
 during the hours of a long and wearisome sick-
 
 PREFACE. VII 
 
 ness ; and bears, upon its face, the imprint of a 
 personal acquaintance with sorrow ; an imprint, 
 such as cannot be discerned but from experience 
 of this process of heavenly discipline. It was 
 introduced to the public after her death, by a 
 clergyman of the Church of England, prefaced 
 by a strong and hearty commendation, from the 
 pen of one of the most eminent Prelates of that 
 communion. And the rapidity with which it 
 has passed through its several editions, is a suf- 
 ficient guaranty of its entire adaptation to the 
 case of " all those, who, in this transitory life, 
 are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any 
 other adversity." The history of the endurance 
 of hardness as " good soldiers in Christ Jesus " 
 is Jiere combined with that profit of suffering, 
 whereby our Heavenly Father would make his 
 children " partakers of his holiness." The out- 
 lined process of pain is combined with sugges- 
 tions of " the peaceable fruits of righteousness " 
 to be gathered by " them, which are exercised 
 thereby." And in these thoughts of Peace, it is 
 hoped, there may be ministered strength to
 
 viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 those, who bear the burden of the Lord, as well 
 as key-notes for meditations in those intervals of 
 stillness and silence, which form so large a por- 
 tion of life in the sick-chamber. 
 
 The person, whose patient hand traced the 
 greater part of this volume, first for her own 
 use, and afterward, as it has proved, for that of 
 other sufferers, would have shrunk instinctively 
 from the publicity thus given to the outline of 
 her own thoughts, and the consequent attention 
 attracted to the peculiarities of her own case. 
 " Her heart," says one well able to judge, " was 
 a well tuned instrument of most delicate touch, 
 responding to every high and holy thought or 
 desire. There was a dignity, and a purity, and 
 a devotedness, and a heavenliness, in all her 
 ways from her very childhood, her sweet 
 childhood, which seemed to mark her out, as 
 one called to be a special witness for the Holy 
 One against all kinds of pollution." How faith- 
 fully she bore this witness, adds her biographer, 
 they best know, whom her bright presence glad- 
 dened most constantly.
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 " Through that hour of great darkness, which 
 in some degree overshadows all, when first the 
 conscience apprehends the presence of a personal 
 God, she passed early into the clear calm light 
 of glad and holy service. God had given her a 
 spirit, in which were habitually blended the most 
 simple tenderness and the purest gaiety : she was 
 the delight of all around her, her husband, 
 her family, her friends. 'I shall never forget,' 
 says the friend whose words are quoted above, 
 ' the way in which she last took leave of me. 
 Pure, earnest, loveable spirit, in a most fitting 
 tabernacle ! 
 
 " But she was thought worthy of a better por- 
 tion than the best this world can give, and was 
 early cast into the refining fires. 
 
 "Her health, which had never been strong, 
 failed wholly in 1836 ; and from that time till 
 her release, in 1843, her life was one scarcely 
 intermitted sickness. All forms of this sharp 
 but loving discipline were sent to her in turn. 
 Weakness, weariness, exhaustion, pain, the ebb- 
 ing of a scarcely-perceptible decay, and the sore
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 struggles of hardly-retiring life, all in turn 
 tried her faith, and, through God's abounding 
 grace, perfected her patience. To these must 
 be added the privations which belong to such a 
 state of health, and which none could feel more 
 acutely. The glad spirit which God had given 
 her, delighted to pour forth its chastened gaiety 
 in the sunshine hours of family and friendly in- 
 tercourse. Few ever loved the beauties of na- 
 ture with so pure and ardent an affection, or 
 rejoiced more in free and open converse with 
 the works of God in earth, and air, and sky, 
 and, beyond all, perhaps, in ' the great and wide 
 sea.' Yet from these, for lengthened periods, 
 she was altogether withdrawn ; and with them 
 from that assembling of the saints in prayer and 
 praise, which was dearer to her by far than every 
 glorious sight or sound in nature. 
 
 " The last left to her of these external things 
 was the sea-shore ; and often did she speak of 
 God's great goodness in so long continuing to 
 her this enjoyment. But the time came when 
 this also was withheld : when the sick-room and
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 the sick-bed, with their weariness and their pain, 
 were, as far as outward things could reach, her 
 only and unrelieved portion : when days of 
 languor, succeeding restless nights, found and 
 left her on the same couch of stillness and suf- 
 fering." 
 
 It is in the experience of the sick-chamber, 
 and the secrecy of unobserved grief, that the 
 most blessed results of human suffering are often 
 obtained. " The heart knoweth its own bitter- 
 ness," and there are sorrows as well as joys, 
 " with which a stranger intermeddle th. not." 
 But it is here, that God's great goodness is often 
 most signally manifest in the increase of the 
 interior faith. Removed, by such circumstances, 
 from the sympathies and charities, which so 
 bless and soothe the hour of trial, the mind is 
 driven, back upon itself, and compelled more 
 fully to enter into the presenee of Christ, and 
 cast its burden more entirely on the Lord. The 
 suffering is endured alone, only that the sufferer 
 may more fully be sensible, that the Lord is 
 with him. He is compelled to forego his own
 
 xii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 wishes, either in the extent, or duration of his 
 pain, only that he may be more fully conformed 
 to the Divine will. He is made partaker of the 
 sufferings of Christ, only that the " power of 
 Christ's resurrection " ' may be more fully exerted 
 upon him, that self may be more fully sub- 
 dued; and, that being called to endure the 
 temptations and trials of sickness or sorrow, 
 without yielding to repining or selfishness, or 
 impatience, he may be crucified 2 unto Christ 
 with the affections and lusts ; that he may be 
 conformed 3 more and more to the image of 
 Christ, grace for grace, and glory for glory. 
 " And there should be no greater comfort to 
 Christian persons, than to bf made like unto 
 Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, 
 and sickness. For He Himself went not up to 
 joy, but first He suffered pain ; He entered not 
 into His glory before He was crucified. So truly 
 our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with 
 Christ ; and our door to enter into eternal life 
 is gladly to die with Christ ; that we may rise 
 
 1 Phillip, iii. 10. 2 Galat. v. 24. 3 Rom. riii. 29.
 
 PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 again from death, and dwell with Him in ever- 
 lasting life." l 
 
 Nor is the loneliness of the suffering, and the 
 secrecy of the sorrow of the child of God, 
 wholly lost to the Church on earth, because of 
 the obscurity or darkness of the heavenly dis- 
 cipline. His prayers " come up as a memorial 
 before God," with the incense of the prayers of 
 all the saints, from his own Altar. 2 And while 
 the rich offer of their abundance, and the wise 
 from their treasures of wisdom, he is able to 
 cast in more than they all, in his intercessions 
 for the body of Christ's Church Militant. And 
 we know not how far the prosperity, the purity, 
 and the safety of the Church even, is dependent 
 upon the continual intercession, made from the 
 unseen Altars of subdued hearts and sanctified 
 sufferings. The trial of faith results, too, in the 
 benefit of a Christian example. The light, re- 
 kindled and brightened in the crucible of pain, 
 fed by the unseen oil of faith and patience, 
 
 1 Eng. and Amer. Office for the Visitation of the Sick. 
 9 Rcr. Tiii. 4.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 burns brightly and is seen of men, and they 
 glorify our Father who is in Heaven. What an 
 example is thus set of patience, of meekness, of 
 heavenly-mindedness, of submission to the will 
 of God ! What a living attestation is given to 
 the power of His Word, and the faithfulness of 
 His promises ! And how does one and another 
 see beside such sufferers the "fourth form like 
 unto the Son of God," and themselves, walking 
 in the midst of the fire, unhurt, and upon whom 
 the fire, evidently, has no power to cast down ! 
 How often are they ministers of mercy, in 
 their lessons of wisdom and patience, to those, 
 whom lesser trials cause to faint, and who have 
 but just begun to bear the burden and heat of 
 the day. 
 
 Such is described to have been the character 
 of the suffering child of God, of whom we have 
 spoken ; fervent in her prayers ; child-like in her 
 submission ; great in her patience ; with conver- 
 sation full of wisdom and love. Through all 
 her sufferings, her faith and patience endured 
 unshaken and unwearied, even till her peaceful
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 and blessed end. To her reconciled Father in 
 Christ Jesus, she had trusted all her hopes, and 
 by Him she was kept in perfect peace, until He 
 had completed His work within her, and made 
 her meet for that nearer presence, after which 
 her loving spirit thirsted so ardently. " What a 
 wonderful world," she said in one of her last 
 letters, " this is ! but He will set all things right 
 at last ! Oh, that He would come ! Oh, how I 
 long sometimes to hear His Voice ! that Voice ! 
 
 and to see His face ! to hear Him say, 
 
 ' Thou art mine ; I have loved thee with an 
 everlasting love ! ' to fall at His feet and wor- 
 ship Him in the still and satisfied hush and 
 rapture of love's deep adoration, when the heart 
 knows it has possession of perfect blessedness." 
 
 And so she passed from us, says her biogra- 
 pher, into the rest of Paradise, and the waiting 
 for her crown. 
 
 This little volume is her memorial ; and it is 
 addressed to all those, who are "any ways 
 afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate," 
 and thus called, in any respect, to the fellowship
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 of Christ's sufferings, in the hope and desire, 
 that it may help them to know Christ, and the 
 power of His resurrection, being made conform- 
 able to His death ; and that " for what cause 
 soever, the visitation be sent unto them, it may 
 turn to their profit, and help them forward in 
 the right way, that leadeth unto everlasting 
 
 life." 
 
 P. H. GREENLEAF. 
 
 FEAST OF THE ASCENSION, 1849.
 
 Consolatio 
 
 Meek and reverent Submission. 
 
 HE is not worthy to pass for thy child that re- 
 ceives not thy stripes with reverent meekness : 
 tears may be here allowed ; but a reluctant frown 
 were no better than a rebellion. 
 
 Let infidels, then, and ignorants, who think 
 they suffer by chance, repine at their adversities, 
 and be dejected with their afflictions : for me, 
 who know that I have a Father in heaven full of 
 mercy and compassion, whose providence hath 
 measured out to a scruple the due proportions of 
 my sorrows, counting my sighs, and reserving 
 the tears which He wrings from me in his bottle; 1 
 why do I not patiently lie down and put my 
 mouth in the dust, meekly submitting to his holy 
 'pleasure, and blessing the hand from which I 
 smart ? 
 
 1 Psalm Ivi. 8.
 
 2 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Affliction, like the night-storm on the Sea of Galilee. 
 
 Jesus is now on the mount; his disciples on 
 the sea ; l yet while thus employed in his sublime 
 contemplations, he could see his absent disciples, 
 and pity them while tossed on the waves. That 
 all-piercing Eye is restrained by no limits. At 
 once he beholds the highest heavens, and the 
 midst of the sea; the glory of His Father and 
 the misery of His servants. Whatever prospects 
 present themselves to his view, he can bestow 
 the tenderest compassion on the distressed of 
 mankind. 
 
 How much more, O Saviour, from the height 
 of thine eternal felicity, dost thou look down on 
 us thy poor creatures, buffetted by the unquiet 
 waves of this troublesome world, by the rude and 
 boisterous storms of affliction. Thou didst fore- 
 see the toil and danger of these thy disciples, and 
 yet wouldst send them away, that they might 
 experience the horrors of the tempest. Thou, 
 who couldst prevent our sufferings by thy power, 
 wilt permit them by thy wisdom, that thou 
 mayest glorify thy rnercy in our deliverance, and 
 confirm our faith by the event of our calamities. 
 
 1 The ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, 
 for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night 
 Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea, and spake unto them, say- 
 ing, " Be of good cheer : it is I : be not afraid." Matth. xiv. 24, 25.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 3 
 
 How do all things apparently conspire to fill the 
 disciples with consternation ! The night was 
 dark and tempestuous ; their Master was absent, 
 the sea was strong, the winds high and contrary. 
 Had their Lord been with them, howsoever the 
 elements had raged, they would have considered 
 themselves as secure. Had the waves been tran- 
 quil, or the winds propitious, they might have 
 remained in a state of serenity during his ab- 
 sence now the season, the wind, the sea, and 
 the retirement of their Master, contribute to ren- 
 der them perfectly miserable. Sometimes the 
 providence of God thinks fit so to direct the 
 course of events> that to his most faithful servants 
 there appears no glimpse of comfort; but such an 
 universal gloominess as if Heaven and Earth had 
 conspired to overwhelm them with sorrow. 
 
 Yea, O Saviour ! what a dead night, what a 
 fearful tempest, what an astonishing dereliction 
 was that, wherein thou thyself criedst out in the 
 bitterness of thine anguished soul, "My God, my 
 God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Yet, in all 
 these extremities of misery, our gracious God in- 
 tends nothing but his greater glory and ours ; the 
 triumph of our faith, the crown of our victory. 
 
 All that longsome and tempestuous night must 
 the disciples wear out in danger and horror, as 
 given over to the winds and waves ; but in the 
 fourth watch of the night, when they were wearied
 
 4 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 out with toils and fears, comes deliverance. At 
 their entrance into the ship, at the rising of the 
 tempest, at the shutting-in of the evening, there 
 was no news of Christ ; but when they have heen 
 all the night long beaten, not so much with storms 
 and waves, as with their own thoughts; now in 
 the fourth watch (which was near to the morning) 
 Jesus came unto them, and purposely not till 
 then ; that He might exercise their patience ; that 
 He might teach them to wait upon Divine Provi- 
 dence ; that their devotions might be more whetted 
 by delay; that they might give more grateful 
 welcome to their deliverance. O God ! Thus Thou 
 thinkest fit to do still. We are by turns in our 
 sea; the winds bluster: the billows swell: the 
 night and thy absence heighten our discomfort: 
 thy time and ours is set : as yet it is but midnight 
 with us ; can we but hold out patiently until the 
 fourth watch, Thou wilt surely come and rescue 
 us. O ! let us not faint under our sorrows, but 
 wear out our three watches of tribulation with 
 undaunted patience and holy resolution ! 
 
 Reasons for submission to the Divine will, in sickness, 
 and in other trials. 
 
 Remember that God hath bound this sickness 
 upon thee by the condition of nature ; for every
 
 CONSOLATIO. 5 
 
 flower must wither and droop : it is also bound 
 upon thee by special providence, and with a design 
 to try thee, and with purposes to reward and to 
 crown thee. These cords thou canst not break ; 
 and therefore lie thou down gently, and suffer the 
 hand of God to do what He please, that at least 
 thou mayest swallow an advantage, which the 
 care and severe mercies of God force down thy 
 throat. 
 
 Prevent the violence and trouble of thy spirit 
 by an act of thanksgiving; for which in the worst 
 of sickness thou canst not want cause, especially 
 if thou rememberest that this pain is not an eternal 
 pain. 
 
 Propound to your eyes and heart the example of 
 the holy Jesus upon the cross. He endured more 
 for thee than thou canst either for thyself or Him; 
 and remember, that if we be put to suffer, and do 
 suffer in a good cause, or in a good manner, so 
 that in any sense your sufferings be conformable 
 to his sufferings, or can be capable of being united 
 to his, we shall reign together with him. 1 The 
 highway of the cross, which the King of suffer- 
 ings hath trodden before us, is the way to ease, to 
 a kingdom, and to felicity. 
 
 It may be, that this may be the last instance 
 
 1 " It is a faithful saying : if we suffer, we shall also reign with 
 Him." 2 Tim. ii. 12.
 
 6 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 and the last opportunity that ever God will give 
 thee to exercise any virtue, to do Him any service, 
 or thyself any advantage. Be careful that thou 
 losest not this ; for to eternal ages this never shall 
 return again. 
 
 Sickness is the opportunity and the proper scene 
 of exercising some virtues. It is that agony in 
 which men are tried for a crown. And if we 
 remember what glorious things are spoken of the 
 grace of faith, that it is the life of just men, the 
 restitution of the dead in trespasses and sins, the 
 justification of a sinner, the support of the weak, 
 the confidence of the strong, the magazine of pro- 
 mises, and the title to very glorious rewards ; we 
 may easily imagine, that it must have in it a work 
 and a difficulty, in some proportion answerable to 
 so great effects. If you will try the excellency, 
 and feel the work of faith, place the man in a per- 
 secution ; let him ride in a storm ; let his bones 
 be broken with sorrow, and his eyelids loosened 
 with sickness; let his bread be dipped in tears, 
 and all the daughters of music be brought low; 
 let God commence a quarrel against him, and be 
 bitter in the accents of his anger or his discipline; 
 then God tries your faith. Can you then trust his 
 goodness, and believe Him to be a father, when 
 you groan under his rod? Can you rely upon all 
 the strange propositions of Scripture, and be con-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 7 
 
 tent to perish if they be not true ? Can yon receive 
 comfort in the discourses of death and heaven, of 
 immortality and the resurrection, of the death of 
 Christ and conforming to his sufferings ? Truth 
 is, there are but two great periods in which faith 
 demonstrates itself to be a powerful and mighty 
 grace ; and they are, persecution and the ap- 
 proaches of death, for the passive part ; and a 
 temptation, for the active. In the days of pleasure 
 and the night of pain, faith is to fight her agonis- 
 ticon, to contend for mastery ; and faith overcomes 
 all alluring and fond temptations to sin ; and faith 
 overcomes all our weaknesses and faintings in our 
 troubles. By the faith of the promises, we learn 
 to despise the world, choosing those objects which 
 faith discovers; and, by expectation of the same 
 promises, we are comforted in all our sorrows, and 
 enabled to look through and see beyond the cloud ; 
 but the vigor of it is pressed and called forth, 
 when all our fine discourses come to be reduced 
 to practice. For in our health and clearer days 
 it is easy to talk of putting trust in God; we 
 readily trust Him for life when we are in health, 
 for provisions when we have fair revenues, and 
 for deliverance when we are newly escaped : but 
 let us come to sit upon the margent of our grave, 
 and let a tyrant lean hard upon our fortunes, and 
 dwell upon our wrong; let the storm arise, and 
 the keels toss till the cordage crack, or that all
 
 g CONSOLATIO. 
 
 our hopes bulge under us, and descend into the 
 hollowness of sad misfortunes; then can you 
 believe, when you neither hear, nor see, nor feel 
 any thing but objections? This is the proper 
 work of sickness : faith is then brought into the 
 theatre, and so exercised, that if it abides but to 
 the end of the contention, we may see the work 
 of faith, which God will hugely crown. God 
 hath crowned the memory of Job with a wreath 
 of glory, because he sat upon his dunghill wisely 
 and temperately ; and his potsherd and his groans, 
 mingled with praises and justifications of God, 
 pleased him like an anthem sung by angels in the 
 morning of the resurrection. God could not choose 
 but be pleased with the delicious accents of mar- 
 tyrs, when in their tortures they cried out nothing 
 but "Holy Jesus," and " Blessed be God ;" and 
 they also themselves, who, with a hearty resig- 
 nation to the Divine pleasure, can delight in God's 
 severe dispensations, will have the transportations 
 of cherubim when they enter into the joy of God. 
 If God be delicious to his servants when He smites 
 them, He will be nothing but ravishments and 
 ecstasies to their spirits, when He refreshes them 
 with the overflowings of joy in the day of recom- 
 pences. No man is more miserable than he that 
 hath no adversity. Fathers, because they design 
 to have their children wise and valiant, apt for 
 counsel or for arms, send them to severe govern-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 9 
 
 ments, and tie them to study, to hard labor, and 
 afflictive contingencies. They rejoice when the 
 bold boy strikes a lion with his hunting-spear, 
 and shrinks not when the beast comes to affright 
 his early courage ; and the man that designs his 
 son for noble employments, to honors and to tri- 
 umphs, to consular dignities and presidencies of 
 councils, loves to see him pale with study, or 
 panting with labor, hardened with sufferance or 
 eminent by dangers. And so God dresses us for 
 heaven. He loves to see us struggling with a 
 disease, and resisting the devil, and contesting 
 against the weaknesses of nature, and against hope 
 to believe in hope, resigning ourselves to God's 
 will, praying Him to choose for us, and dying in 
 all things but faith and its blessed consequences; 
 ut ad officium cum pervnilo simus prornpti ; and 
 the danger and the resistance shall endear the 
 office. For so have I known the boisterous north 
 wind pass through the yielding air, which opened 
 its bosom, and appeased its violence, by enter- 
 taining it with easy compliance in all the regions 
 of its reception ! but when the same breath of 
 heaven hath been checked with the stiffness of a 
 tower, or the united strength of wood, it grew 
 mighty, and dwelt there, and made the highest 
 branches stoop, and make a smooth path for it on 
 the top of all its glories. So is sickness, and so is 
 the grace of God : when sickness hath made the
 
 10 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 difficulty, then God's grace hath made a triumph, 
 and by doubling its power hath created new pro- 
 portions of a reward ; and then shows its biggest 
 glory when it hath the greatest difficulty to mas- 
 ter, the greatest weaknesses to support, the most 
 busy temptations to contest with ; for so God loves 
 that his strength should be seen in our weakness 
 and our danger. 
 
 The Cross of suffering, the fountain of happiness: the 
 Cross of patience, taken up and borne by divine grace : 
 and both a testimony of love to Christ. 1 
 
 In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in 
 the cross is protection from thine enemies ; from 
 the cross is infusion of heavenly Spirit, true for- 
 titude, joy of the Spirit, conquest of self, per- 
 fection of holiness. There is no health of the 
 soul, nor hope of eternal life, but in the cross. 
 Take up, therefore, thy cross and follow Jesus, 
 and thou shall go into life everlasting. He 
 hath gone before thee, carrying His cross, upon 
 which He died for thee, that thou mayest bear 
 
 1 The following extract is made from the " Imitation of Christ," 
 written by Thomas Hamerken, surnamed a Kempis, who was born 
 at Kempen, in Germany, A. D. 1380. It affords us sufficient proof 
 that Christian faith and devotion of the highest order, were stil' 
 existing in the Church.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 11 
 
 thine own cross, and upon that die to thyself for 
 Him ; because if thou die with Him, thou shall 
 also live with Him ; " if we are partakers of His 
 sufferings, we shall be partakers also of His 
 glory." 
 
 Dispose and order all things according as thou 
 wilt, and as seems best unto thee, and thou wilt 
 still find something to suffer, willingly or unwil- 
 lingly ; and so thou shall continually find the 
 cross : thou shall feel either pain of body, or dis- 
 tress and anguish of spirit. Sometimes thou shall 
 be left by God's spirit : other times, thou shall be 
 afflicted by thy neighbor : and what is more, thou 
 shall often be a Irouble to thyself thou shall 
 feel a burden such as no human help can remove, 
 no earthly comfort lighten ; but bear it thou must, 
 as long as il is Ihe will of God lo continue it on 
 thee. But God, in permitting no ray of comfort 
 to visit thee in the darkness of distress, would 
 have thee learn to suffer tribulation in submissive 
 humility, and resign thy whole state, presenl and 
 future, to his absolute disposal. 
 
 No man has so lively a sense of the sufferings 
 of Christ, as he who hath suffered such like 
 things. 
 
 The cross is always ready, and waits for thee in 
 every place. Run where thou wilt, thou canst not 
 avoid it ; for wherever thou runnest, thou takest 
 thyself with thee, and art always sure of finding
 
 12 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 thyself. Turn which way thoti wilt, either to the 
 things above or to the things below, to that which 
 is within, or that which is without thee, thou wilt 
 in all certainty find the cross ; and if thou would- 
 est enjoy peace and obtain the unfading crown of 
 glory, it is necessary that in every place and in 
 all events thou shouldest bear it willingly, and in 
 patience possess thy soul. 
 
 If thou bearest the cross willingly, it will soon 
 bear thee, and lead thee beyond the reach of suf- 
 fering, where God shall take away all suffering 
 from thy heart. But if thou bearest it with re- 
 luctance, it will be a burden inexpressively pain- 
 ful, which yet thou must still feel ; and by every 
 impatient effort to throw it from thee, thou wilt 
 only render thyself less and less able to sustain its 
 weight, till at length it crush thee. 
 
 Why hopest thou to avoid that from which no 
 human being has been exempt? Who among the 
 saints hath accomplished his pilgrimage in this 
 world without adversity and distress? Even our 
 blessed Lord passed not one hour of his most holy 
 life, without tasting "the bitter cup that was 
 given him to drink;" and of Himself He saith, 
 that " it behoved him to suffer, and to rise from 
 the dead, and so to enter into his glory." And 
 why dost thou seek any other path to glory but 
 that in which, bearing the cross, thou art called to 
 follow " the Captain of thy salvation ?" The life
 
 CONSOLATIO. 13 
 
 of Christ was a continual cross, an unbroken chain 
 of sufferings; and desirest thou a perpetuity of re- 
 pose and joy 1 
 
 This meek and patient submission under it, is 
 ndt the effect of any power which is inherent in 
 man, and which he can boast of as his own ; but 
 is the pure fruit of the grace of Christ. No : it is 
 not in man to love and bear the cross ; to resist the 
 appetites of the body, and bring them under abso- 
 lute subjection to the Spirit ; to shun honors ; to 
 receive affronts with meekness ; to bear with calm 
 resignation the loss of fortune, health and friends; 
 and to have no desire after the riches, the honors 
 and pleasures of the world. If thou dependest 
 upon thy own will and strength to do and to suf- 
 fer all this, thou wilt find thyself as unable to 
 accomplish it, as to create another world ; but if 
 thou turnest to the divine power within thee, and 
 trustest only to that as the doer and sufferer of all, 
 the strength of Omnipotence will be imparted to 
 thee, and the world and the flesh shall be put 
 under thy feet: armed with this holy confidence, 
 and defended by the cross of Christ, thou needest 
 not fear the most malignant efforts of thy great 
 adversary the devil. 
 
 Dispose thyself, therefore, like a true and faith- 
 ful servant, to bear with fortitude and resolution 
 the cross of thy blessed Lord, to which He was 
 nailed in testimony of his infinite love of thee.
 
 14 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Prepare thy spirit to suffer patiently the innumer- 
 able inconveniences and troubles of this miserable 
 life ; for these thou wilt find, though thou runnest 
 to the ends of the earth, or hidest thyself in its 
 deepest caverns : and it is patient suffering alone 
 that can either disarm their power, or heal the 
 wounds they have made. Drink freely and affec- 
 tionately of thy Lord's bitter cup, if thou desirest 
 to manifest thy friendship for Him, and the part 
 thou hast with Him. 
 
 To suffer, therefore, is thy portion ; and to 
 suffer patiently and willingly, is the great testi- 
 mony of thy love and allegiance to thy Lord. 
 
 If any way but bearing the cross and dying to ' 
 his own will, could have redeemed man from that 
 fallen life of self in flesh and blood, which is his 
 alienation from, and enmity to, God ; Christ would 
 have taught it in his word, and established it by 
 his example. But of all universally, that desire 
 to follow Him, He has required the bearing of the 
 cross ; and without exception has said to all, " If 
 any man will come after me, let him deny him- 
 self, take up his cross, and follow me." 
 
 When, therefore, we have read all books, and 
 examined all methods, to find out the path that 
 will lead us back to the blessed state from which 
 we have wandered, this conclusion only will re- 
 main, that " through much tribulation we must 
 enter into the kingdom of God."
 
 CONSOLATIO. 15 
 
 The necessity of and means for the subjection of the 
 Will. 
 
 The greatest blessing which man can receive, 
 is to have his private individual will subordinated 
 to the sentiment of his relation with God. And 
 yet his continual business in this world is to 
 strengthen this individual will, which opposes the 
 entrance of God into his heart. He seeks its 
 gratification in all things, and is ever guarding 
 against any thing which may cross it. He thus 
 blindly loves and feeds his disease, and resists all 
 the attempts of Divine love to cure it. This 
 is man's way, and it is a way which leads down 
 to death. God's way is to cross man's way, that 
 he may be turned from it and live. He crosses 
 him in his good opinion of himself, in his confi- 
 dence in his own strength and in his own wisdom. 
 He crosses him m his favorite schemes of happi- 
 ness. He sends affliction after affliction. He pours 
 bitterness into his soul. He sends disease and 
 death into the circle of his friends. He gives him 
 up to the idolatry of the creature, and then tears 
 his idol from him, or makes it a curse to him. He 
 lays him on abed of sickness, 1 and tries him with 
 
 1 " In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. Then he 
 turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord, and wept 
 sore. Then came the word of the Lord, saying, I have heard thy 
 prayer, I have seen thy tears." Is. xxxviii. 2.
 
 16 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 pain arid restlessness, and brings him to the 
 boundary which separates time from eternity, and 
 makes him look backwards into past time and 
 forwards into the future eternity, and shows him 
 that he was made to dwell with God through 
 eternity, and yet that all his past days have been 
 spent in unfitting himself for this state ; and He 
 says to him, " How can thy heart endure or thy 
 hands be strong on the day that I plead with 
 thee?" turn unto Me, the only strength of the 
 creature. This is the way of God towards man, 
 of that God whose name is Love : and this is the 
 way that He expresses His love. It is thus that 
 He shakes the bulwarks of independence which 
 guard the entrance of the soul against God. It is 
 thus that He convinces man of his guilt, and 
 weakness, and ignorance, and misery, and per- 
 suades him to open the door of his heart to God, 
 and to take shelter under his con^assionate omni- 
 potence. Blessed are they who are persuaded ; 
 blessed are they in whose hearts God makes a 
 place for Himself, though it is by casting out all 
 other joys. 
 
 God's purpose of grace in all providential dealings. 
 
 We know that the government of the world is 
 in the hand of God, and therefore we may rest
 
 CONSOLATIO. 17 
 
 assured, that there is not a single link in the 
 apparently perplexed chain of human things 
 which does not connect with, and guide to, the 
 coming glory ; we may rest assured, not only 
 that all the histories of the kingdoms of this world 
 are under the influence of an unfelt but irresisti- 
 ble control, preparing the way for that kingdom . 
 which never can be moved, but also that personal 
 events as well as national, private as well as pub- 
 lic, are all under the same mandate, commissioned 
 to lead on to the same great consummation. This 
 truth gives a seriousness and a dignity to every 
 thing : it banishes littleness from life, because it 
 connects all with the glory of God and the eradi- 
 cation of evil ; and it seems to conduct us under 
 the shadow of everlasting and omnipotent love, 
 where we may rest in peace until all calamities be 
 overpast. 
 
 When the eye of the spirit is thus opened to see 
 God is working in every thing, and by every thing, 
 to bring on the reign of righteousness ; the heart 
 will feel itself invited to the blessed privilege of 
 entering into the purposes of God, of sympathizing 
 with the everlasting counsels of his grace, of 
 rejoicing in their assured success, and of being a 
 fellow- worker with him in every action of life. 
 These actions may appear small and insignificant 
 in the world's judgment, but the believer knows 
 that it is not in vain that the Ruler of the universe 
 2
 
 18 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 has called him to do all things to the glory of 
 God. These are animating thoughts for poor 
 wanderers in the wilderness, who have listened to 
 the Saviour's voice. For them the fall, with all 
 its sin, and misery, and darkness, will soon pass 
 away; having served, under the control of Him 
 . who bringeth good out of evil, to glorify the 
 Divine attributes, and to introduce a high, and 
 holy, and happy order of things ; higher, and 
 holier, and happier than that which Adam lost, 
 because founded on a nearer relation with God, 
 and a fuller manifestation of his character. The 
 gate of Eden will once again be unbarred, and 
 the banished ones be brought back; and in the 
 mean time, though their path lie through the 
 desert, yet that path is the way of holiness, and 
 in it He will be with them, whose presence can 
 make the wilderness to be glad, and the desert to 
 rejoice and blossom like the rose. 
 
 The effects of the peace of God. 
 
 11 The peace of God, which passeth all under- 
 standing, shall keep your hearts and minds 
 through Christ Jesus." l This peace keeps the 
 heart in affliction. It is a pledge of the special 
 
 > Phil. iv. 7.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 19 
 
 love of God to the soul ; and as such it begets 
 confidence in Him, so that the soul can stay 
 itself on his pomises, and encourages itself in 
 his faithfulness, and look to his care and power 
 for a happy issue out of all its troubles. 1 It 
 both begets hope and strengthens hope ; and he 
 who is going full of hope to heaven, is not easily 
 shaken or depressed. With a crown of life before 
 him, he feels that he can afford to bear the light 
 affliction of the way that leads to it. Besides, it 
 leaves us something to fall back on, when other 
 props, and refuges, and consolations, are with- 
 drawn. Let a worldly man lose his earthly com- 
 forts, and he has lost his all ; but let a man of 
 God lose what he may, his main support, his chief 
 treasure is yet safe. Put this peace into his heart, 
 and then place him where you will, on the bed 
 of sickness, in the house of mourning, by the 
 grave of his best, and dearest, and only friend; 
 strike him where you may, and how you may, he 
 can bear the blow. He grieves, grieves perhaps 
 more than other men ; for his religion has enlarg- 
 ed his powers of suffering, it has extended his 
 view, it has deepened his feelings and refined his 
 heart : but he is not moved ; no practical, no 
 abiding impression is made on him. He may 
 weep for an hour, but he will soon take up the 
 
 1 " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
 Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." Isaiah, xxvi. 3.
 
 20 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 language of the destitute Paul, and say, " I have 
 all, and abound ; I am full. None of these things 
 move me ; nay, in all these things I am more than 
 conqueror, through him that loved me." 
 
 Reasons, why God removes earthly idols. 
 
 The comfort that most delights us, is generally 
 the first to perish ; the mercies we lose the soonest 
 are those we love the best. This is not the mere 
 language of sentiment or poetry; it is the testi- 
 mony of fact. When have we ever put the crea- 
 ture in God's place, given it that room in our soul 
 which He ought to occupy, but God has either 
 removed it, or embittered it, or put an end to it? 
 Many of our blessings have we lost by loving 
 them too well. We have slain them by setting 
 too great a value on them, and taking our rest in 
 them. There is not a single earthly good that 
 will bear man's hand when man firmly grasps it. 
 His touch withers and destroys every thing. And 
 oh, what a mercy for man that it is so! It is in 
 this way that a forgotten God recalls our wander- 
 ing affections to Himself. He lays waste the 
 enthroned creature, that He may once again 
 enthrone Himself: He breaks the cistern, not 
 that we may be left parched and fainting in the
 
 CONSOLATIO. 21 
 
 wilderness of life, but go and satisfy our thirsting 
 souls once again from the everlasting spring: He 
 crushes the reed, but He substitutes for it a rock : 
 He puts far away from us "lover and friend," 
 with all the unutterable sweetness of their af- 
 fection, and the tenderness of their love ; but 
 what does He substitute? Himself; the intense, 
 unfathomable love of his own infinite mind, 
 the presence of Christ, and communion with 
 Heaven. 
 
 The lot of all God's saints found, ly experience, to oe 
 the same. 
 
 It is written, that " through much tribulation 
 we must enter into the kingdom of God." God 
 has all things in his own hands. He can spare, 
 He can inflict : He often spares, (may He spare 
 us still!) but He often tries us: in oneway or 
 another He tries every one. At some time or other 
 of the life of every one, there is pain, and sorrow, 
 and trouble. So it is; and the sooner, perhaps, 
 we can look upon it as a law of our Christian con- 
 dition, the better. One generation comes, and then 
 another. They issue forth and succeed like leaves 
 in spring, and in all this, law is observable. 
 They are tried, and then they triumph ; they are
 
 22 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 humbled, and then they are exalted; they over- 
 come the world, and then they sit down on Christ's 
 throne. Hence St. Peter, who.at first was in such 
 amazement and trouble at his Lord's afflictions, 
 bids us not look on suffering as a strange thing, 
 "as though some strange thing happened unto us, 
 but rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's 
 sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed 
 we may be glad also with exceeding joy." Again, 
 St. Paul says, " We glory in tribulations, knowing 
 that tribulation worketh patience." And again, 
 " If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be 
 also glorified together." And again, " If we suffer, 
 we shall also reign with him." And St. John, 
 " The world knoweth us not, because it knew him 
 not. We know that when he shall appear, we 
 shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 
 What is here said of persecution, will apply of 
 course to all trials, and much more to those lesser 
 trials, which are the utmost that Christians have 
 to endure now. Yet I suppose it is a long time 
 before any one of us recognizes and understands, 
 that his own state on earth is, in one shape or 
 other, a state of trial and sorrow ; and that if he 
 has intervals of external peace, this is all gain, 
 and much more than he has any right to expect. 
 
 But how different must the state of the Church 
 appear to beings who contemplate it as a whole, 
 who have contemplated it for ages, as the angels !
 
 CONSOLATIO. 23 
 
 We know what experience does for us in this 
 world. Men get to see and understand the course 
 of things, and by what rules it proceeds; and they 
 can foretel what will happen, and they are not 
 surprised at what does happen. They take the 
 history of things as a matter of course. They are 
 not startled that things happen in one way, not in 
 another ; it is the rule. Night comes after day, 
 summer after winter; cold, frost, and snow, in 
 their season. Certain illnesses have their ap- 
 pointed times, or visit at certain ages. All things 
 go through a process ; they have a beginning and 
 an end. Grown men know this, but it is otherwise 
 with children. To them every thing that happens 
 is strange and surprising. They by turns feel 
 wonder, admiration, or fear, at any thing that 
 happens ; they do not know whether it will hap- 
 pen again or not ; and they know nothing of the 
 regular operation of causes, or the connection of 
 those effects which result from one and the same. 
 And so, too, as regards the state of our souls under 
 the covenant of mercy : the heavenly hosts, who 
 see what is going on upon earth, well understand, 
 even from having seen it before, what is the course 
 of a soul travelling from hell to heaven. They 
 have seen, again and again, in numberless in- 
 stances, that suffering is the path to peace; that 
 they that sow in tears shall reap in joy ; and that 
 what was true of Christ, is fulfilled in a measure
 
 24 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 in his followers. Let us try to accustom ourselves 
 to this view of the subject. The whole Church, 
 all elect souls, each in its turn, is called to this 
 necessary work. Once it was the turn of others, 
 and now it is our turn. Once it was the Apostles' 
 turn. It was St. Paul's turn once. He had all 
 cares on him at once ; covered from head to foot 
 with cares, as Job with sores ; and, as if all this 
 was not enough, he had a thorn in the flesh added, 
 some personal discomfort ever with him. Yet he 
 did his part well; he was as a strong and bold 
 wrestler in his day, and at the close of it he was 
 able to say, "I have fought a good fight, I have 
 finished my course, I have kept the faith." And 
 after him the excellent of the earth, the white- 
 robed army of martyrs, and the cheerful company 
 of confessors, each in his turn, each in his day, 
 likewise played the man. And so, down to this 
 very time, when faith has well nigh failed, first 
 one and then another have been called out to ex- 
 hibit before the Great King. It is as though all 
 of us were allowed to stand round his throne at 
 once, and He called out one, first this man, and 
 then that, to take up the chaunt by himself, each 
 in his turn having to repeat the melody which his 
 brethren have before gone through ; or as if it were 
 some trial of strength or agility, and while the ring 
 of bystanders beheld and applauded, we in suc- 
 cession, one by one, were actors in the pageant.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 25 
 
 Such is our state ; angels are looking on, Christ 
 has gone before. Christ has given us an example 
 that we may follow his steps. He went through 
 far more than we can be called to suffer; our 
 brethren have gone through much more, and they 
 seem to encourage us by their success, and to 
 sympathize in. our essay: now it is our turn; and 
 all ministering spirits keep silence and look on. 
 
 Oh ! let not your foot slip, or your eye be false, 
 or your ear dull, or your attention flagging ! Be 
 not dispirited, be not afraid; keep a good heart ; be 
 bold, draw not back ; you will be carried through. 
 Whatever troubles come on you, of mind, body, 
 or estate, from within or from without, from chance 
 or from intent, from friends or foes whatever your 
 troubles be, though you be lonely, O children of a 
 Heavenly Father, be not afraid! quit you like 
 men in your day ! and, when it is over, Christ 
 will receive you to Himself, and your heart shall 
 rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. 
 Christ is already in that place of peace which is 
 all in all. He is on the right hand of God. He is 
 hidden in the brightness of the radiance which 
 issues from the everlasting throne. He is in the 
 very abyss of peace, where there is no voice of 
 tumult or distress, but a deep stillness stillness, 
 that greatest of all goods which we can fancy, 
 that most perfect of joys, the utter, profound, in- 
 effable tranquillity of the Divine Essence. He has
 
 26 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 entered into his rest. Oh ! how great a good will 
 it be, if, when this troublesome life is over, we in 
 our turn also enter into that same rest ! if the time 
 shall one day come, when we shall enter into his 
 tabernacle above, and hide ourselves under the 
 shadow of his wings ; if we shall be among the 
 number of those blessed dead, who die in the Lord, 
 and rest from their labors ! Here we are tossing 
 on the sea, and the wind is contrary. All through 
 the day we are tried and tempted in various 
 ways"; we cannot think, speak, or act, but infir- 
 mity and sin are at hand. But in the unseen 
 world, where Christ has entered, all is peace. 
 There is the eternal throne, and a rainbow round 
 about it, like unto an emerald. 1 " There is no more 
 death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither any more 
 pain ; for the former things have passed away." 
 Nor any more sin, nor any more guilt ; no more 
 remorse, no more punishment, no more penitence, 
 no more trial ; no infirmity to depress us, no affec- 
 tion to mislead us, no passion to transport us, no 
 prejudice to blind us; no sloth, no pride, no envy, 
 no strife ; but the light of God's countenance, and 
 a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, pro- 
 ceeding out of the throne. That is our home ; here 
 we are but on pilgrimage, and Christ is calling us 
 home. He calls us to his many mansions which 
 
 1 Rev. iv. 3.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 27 
 
 He has prepared ; and the Spirit and the Bride call 
 us too, and all things will be ready for us by the 
 time of our coming. " Seeing then that we have a 
 great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, 
 Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profes- 
 sion ;" seeing that we have " so great a cloud of 
 witnesses, let us lay aside every weight," " let us 
 labor to enter into our rest;" " let us come boldly 
 unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 
 
 Light affliction workeih glory. 
 
 " Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
 worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
 weight of glory." 1 Methinks this consideration 
 alone should be so effectual to teach us patience, 
 that we should scarce have patience to hear any 
 more ! Shall our glory superabound, as our suf- 
 ferings have abounded 1 Shall our eternal refresh- 
 ings be measured out to us by the cup of afflic- 
 tions we have drunk of? Doth God beat and 
 hammer us, only to make us vessels unto honor? 
 Shall all sorrow and sighing flee away, and ever- 
 lasting joy be upon our heads? Wherefore, then, 
 thy fretting and fuming, O Christian ? Wherefore 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv. ir.
 
 28 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 complain because God taketh a course to make 
 thee too glorious ? Doth God do thee an injury 
 to fit thee for a higher place in heaven than thou 
 carest to possess? Thy impatience can free thee 
 from no other weight but one, and that is " an ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory." 
 
 How to commit our souls unto God. 
 
 11 Wherefore let them that suffer according to 
 the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls 
 to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." l 
 Nothing doth so establish the mind amidst the 
 rollings and turbulence of present things, as both 
 a look above them, and a look beyond them ; 
 above them to the steady and good hand by which 
 they are ruled, and beyond them to the sweet and 
 beautiful end to which by that hand they shall be 
 brought. 
 
 If men would have inward peace amidst out- 
 ward trouble, they must walk by the rule of peace, 
 and keep strictly to it. If you would commit 
 your soul to the keeping of God, know that He is 
 a holy God ; and an unholy soul that walks in 
 any way of wickedness, whether known or se- 
 cret, is no fit commodity to put into his pure hand 
 to keep. 
 
 1 1 Peter iv. 19.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 29 
 
 You that would have safety in God in evil times, 
 beware of evil ways, for in these it cannot be. If 
 you will be safe in Him, you must stay with Him, 
 and in all your ways keep within Him " as your 
 fortress." Now, in the ways of sin you run out 
 from Him. 
 
 Study pure and holy walking, if you would 
 have your confidence firm, and have boldness and 
 joy in God. You will find that a little sin will 
 shake your trust, and disturb your peace, more 
 than the greatest sufferings: yea, in those suffer- 
 ings your assurance and joy in God will grow and 
 abound most if sin be kept out. All -the winds 
 which blow about the earth from all points, stir it 
 not ; only that within the bowels of it, makes the 
 earth quake. I .do not mean that for infirmities 
 a Christian ought to be discouraged. But take 
 heed of walking in any way of sin, for that will 
 unsettle thy confidence. Innocency and holy 
 walking make the soul of a sound constitution, 
 which the counterblasts of affliction wear not out, 
 nor alter. Sin makes it so sickly and crazy, that 
 it can endure nothing. Therefore, study to keep 
 your consciences pure, and they shall be peaceable ; 
 yea, in the worst times commonly most peaceable, 
 and best furnished with spiritual confidence and 
 comfort. 
 
 Faith rolls the soul over on God, ventures it 
 into his hand, and rests satisfied concerning it,
 
 30 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 being there. There is no way but this to be quiet 
 within, to be impregnable and immovable in all 
 assaults, and fixed in all changes, believing in his 
 free love. Therefore, be persuaded to resolve on 
 that ; not doubting and disputing, Whether shall 
 I believe, or not? Shall I think He will suffer me 
 to lay my soul upon Him, to keep so unworthy, 
 so guilty a soul ? Were it not presumption 1 Oh ! 
 what sayest thou? Why dost thou thus dishonor 
 Him, and disquiet thyself? If thou hast a pur- 
 pose to walk in any way of wickedness, indeed 
 thou art not for Him ; yea, thou comest not near 
 Him to give Him thy soul. But wouldst thou 
 have it delivered from sin rather than from trouble; 
 yea, rather from hell? Is that the chief safety thou 
 seekest, to be kept from iniquity, from thine own 
 iniquity, thy beloved sins? Dost thou desire to 
 dwell in Him, and walk with Him? Then, what- 
 soever be thy guiltiness and unworthiness, come 
 forward, and give Him thy soul to keep. If He 
 should seem to refuse it, press it on Him. If He 
 stretch not forth his hand, lay it down at his foot, 
 and leave it there, and resolve not to take it back. 
 Say, Lord, Thou hast made us these souls, Thou 
 callest for them again to be committed to Thee : 
 here is one. It is unworthy, but what soul is not 
 so? It is most unworthy, but therein will the 
 riches of thy grace appear most in receiving it. 
 And thus leave it with Him, and know He will 
 make thee a good account of it.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 31 
 
 There are in the words, other two grounds of 
 quietness of spirit in sufferings. It is according to 
 the will of God. The believing soul, subjected 
 and levelled to that will, complying with his good 
 pleasure in all, cannot have a more powerful per- 
 suasive than this, that all is ordered by his will. 
 This settled in the heart would settle it much, and 
 make it even in all things ; not only to know, but 
 wisely and deeply to consider that it is thus, that 
 all is measured in heaven, every drachm of thy 
 troubles weighed by that skilful hand which doth 
 all things by weight, number, and measure. 
 
 Consider God as thy Father, who hath taken 
 special charge of thee, and of thy soul; thoti 
 hast given it to Him, and He hath received it. 
 And upon this consideration, study to follow his 
 will in all, to have no will but his. This is thy 
 duty and thy wisdom. Nothing is gained by 
 spurning and struggling, but to hurt and vex thy- 
 self; but by complying, all is gained ; sweet peace. 
 It is the very secret, the mystery of solid peace 
 within, to resign all to his will, to be disposed of 
 at his pleasure, without the least contrary thought. 
 And thus, like two-faced pictures, those sufferings 
 and troubles, and whatsoever else, while beheld 
 on the one side as painful to the flesh, hath an un- 
 pleasant visage; yet, go about a little, and look 
 upon it as thy Father's will, and then it is smiling, 
 beautiful, and lovely. This I would recommend
 
 32 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 to you, not only for temporals, as easier there, but 
 in spiritual thiiigs, your comforts and sensible en- 
 largements, to love all that He does. It is the sum 
 of Christianity to have thy will crucified, and the 
 will of thy Lord thy only desire. Whether joy or 
 sorrow, sickness or health, life or death, in all, in 
 all, "Thy will be done." 
 
 The other ground of quietness is contained in 
 the first word, which looks back on the foregoing 
 discourse, "Wherefore" what? Seeing that 
 your reproachings and sufferings are not endless, 
 yea, that they are short, they shall end, quickly 
 end, and end in glory, be not troubled about them ; 
 overlook them. The eye of faith will do it. A 
 moment gone, and what are they? This is the 
 great cause of our disquietness in present troubles 
 and griefs : we forget their end. We are affected 
 by our condition in this present life, as if it were 
 all, and it is nothing. Oh, how quickly shall all 
 the enjoyments and all the sufferings of this life 
 pass away, and be as if they had riot been ! 
 
 God's work in renewal and sanctification necessarily 
 slow. 
 
 Our first object, even in conversion, is to feel 
 rich ; but God's design is to make us feel poor,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 33 
 
 that we may know how to value our ultimate and 
 eternal inheritance in Him. He might break at 
 once our chains, and set us free; He might at once 
 exchange the garments of our defilement for the 
 robes of celestial purity. He might in one instant 
 swallow up death in victory, and place us with 
 healed heart and diademed brow before the ever- 
 lasting throne. Perhaps, in some cases, He has 
 done this ; for who shall limit the actings of his 
 power? But this is not the apparent process of 
 his cure, or the mode of his munificence. This 
 rapidity of salvation would destroy the exercise of 
 moral discipline, would draw a veil over many a 
 beautiful manifestation of the Divine character, 
 and would reveal his tenderness, his patience, and 
 his fidelity, rather as inscriptions to be read, than 
 as events to be seen. It is by the slow progress of 
 spiritual character, by the sad resistance of our 
 evil to his good, by the mistakes, and falls, and 
 agonies which we experience, and which He miti- 
 gates, and repairs, and counteracts ; it is by bitter 
 self-knowledge, acquired not by theory and art, 
 but by fact, and shame, and sorrow ; it is by ten 
 thousand proofs of long-suffering, proofs exhibited 
 in the very face and contrast of our rebellion, fret- 
 fulness, and haste ; it is by these things that He 
 makes us wise, in order that at last He may make 
 us happy; in order that with deep conviction we 
 may know ourselves in Him, and be prepared 
 3
 
 34 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 with accents, otherwise to man unspeakable, to 
 exclaim in higher and holier regions than these, 
 " Unto Him that hath loved us, and washed us 
 from our sins in His own blood, to Him be^glory, 
 and blessing, and honor, and dominion, henceforth 
 and for ever." 
 
 Jesus Christ, the light to see our sorrows by, and the 
 companion to be with us when they come. 
 
 On Jesus may our affections fix ; on Him, the 
 Healer, the Restorer of humanity, may our hearts 
 learn to lean the secret burden of their being; and 
 this not in words only, in which we are all ready 
 enough to do so, but in very deed and truth. 
 
 If earthly trouble is upon us, let us fly to Him; 
 let us beware of all those who would cheer us 
 without Him; let us be always sure that the poi- 
 son of the asp is hidden under their softest and 
 most enticing words. Do they profess to put away 
 from ns our heavy thoughts ? Let us beware, 
 lest instead of this, they rob us of the very reality 
 of our lives. False friends, indeed, are all such ; 
 for they would keep us from the only source of 
 true peace; they would mock our thirsty spirits, 
 
 as we cross, parched and weary, the burning sands 
 
 1
 
 CONSOLATIO. 35 
 
 of this desert world, with the lying promise of un- 
 real water. From all such comforters, then, let us 
 turn away. Let us beware of every thing, which 
 under any promise would take us out of ourselves, 
 and separate us from God. At such seasons, let 
 us even keep ourselves as free as may be from 
 necessary business; let us strive to hush our spi- 
 rits into silence, that there may be nothing to 
 intercept that voice which will speak to us if we 
 wait for it ; let us fear lest we be led to seek for 
 any other shelter of our spirits short of Him their 
 Lord, that so we may find ouselves to be alone 
 with Him, that He may frame and fashion us, 
 may mould our hearts as He will, may purify, 
 and enlighten, and soften, and strengthen, and 
 deepen them by his presence in the cloud and 
 mystery of sorrow. Let us remember always the 
 love which is smiting us, nor dare to look at our 
 griefs but in the light of His presence, lest looking 
 at them alone we be soured by their sharpness, or 
 become fretful, or dull, or even desperate, and so 
 reprobate. Let us cast ourselves upon the assu- 
 rance of His love, even though it bear the sem- 
 blance of the flame-breath of the furnace; and 
 walk humbly with Him, lest we mar or hinder 
 the blessed purpose of His mercy towards us.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Jesus, the source and object of life. 
 
 Under the expression, " To me to live is Christ," 
 St. Paul must evidently have meant, first, that 
 Christ was the source of new life to him; and 
 secondly, that He was the object for which he 
 lived. But this was not all. Christ was also his 
 joy, his hope, his comfort. We think far too little 
 of the sources of happiness which are in Him ! 
 The Apostle had formerly drawn his earthly satis- 
 factions, and we may say, his heavenly satisfac- 
 tions, (for He did seek heaven after the manner 
 of a proud and diligent Pharisee,) from other 
 sources. Honor, favor, a high place, a famous 
 reputation, the applause of the great, and the 
 society of the learned, these had been the objects 
 for which he lived. To obtain these objects, he 
 had set off from Jerusalem to Damascus, " breath- 
 ing out threatenings and slaughter against the 
 disciples of Christ." Who, (he expected to hear 
 it said,) who so zealous as Saul for the traditions 
 of the fathers? who so mighty against the Cru- 
 cified ? Short expectation of sad boast ! He is 
 changed that very Crucified has changed him ! 
 he is a meek disciple of that lowly, lofty Saviour ! 
 And now that despised One is all his joy : he sees 
 Him, bows before Him, adores Him, loves Him, 
 finds all his happiness in His smile, all his conso-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 37 
 
 lation in His companionship. He finds now that 
 "to live is Christ," for enjoyment, as well as for 
 exertion. The summer springs of earth's boasted 
 joys, its pomp, its learning, its ambition, its roses 
 of pleasure, its palm of victory, are all faded and 
 dry ; the sight of Jesus has destroyed their charms ; 
 he "counts all things but loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord." Let 
 none think lightly of this branch of the subject ! 
 Are the consolations of God small or few ? Is the 
 fellowship of the Holy Ghost unsatisfying? Is 
 the smile of Jesus, the favor of our great High 
 Priest, like the world's love 1 is it cold and uncer- 
 tain like a winter's sun ? Nay, rather, we cannot 
 too highly value it ! There is no sorrow which 
 it cannot heal, no burden which it cannot well 
 enable us to bear, no loss which it cannot supply. 
 If there be any here bowed down by suffering, 
 any who mourn over a brother, or husband, or 
 wife, or child, called away by God, and lying in 
 the cold grave, is Jesus nigh ? He can turn 
 your loss to gain. He has done so in multitudes 
 of cases. He that can make the desert bloom, can 
 make the church-yard smite ! No end, brethren 
 beloved in the Lord, no end to the riches of His 
 grace, or to the consolations of His presence ! If 
 a mourner can say, " to me to live is Christ," he 
 has attained the object of his affliction ; God's 
 purpose is so far accomplished ; he stands on the
 
 38 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 same ground with the persecuted Apostle ; nay 
 more, he stands with Jesus Himself, and in such 
 presence he must be blessed. It is true that 
 natural tears will flow; Christianity does not seal 
 up the fountains of affection, nay, it rather more 
 widely opens them. But while it expands, it 
 sanctifies them. When the Christian mourns, 
 Jesus mourns with him ; and the very thought of 
 so blessed a fellow-mourner is peace. Let us rest 
 therefore on this blessed assurance, that if there 
 be any here who is making Christ the object of 
 his life, any who is setting Christ before him in 
 his daily walk, Christ will make that man's hap- 
 piness and security his daily care. It must be so. 
 He is far better to us than we are to Him; and if 
 we seek His glory, we cannot doubt but that He 
 will seek our good. 
 
 Death, the Christian's gain. 
 
 " To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." * 
 We cannot think of any thing much more glorious 
 than an Apostle's life, except it be an Apostle's 
 death. The life of all true Christians must be a 
 life of much patient endurance, of much and con- 
 
 'Phil. i. 21.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 39 
 
 slant suffering. We have all need of patience ; 
 life is labor ; and labor with weak hands, and 
 with frail bodies, and corrupted hearts, is always 
 more or less burdensome. We are not like the 
 angels that "excel in strength;" we have not 
 their speedy feet, or fiery wings, or uncorrupted 
 hearts. We are the painful tenants of polluted 
 clay, weighed down with many cares, and vexed 
 and tried by many temptations. Even St. Paul 
 felt this. Recounted up his labors, not as if they 
 were no labor, because he was a converted man ; 
 labor and sorrow were still labor and sorrow, 
 though Christ was his fellow-mourner, and the 
 Holy Ghost his fellow-laborer. He was abundant 
 in sorrows and in labors, "afflictions, necessities, 
 distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, 
 watchings, fastings." " In weariness and pain- 
 fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
 in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." It is 
 not in human nature, converted or unconverted, 
 to love such trials : it is not in flesh and blood to 
 be enamored of torture, or weariness, or pain. 
 Hence it follows, that death is great "gain" to 
 all Christ's faithful followers. It is an escape 
 from daily burden, daily trouble, daily corruption. 
 " Oh, that I had wings like a doje ! " who has 
 not often felt and cried with David? "Oh, that 
 I had wings like a dove, then would I flee away 
 and be at rest. I would hasten my escape from
 
 40 CONSCLATIO. 
 
 the windy storm and tempest." Not that we 
 ought to desire that which God does not give us- 
 We must wait His pleasure ; but while we wait 
 His pleasure, we ought to long for the enjoyment 
 of His presence. But then this cannot be except 
 through death ; and who wishes for death ? It is 
 too true that the number is but small. To leave 
 this world, to change our state of being, to go 
 from the comforts and enjoyments of life, to the 
 dark uncertainties of that state which is entered 
 through death ; to have done with time, and to 
 commence an awful eternity; to finish trial and 
 probation, and to stand at Christ's judgment-seat; 
 to be uncovered, bare, naked, stripped to the very 
 heart and conscience of every disguise, and to 
 seem exactly what we are! No wonder that 
 when such is the character of death, and such its 
 inevitable consequences, so many shrink from it ! 
 It is not many that can say with apostolic confi- 
 dence, " To me to die is gain." But why not ? 
 Why should they not thus feel? It is because 
 they cannot say, " To me to live is Christ ! " It 
 is because they are not living wholly to Him, that 
 they dare not lay down their weary forms upon 
 the bed of death, as the tired laborer, after a day 
 of toil, sinks gladly on his bed of repose. Never- 
 theless, death is to the true and faithful Christian 
 immense gain ; it is the door that lets us out of 
 all suffering, and lets us into all joy : there are
 
 CONSOLATIO. 41 
 
 no clouds or care in that glorious world ; there is 
 no sin or sickness there ; there are no bad men, 
 no tempting spirits, no fightings without, or fears 
 within; no distresses, labors, persecutions ! How 
 bright, how happy does that world appear ! To 
 have God for our ever-present Father; to hold 
 ineffable communion with Jesus and the Spirit of 
 Love ; to have angels and purified spirits for our 
 companions ; to talk with Abel, and Enoch, and 
 Melchisedec ; with Abraham and Moses, and 
 Isaiah and Daniel, and St. John, and St. Paul, 
 and St. Peter ; and with the martyrs and confes- 
 sors of the primitive Church ; to meet again those 
 blessed ones whose eyes we have closed in death, 
 and whose bodies we have laid in the grave ; and 
 all this, in a house built of God, and in an atmos- 
 phere of unclouded serenity may we not, in 
 contemplation of this joy, well exclaim, "To die 
 is gain?" Yes, it is so to the Christian, to 
 him whose " life is Christ ; " for, however blessed 
 his state now, it shall be ten thousand times more 
 blessed then : if the consolations of God are not 
 small to him now, they shall be immeasurably 
 great then: if he has pleasures now, "such as eye 
 hath not seen," those pleasures shall be inconceiv- 
 ably increased when he receives them into an 
 uncorrupted heart, and enjoys them in a glorified 
 body.
 
 42 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Prayers and sighs, the Christian's memorial before 
 God. 
 
 "And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine 
 alms are come up for a memorial before God." l 
 What a blessed thing to have memorials before 
 God ! How blessed to have something before 
 Him which may put Him in mind of us ! We 
 often give keepsakes to our friends, that when 
 they look on them they may remember us. It 
 cheers our hearts in absence and separation to 
 think that this can be. It comforts our sad souls, 
 to think that our friends are reminded of us. 
 How much more should it do so to think that 
 God is put in mind of us, that He remembers us ! 
 High as He sits above- us, throned above the 
 heavens, infinitely great and infinitely glorious, 
 yet such poor worms as we, are not forgotten ! 
 While He guides the stars in their orbits, and 
 speeds the comets on their shining way, He does 
 not forget one single heart that "hopes in His 
 mercy." "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord 
 thinketh upon me." Our memorials are all before 
 Him! 
 
 In these words we have two things laid down, 
 by which God will remember us. The first is 
 
 1 Acts x. 4.
 
 CONSOLAT10. 43 
 
 prayer. There is no true prayer thrown away ; 
 there is no true prayer forgotten. 
 
 It is a wonderful thought how far a prayer can 
 go. Shoot up an arrow into the sky ; it will seem 
 to mount very high, but it will soon fall back to 
 the earth ; its own weight will be sufficient to 
 draw it down. Uncage a lark and let it fly into 
 the air, let it mount and sing till it is almost out 
 of sight ; yet it cannot always rise ; the little 
 warbler will be soon baffled and beaten back by 
 the winds, or it will come to an atmosphere which 
 it cannot breathe, and so will sink down with 
 weary wing to the earth again. The eagle may 
 soar skywards ; it may mount on its strong pin- 
 ions, and tower far above the snow mountains ; 
 but its daring ascent will soon find its limit, and 
 as certainly as the little lark, it will return back 
 to its nest in the rock. But send up a prayer ! 
 send up a true prayer, and nothing will, nothing 
 can, draw it back again. It will rise above the 
 hills, above the clouds, above the stars, and pierce 
 even to the very throne of God. The man that 
 offered it remains below ; he is smiting on his 
 breast like the poor publican, or in a prison like 
 the chained Apostle ; but his prayer is rising high 
 and rapid on its way ; and neither the stars in 
 their courses, nor the wandering winds, nor the 
 prince of the power of the air, can prevent it from 
 reaching the heaven of its destination. Is this the
 
 44 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 case of all prayers ? Yes, undoubtedly, of all 
 true prayers. Not of those which are formal and 
 lifeless ; not of lip prayers, however beautiful ; 
 not of all liturgical prayers, however sublime; not 
 of all litanies, however solemn ; but of all prayers 
 that are true, and humble, and earnest, and offer- 
 ed up in the name of Jesus, with faith in His most 
 blessed intercession. Pause, then, and consider 
 the value of prayer. You may sow your corn- 
 seed, but worms may destroy it, or moisture may 
 waste and injure it, and all your expectations may 
 be disappointed ; but let your seed be prayer, and 
 let heaven be your field ; sow there that precious 
 grain, and there shall be no disappointment. God 
 receives it, God guards it, God breathes upon it, 
 and in due time it will return to your bosom 
 again, with increase of thirty, or sixty, or even 
 an hundred fold. 
 
 Things to come are ours. 
 
 The Christian's joy with regard to " things 
 present " is this, that he has precisely that allot- 
 ment which comes proportioned by a Father's 
 wisdom, and accompanied by the blessing of a 
 Father's love ; and this to the grateful heart of a 
 true child of God, is better, infinitely better, than
 
 CONSOLATIO. 45 
 
 all the surfeiting abundance of him who could 
 cry, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for 
 many years ; take thine ease, eat drink, and be 
 merry." 
 
 The Apostle, however, in the text (1 Cor. iii. 
 21, 22, 23,) does not limit the Christian's posses- 
 sion to "life and things present," but he declares 
 that " death and things to come" are yours. 
 
 This is indeed a striking peculiarity of the be- 
 liever's lot. 
 
 The man of the world may say, Things past 
 have been mine, things present are mine ; but we 
 defy him to add none but the Christian can 
 add the triumphant conclusion, " Things to 
 come shall be mine." How blessed a prerogative 
 of every real follower of God. How marked the 
 superiority of the Christian. Are you through 
 Christ a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? and 
 do you ever ask, What will the coming times bring 
 with them ? How much of moral, how much of 
 physical evil, how much of spiritual evil, lies 
 brooding, dark, and lowering, beneath their wings? 
 I know not, I cannot know, what will happen ; 
 but of this I am assured, with a certainty which 
 nothing can destroy ; that He in whom I trust is 
 the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end ; 
 that He can and will control the last act of His 
 providence, as surely and as mercifully as He has 
 already done the first acts of His grace; and that
 
 46 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 He, even He, has declared that " things to come" 
 are mine, arranged for my happiness, sanctified 
 to my service, blessed to my present and eternal 
 welfare. Why then should I despond? Why 
 should I even perplex myself? " Let the potsherds 
 strive with the potsherds of the earth ; " " let the 
 dead bury their dead." I will rest calmly arid 
 securely in the promises, and in the power of my 
 Almighty Saviour, for " all power is given unto 
 Him in heaven and in earth ; " and what He has 
 said, He can, and therefore He will, assuredly, 
 bring to pass ; and overrule the mightiest events 
 which can ever happen in the world, for the bene- 
 fit even of me, the poorest arid most insignificant 
 of His children. Things past have not injured me, 
 things present do not injure me, things to come 
 cannot injure me ; this is the cool and dispassion- 
 ate conviction of my soul. How unspeakably 
 great are the privileges, how strong therefore 
 should be the confidence of the Christian ! 
 
 Are any among you, however, disposed to add, 
 It is true, for I believe my Redeemer's promises, 
 things present and things to come, 'however threat- 
 ening and disastrous, are, and by the wonderful 
 workings of his providence and grace, shall be 
 my own ; but there is yet one enemy I dare not 
 face, there is one hour for which my faithless 
 heart still quakes : that hour is the hour which 
 shall for ever call me hence, that enemy is death.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 47 
 
 Be of good courage, brethren ; this constant infir- 
 mity of our nature has not been forgotten in pro- 
 mised privileges. It might have been sufficient 
 to have included it in the " all things" which are 
 ours ; it might have contented our hearts to know 
 and to feel that if "things to come" be ours, 
 death must necessarily be one, and therefore 
 needed no separate enumeration ; but " He, who 
 came" expressly "to destroy him that had the 
 power of death, and deliver them who, through 
 fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to 
 bondage," has not failed to speak, even to our 
 very weakness and our fears, upon this deeply 
 interesting point. He tells us distinctly, by the 
 mouth of this holy Apostle, that even "death" is 
 ours ; ours not indeed to escape from, (that would 
 be a faithless and a coward wish,) but ours to 
 meet, ours to oppose, and ours to conquer, in the 
 strength and through the merits of our Redeemer. 
 Yes, the time must arrive when what has hap- 
 pened to all shall happen to you. " When the 
 grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall 
 ' fail ; when the silver cord shall be loosed, and the 
 golden bowl be broken ; when the dust shall re- 
 turn to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall 
 return unto God who gave it." What is not the 
 assurance worth, which can stand against that 
 hour which shall be calm, when all around are 
 agitated ; peaceful, when all around are anxious,
 
 48 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 and enable you to say, " I know whom I have 
 believed, and am persuaded that He is able to 
 keep that which I have committed unto Him 
 against that day." "My flesh and my heart 
 faileth ; " there is no promise that they shall do 
 otherwise, for they are of the earth, earthy " My 
 flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength 
 of my heart, and my portion for ever." Thus, 
 through the grace of your conquering Redeemer, 
 death will be yours, its sting drawn out, its ter- 
 rors quelled, its power for ever broken. And this 
 to the faintest and weakest believer among you, 
 as certainly and unquestionably, as to the strong- 
 est and most advanced. If you are indeed placed 
 upon a rock, though you stand but a single foot 
 above the highest limit of the waves, you are as 
 secure as he who stands ten thousand feet above 
 your head, and that rock must fall before your 
 life be perilled. So is it with the Rock of ages. 
 Whether life or death, or things present, or things 
 to come, all are yours, if you are Christ's, for 
 Christ is God's. 
 
 Cleave to the will of God, and turn with it 
 constantly, as the weather-cock does with the 
 wind.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 49 
 
 Sanctifying meanings of affliction. 
 
 It behoves us to treat suffering, whether in our- 
 selves or others, in a much more solemn way 
 than the generality even of serious Christians are 
 wont to do. In itself it were a punishment for 
 sin, oppressive, hopeless ; through God's mercy 
 in Christ, it is His healing medicine, to burn out 
 our wounds, and. purify us for His presence. All 
 are tokens of His presence ; the great Physician 
 of our souls, looking graciously upon our spots 
 and sores, checking our diseases ere they take 
 deep root, or cutting deeply and healthfully into 
 our very souls, if He have compassion upon us, 
 when we have deeply offended Him. All, from 
 the most passing pain of the body, to the most 
 deep-seated anguish of the soul, are messengers 
 from Him : some spread over life to temper our 
 enjoyments, lest we seek our joys here; some 
 following closely upon what is wrong; some 
 gradually thickening upon us, if we neglect the 
 first warnings; some coming suddenly in an 
 instant, to startle people out of their lethargy and 
 careless ways, and show them that the life which 
 they are wasting is an earnest thing; some in the 
 natural order of His Providence, as the loss of 
 parents and of children; yet all manifesting, if 
 we will regard it, His fatherly care, tempering 
 our cup with pain and sorrow, as He sees most 
 4
 
 50 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 needful for us : all, in their degree, loosening our 
 hold of this life; all leading up thitherward, 
 where there shall be no pain ; all humbling us, 
 as being creatures who require it, and deserve far 
 more ; all teaching us to look into ourselves, to 
 see for what disease in us this medicine has been 
 sent. 
 
 All, then pain, sickness, weariness, distress, 
 languor, agony of mind and body, whether in 
 ourselves or others, is to be treated reverently, 
 seeing in it our Maker's hand passing over us, 
 fashioning, by suffering, the imperfect or decayed 
 substance of our souls. In itself, it were the 
 earnest of hell ; through His mercy in Christ, it 
 is a purifying for heaven. It is the cross changed 
 from the instrument of shame, the torture of male- 
 factors, into the source of life; it is the cross ap- 
 plied to us, washing away our filth by the spirit 
 of judgment, and the spirit of burning. 
 
 Every sorrow we meet with is a billow on this 
 world's troublesome sea, which we must cross 
 upon the cross, to bear us nearer to our home : 
 we may not then remain where we were ; we may 
 not, when God's "wave and storms have 'gone 
 over us." be what we were before ; we may and 
 must bear our parts in the world's duties, (but in 
 proportion to its heaviness, and the loudness of 
 God's warning voice in it,) not as we did in its 
 joys ; each trouble is meant to relax the world's
 
 CONSOLATIO. 51 
 
 hold over us, and our hold upon the world ; each 
 loss to make us seek our gain in heaven ; each 
 bereavement to fix our hearts thither, whither we 
 hope the treasures lent us are removed ; each 
 chastisement to deepen our repentance for those 
 sins for which God has so chastened us. Sadder 
 far than the sight of any sorrow is it to see per- 
 ,sons, after sorrow, become in all outward show 
 what they were before; even as the impassive 
 waters are troubled for a while by the stone which 
 severs them, and then become calm and cold as 
 heretofore ; sadder far, for it seems like casting 
 aside God's healing hand, and rising up from 
 under it when He is laying low. Rather, it is a 
 Christian's joy, and comfort, and peace, and 
 health, when God has laid him low, there to lie; 
 humble, in proportion as God has humbled him; 
 to lie low at the foot of His cross, trusting that, 
 by the virtue of that cross, He will raise up those 
 who lie willingly where He has placed them. It 
 is well to be there where God wills ; and so, what- 
 ever it be, sorrow bringing sin to remembrance, or 
 agony for past sin, or dread of judgment, it is our 
 wisdom not to vent ir in excitement, much less to 
 seek to distract it or waste it, but to take it calm- 
 ly home to our bosoms, and treasure it there, 
 jealously watching lest we lose one drop of its 
 wholesome bitterness ; not anxious to escape sor- 
 row, but anxious only not to lose its fruits.
 
 52 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 In pain, sickness, trouble, methinks I hear 
 God say, Take this medicine, exactly suited to 
 the case, prepared and weighed by my own 
 hands, and consisting of the choicest drugs which 
 heaven affords. 
 
 A most comfortable command. 
 
 "My son, give me thine heart." 1 Who can 
 fathom the breadth, and length, and depth of 
 this one expression? It seems to say, "All 
 that breathes within that heart is known to 
 me. I know how vulnerable, how ill prepared it 
 is to stand the shocks, and bear the assaults, of 
 such a world as it now lives in. I know the 
 sickening anguish, the deep distress, the killing 
 disappointments it will feel, if it vainly assays to 
 rest its sensibilities upon the creature, or to satisfy 
 its thirst at streams that are rapidly drying up. 
 That heart was made for me, and in me alone it 
 can be happy. I can lodge it where no shaft can 
 reach it. I can ' keep it safe as the apple of the 
 eye, and hide it under the shadow of my wings.' 
 I can still its throbbings, calm its perturbations, 
 and turn its sorrow into joy. Out of me it must 
 
 1 Prov. xsiii. 26.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 53 
 
 wander without peace, for I am the haven where 
 it would be. My son, then, give me thine heart." 
 
 Trial, ever the portion of the true disciple. 
 
 Take up thy portion, then, Christian soul, and 
 weigh it well, and learn to love it. Thou wilt 
 find, if thou art Christ's, in spite of what the 
 world fancies, that, after all, even at this day, 
 endurance, in a special sense, is the lot of those 
 who offer themselves to be servants to the King 
 of Sorrows. There is an inward world, which 
 none see but those who belong to it ; and though 
 the outside robe be many-colored, like Joseph's 
 coat, inside it is lined with camels' hair, or sack- 
 cloth, fitting those who desire to be one with Him 
 who fared hardly in the wilderness, in the moun- 
 tain, and on the sea. There is an inward world 
 into which they enter who come near to Christ, 
 though to men in general they seem the same as 
 before. They hold the same place as before in 
 the world's society ; their employments are the 
 same, their ways, their comings in, and their 
 goings out. If they were high in rank, they are 
 still high ; if they were in active life, they are 
 still active; if they were wealthy, they still have 
 wealth. They have still great friends, powerful
 
 54 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 connections, ample resources, fair name, in the 
 world's eye ; but if they have drunk of Christ's 
 cup, and tasted the bread of His table in sinceri- 
 ty, it is not with them as in times past. A change 
 has come over them, unknown indeed to them- 
 selves, except in its effects ; but they have a por- 
 tion in destinies which other men have not; and 
 as having destinies, they have conflicts also. 
 They drank what looked like a draught of this 
 world, but it associated them in hopes and fears, 
 trials and purposes, above this world. They 
 came as for a blessing, and they have found a 
 work. They are soldiers in Christ's army; they 
 fight against " things that are seen," and they 
 have "all these things against them." To their 
 surprise, as time goes on, they find that their lot 
 is changed. They find that, in one shape or 
 other, adversity happens to them. One blow falls, 
 they are startled ; it passes over, it is well ; they 
 expect nothing more. Another comes; they 
 wonder. "Why is this?" they ask; they think 
 that the first should be their security against the 
 second; they bear it, however, and it passes too. 
 Then a third comes; they also murmur: they 
 have not yet mastered the great doctrine, that 
 endurance is their portion. O, simple soul, is it 
 not the law of thy being to endure, since thou 
 earnest to Christ 7 Why earnest thou, but to 
 encftire? Why didst thou taste His heavenly
 
 CONSOLATIO. 55 
 
 feast, but that it might work in thee? Why didst 
 thou kneel beneath His hand, but that He might 
 leave on thee the print of His wounds? Why 
 wonder, then, that one sorrow does not buy off 
 the rest? Does one drop of rain absorb the 
 second? Does the storm cease because it has 
 begun ? Understand thy place in God's kingdom ; 
 and rejoice, not complain, that in thy day, thou 
 hast thy lot with prophets and apostles. 
 
 Judge no{ by appearance, but be sure that, 
 even when things seem to brighten and smile 
 upon God's true servants, there is much within 
 to try them, though you see it not. Of old times 
 they wore clothing of hair and sackcloth under 
 rich robes. Men do not observe this custom now- 
 a-days; but be quite sure still that there are as 
 many sharp distresses underneath the visible garb 
 of things as if they did. Many a secret ailment 
 or scarcely observed infirmity exercises him who 
 has it, better than thorns or knotted cord. Many 
 a silent grief lying like lead within the heart, or 
 like cold ice upon the heart. Many a sad secret 
 which a man dare not tell, lest he should find no 
 sympathy ; many a laden conscience, laden be- 
 cause the owner of it has turned to Christ, and 
 which he would not have felt, had he kept from 
 Him. Many an apprehension for the future, 
 which cannot be spoken ; many a bereavement 
 which has robbed the world's gifts of their
 
 56 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 pleasant savour, and leads the heart but to sigh at 
 the sight of them. No ; never while the Church 
 lasts, will the words of old Jacob be reversed, 
 "All things here are against us" but God; but if 
 God be for us, who can be really against us? If 
 He is in the midst of us, how shall we be moved? 
 If Christ has died and risen again, what death 
 can come upon us, though we may be made to 
 die daily ? What sorrow, pain, humiliation, trial, 
 but must end as His has ended, in a continual 
 resurrection into His new world, and in a nearer 
 and nearer approach unto Him? He pronounced 
 a blessing over His Apostles, and they have 
 scattered it far and wide over the earth unto this 
 day. It runs as follows : " My peace I give unto 
 you ; not as the world giveth, give I unto you." 
 "These things I have spoken unto you, that in 
 Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall 
 have tribulation : but be of good cheer, I have 
 overcome the world." 
 
 God does not offer me health, long life, plenty 
 of worldly accommodations, respect, distinctions, 
 principalities, universal empire; but, oh unutter- 
 able grace! Himself.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 57 
 
 Consolation of the sympathy of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the 
 Jews also weeping which came with her, he 
 groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." 1 It is 
 the very nature of compassion or sympathy, as 
 the word implies, to " rejoice with those who 
 rejoice, and weep with those who weep." We 
 know it is so with men ; and God tells us He also 
 is compassionate, and full of tender mercy. Yet 
 we do not know well what this means ; for how 
 can God rejoice or grieve? By the very perfec- 
 tion of His nature, Almighty God cannot show 
 sympathy, at least to the comprehension of beings 
 of such limited minds as ours. He, indeed, is hid 
 from us ; but if we were allowed to see Him, 
 how could we discern, in the Eternal and un- 
 changeable, signs of sympathy? Words .and 
 works of sympathy in another, affect and comfort 
 the sufferer more even than the fruits of it. Now, 
 we cannot see God's sympathy; and the Son of 
 God, though feeling for us as great compassion as 
 His Father, did not show it for us, while He re- 
 mained in His Father's bosom. But when He 
 took flesh, and appeared on earth, He showed us 
 the Godhead in a new manifestation ; He invest- 
 ed Himself with a new set of attributes, those of 
 our flesh; taking into Him a human soul and 
 
 1 John xi. 33.
 
 58 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 body, in order that thoughts, feelings, and affec- 
 tions, might be His, which could respond to ours, 
 and certify to us His tender mercy. When, then, 
 our Saviour weeps from sympathy with Mary's 
 tears, let us not say it is the love of a man over- 
 come by natural feeling; it is the love of God, the 
 bowels of compassion of the Almighty and Eternal 
 condescending to appear as we are capable of re- 
 ceiving it, in the form of human nature. Jesus 
 wept, therefore, not merely from the deep thoughts 
 of His understanding, but from spontaneous ten- 
 derness ; from the gentleness and mercy, the 
 encompassing loving-kindness, and exuberant 
 fostering affection of the Son of God for His own 
 work, the race of man. Their tears touched Him 
 at once, as their miseries had brought Him down 
 from heaven. His ear was open to them, and the 
 sound of weeping went at once to His heart. 
 
 Let us take to ourselves these comfortable 
 thoughts, both in the contemplation of our own 
 death, or upon the death of our friends. Where- 
 ever faith in Christ is, there is Christ Himself. 
 He said to Martha, " Believest thou this?" 
 Wherever there is a heart to answer, " Lord, I 
 believe," there Christ is present; there our Lord 
 vouchsafes to stand, though unseen : whether 
 over the bed of death, or over the grave; whether 
 we ourselves are sinking, or those who are dear 
 to us. Blessed be His name ! nothing can rob us
 
 CONSOLATIO. 59 
 
 of this consolation : we will be as certain, through 
 His grace, that He is standing over us in love, as 
 though we saw Him. We will not, after our ex- 
 perience of Lazarus's history, doubt an instant 
 that He is thoughtful about us. He knows the 
 beginnings of our illness, though He keeps at a 
 distance. He knows when to remain away, and 
 when to draw near. He notes down the advanc- 
 ing of it, and the stages. He tells truly when His 
 friend Lazarus is sick, and when he sleeps. We 
 all have experience of this in the narrative before 
 us ; and henceforth, so be it ! will never complain 
 at the course of His Providence. Only, we will 
 beg of Him an increase of faith, a more lively per- 
 ception of the curse under which the world lies, 
 and of our own personal demerits ; a more under- 
 standing view of the mystery of His cross ; a more 
 devout and implicit reliance on the virtue of it, 
 and a more confident persuasion that He will 
 never put upon us more than we can bear, never 
 afflict His brethren with any woe, except for their 
 own highest benefit. 
 
 The Lord's second advent, the cure for care and sorrow. 
 
 " Let your moderation be known unto all men. 
 The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; 
 but in every thing by prayer and supplication
 
 60 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 with thanksgiving let yonr requests be made 
 known unto God. And the peace of God, which 
 passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts 
 and minds through Christ Jesus." 1 Why does 
 the Apostle counsel thus? His object is to 
 produce moderation. The way to produce it, 
 is to rid yourself of anxiety. If I am not 
 anxious whether my cup be full, or whether it be 
 empty, I cannot be immoderate in my desires. 
 If I am letting my mind lie passive on the sea of 
 God's providential dispensations, then come storm, 
 come calm ; whatever it be, I am at rest, I am 
 tranquil, I am at anchor : my cable is faith, the 
 rock I am tied to, is the will of my Father in 
 heaven. There is a blessed peace in this state of 
 holy acquiescence. It is the anxiety about so 
 many unimportant things, that makes life so 
 troubled. It is the fixing our minds upon this 
 thing or that thing, and determining with our- 
 selves that they are absolutely indispensable for 
 our happiness, that makes us so unhappy. We 
 jeopardy our peace, directly that we determine 
 any earthly thing to be indispensable for our wel- 
 fare. It is astonishing how many barks of happi- 
 ness are wrecked in this way : it is quite amazing 
 how many stately vessels of Christian hope, if not 
 quite wrecked, are stranded, or tossed and beaten 
 
 1 Phil. iv. 5.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 61 
 
 about among these quicksands of unrestrained 
 desire. " This thing," says one; "give me but 
 this thing, or take from me but this sorrow, or lead 
 me but out of this one difficulty, or remove from 
 me but this rival, and then my soul shall be at 
 peace." Unhappy they who thus imagine ! How 
 contrary is all this to the prayer we daily offer, 
 "Thy will be done." Beloved brethren, strive 
 to think every thing a blessing which God sends 
 you, every thing injurious which He denies you. 
 Be not anxious about earthly matters, whether 
 they be great or small ; and in the end you will 
 find every earthly thing too small to make you 
 anxious. 
 
 Will the thought of the period of the second 
 Advent, help the Christian man to moderation ? 
 The text tells us that it will. Why, then, and 
 how will it do it? The answer is simple. One 
 great and filling thought will drive out all smaller 
 and more troubling anxieties. The expectation 
 of the Creator will calm and displace those vain 
 expectations, which we are constantly forming, 
 of the creature. If I am looking anxiously for 
 Christ's coming, I cannot look very anxiously for 
 the fulfilment of any earthly hopes. A full cup, 
 or a full purse, or marriage blessings, or a home 
 to rest my body in, or a friend's bosom for my 
 heart to repose on, or grandeur, or pomp, or 
 power, or place it is impossible that I should
 
 62 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 inordinately crave any of these things, if I fm in 
 true earnestness looking for my Lord and Saviour. 
 They are many of them great blessings; flowers 
 of innocent fragrance, planted along the path we 
 tread: but they are not necessary; we can do 
 without them. And if the Lord be our hope, if 
 we are waiting for His coming, looking for it, 
 longing for it; if the dawning of it seem to our 
 glad hearts already glimmering over the hills ; if 
 the wonderful march of mighty events be like the 
 solemn, but "beautiful feet" of our God upon 
 "the mountains;" if we are thus "looking for 
 and hasting unto" that glorious appearing, how 
 is it possible that worldly cares should make us 
 over anxious? " Nay, rny soul," so reasons such 
 a blessed expectant; "nay, my soul, one thing 
 alone is needful ; trouble not thyself about this 
 loss, or that gain ; smile not too joyously, weep 
 not too sadly ; for smiles, and tears, and loss, and 
 gain, shall all be swallowed up in the glory, and 
 forgotten in the overwhelming presence of thy 
 returning Lord." 
 
 But it is not by thoughts like these, however 
 good and great, that anxious care can be alto- 
 gether overcome. The Apostle gives us a further 
 direction; it is to pray. "In everything by 
 prayer and supplication, let your requests be 
 made known unto God." 
 
 Now, it is the Spirit that teaches us to pray :
 
 CONSOLATIO. 63 
 
 it is the name of Christ that we plead, and by the 
 power of the Spirit that we are enabled accept- 
 ably to do so. But prayer links us to God: it is 
 a chain of glory reaching from earth to heaven ; 
 the wants of man pass like electricity up its shin- 
 ing links, and heaven in all its power and conso- 
 lation descends upon them. This is the reason 
 why the Apostle counsels us to make our requests 
 known unto God ; he counsels this as the way to 
 peace, for the telling of our wants and our sor- 
 rows to God is the sure way to obtain consola- 
 tion and supply. The assurance of this fact is 
 built on the eternal truth of God's faithful charac- 
 ter ; we cannot go to God in earnest seeking with- 
 out success. " Ask and ye shall have, seek and 
 ye shall find," is the unalterable law of heaven. 
 " Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth 
 for you," is the hand-writing of an Apostle, and 
 the inspiration of the Holy Ghost We do well 
 to take this blessed counsel, and hide it in our 
 bosom. We should put it away as a cure for 
 heart's trouble, as men put away some valuable 
 receipt for some dangerous disorder. In " every 
 thing" remember, not in one thing, not in two, 
 not in great things only, but in every the smallest 
 thing that tries and perplexes you, "let your re- 
 quests be made known unto God." If a child is 
 hurt, it runs to its mother, and tells her of the 
 injury it has received; if it is in want, it goes to
 
 64 COXSOLATIO. 
 
 its parents to relieve it; or if in riper youth it is 
 anxious about the future, troubled, thoughtful, 
 perplexed, it goes to its father, and pours all its 
 troubles into his heart. But the things of earth 
 are but the patterns of things in the heavens. 
 Every parent is to his children a type of God to 
 his. This is our encouragement. We are to 
 come with expectation, praying for help ; we are 
 to come also with "supplication," i. e. with ear- 
 nest prayer, with clasped hands and bended knees, 
 prostrating ourselves before the mercy throne. 
 We are to come with "thanksgiving" also; we 
 are to remember how much we possess, although 
 there be so much that we want ; how much we 
 are to bless God for, while there are so many 
 burdens which we beg Him to remove. We must 
 remember what an exceeding privilege it is to be 
 allowed, nay, invited to pray ; what an unspeak- 
 able blessing to <be assured that we have in Him, 
 in whose name we pray, a most tender and sym- 
 pathizing Friend, as well as an Almighty and 
 all-prevailing Intercessor. Even in our deepest 
 sorrows we have abundant cause to pray " with 
 thanksgiving." 
 
 It may seem to some as if we almost lowered 
 the idea of the majestic God, by making Him so 
 entirely the depository of our wants ; out the ex- 
 pression of the text justifies the most unbounded 
 confidence, so only our confidence be mingled with
 
 CONSOLATIO. 65 
 
 reverence. Nay, more, we must remember that 
 it is not we who would draw God down to our 
 low wants ; He has descended Himself to the last 
 level of our weakness. He is in Christ the God- 
 man. His manhood is the basis of our trust for 
 sympathy ; his Godhead is our confidence for 
 power and help. As man, there is no sorrow 
 which we can feel, that does not touch Him ; as 
 God, there is no cry which we can make for help, 
 which He is not Almighty to answer. Whilst in 
 His almightiness, " He telleth the number of the 
 stars, and calleth them all by their names;" in 
 His meek and tender compassion, " He healeth 
 the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." 
 
 The love of God, all satisfying. 
 
 The good which we receive from believing in 
 the love of God, manifested' in Christ Jesus, is 
 analogous to that which we receive from believ- 
 ing in the worth and kindness of a human friend, 
 only that the one is as nothing in comparison 
 with the other ; it is nothing else than the enjoy- 
 ment of God in Himself and in His creatures. It 
 is not any thing that we get on account of our 
 loving Him; but it is the happiness of loving 
 
 5
 
 66 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Him, and knowing ourselves to be loved by Him ; 
 it is a dwelling on, and in His high perfections : 
 it is giving Him our perfect sympathy, and re- 
 ceiving His : it is knowing Him as the infinite 
 God, and yet as an affectionate Father ; as a 
 friend that sticketh closer than a brother. It is 
 the assurance which the heart draws from 
 His love in giving His Son, and perhaps from 
 some more special and personal tokens of that 
 love, that He will never leave us nor forsake us ; 
 that He will never cease to love us with a love 
 which will be, and must be, our satisfying, and 
 filling, and delighting portion, through all eternity. 
 It is the joyful and confident anticipation of the 
 day when the mystery of God shall be accom- 
 plished, and the glory of the Lord shall be reveal- 
 ed, and when the children of God shall be glad, 
 and rejoice for ever in the new heavens and the 
 new earth which their Father shall create. It is 
 the discovering that all the works of creation, 
 all events, time and space, eternity and infinity, 
 every thing is full of that God who loved us, and 
 gave himself for us; and who, in giving us Him- 
 self, freely gives us all things.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 67 
 
 God's moral training of us ; and self-crucifixion. 
 
 "Count it all joy when you fall into divers trials, 
 for the trial of your faith giveth it endurance ;" l 
 that is, works the Divine principle into the 
 very substance of the mind. This surely is the 
 great purpose of Providence in the appointment 
 of events with regard to individuals. Not a 
 sparrow falleth to the ground without God, and 
 not an event happens without a particular refer- 
 ence to the state and character of the person to 
 whom it happens. We have thus every day of 
 our lives many direct and special messages from 
 God to our souls. They are messages from God, 
 and surely we show Him small respect if we 
 treat His messages as trifling things. They are 
 full of importance ; they are opportunities given 
 to us of dying unto self, and living unto God, and 
 holding communion with Him. In every one of 
 them God says to us, "Seek ye my face;" and 
 we ought to be ever ready with our answer, 
 " Thy face, Lord, will we seek." With what an 
 awakenedness of attention should we live, if we 
 really believed that every event is a voice from 
 God, and an opportunity of dying unto self, 
 which cannot be neglected without great guilt, 
 and great loss to our souls. My dear reader, allow 
 
 1 James, i. 2.
 
 68 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 me to repeat this to you. Every event that hap- 
 pens to us strengthens either the love of God or 
 the principle of self within us, because on every 
 event we exercise our judgment or our feelings; 
 and this we must do either according to the will 
 of God, or according to our own will. 
 
 Thus we can never stand still for a moment ; 
 there is no rest from the conflict ; we are con- 
 tinually taking part either with God or against 
 God. There are but two ways in which man can 
 walk towards eternity ; the narrow way, which 
 leads to life ; and the broad way, which leads to 
 destruction. The first is the way of self-forget- 
 ting, and God-pleasing ; the second is the way of 
 self-pleasing and God-forgetting. He is either 
 resisting self or not. He may be doing nothing 
 decidedly wrong, according to the world's esti- 
 mate of duty ; but unless he is systematically 
 denying himself, and taking up his cross daily, 
 he cannot be Christ's disciple; for there is no room 
 for Christ's love in a heart which refuses to give 
 up self. Oh ! if we felt as we ought, that that 
 only is good which draws us near to God, and 
 that self is indeed the great bar which divides us 
 from God, and keeps us at a distance from Him, 
 how easily should we be reconciled to those events 
 which cross and thwart the principle of self, see- 
 ing that they weaken the bar which separates us 
 from God, our only real good ; we should then
 
 CONSOLATIO. 69 
 
 know that there is no evil but sin, and that every 
 thing else must be a blessing, if it is received in 
 the spirit of prayer. 
 
 The lessons taught, by God's delay, in answering our 
 prayers. 
 
 The lesson taught us by the woman of Canaan 1 
 has many aspects, of which the first, perhaps, is 
 this; that by every mark and token which the 
 stricken soul can read, He to whom she sought is 
 the only true portion and rest of every human 
 heart ; that He would teach us this by all the dis- 
 cipline of outward things; that the ties of family 
 life are meant thus to train up our weak affections 
 till they be fitted to lay hold on Him ; that the 
 eddies and sorrows of life are meant to sweep us 
 from its flowery banks, that in its deep strong 
 currents we may fly to Him ; that for this end 
 He opens to us little by little the mystery of 
 trouble round us, the mystery of evil within us, 
 that we may fly from others and ourselves, to 
 Him. 
 
 There is this further lesson also, that He will 
 most surely be found by those who do seek after 
 
 1 Matthew, XT. 23.
 
 70 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Him ; and this is taught us here, not by a mere 
 general assurance that we shall be heard, but in a 
 way which enters far more practically into those 
 difficulties with which every one who has striven 
 to pray earnestly, finds earnest prayer beset ; for 
 here we see why it often happens that really 
 earnest and sincere men seem, for a time at least, 
 to pray in vain ; why their " Lord, help me," is 
 not answered by a word. It is not that Christ is 
 not near us ; it is not that His ear is heavy ; it is 
 not that the tenderness of His sympathy is blunt- 
 ed ; it is a part of His plan of faithfulness and 
 wisdom. He has a double purpose herein ; He 
 would bless by it both us and all His Church. 
 
 How could His Church have been taught always 
 to pray, and not to faint, better than by such a 
 narrative as this? How many a fainting soul has 
 gathered strength for one more hour of patient 
 supplication, by thinking on this Canaanitish 
 mother, on her seeming rejection, on her blessed 
 success at last ! 
 
 And for ourselves, too, there is a special mercy 
 in these long-delayed blessings ; for it is only by 
 degrees that the work within us can be perfected ; 
 it is only by steps, small and imperceptible as we 
 are taking them, yet one by one leading us to 
 unknown heights, that we can mount up to the 
 golden gate before us. The ripening of these pre- 
 cious fruits must not be forced. We have many
 
 CONSOLATIO. 71 
 
 lessons to learn, and we can learn them but one 
 by one ; and much are we taught by these delay- 
 ed answers to our prayers. By them the treasure 
 of our hearts is cleared from dross, as in the fur- 
 nace-heat ; our earthly will is purified and bowed ; 
 the passionate fervency of unchastened prayer is 
 deepened into the strong breath of humble suppli- 
 cation ; we " wait upon the Lord who hideth His 
 face; " the frowardness of our hearts is checked ; 
 patience has her perfect work ; we are kept look- 
 ing up to Christ; we watch Him by faith, and by 
 His grace, even as we hang upon Him, we grow 
 like unto Him ; His secret work goes on in us ; 
 we see Him as once we saw Him not, amidst the 
 shadows of this busy life of trifles ; we hear His 
 voice, for we are used to watch for it; we dwell 
 in Him and He in us. 
 
 Nor can we ever pray in vain, if we will but 
 persevere in praying. When we gain not our 
 suit at once, we are ever too ready to desist ; 
 therefore is it that the Lord withholds the answer, 
 that we may learn to persevere in asking ; that 
 we may grow to trust His love, to know what 
 He is to us, yea, what He is to all who wait upon 
 Him. 
 
 He would but teach us to come to Him at once 
 for all, and not to leave Him until we have won 
 our suit. He would but have us know that we 
 may thus deal with Him; that we want no Inter-
 
 72 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 cessor with Him, who is Himself the true and 
 only Intercessor; that nothing is to be interposed 
 between our souls and Him; that He is the por- 
 tion of those souls, -and that we may go straight 
 to Him. 
 
 Only let us. then, deal thus with Him ; let us 
 open to Him our grief, our sin, our shame, our 
 difficulties ; let us show Him our need ; tell Him 
 where, "at home," hidden from the rude eye of 
 the world, but known to Him, is the " young 
 daughter grievously afflicted ; " plead with Him 
 by His covenant of tears ; and, even as we enter 
 with Him into that cloud, on us too shall come 
 forth the sense of a presence which this world 
 knows not ; and a voice shall speak to us which 
 the world cannot hear; and we shall be alone 
 with Him ; and He shall call us by our name, 
 and we shall be His. 
 
 The sleep of Death, and the absence of Jesus. 
 
 "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." 1 What a 
 sweet title is here, both of death and of Laza- 
 rus ! Death is a sleep ; Lazarus is our friend. 
 Lo, He says not "my friend," but ours; to 
 
 1 John, xi. 11.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 73 
 
 draw them first into a gracious familiarity and 
 communion of friendship with Himself: for what 
 doth this import but " Ye are my friends, and 
 Lazarus is both my friend and yours ; " our 
 friend. O meek and merciful Saviour, that dis- 
 dainest not to stoop so low as that, whilst Thou 
 thoughtest it no robbery to be equal with God, 
 Thou thoughtest it no disparagement to match 
 Thyself with weak and wretched men ! Our 
 friend Lazarus ! There is a kind of purity in 
 friendship. There may be love where there is 
 the most inequality ; but friendship supposes 
 pairs; yet the Son of God says of the sons of 
 men, "Our friend Lazarus." Oh! what a high 
 and happy condition is this for mortal men to as- 
 pire unto, that the God of heaven should not be 
 ashamed to own them for friends. Neither saith 
 He now abruptly, " Lazarus our friend is dead," 
 but " Lazarus our friend sleepeth." 
 
 O Saviour ! none can know the estate of life 
 or death so well as Thou, that art the Lord of 
 both. It is enough that Thou tellest us that death 
 is no other than sleep; that which was wont to 
 pass for the cousin of death, is now itself. All 
 this while we have mistaken the case of our dis- 
 solution : we took it for an enemy, it proves a 
 friend; there is pleasure in that wherein we sup- 
 posed horror. Who is afraid, after the weary toils 
 of the day, to take his rest by night? or what is
 
 74 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 more refreshing to the spent traveller than.a sweet 
 sleep? It is our infidelity, our impreparation, that 
 makes death any other than advantage. Even so, 
 Lord, when Thou seest I have toiled enough, let 
 me sleep in peace ; and when Thou seest I have 
 slept enough, awake me as Thou didst thy Laza- 
 rus : "but I go to awake him." 
 
 The absence of our Saviour from the death-bed 
 of Lazarus was not casual, but voluntary ; yea, 
 He is not only willing with it, but glad of it; "I 
 am glad for your sakes that I was not there." 
 How contrary may the affections of Christ and 
 ours be, and yet be both good ! The two worthy 
 sisters were much grieved at our Saviour's ab- 
 sence, as doubting it might savour of some neg- 
 lect. Christ was glad of it, for the advantage of 
 His disciples' faith. I cannot blame them that 
 they were thus sorry; I cannot but bless Him, 
 that He was thus glad. The gain of their faith 
 in so Divine a miracle, was more than could be 
 countervailed by their momentary sorrow. God 
 and we are not the like affected by the same 
 events : He laughs where we mourn ; He is an- 
 gry where we are pleased. 
 
 The difference of the affections arises from the 
 difference of the objects which Christ and they 
 apprehend in the same occurrence. Why are the 
 sisters sorrowful? Because upon Christ's absence 
 Lazarus died. Why was Jesus glad He was not
 
 CONSOLATIO. 75 
 
 there 1 For the benefit which He saw would 
 accrue to their faith. There is much variety of 
 prospect in every act, according to the several in- 
 tentions and issues thereof; yea, even in the very 
 same eyes. The father sees his son combating in 
 a duel for his country : he sees blows and wounds 
 on the one side ; he sees renown and victory on 
 the other ; he grieves at the wounds, he rejoices 
 at the honour. Thus doth God in all our afflic- 
 tions : He sees our tears, and hears our groans, 
 and pities us ; but withal He looks upon our pa- 
 tience, our faith, our crown, and is glad that we 
 are afflicted. O God ! why should we not con- 
 form our diet unto thine? When we lie in pain 
 and extremity, we cannot but droop under it ; but 
 do we find ourselves increased in true mortifica- 
 tion, in patience, in hope, in a constant reliance 
 on thy mercies? Why are we not more joyed in 
 this, than dejected with the other? Since the 
 least grain of the increase of grace is more worth, 
 than can be equalled with whole pounds of bodily 
 vexation. 
 
 The blessedness of acting as in GocFs presence. 
 
 He who is conscious of no witness but his fel- 
 low-men, and who feels that he has no part to act 
 but in the eyes of the world, has lost all cheering
 
 76 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 motive to right conduct, when cut off by circum- 
 stances from human converse. In sleepless nights 
 and days of languor upon his couch, he has no 
 employment but to count the hours; no com- 
 panions but restlessness and pain. All worth 
 living for to him has fled ; his occupation is gone : 
 a burthen to himself, and still left to himself, when 
 " in the night he communes with his own heart, 
 and searches out his spirit ; " what can he find 
 there but the mournful conviction, that he is 
 "clean forgotten, as a dead man out of mind;" 
 that he is " become like a broken vessel ? " 
 
 How different is the experience of that man 
 who knows that he is a " fellow-citizen with the 
 saints, and of the household of God!" Though 
 cast into the deepest shade of what the world calls 
 solitude, he is never less alone than when alone : 
 he is cheered by the consciousness that God is 
 "about his path, and about his bed, and spieth 
 out all his ways : " he has a never-failing and 
 animating motive for the right performance of 
 every, the most trifling action; for all is done in 
 the presence of that Being " in whose favor is 
 life," and whose smile is the sunshine of the world 
 of spirits. In the chamber of disease, in silence, 
 and in darkness, he has still his duties to perform, 
 his part to act, his battles to fight, and victories 
 to gain; and all this not only in the sight of God, 
 but in the view of that cloud of witnesses, before
 
 CONSOLATIO. 77 
 
 whom every candidate for an immortal crown 
 runs his heavenward race. He feels that no silent 
 submission to his cross, no patient endurance of 
 his pain, no tear of penitence, or sigh that breathes 
 towards heaven, is forgotten before God : nay, he 
 is assured that if God approves, angels and min- 
 istering spirits rejoice in witnessing how his 
 "light afflictions, which are but for a moment, 
 work for him a far more exceeding and eternal 
 weight of glory." 
 
 Such is the only solitude which the man of 
 faith and prayer can know ; sucli are the scenes 
 which open to his view in the loneliness of his 
 closet; such the stars and constellations which 
 appear when the light of this world is withdrawn, 
 and its sun goes down. 
 
 The fruitfulness of the branch in Christ increased by 
 prayer. 
 
 "Furthermore, we have had fathers of our 
 flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them rever- 
 ence ; shall we not much rather be in subjection 
 unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they 
 verily for a few days corrected us, after their own 
 pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be 
 partakers of His holiness." * There is a rever- 
 
 *;:,. 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 9.
 
 78 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 ence due to earthly parents, and children are 
 required to submit to their correction, although 
 herein they often consult their own will and 
 pleasure more than their children's profit. And 
 is not greater reverence due to the Father of 
 our spirits, and shall we not submit to His cor- 
 rections, especially since His design in them 
 is to promote the greatest dignity and highest 
 happiness of His children, even to make them 
 partakers of His holiness ? for to partake, is not 
 only to give them a title to, but also to give them 
 possession of, to communicate, to have fellowship 
 with Him, to share with Him His holiness. And 
 the Heavenly Husbandman, purposing to make 
 the branches very fruitful, has provided effectual 
 means; among which the chief is His fatherly 
 correction. This He sends to all His children, 
 and in the tenderest love. He would have them 
 to bring forth much fruit, that herein He may be 
 glorified; holy fruit, produced by His care and 
 culture, and ripened by daily communications of 
 His grace; therefore, He appoints many heavy 
 trials and crosses, by which He designs to bring 
 them riot only to believe in His love, but also to a 
 growing enjoyment of it. He would communi- 
 cate to them an increase of its blessings: He 
 would have them nearer to Himself, and more 
 like to Himself; holy as He is holy not in de- 
 gree, but in likeness : He would teach them more
 
 CONSOLATIO. 79 
 
 submission to His will, for which he wisely arid 
 mercifully suits the cross: He would improve 
 their love to Him, which He does by manifesting 
 His to them ; therefore, He sends his cross to 
 deaden their hearts to other love, that He may 
 give them a happier sense of His ; and His chil- 
 dren have found suffering times blessed times; 
 they never had such nearness to their Father, 
 such holy freedom with Him, and such heavenly 
 refreshments from Him, as under the cross: it 
 only took away what stopped the increase of His 
 happiness, which thereby was made more spirit- 
 ual and exalted. The cross, thus sanctified, is 
 the greatest blessing on this side heaven, because 
 by it the Father keeps His children in the closest 
 communion that they have with Him upon earth : 
 by it He purges them, makes them fruitful, and 
 partakers of His holiness : by it He crucifies the 
 life of sense, deadens them to the world, mortifies 
 their lusts and passions ; and by it, as the out- 
 ward man perisheth, the inward man is renewed 
 day by day. Most blessed renewal ! Daily, the 
 Father communicates (and by means of the cross) 
 new life, new strength, and new comfort, to the 
 inward man. By the right spirit renewed within 
 him, he learns the necessity of the daily cross ; he 
 sees the merciful appointment of it, to teach resig- 
 nation to the Father's holy will, to work a con- 
 formity to the first-born among many brethren,
 
 80 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 both in suffering and by suffering, to bring in 
 sensible experience of the Father's support and 
 comfort. What blessings are these ? How great ! 
 how precious ! to be branches in the vine, and to 
 have the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the 
 husbandman, who grafts them into Him. Oh, 
 what an infinite mercy is this ! And to be under 
 His special care, faithfully watched over, in 
 order to remove every thing hurtful, and to be- 
 stow every thing useful, this love passeth under- 
 standing. And to have this love to feast upon, 
 in the absence of other comforts ; to have them 
 taken away only to make room for this ; to enjoy 
 this most plentifully, even under troubles and 
 afflictions ; and to be only purged by them in 
 order to bring forth much fruit : these are tri- 
 umphs of Divine love. 
 
 The brethren of Christ, men of sorrow. Perfection, 
 through suffering. 
 
 Nothing so likens us to the example of Christ, 
 as suffering. It seems to be an inevitable law 
 arising out of the fall of the old, and the perfect- 
 ing of the new creation; first, that the second 
 Adam should be "a man of sorrows: " and, next,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 81 
 
 that we should be conformed to Him in this as- 
 pect of His perfection: "It became Him for 
 whom are all things, and by whonrare all things, 
 in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the 
 Captain of their salvation perfect through suffer- 
 ings/' And it is not more in relation to sanctity 
 than to sufferings, that St. Paul says that we 
 were predestinated " to be conformed to the image 
 of His Son, that he might be the first-born among 
 many brethren ;" and therefore, " What son is he 
 whom the father chasteneth not? "and argues 
 that to be free from chastisement, is an awful 
 exception, rather to be feared than coveted, as 
 clouding the bright though keen tokens of son- 
 ship, which are seen in them that suffer. There 
 is a breadth and universality in this reasoning 
 which seems to force upon us the conviction, that 
 no true member of His body, who was made per- 
 fect through sufferings, shall pass out of life with- 
 out at some time drinking of the cup that He 
 drank of, and being baptized with the baptism 
 that He was baptized with. And, indeed, if we 
 look into the lives of His saints, we shall see that 
 this is simply true. All that suffer are not there- 
 fore saints. Alas ! far from it, for many suffer 
 without the fruits of sanctity ; but all saints, in 
 some one time, and some way and measure, have 
 entered into the mystery of suffering. And this 
 throws light upon a very perplexing thought in 
 6
 
 82 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 which we sometimes entangle ourselves : I mean 
 the wonderful fact, that oftentimes the same per- 
 sons are as visibly marked by sorrow as by sanc- 
 tity. We often see the holiest of Christ's servants 
 afflicted with a depth and multiplication of suffer- 
 ings beyond other men. They seem never to 
 pass out of the shadow of affliction : no sooner is 
 one gone off than another has come up; "the 
 clouds return after the rain ;" sorrow gathers unto 
 sorrow; sickness gives way before sickness; fears 
 are thrust out by fears; anxieties are only lost in 
 anxieties ; they seem to be a mark for all the 
 storms and sorrows of adversity ; the world 
 esteems them to be " stricken, smitten of God, 
 and afflicted :" even religious people are perplexed 
 at their trials. When we see eminently holy per- 
 sons suddenly bereaved, or suffering sharp bodily 
 anguish, and their trials long drawn out, or mul- 
 tiplied by succession, we often say, " How strange 
 and dark is this dispensation ! Who would have 
 thought that one so pure, so patient, and resigned, 
 should have been so visited and overwhelmed by 
 strokes? If they had been slack, or lukewarm, 
 or backward, or self-willed, or entangled in world- 
 ly affections, we could better reach the meaning 
 of this mysterious trial ; but who more earnest 
 and useful in all good works ; who so advanced 
 in holiness, so nigh to the kingdom of heaven as 
 they?" And yet all this shows how shallow and
 
 CONSOLATIO. 83 
 
 blind our faith is ; for we know little even of those 
 we know best; we readily overrate their charac- 
 ters ; at all events, it is far otherwise in the esteem 
 of God than in our judgment : our thoughts are 
 not His thoughts ; we set up a poor, dim, depress- 
 ed standard of perfection ; and we should miser- 
 ably defraud even those we love most, if it were 
 in our power to mete out their trials by our 
 measures : we little know what God is doing, and 
 how can we know the way ? And we often think 
 the sorrows of the saints are sent for their punish- 
 ment, when they are sent for their perfection. 
 Either way we are greatly ignorant. They may 
 need far more of purification than we think; they 
 may be suffering for an end higher than purifica- 
 tion, for some end which includes purification 
 and unknown mysteries besides. We forget that 
 Christ suffered, and why ; and how He learned 
 obedience, and what that obedience was. He 
 was all-pure ; suffering could find no more to 
 cleanse, than sin could find to fasten upon. The 
 Prince of this world "had nothing" in Him, yet 
 whose sorrow is like unto His sorrow, " where- 
 with the Lord afflicted" Him " in the day of his 
 fierce anger ?" and that, (great as the mystery 
 must ever be,) not only and altogether as a vica- 
 rious suffering, but that in the truth of our man- 
 hood, He might learn " obedience by the things 
 that he suffered." He was made "perfect" by
 
 84 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 sufferings, and that perfection, whatsoever it be, 
 has an ineffable depth of meaning. It was not 
 only a sacerdotal perfection, by consecration to 
 the priesthood of Melchisedec, but something of 
 which that was the formal expression and mani- 
 festation ; a great spiritual reality ; a perfection 
 of holiness, knowledge, obedience, will, and sym- 
 pathy : this was the perfection, in truth and 
 spirit, of " the one mediator between God and 
 man, the man Christ Jesus;" and of this perfec- 
 tion, after the measures of a creature, and the 
 proportions of our mere manhood, are the saints 
 made to partake ; they are purified, that they 
 may be perfect : and therefore the sorrows of the 
 holiest minds are the highest approaches to the 
 mind of Christ, and are full of a meaning which 
 is dark to us only from its exceeding brightness. 
 Our weak faith, which can read the earlier teach- 
 ing of affliction, goes blind when it follows the 
 mystery of sorrow upward to the perfection of 
 Christ. 
 
 And therefore, when we look at the sufferings 
 of pure and holy minds, let us rather stand in 
 awe as being called to behold, as it were, a 
 shadow of our Redeemer's sorrows. The holier 
 they are that suffer, the higher is the end for 
 which they are afflicted. It may be they are 
 learning inscrutable things of the same order with 
 those which the Apostle saw in ecstasy. Even
 
 CONSOLATIO. 85 
 
 with bleeding hearts and deep-drawn prayers for 
 their consolation, let us try to believe that God is 
 endowing them with surpassing tokens of love, 
 and with pledges of exceeding glory. 
 
 And for ourselves, let us be sure when we 
 suffer, that for chastisement and for purification 
 we need more a thousand fold than all He lays 
 upon us. The heaviest and the sharpest of our 
 sorrows is only just enough to heal us. " He 
 doth not willingly afflict." Let us remember, 
 too, that sufferings do not sanctify ; they are only 
 seasons of sanctification ; their end will be for 
 good or ill, as we bear and as we use them : they 
 are no more than times of invitation to diligent 
 toil, like the softness of the earth after a keen and 
 piercing shower : they hold in check, for a time, 
 our spiritual faults, and prepare our hearts to re- 
 ceive and to retain deeper and sharper impres- 
 sions of the likeness of our Lord. Let us count 
 them precious, blessed seasons, though dim and 
 overcast ; seasons of promise and of springing 
 freshness, tokens of His nearness and purpose to 
 cleanse us for His own. " Blessed are ye that 
 weep now." He that is greatly tried, if he be 
 learning obedience, is not far from the kingdom 
 of God. Our heavenly Father is perfecting His 
 work in us, laying in the last touches with His 
 wise and gentle hand. He that perfected His 
 own Son through sufferings, has brought many
 
 86 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 sons to glory by the same rough road, even by 
 the " way that is desert." He is bringing you 
 home to Himself. Do not shrink, because the 
 path is broken and solitary, for the way is short, 
 and the end is blessed. 
 
 The mistakes of suffering. 
 
 Let us learn what is the true point of sight 
 from which to look at all the trials of life. We 
 hear people perpetually lamenting, uttering pas- 
 sionate expressions of grief at visitations which 
 they say have come upon them unlooked-for, and 
 stunned them by their suddenness : one has lost 
 his possessions, another his health, another his 
 powers of sight or hearing, another "the desire 
 of his eyes," parents, children, husbands, wives, 
 friends ; each sorrowing for their own, and all 
 alike viewing their affliction from the narrow 
 point of their own isolated being; they seem to 
 be hostile invasions of their peace, mutilations of 
 the integrity of their lot, untimely disruptions of 
 their fondest ties, and the like. Much as we 
 speak of violent deviations of nature from her 
 laws, and of the mysterious agency of devastat- 
 ing powers, so we talk of the destruction of our 
 fortune, the breaking up of our happiness, the
 
 CONSOLATIO. 87 
 
 wreck of our hopes. Now all this loose and faith- 
 less language arises from our not recognizing the 
 great law to which all these are to be referred. 
 It is no more than this: that God is disposing of 
 what has been offered up to Him in sacrifice ; as, 
 for instance, when a father or mother bewails the 
 taking away of a child, have they not forgotten 
 that he was not their own ? Did they not offer 
 him at the font ? Did not God promise to receive 
 their oblation? What has He done more than 
 taken them at their word 1 They prayed that 
 He would make their child to be His "own child 
 by adoption ; " and He has not only heard, but 
 answered their prayers. Have they not perpetu. 
 ally, since that day, asked for him the kingdom 
 of heaven, even as the mother of Zebedee's chil- 
 dren came and besought that her two sons might 
 sit, the one on his right hand, and the other on 
 his left, in his kingdom 1 Like them, they knew 
 not what they asked ; they were desiring a high 
 blessing, awful in its height ; for which, if grant- 
 ed, they may have to go sorrowing because God 
 has heard their prayer, and a sword has pierced 
 through their own soul also. In an especial man- 
 ner this seems true of the death of infants ; they 
 were offered up to Him, and He took them to 
 Himself. So that they be His, who dare lament 
 that He has chosen the place where they shall 
 stand and minister before Him 1 Little, it may
 
 88 CONSOLAT1O. 
 
 be, the glad mother thought as she stood beside 
 the font, what she was then doing ; little did she 
 forecast what was to come, or read the meaning of 
 her own acts and prayers. And so likewise, when 
 any true servants of Christ are taken away, what 
 is it but a token of His favourable acceptance 
 of their self-oblation? They have been His from 
 baptism, and He has granted them a long season 
 of tarrying in this outer court of His temple. But 
 now, at length, the time is come ; and when we 
 see them " bow the head, and give up the ghost," 
 is it not our slowness of heart that makes even 
 our eyes also to be holden, so as not to see who 
 is standing nigh, conforming them to His own 
 great sacrifice? While they were with us they 
 were not ours, but His ; they were permitted to 
 abide with us, and to gladden our hearts awhile ; 
 but they were living sacrifices, and ever at the 
 point of being caught up to heaven. 
 
 And so, lastly, in all that befalls ourselves, we 
 too are not our own, but His ; all that we call 
 ours is His ; and when He takes it from us 
 first one loved treasure, then another, till He 
 makes us poor, and naked, and solitary let us 
 not sorrow that we are stripped of all we love, 
 but rather rejoice for that God accepts us : let us 
 not think that we are left here, as it were, 
 unseasonably alone, but remember that, by our 
 bereavements, we are in part translated to the
 
 CONSOLATIO. 89 
 
 world unseen. He is calling us away, and send- 
 ing on our treasures. The great law of sacrifice 
 is embracing us, and must have its perfect work. 
 Like Him, we must be made "perfect through 
 suffering. " Let us pray Him, therefore, to shed 
 abroad in us the mind that was in Christ; that 
 our will being crucified, we may offer up our- 
 selves to be disposed of as He sees best, whether 
 for joy or sorrow, blessing or chastisement; to be 
 high or low, to be slighted or esteemed, to be full 
 or to suffer. much, to have many friends or to 
 dwell in a lonely home; to be passed by, or call- 
 ed to serve Him and His kingdom in our own 
 land, or among people of a strange tongue; to be, 
 to go, to do, to suffer, even as He wills, even as 
 He ordains, even as Christ endured, " who, 
 through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself with- 
 out spot to God." Amen. 
 
 Ephphatha, the meaning of our Saviour's sigh. 
 
 But why, when He used the word of healing, 
 did He accompany it with that sigh? 1 We may 
 ask the same question at the grave of Lazarus. 
 Why did He weep when He stood by the dead 
 
 1 " And looking up to heaven He sighed, and saith unto him, 
 Ephphatha." St. Mark, vii. 34.
 
 90 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 man's grave, or sigh when He looked upon the 
 deaf man's barred ears? Why did He weep 
 when He was going to make the dead man live, 
 or sigh when He was going to make the deaf man 
 hear? 
 
 The answer is not a difficult one. It was His 
 profound sense of the woes of man that so affected 
 Him. To us, the restoration of voice or of life to 
 the dumb or the dead is so great a thing, that it 
 overspreads our souls with the brightest sunshine. 
 If we have some dear friend visited with any 
 grievous defect, and God supplies it, we are over- 
 whelmed with joy ; or if one whom we love, per- 
 haps as life itself, might seem to be hanging over 
 the grave, and about to drop into it, and then 
 God should rebuke the disease, and give us good 
 hope of restoration, our joy would be almost 
 excessive. How different was Jesus ! He saw 
 in His own mind both voice and hearing already 
 restored to the poor deaf stammerer, yet He sigh- 
 ed ; He saw the flame of life already rekindled 
 in the death-cold bosom of Lazarus, and yet He 
 wept. Why, then, again, did He sigh ? and why 
 did He weep? My brethren, it was not one poor 
 stammerer that He came to give speech to, nor 
 one cold corpse that He came to revive. " I am 
 the Resurrection and the Life, " were his own 
 great words as He stood over the grave at Beth- 
 any. He looked over the countless dead, whom
 
 CONSOLATIO. 91 
 
 sin had slain, and what was the restoration of life 
 to one poor body, of all that host? He looked 
 over the countless families whom death had made 
 desolate, and what was the consolation of one 
 little circle, when so many myriads of mourners 
 remained 1 Therefore He wept. 
 
 " Overwhelming thoughts of pain and grief 
 
 Over his sinking spirit sweep : 
 What boots it gathering one lost leaf 
 
 Out of yon sere and wither'd heap, 
 Where souls and bodies, hopes and joys, 
 All that earth owns, or sin destroys, 
 Under the spurning hoof are cast, 
 Or tossing in th' autumnal blast !" > 
 
 This was the reason of the tears and the sighs 
 of the Son of Man. 
 
 He looked all down the dreadful stream of 
 human suffering. He saw, it was a mighty 
 part, perhaps the very mightiest part of his Pas- 
 sion, He saw clearly before Him the congregat- 
 ed miseries of man ; He saw the strong bowed 
 down by weakness, the healthy wasting away by 
 the slow poison-juice of mortality; He saw many 
 a babe diseased from the very womb, and instead 
 of the bright eye, and the active limb, and the 
 quick ear and bell-like voice of childhood, visit- 
 ed with the dark orb, the crippled member ; deaf, 
 
 1 The Christian Year.
 
 92 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 or a stammerer. He saw the perfection of human 
 beauty consumed by some dreadful disease, like 
 a moth fretting a lovely garment. He saw the 
 solitary chamber, and He heard the stifled sobs 
 of ten thousand mourners, and the cry of agony 
 which the poor sufferer could not repress, and the 
 racking pain which she could not which she 
 could scarcely, even with thy mighty aid, O 
 Jesus, bear ! Such was the dreadful vision which 
 the Son of Man beheld; a dark, wide, rolling 
 stream of tears, and sighs, and misery; a river of 
 the waters of the blackness of death. 
 
 And there is solid comfort in this view of the 
 character of our blessed Saviour. What made 
 Him sigh then, makes Him sympathize now. 
 The heart of Jesus is not changed : He has carried 
 His human body 1 to heaven, and there, with His 
 wounded hands and wounded feet, and pierced 
 heart flowing down with water arid with blood, 
 He pities, and He pleads for man. He is our 
 sacrificing and sympathizing Priest; Himself the 
 sacrifice, for He lies like a Lamb slain upon the 
 high altar of heaven ; Himself the Priest, that in 
 the linen garments of our humanity offers up, in 
 prevailing intercession and perfect sympathy, the 
 prayers and the tears of His people, and per- 
 fumes them with the fragrant incense of His own 
 merits. 
 
 1 See ivth Article of Religion, in " the Book of Common Prayer."
 
 CONSOLATIO. 93 
 
 Oh, what a consolation ! The sigh that rose 
 that, day from the shores of Gennesareth to heaven, 
 it is the very panacea for sorrow. No heart 
 can be perfectly desolate while that sigh is audi- 
 ble. We may lose every thing we love ; but if 
 we think of Him who loved what we loved, ten 
 thousand times better than we could ever love it ; 
 if we think that He possesses what we have lost; 
 and if we know, (and know we do,) that He looks 
 now, not up to heaven, but down to earth, and 
 sends upon our beating hearts the cool wind of 
 that most tranquillizing sigh ; if we know this all 
 to be true, all a perfect reality, Jesus to be quite 
 near us, as near us as our grief is near, and un- 
 failing in sympathy, and matchless in His heal- 
 ing power; then, suffer as we may, sigh as we 
 may, and be as desolate as we can be conceived 
 to be, yet are our sighs, and our tears, and our 
 desolation, all but means for our more complete 
 cure; very avenues of blessing; channels cut out 
 in the hard rocks of our stony hearts, only that 
 the grace of His sympathy may more completely 
 fill and refresh them. 
 
 We are told that previously to performing this 
 cure, our blessed Lord took this poor stammerer 
 aside. 
 
 There is a meaning in this for us all. It is in 
 loneliness, in our solitary chamber, or in some 
 season of more than ordinary calm and privacy,
 
 94 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 that God often deals with the soul. The world 
 is noisy and feverish, and agitating, and over- 
 powers us with its many voices, and with the 
 din and tumult of its stunning cares. We can 
 scarcely hear the soft whisper of the Son of Man 
 amid that tumultuous uproar ; we can scarcely 
 distinguish His form amid the pressing crowds 
 that are about us. It is good to be alone with 
 God and his Christ; so good, that when we are 
 too mad for company, He often Himself builds up 
 some high wall of separation, or puts us in some 
 lonely house of death, that we may be compelled 
 to listen. 
 
 If such has been His dealing with you; if you 
 have been taken away for a time by any calami- 
 ty from the busier hum and haunts of life, it is He 
 that has thus removed you. Has His object been 
 answered? Have you felt His finger upon you? 
 Has healing virtue gone out of His mouth to 
 bless you ? Have your ears been opened ? Has 
 the string of your stammering tongue been 
 loosed ? Can you now hear, and speak, and sing 
 of Christ ? 
 
 When you go into your silent chamber, ask 
 Him to bless you, as He did the poor deaf man. 
 When you go down by the sea-shore, and see 
 the "little ships" all drawing their lines of light 
 along its blue bosom, and the fishermen spreading 
 their nets, think of the sea of Tiberias, and the 
 boats of Peter and of the sons of Zebedee, and of 
 
 \
 
 CONSOLATIO. 95 
 
 Jesus, and the crowds that listened to Him, and 
 the words He spake, and the wonders He per- 
 formed. Bring all your maladies to Him. Pre- 
 sent the cases of your sick friends, or your young, 
 happy, joyous children to Him. He stands there, 
 we may almost say, to bless you. He stands 
 there, that you may come and seek His blessing. 
 Look earnestly towards Him ; try to realize His 
 presence; court solitude, that you may have His 
 company; stand apart from the multitude, that 
 He may come and converse with you ; do not 
 shrink from a lonely chamber, for He has cleared 
 it that He may Himself come in ; and if you feel 
 that you hear but little of the deep harmonies 
 that fill creation, and if hearing but little, you 
 only stammer when you attempt to utter them, 
 look up to Him who stands over you with the 
 same matchless power, and the same ineffable 
 love; and He (be assured) as He poured upon the 
 deaf stammerer's tongue the music of speech, will 
 fill your souls to their utmost depths with the 
 harmonies of praise. 
 
 If chastisement is a token of God's love, why 
 should I faint under it, or so much as desire 
 release from it, till it has done its work ? I must 
 suffer and die ; with the help of God, I will suffer 
 and die.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 The Christian in trial, a spectacle. 
 
 The Christian prays for fuller manifestations of 
 Christ's power and glory, and love to Him ; but 
 he is often not aware that this is, in truth, pray- 
 ing to be brought into the furnace ; for in the 
 furnace only it is that Christ can walk with His 
 friends, and display in their preservation and de- 
 liverance His own Almighty power ; yet, when 
 brought thither, it is one of the worst parts of the 
 trial, that the Christian often thinks himself, for 
 a time, at least, abandoned. Job thought so; but, 
 while he looked on himself as an outcast, the In- 
 finite Spirit and the wicked spirit were holding a 
 dialogue on his case ! He was more an object of 
 notice and interest than the largest armies that 
 were ever assembled, and the mightiest revolu- 
 tions that ever shook the world, considered merely 
 in their temporal interests and consequences. 
 Let the Christian be deeply concerned, in all his 
 trials, to honour his Master before such observers. 
 
 Prayers for holiness answered by sorrow. 
 
 God's way of answering the Christian's prayer 
 for an increase of patience, experience, hope, and 
 love, usually is to put him into the furnace of tri-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 97 
 
 bulation. St. James therefore says, " Count it all 
 joy when ye fall into divers temptations" People 
 of the world "count it all joy" when they are in 
 ease and affluence, but a Christian is taught to 
 '-'count it all joy" when he is tried as gold in the 
 fire. 
 
 A time of need, a time of prayer, and of refreshment. 
 
 When the" privations of life have diminished the 
 objects of social happiness ; when death has dried 
 up the fountains which run freely with their clear 
 and salutary waters; when pain and disease have 
 altered the character of existence, and changed 
 the scene of hilarity, and buoyancy, and activity, 
 into the scene of suffering, inactivity, patience, 
 and abstraction from the previous intercourse of 
 lifej then to go to the throne of grace, and to 
 draw closer the ties which no privation, nor suf- 
 fering, nor vicissitude, can dissolve; this is to con- 
 nect "a time of need" with the best and brightest 
 manifestations of mercy and grace to the soul ! 
 Many may be the hours of comparative repinings 
 and of wounded hopes, and of unhealthy wander- 
 ings of mind ; but these are sometimes exchanged 
 for hours passed at the throne of grace, to which 
 no eye but that of God is witness ; hours when 
 7
 
 98 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Christ speaks, and pain and sorrow are forgotten; 
 hours, when cut off from the din of life, and sepa- 
 rated from friends, and left alone with God, every 
 murmuring is yet hushed, and every privation is 
 repaid ! hours when the manifestation of the 
 Redeemer's glory to the soul has shed a calm and 
 a blissful radiance around every prospect, and 
 proved the earnest of that better heritage which 
 is "incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth 
 not away." 
 
 Believer in Christ ! mark well the grounds upon 
 which the efficacy of thy prayer depends : thy 
 very cry of guilt and sorrow is the result of the 
 Spirit whose habitation thou art. Thou art the 
 property of God, and under the sure protection of 
 Jesus thou wilt reach thy eternal home. Pray 
 then in faith. Consider thy great High Priest ; 
 think of the virtue of His blood, and of the preva- 
 lency of His intercession. Come boldly to His 
 throne of grace; unfold all thy heart; lay bare to 
 Him its guilt, defilement, weakness and incon- 
 stancy. Implore mercy with incessant repetition 
 of anxiety. " In every time of need seek grace to 
 help." Jesus Christ knows all thy wants, and 
 "has received gifts," that "out of His fulness 
 thou shouldst receive grace for grace." He has 
 opened the way to God ; He has unbarred the 
 gates of acceptance; He has overcome death, and 
 hell, and sin, and He bids thee " be of good cheer."
 
 CONSOLATIO. 99 
 
 Come, then, with holy confidence, into his sanc- 
 tuary; attach the highest value to prayer ; deem 
 it to be thy best preservative from sin, and thy 
 best antidote to sorrow. Expect large and full 
 relief at the throne of grace. Retreat from the 
 accusations of conscience, from the stern voices of 
 the law, from the calumnies of men, from the 
 ' malice of Satan, from the fears and inconstancy 
 of thine own heart; retreat from all these enemies, 
 and take thy shelter within the sanctuary of the 
 Lord. Thou hast an heritage in the heart of 
 Christ; thy name is written there, and "thou 
 shalt never be forgotten." His love cannot change, 
 nor can His knowledge of thy case be at any time 
 obscure. He knows all ; He feels all ; He will 
 succour all. 
 
 Never canst thou know Hia inexhaustible kind- 
 ness. No human conception can grasp the mighty 
 mystery of His covenant love ! But depend, con- 
 fide, petition, pray ; be ever a suppliant at the 
 throne of grace. Thou art as much the object of 
 His tender care as if thou wert His lone child in 
 the universe of nature ! Cast, then, thy burden 
 upon Him, and say, with a joy unspeakable, and 
 full of glory, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall 
 not want."
 
 100 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Effect of the death and burial of Christ upon death, 
 and the place of the dead. 
 
 Here, in the grave of Christ, our souls, being 
 planted in the likeness of His death, shall be 
 planted in the likeness of His resurrection also ; 
 and it is the same with our bodies. His death is 
 the life of our souls, and of our bodies also, by His 
 quickening Spirit. This His body is that seed of 
 which He spake in the deep groanirigs. of His suf- 
 fering soul, which, if it die, shall not abide alone, 
 but bring forth many seeds like unto itself; for 
 our vile body, if we be buried with Him. shall be 
 fashioned like unto His glorious body. Here, 
 therefore, must we come, not only that we may 
 learn to live, but also that we may learn to die, 
 and to contemplate with comfort the death of our 
 friends ; for here may we be not only dead with 
 Him, but in Him also ; dead in some sense, with 
 the faithful departed. It is here with Christ that 
 we learn to reflect on the death of our friends, 
 and on our own, with peace and consolation, and 
 in the depth of His grave to learn Christian hope. 
 
 Here the solemn calm of the great Sabbath hath 
 already begun. In the deep stillness which is 
 here exchanged for the anxieties and agonies, and 
 the feverish passions and excitement of the scene 
 that has passed, we seem to participate in the
 
 CONSOLATIO. 101 
 
 awful calm of death; and as in life we mingle 
 and blend our sympathies with the condition and 
 state of our friends, and borrow their feelings, so 
 in this calm we seem to partake of the stillness of 
 those souls which are released from the body in 
 that place, " where the wicked cease from troub- 
 ling, and the weary are at rest." And if this calm 
 is so striking, contrasted with that which is past, 
 still greater is that feeling of stillness in death 
 when we contrast it with that which is to come, 
 the great morning of the resurrection ; deep is the 
 suspense that watches in that awful expectation; 
 here is that night of which our Lord spake, where- 
 in no man can work : He hath done our work for 
 us ; our righteousness is no longer of works, but 
 we may rest in Him. 
 
 Blessed, therefore, is this grave, because we 
 therein approach to the dead in Christ, and be- 
 cause this is the home where we ourselves shall 
 have to dwell; for we, too, shall soon have to 
 make our bed in the dark, and the grave shall 
 close its doors about us ; and before then it is the 
 home of our buried affections, the house of all 
 living. Here might one pourtray human nature 
 itself sitting at a tomb, for our life is a continual 
 bereavement, and as soon as we begin to know 
 affection, we begin to mourn the loss of it. No 
 one can have lived for any time in the world, but 
 his best treasures and his best affections must be
 
 102 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 with the dead ; and there is no reflecting person 
 who does not find that those parts of his life, in 
 which he sinks most deeply into himself and the 
 knowledge of his condition, are made up of those 
 hours of stillness and solitude, where he seems to 
 sit at the grave of those who were once like him- 
 self, full of the same thoughts, and feelings, and 
 affections. Stillness and solitude is of itself like 
 a holy sanctuary, wherein he seems to draw near 
 to them ; it is that in which they are ever found ; 
 and to draw near to them is to draw .a way from 
 the world ; for wherever it is that the faithful de- 
 parted are, we know that to be with them is to be 
 with Christ. 
 
 So much is this contemplation for our soul's 
 health in the school of Divine wisdom, that in 
 order to withdraw us from the stir and business 
 of this world, God has appointed the continual 
 returns of night, wherein we may be as in the 
 midst of the grave, in darkness, in stillness, and 
 in solitude ; in order that He may so recall and 
 admonish us, every night, of the solitude and still- 
 ness, and darkness of the grave. For in that 
 return of night, wherein we are continually thus 
 laid, He has forced upon us, who are so unwilling 
 to learn, the daily contemplation of our latter 
 end; of this, the death of Christ, which sancti- 
 fies and blesses that end, and of the necessity of 
 being conformed thereto. For night is nothing
 
 CONSOLATIO. 103 
 
 else but the due and necessary preparation for the 
 morning ; and that morning is the great morning 
 of the Resurrection, and the coming of Christ. 
 And so intimately is the consideration of this great 
 morning connected with the sleep of Christ in the 
 grave, that the early Christians used to keep the 
 night of our Lord's rising from the grave in prayer 
 and watching, in expectation of His return, in 
 that same night, to Judgment. Let us, through- 
 out the night of this world, be busied thus with 
 Christ, arid watching for His return. 
 
 But the dead body of Christ is left here lifeless 
 and nntenanted, not only that His dead body may 
 sanctify death, but that His spotless soul may 
 sanctify the place of the dead. One sacrificial 
 animal, the sin-offering, is dead in our hands ; 
 but the other has escaped, and gone into the wil- 
 derness, bearing sin. 1 If the earth is hallowed 
 and preserved from corruption because the sinless 
 Son of man hath once made it His abode, and the 
 flesh His tabernacle, no less must the place of the 
 departed have derived some great blessing from 
 the sojourn of His righteous soul among them. 
 He has not only made this world once the place 
 of His abode, but has continued ever since to 
 vouchsafe His presence to it in some high and 
 
 
 
 1 Levit. xvi. 22.
 
 104 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 peculiar manner, so that it is not as it was before. 
 And thus also it is with the place of His saints 
 that depart hence in the Lord ; for since that time, 
 " from henceforth blessed are the dead," for the 
 good to die is " to be with Christ," which is far 
 better, and to "sleep in the Lord." It was for 
 this that the Prophet Isaiah spake, " Bring out 
 the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit 
 in darkness out of the prison-house." This their 
 darkness He has converted into His own mar- 
 vellous light. Of this also spake the Prophet 
 Zechariah, " By the blood of thy covenant I have 
 sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is 
 no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye pris- 
 oners of hope." 
 
 Well may we believe that place to be blessed 
 where the soul of Christ hath been. The great 
 Italian poet, when the scene of his poem is in the 
 abode of the wicked, is cautious lest the ever- 
 blessed Name should ever there escape, or be 
 uttered, in those regions of despair ; whereby he 
 meant to imply that that awful Name would 
 burst asunder the everlasting bars of that prison- 
 house. How much more may we suppose that 
 not the name uttered by the lips, but the ever- 
 adorable Son of God, the soul of Christ Himself, 
 must have been of mighty avail for good in the 
 place of the faithful departed. 
 
 Nay, indeed, even nature itself, instinctively
 
 CONSOLATIO. 105 
 
 would suggest to us this lesson of hope; for what 
 reader has not been struck with wonder at Homer's 
 description of the place of the dead, so expressive 
 of demerit, and the expectation of righteous judg- 
 ment in man, yet not without a secret hope in 
 God? That first and greatest of poets describes 
 the souls of the dead as wrapt in mysterious 
 gloom, and powerless and silent, until they have 
 partaken of the blood of the sacrifice. Such is 
 the voice of nature, if it be not something greater 
 than nature ; or the glimmering light of primeval 
 tradition, that spoke of the great Sacrifice, in the 
 midst of that spiritual darkness, to them who 
 wandered beneath the dim twilight of the shadow 
 of death. 
 
 Blessed, therefore, is the thought of that inter- 
 mediate state between death and resurrection ; it 
 is in some especial manner to be with Christ ; 
 there is something in the thought very full of awe 
 and trembling joy; it is also to be with Abraham 
 and all the dead who are with Christ, as they are 
 selected and gathered out of this evil world. The 
 more we think of it, and of those who have pre- 
 ceded us there, the more do we seem to approach 
 them ; for the dwelling-place and movement of 
 our minds depends not on bodily change of place, 
 but on the thoughts ; we are there where our 
 thoughts are. How aspiring, how exalting, how 
 calming, how quickening, how hallowing, is the
 
 106 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 contemplation, that before the rising of another 
 sun we may be in that country of the faithful 
 departed if found worthy to be there! 
 
 If I am afflicted, or sick, or weak, or in pain, 
 let me not comfort myself chiefly with thinking 
 that it will be quickly over, or that I shall soon 
 be well, but rather with thinking and knowing 
 that it is the appointment of Divine wisdom, 
 for reasons of infinite concernment to myself, and 
 for the end which God has chiefly in view for His 
 people, in all His inflictions, viz. the glory of His 
 name in their spiritual health and recovery ; and 
 a blessed support it will be to know and feel that 
 I do not so much desire ease and deliverance from 
 present trouble, as grace and strength to undergo 
 more and greater, and even death itself, quietly, 
 obediently, in the spirit of faith, and with full ac- 
 ceptance of the will of God. 
 
 Bodily pain, the Jilting accompaniment of the Christian 
 state. . 
 
 Such, then, were our Lord's sufferings, volun- 
 tarily undergone, and ennobled by an active obe- 
 dience ; themselves the centre of our hopes and
 
 CONSOLAT1O. 107 
 
 worship, yet borne without thoughts of self, to- 
 wards God, and for man. And who among us 
 habitually dwells upon them, but is led, without 
 deliberate purpose, by the very warmth of grati- 
 tude and adoring love, to attempt bearing his own 
 inferior trials in the same heavenly mind ? Who 
 does not see that to bear pain well is to meet it 
 courageously? not to shrink or waver, but to pray 
 for God's help; then to look at it stedfastly, to 
 summon what nerve we have of mind or body to 
 meet its attack, and to bear up against it (while 
 strength is given us) as against some visible ene- 
 my in close combat. Who will not acknowledge, 
 that when sent to us, we must make its presence, 
 as it were, our own voluntary act, by the cheer- 
 ful and ready acquiescence of our own will with 
 the will of God ? Nay, who is there but must 
 own, that with Christ's sufferings before us, pain 
 and tribulation are, after all, not only the most 
 blessed, but even the most congruous attendants 
 upon those who are called to inherit the benefit 
 of them ? Most congruous, I say, not as though 
 necessary, but as most natural and befitting; har- 
 monizing most fully with the main object in the 
 group of sacred wonders on which the Church is 
 called to gaze. Who, on the q*her hand, does not 
 at least perceive that all the glare and gaudiness 
 of this world, its excitements, its keenly-pursued 
 goods, its successes, and its transports, its pomps,
 
 108 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 and its luxuries, are not in character with that 
 pale and solemn scene which faith must ever 
 have in its eye? What Christian will not own 
 that to " reign as kings," and to be " full," is not 
 his calling? so as to derive comfort in the hour of 
 sickness or bereavement, or other affliction, from 
 the thought that he is now in his place, if he be 
 Christ's, in his true home, the sepulchre in which 
 his Lord was laid. 
 
 Could we see the Cross upon Calvary, and the 
 list of sufferers who resisted unto blood in the 
 times that followed it, is it possible that we should 
 feel surprise when pain overtake us, or impatience 
 at its continuance ? Is it strange, though we are 
 smitten by ever so new a plague ? Is it grievous 
 that the cross presses upon one nerve or limb ever 
 so many years, till hope of relief is gone? Is it 
 indeed not possible, with the Apostle, to rejoice in 
 " bearing in our body the marks of the Lord 
 Jesus ? " And much more can we, for very shame- 
 sake, suffer ourselves to be troubled at what is 
 but ordinary pain, to be irritated or saddened, 
 made gloomy or anxious by inconvenience, which 
 could never surprise or unsettle those, who had 
 studied and understood their place as servants of 
 a crucified Lord? 
 
 Let us, then, determine, with cheerful hearts.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 109 
 
 to sacrifice unto the Lord our God our comforts 
 and pleasures, however innocent, when He calls 
 for them, whether for the purposes of His Church 
 or in His own inscrutable purposes. Let us lend 
 to Him a few short hours of present ease, and we 
 shall receive our own with abundant usury in the 
 day of His coming. There is a treasury in heaven, 
 stored with such offerings as the natural man 
 abhors, with sighs and tears, wounds and blood, 
 torture and death. The martyrs first began the 
 contribution, and we may all follow them ; all of 
 us, for every suffering, great or small, may, like 
 the widow's mite, be sacrificed to Him who sent 
 it. Christ gave us the words of consecration, when 
 He for our example said, " Thy will be done." 
 Henceforth, as the Apostle speaks, we may glory 
 in tribulation as the seed of future glory. Mean- 
 while, let us never forget in all we suffer, that, 
 properly speaking, our own sin is the cause of it ; 
 and it is only by Christ's mercy that we are al- 
 lowed to range ourselves at His side. We, who 
 are children of wrath, are made through Him 
 children of grace ; and our pains, which are in 
 themselves foretastes of hell, are changed by the 
 sprinkling of His blood into a preparation for 
 heaven.
 
 HO CONSOLATIO. 
 
 God's particular providence. 
 
 How gracious is this revelation of God's par- 
 ticular providence to those who seek Him ! how 
 gracious to those who have discovered that this 
 world is but vanity, and who are solitary and iso- 
 lated in themselves, whatever shadows of power 
 and happiness surround them ! The multitude, 
 indeed, go on without these thoughts, either from 
 insensibility, as not understanding their own 
 wants, or changing from one idol to another, as 
 each successively fails : but men even of keener 
 hearts would be overpowered by despondency, 
 and would even loathe existence, did they sup- 
 pose themselves under the mere operation of fixed 
 laws, powerless to excite the pity or the attention 
 of Him who has appointed them. What should 
 they do especially, who are cast among persons 
 unable to enter into their feelings, and thus stran- 
 gers to them, though by long custom ever so 
 much friends ; or have perplexities of mind they 
 cannot explain to themselves, much less remove, 
 and no one to help them ; or have affections and 
 aspirations pent up within them, because they 
 have not met with objects to which to devote 
 them ; or are misunderstood by those around 
 them, and find they have no words to set them- 
 selves right with them, or no principles in com-
 
 CONSOLATIO. Ill 
 
 mon, by way of appeal ; or seem to themselves 
 to be without place or purpose in the world, or to 
 be in the way of others ; or have to follow their 
 own sense of duty, without advisers or support- 
 ers ; nay, to resist the wishes and solicitations of 
 superiors or relatives, or the burden of some pain- 
 ful secret, or of some incommunicable solitary 
 grief ! In all such cases the Gospel narrative 
 supplies our very need, not simply presenting to 
 us an unchangeable Creator to rely upon, but a 
 compassionate Guardian, a discriminating Judge 
 and Helper. God beholds thee individually, who- 
 ever thou art; He calls thee by thy name : He 
 sees thee and understands thee ; as He made thee, 
 He knows what is in thee ; all thy own peculiar 
 feelings and thoughts, thy dispositions and likings, 
 thy strength and thy weakness: He views thee 
 in thy day of rejoicing and thy day of sorrow : 
 He sympathizes in thy hopes and temptations : 
 He interests Himself in all thy anxieties and re- 
 membrances, all the risings and fallings of thy 
 spirits : He has numbered the very hairs of thy 
 head, and the cubits of thy stature: He com- 
 passes thee round, and bears thee in His arms : 
 He takes thee up, and He sets thee down : He 
 notes thy very countenance, whether smiling or 
 in tears, whether healthful or sickly : He looks 
 tenderly upon thy hands and thy feet: He hears 
 thy voice, the beating of thy heart, and thy very
 
 1 12 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 breathing. Thou dost not love thyself better 
 than He loves thee : thou canst not shrink from 
 pain more than He dislikes thy bearing it ; and 
 if He puts it on thee, it is as thou wilt put it on 
 thyself for a greater good afterwards. Thou art 
 not only His creature (though for the very spar- 
 rows He has a care, and pitied the much cattle of 
 Nineveh) ; thou art man redeemed and sanctified, 
 His adopted son, favoured with a portion of that 
 glory and blessedness which flows from Him 
 everlastingly unto the Only-begotten. Thou wast 
 one of those for whom Christ offered up His last 
 prayer, and sealed it with His precious blood. 
 What a thought is this ! a thought almost too 
 great for our faith. Scarce can we refrain from 
 acting Sarah's part, when we bring it before us, 
 so as to laugh from amazement and perplexity. 
 What is man, what are we, what am I, that the 
 Son of God should have been so mindful of me? 
 What am I, that He should have changed my 
 soul's original constitution ; new-made me, who 
 from youth up have been a transgressor ; and 
 should Himself dwell personally in this very 
 heart of mine, making me His temple? What 
 am I, that God the Holy Ghost should enter me, 
 and draw up my thoughts heavenwards, " with 
 plaints unutterable? "
 
 CONSOLATIO. 113 
 
 * 
 
 Affliction intended to make us feel the all-sufficiency 
 of God. 
 
 Affliction is a great realizer in religion, or rather 
 a great detecter of the want of reality in religion. 
 We, perhaps, thought ourselves Christians, and 
 that we were founded on the rock ; and now an 
 affliction comes, and we shake like aspen-leaves. 
 Could this be, if we were really on the rock? We 
 thought fondly that God was the chosen portion 
 of our souls, and that, though all created things 
 were taken from us, we had enough when we had 
 Him ; and yet, when He crosses some desire of 
 our hearts, or removes some of His own gifts, 
 a friend, perhaps, or even a little of the world's 
 trash, we seem as if we had lost our all, and 
 cry after it as that Danite did after his idols. And 
 thus we learn the fact that our comfort before did 
 not, as we idly supposed, flow from the eternal 
 fountain, (for that still remains to us,) but had 
 been drawn from perishing cisterns ; and there- 
 fore, now that they are broken, we die of thirst. 
 This is an important discovery, and it was to 
 make this discovery to us that God sent the 
 affliction. Let us, then, receive it in deep hu- 
 mility ; let us receive it as a call from God to 
 leave the creature behind us, and go directly into 
 His own more immediate presence, into His inner 
 
 chamber. 
 
 8
 
 114 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Reader, will yon allow me to speak a word to you 
 on this matter. Beware of occupying your mind 
 as to how the affliction happened, or how it might 
 have been prevented. Think not of the oversight, 
 or folly, or malice, which may appear to you to 
 be the immediate occasion of it. God did it ; and 
 you must bid away all second causes from your 
 thought, and carry the affliction to His throne of 
 grace, and cast it and yourself before Him ; and 
 ask Him to save your soul, and to deliver you 
 from resting on any created portion ; and pray 
 Him to become Himself your real, and true, and 
 everlasting portion. Take care that this afflic- 
 tion be not lost. Abide in His presence, and be 
 jealous of receiving comfort from any other 
 source ; you may lose your affliction if you do. 
 And, oh ! remember that holiness is of more im- 
 portance than comfort. Be still more anxious for 
 profit from your own affliction, than from support 
 under it. You are an immortal creature, and 
 eternity is your great concern. Holiness is eter- 
 nal happiness comfort may be the affair of an 
 hour. And God sends affliction, that we may be- 
 come partakers of His holiness. 
 
 Let me conclude by saying, that all is to be 
 looked for and received from God: "Open thy 
 mouth wide and I will fill it." It is the soul that 
 receives all from God, which alone can feel itself 
 to be the property of God ; His property to guide
 
 CONSOLATIO. 115 
 
 and to command ; His property to bless and to 
 keep; His highly-prized property, purchased at 
 no less a cost than the death of Christ, for this 
 very end, that He might sanctify it in time, and 
 glorify it in eternity. The soul that feels this has 
 peace ; it does not make haste, for it knows how 
 secure it is. It possesses the secret of the Lord, 
 that secret which does for all circumstances and 
 contingencies which does for life, for death, for 
 duty, for suffering which gives the spirit of a 
 pilgrim, and yet a willing servant which gives 
 the foretaste of the joy of heaven, as it is the 
 commencement of the character of heaven. 
 
 How can we complain, or think hardly of God 
 for any thing He does, or have the least doubt of 
 His goodness, when He has given His Son to die 
 for us ? 
 
 Bereavements, special occasions for God's consolations. 
 
 Many owe their extrication from the ruin of 
 this world to affliction, to some sanctified sorrow; 
 and to none more frequently than to the loss of 
 relatives or friends. Our once cheerful home is 
 now become a house of mourning; there is a
 
 116 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 blank in the domestic circle which nothing earth- 
 ly can fill up; and every object to which surviv- 
 ing friends can look, repeats the same sad story, 
 that the desire of their eyes is taken from them : 
 and yet these seasons are sometimes blessed 
 beyond all description: and many have known 
 more happiness, even in the multitude of their 
 sorrows, than they ever knew before ; for often 
 will that Being, who came to heal the broken- 
 hearted, seize the softened moments, and visit the 
 mourner as he sits in solitary moments. In Him 
 the afflicted find a friend formed for adversity, 
 one who can penetrate the soul, and converse 
 with all that is most intimate and peculiar in our 
 bereavement; one who knew the object for 
 which we grieve better than we did ourselves; 
 one who was Himself " a man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief." In sympathizing with 
 Him, the soul is gently lifted above the world. 
 It becomes the sweetest consolation to think of 
 that blessed place, where we shall see our friends 
 again, and fall down before the throne of Him 
 who comforted us in our troubles. These are 
 " tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven." 
 These sorrows are turned into joy; they unite us 
 to Him who is the salvation of the soul; they 
 bring us to that High Priest who is touched with 
 the feeling of our infirmities, and through Him 
 we cast our anchor within the veil.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 117 
 
 O that sigh ! Do happy people ever sigh 1 I 
 find I want something which God will not suffer 
 me to have ; and till we are of the same mind, 
 life can be nothing at bottom but one perpetual 
 sigh. 
 
 The faith of Jesus, the channel of suffering grace. 
 
 Jesus lived, offering up His own blood in sub- 
 missive confidence. He is thus our pattern ; and 
 He is more than our pattern, for in Him the grace 
 of God, and the forgiveness of sins committed 
 during the sparing mercy of God, are freely 
 declared to the Chief of Sinners, and through Him 
 living water is communicated, enabling those who 
 will receive it to walk in the same steps towards 
 the same glory. 
 
 That spiritual stream comes back to us, as it 
 were, through the gates of death from the other 
 side of the gulf; and thus it is a stranger here, 
 for its home and its interests are all on the other 
 side ; and as it is itself a stranger, it makes those 
 to become strangers and pilgrims who receive it. 
 They seek back to the fountain-head of their life, 
 and desire to be with Him ; and as they know 
 that it is only through sorrow and death that 
 they can arrive at Him, they enter into the coun- 
 sel of God in His plan of leading them in this 
 way, with their whole hearts.
 
 118 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Suffering, a higher path than doing. 
 
 Saul had anxiously inquired, " What wouldest 
 thou have me to do?" Our Lord sends His 
 minister to tell him, not what great things he 
 shall do, but what far greater things he shall 
 suffer. Sufferings are, after all, the great achieve- 
 ments of the Christian. Where one man is per- 
 mitted to effect mighty things for his Lord, by 
 carrying the words of the everlasting Gospel over 
 the burning sands of Africa, or the frozen moun- 
 tains of the north, thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands are called to the high privilege of the 
 Philippians of old, " not only to believe, but also 
 to suffer for His name's sake." To sit on His 
 right hand and on His left, are not now to be 
 given ; but to drink of His cup of trial, and to be 
 baptized with His baptism of affliction, are still 
 among the choicest blessings which He bestows 
 upon His people. Be not, then, disappointed, my 
 beloved brethren, if, with every desire to do great 
 things for your Divine Master, you are denied the 
 power or the opportunity. If, as has been beau- 
 tifully said, "They also serve who only stand 
 and wait," how much more do they serve who 
 are called upon to endure and to suffer ! Yes ; in 
 the chamber of sickness, upon the bed of pain, 
 you may as greatly glorify your Redeemer, as
 
 CONSOLATIO. 119 
 
 amid the trials of the mission, or the tortures of 
 the stake : and often does it please your Heavenly 
 Father, that while you are meditating what great 
 things you shall do for Christ, He is preparing 
 the great things you shall suffer. 
 
 Endeavor, therefore, to live in that spiritual 
 frame of mind, that you may be daily willing, at 
 the bidding of your Lord, to take up the cross, 
 and to follow His footsteps, though they may lead 
 you through many a toilsome track, or guide you 
 through many a thorny passage. In your 
 journey to the heavenly country, you must en- 
 counter trials, and troubles, and sorrow ; no child 
 of God was ever yet without them ; not one of all 
 that countless multitude in white robes, with 
 palms in their hands, but "came out of great 
 tribulation : " how can you therefore expect or 
 desire to escape that of which all the other 
 children in God's dear family have so largely 
 partaken? "Think it not, therefore, strange 
 concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as 
 though some strange thing happened unto you; 
 but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of 
 Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be 
 revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding 
 joy." Dwell much and frequently upon the views 
 of that "eternal weight of glory;" it will tend 
 more than any other consideration to teach you 
 to form a correct and scriptural estimate of your
 
 120 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 " light afflictions." It was thus that the Apostle 
 of whom we are speaking, (St. Paul,) at a later 
 period of his Christian course, was enabled to 
 bear, ^and to bear without repining,) an infinitely 
 heavier load of suffering than will ever be laid on 
 you. He cast all his trials, all his sorrows, all 
 his sufferings, into one scale, and after considera- 
 tion of them, declares them to be light, and but 
 for a moment. He then lays the glory in the 
 other scale, and pronounces it to be ponderous, 
 weighty, and eternal, an exceeding " weight of 
 glory." In the one is sorrow for a little while, in 
 the other eternal joy. In the one, pain for a few 
 moments; in the other, everlasting rest. In the 
 one is the loss of some few temporary things; in 
 the other, the full fruition of God in Christ, who 
 is "all in all." 
 
 Life, the practice of the Cross. 
 
 Our life from baptism to our death should be a 
 practice of the cross, a learning to be crucified, 
 a crucifixion of our passions, appetites, desires, 
 wills, until one by one they be all nailed ; and we 
 have no will but the will of our Father which is 
 in heaven. Men and brethren, soldiers, servants, 
 ensign-bearers of Christ, what are we doing?
 
 CONSOLATIO. 121 
 
 We were baptized into our Saviour's death, our 
 Saviour's cross : we too bear upon our brows the 
 imprinted cross, unseen of men, but seen of 
 angels, seen of Satan, "the seal of God upon 
 our foreheads: " but was it placed there an idle 
 sign? Had it no meaning? Was the sign of 
 the cross to be worn in the midst of luxury and 
 ease ? Were the sworn soldiers of the cross to live 
 softly? 
 
 Our Lord, too, who bore the cross for us, 
 preached the cross ; hear Him ! " He that taketh 
 not his cross, and folio weth after me, is not 
 worthy of me." (Matt. x. 38.) "Then said he 
 to his disciples, If any man will come after me, 
 let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, 
 and follow me." (Luke, ix. 23.) 
 
 Would any know how to begin bearing the 
 cross? Some crosses God, from our very child- 
 hood, has in His goodness provided for us, that 
 in them we may learn, what of ourselves we 
 should have had no courage to begin. We speak 
 of the "crosses" of daily life, and forget that our 
 very language is a witness against us; how 
 meekly we ought to bear them, in the blessed 
 steps of our Holy Lord; how, in "every cross 
 and care," we ought not to acquiesce simply, but 
 to take them cheerfully, not cheerfully only, 
 but joyfully; yea, if they should even deserve 
 the name of tribulation, to "joy in tribulation"
 
 122 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 also, as seeing in them our Father's hand, our 
 Saviour's cross. So walking on earth, we may 
 be in heaven : the ill-tempers of others, the slights 
 and rudenesses of the world, ill health, the daily 
 accidents with which God has mercifully strewed 
 our paths, instead of ruffling or disturbing our 
 peace, may cause the peace of God to be " shed 
 abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost 
 which is given to us." 
 
 The cleansing of the clouds of life. 
 
 11 And now men see not the bright light which 
 is in the clouds ; but the wind passeth and cleans- 
 eth them." 1 So speaks Elihu, in the solemn and 
 sublime address which he makes to Job. " Now 
 we see through a glass darkly;" so writes the 
 Apostle to the early converts at Corinth, when 
 telling them of the character of their state and 
 calling. The "now" of Elihu is the present 
 hour, the present day, the present month or year; 
 the "now " of the Apostle is the whole scope of 
 the present chequered life. Of both, the same 
 great truth is justly to be predicated. We live in 
 constant twilight ; we cannot see by the clear 
 
 1 Job, xxxvii. 21.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 123 
 
 broad light of day the exact colour and character 
 of God's providences: some small part is re- 
 vealed, but a far larger is hidden: we see the 
 clouds, but we cannot understand them, we can- 
 not interpret them ; they have a meaning, but we 
 cannot tell exactly what it is; it is an enigma, a 
 riddle, a mystery ; and it must continue to be so 
 until time draws up the veil of the future, and 
 God, the revealer of secrets, displays to His wait- 
 ing, wondering, adoring servants, the glory and 
 the beauty of all this mysterious dispensation. 
 
 " The wind," says Elihu, " passeth and cleans- 
 eth them." "Then," says the Apostle to the 
 Corinthians, " then shall we see face to face." 
 The clouds of Providence shall be dispersed at 
 last ; the wind shall clear and cleanse the dark- 
 ened sky : we shall see face to face ; the day- 
 dawn of another world shall succeed to the long 
 and laborious gloom of this ; the shadows shall 
 flee away ; and as God Himself sees, so almost 
 shall we see in open vision His unclouded glory. 
 
 It was to explain to the uneasy and anxious 
 mind of Job, or if not to explain, at least to illus 
 trate the character of God's dealings, that Elihu 
 spoke these words. Let us ask and wait for the 
 aid of the Holy Spirit, while we endeavor to 
 expand their meaning. 
 
 First, and generally, they place before us a 
 moral truth under a natural appearance. They
 
 124 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 bid us look at the clouds that hang heavily over 
 the landscape. How dark and gloomy they 
 seem! They are like a great curtain let down 
 and drawn before us ; they seem to shut out all 
 light, to exclude all hope, to veil and almost to 
 extinguish all beauty. We can scarcely believe 
 but that all that is behind them is as melancholy 
 as they are themselves; it seems as if heaven (I 
 mean the natural heaven) were all cloud; as if, 
 pierce deep as we might into its bosomed gloom, 
 \ve should still find nothing but cold, and dark- 
 ness, and mist. We may have seen the blue 
 depths of the vaulted heaven a thousand times 
 before ; we may have rejoiced in their azure 
 glory ; we may have felt the strange and myste- 
 rious charm of their power upon our souls; but it 
 is all now as if it had never been; we only see 
 the rolling world of clouds that swim above us, 
 and that fill our minds as well as our sight, and 
 seem to blot out every trace of former sunlight, 
 and almost to destroy every possibility of future 
 gladness. 
 
 It is in words like those before us that we are 
 thus taught a moral lesson by a natural type. 
 " Look at those clouds," (so the Holy Spirit 
 would seem to speak to us by Elihu;) "look at 
 those clouds, so deep, so dark, so continuous, so 
 overspreading the whole face of the sky ; they are 
 not what they appear ; they are neither so deep
 
 CONSOLATIO. 125 
 
 nor so abiding as they seem. It is true they have 
 hung there all the day, and perhaps for many 
 days longer they shall continue to hang there : 
 but they shall not be perpetual, a time shall 
 come when they shall be scattered and removed. 
 It is also true that they may be unbroken, and 
 that their darkness may seem unrelieved by a 
 single ray of sunshine ; but it is not so : there is 
 light in their bosoms ; they carry an inward 
 glory; they are the hiding-places of the sun's 
 burning rays; there are rainbow glories moving 
 and playing like the fire among the cherubim of 
 Ezekiel, all through their wondrous depths. Go 
 to some tall mountain, on whose bright summit 
 the sunshine lives; up which the clouds cannot 
 climb, it is so high : look down upon those very 
 clouds that appear to you so impenetrably gloomy, 
 and they seem like one swelling sea of silver 
 waves ; it is glory, and brightness, and beauty, 
 in one continuous and wonderful extent and suc- 
 cession. You see not now, as the text tells us, 
 "the light that is in them;" but though you do 
 not see it, it is there. It is your weakness, your 
 low and abject condition, your earthly station, 
 that makes you see nothing but the gloom of a 
 sad day in that welkin which-, within it and 
 above, is all burning with beauty and glory. 
 
 Such is the natural truth ; such is the reality 
 of that picture which the clouds present to us,
 
 126 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 when examined and considered. But what does 
 this tell us about ourselves ? This is our great 
 concern. What does it reveal to us of the world 
 of Providence, or of the world of grace ? 
 
 It tells us that, as there are clouds in the natu- 
 ral world, so will there be dark shadows on the 
 heart of man. They are necessary. God would 
 not bring them over His people if they were not 
 so, for "He doth not afflict willingly." They 
 are indispensable for the carrying on of His great 
 scheme of grace. They are necessary for those 
 whom He is bringing to the knowledge of Him- 
 self on earth ; and they are equally indispensable 
 for those, whom having brought to this knowl- 
 edge of Himself on earth, He is bringing to the 
 sight and to the enjoyment of Himself in heaven. 
 They are necessary first to soften the heart ; they 
 are equally necessary afterwards to sanctify the 
 heart. The reason and the necessity of these 
 clouds is, that if the world were all sunshine, 
 unconverted men would, humanly speaking, 
 never leave it for God ; they would u dote and be 
 mad upon their idols." The further reason and 
 necessity is, that men, vitally renewed, might be 
 too contented with the tranquil flow of an easy 
 life; they would make no great struggles for 
 virtue ; they would offer no strong prayers for 
 holiness; they would dwell in the region of a 
 torpid contentment; they would not press and
 
 CONSOLATIO. 127 
 
 soar to the upper region of a glorious and seraphic 
 existence. " It is through much tribulation that 
 we must enter into the kingdom of God," because 
 it is through much tribulation, and through many 
 clouds, that we must be made fit to enter. 
 
 But where, you will ask, is the bright light 1 
 Behind these clouds it is that the light is dwell- 
 ing. It is the dark side of the moral and the 
 spiritual cloud which we now see; but there is a 
 bright, and a beautiful, and a blessed light, on its 
 upper and its heavenly side. How happy were 
 the children of men, could they but believe this ! 
 It is so, whether they believe it or not; their 
 happiness, their peace, their present and eternal 
 interest, is to believe it. Look at that sorrowful 
 man going on in darkness of soul, and in dark- 
 ness of fortune, his goods daily diminishing, or 
 his health declining, or family sorrows shaking 
 with successive blows his agitated heart: it is 
 cloud above, around, within : all life seems 
 dreary, all hope wears the livery of despair. 
 Where is the light in his many clouds ? Where 
 is the bright light which the text speaks of? It 
 is in the intention of God; it is in the method 
 which God is taking to lead him to Himself. Let 
 this knowledge burst upon his soul, and all at 
 once is changed. The gloomy cloud " turns forth 
 its silver lining on the night." He sees God's 
 hand-writing ; and as clearly as if a Daniel were
 
 128 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 there to interpret it, he can understand all its 
 meaning, and discover all its mercy. 
 
 But if it be thus with him whom God is bring- 
 ing to Himself, it is especially so with every faith- 
 ful child already brought Their Father has 
 taught them to read His own hand-writing ; they 
 have been in His school; they have learned 
 heaven's holy alphabet; they can see now earth- 
 ly sorrow is the heavenly name for joy, and 
 bodily pain for spiritual improvement, and the 
 present wounding of the heart for its healing and 
 eternal cure. 
 
 When we see, therefore, a saintly soul bowed 
 down by affliction of heart, or tried by the long 
 and heavy trial of some tormenting disease, we 
 are able at once to solve the great riddle of suffer- 
 ing holiness; we see the " light in the cloud," 
 we gather the meaning of the mystery, we see 
 that God is taking (so to speak) the greatest pains 
 to make His child a holy son. 
 
 "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth;" the 
 heart of the sufferer owns the truth ; it leaps 
 even in the midst of its pain, and joyfully con- 
 fesses it : 
 
 " The eye that looks at things aright 
 Sees through the clouds the deep blue light ; 
 And from the bank, all mire and wet, 
 Plucks the fresh blooming violet."
 
 CONSOLATIO. 129 
 
 He has, moreover, a deep inner thought which 
 ever consoles him. " Thou art my portion, O 
 Lord." This is his heart-music. In the midst 
 of sorrow he can say and sing it. "And if it be 
 so, why my very portion is my chastener; it is 
 the indwelling Spirit that is correcting me; it is 
 myself, my better, my heavenly self, that is lay- 
 ing on the smarting rod. Could I look behind, 
 could I see the bright and silver side of things, 
 I should confess, without the smallest hesitation, 
 that there was not a single pang with which my 
 heart was quivering that was not necessary for 
 my sanctification." 
 
 But these clouds shall not always remain on 
 the heart. "The wind passeth and cleanseth 
 them." The cloud is cleansed; it is a beautiful 
 and expressive term; its dark parts are taken 
 away, its bright parts remain. All the saints 
 have found it so. Noah, Daniel, Job; even in 
 this life the cloud passed away from each, and 
 only the bright light of ten thousand happy 
 beams of joy, and love, and grace, remained. So 
 shall it be to you, sons of God, and servants of 
 Him on whom in this life the sunbeams of hap- 
 piness never fell ! ' Even in this world (have you 
 not already experienced it?) heaviness has often 
 endured only for "a night, joy has come in the 
 morning. But should no bright after-piece suc- 
 ceed to the darkness that now oppresses you ; 
 9
 
 130 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 should no noon-day sun burst through the rolling 
 clouds of your present sorrow; should the heavy 
 gloom continue during all the circling hours of 
 your life's long day, yet still " at eventide it shall 
 be light." The sunset and the evening of this 
 present world shall be the type of the morning of 
 the other ; you shall lie down quietly in the faith 
 of Christ, and " wake up in His likeness, and be 
 satisfied." 
 
 Conquest of temptation, deliverance from the 
 power of evil habits, and a ready compliance with 
 the will of God, in answer to prayer, are much 
 better proofs of his favorable presence than joyous 
 feelings. The latter may be mistaken, but the 
 former are as sure marks of the Divine operation 
 and blessing, as that a plentiful crop of corn has 
 had the benefit of rain and sunshine. 
 
 Songs in the night. 
 
 It is thy title, O Lord, and only thine, that 
 thou givest "songs in the night." (Job xxxv. 10.) 
 The night is a sad and dolorous season ; as the 
 light, contrarily, is the image of cheerfulness. 
 (Eccl. xi. 7.) Like as it is in bodily pains and
 
 CONSOLATIO. 131 
 
 aches, that they are still worst towards night ; 
 so it is in the cares and griefs of the mind ; then 
 they assault us most when they are helped on 
 by the advantage of an uncomfortable darkness. 
 Many men can give themselves songs in the day 
 of their prosperity, who can but howl in the night 
 of their affliction; but for a Paul and Silas to 
 sing in their prison at midnight (Acts xvi. 25) ; 
 for an Asaph to "call to remembrance his song in 
 the night" (Ps. Ixxvii. 6) ; this comes only from 
 that Spirit of thine, whose peculiar style is " the 
 Comforter;" and surely, as music sounds best in 
 the night, so those heavenly notes of praise which 
 we sing to Thee, our God, in the gloomy darkness 
 of our adversity, cannot but be most pleasing in 
 thine ears. Thine Apostle bids us (which is our 
 ordinary wont) when we are merry to sing; when 
 afflicted to pray ; but if, when we are afflicted, 
 we can sing ; as also, when we are merriest, we 
 can pray ; that song must needs be so much more 
 acceptable unto Thee, as it is a more powerful 
 effect of the joy of Thy Holy Ghost. 
 
 O my God, I am conscious of my own infirmi- 
 ty : I know I am naturally subject to a dull 
 heaviness, under 'whatsoever affliction. Thou, 
 that art the God of all comfort, remedy this heart- 
 less disposition in me ; pull this lead out of my 
 bosom : make me not patient only, but cheerful, 
 under my trials : fill Thou my heart with joy,
 
 132 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 and my mouth with songs, in the night of my 
 tribulation. 
 
 As there is a perfect union betwixt the glorious 
 saints in heaven, and a union (though imperfect) 
 betwixt the saints on earth, so there is a union 
 (partly perfect and partly imperfect) between the 
 saints in heaven and the saints below upon earth ; 
 perfect in respect of those glorified saints above, 
 imperfect in respect of the weak returns we are 
 able to make them again. Let no man think, that 
 because those blessed souls are out of sight, far 
 distant in another world, and we are here toiling 
 in a vale of tears, that we have therefore lost all 
 mutual regard to each other ; no, there is still, and 
 ever will be, a secret but unfailing correspondence 
 between heaven and earth. The present happi- 
 ness of those heavenly citizens cannot have 
 abated aught of their knowledge and charity, but 
 must needs have raised them to a higher pitch 
 of both. They, therefore, who are now glorious 
 comprehensors, cannot but in a generality retain 
 the notice of the sad condition of us poor travel- 
 lers here below, panting towards our rest together 
 with them, and in common wish for the happy 
 consummation of this our weary pilgrimage, in 
 the fruition of their glory. That they have any 
 perspective whereby they can see down into our 
 particular wants, is that which we find no ground 
 to believe. It is enough that they have an uni-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 133 
 
 versal apprehension of the estate of Christ's 
 warfaring Church upon the face of the earth, 
 (Rev. vi. 10), and, as fellow-members of the same 
 mystical body, long for a perfect glorification of 
 the whole. 
 
 As for us wretched pilgrims, who are yet left 
 here below to try with many difficulties, we can- 
 not forget that better half of us which is now 
 triumphant in glory. O ye blessed saints above, 
 we honor your memories so far as we ought; we 
 do with praise recount your virtues ; we mag- 
 nify your victories; we bless God for your happy 
 exemption from the misery of this world, and for 
 your estate in that blessed immortality; we 
 imitate your holy examples; we long and pray 
 for a happy consociation with you ; we dare not 
 raise temples, dedicate altars, direct prayers, to 
 you ; we dare not, finally, offer any thing to you 
 which you are unwilling to receive, nor put any 
 thing upon you which you would disclaim as 
 prejudicial to your Creator and Redeemer. It is 
 abundant comfort to us that some part of us is in 
 the fruition of that glory, whereto we (the other 
 poor labouring part) desire and strive to aspire ; 
 that our heads and shoulders are above water, 
 whilst the other limbs are yet wading through 
 the stream. 
 
 If ever thou look for sound comfort on earth, 
 and salvation in heaven, unglue thyself from the
 
 134 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 world, and the vanities of it; put thyself upon 
 thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; leave not till 
 thou findest thyself firmly united to Him, so as 
 thou art become a limb of that body whereof He 
 is the Head, a spouse of that husband, a branch 
 of that stem, a stone laid upon that foundation. 
 Look not, therefore, for any blessing out of Him : 
 and in, and by, and from Him, look for all bless- 
 ings; let Him be thy life, and wish not to live 
 longer than thou art quickened by Him; find 
 Him thy wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, 
 redemption : thy riches, thy strength, thy glory. 
 Apply unto thyself all that thy Saviour is, or 
 hath done. Wouldst thou have the graces of 
 God's Spirit? fetch them from His anointing. 
 Wouldst thou have power against spiritual ene- 
 mies? fetch it from His sovereignty. Wouldst 
 thou have redemption ? fetch it from His pas- 
 sion. Wouldst thou have absolution? fetch it 
 from His perfect innocence. Freedom from the 
 curse? fetch it from His Cross. Satisfaction? 
 
 fetch it from His sacrifice. Cleansing from 
 sin? fetch it from his blood. Mortification? 
 
 fetch it from His grave. Newness of life? 
 fetch it from His resurrection. Right to heaven ? 
 
 fetch it from His purchase. Audience in all 
 thy suits? fetch it from His intercession. 
 Wouldst thou have salvation? fetch it from 
 His session at the right hand of Majesty. Wouldst
 
 CONSOLATIO. 135 
 
 thou have all? fetch it from Him who is "one 
 Lord, one God and Father of all, who is above 
 all, through all, and in all." (Eph. iv. 5, 6.) 
 And as thy faith shall thus interest thee in Christ, 
 thy Head ; so let thy charity unite thee to His 
 body the Church, both in earth and heaven. 
 Hold ever an inviolable communion with that 
 holy and blessed fraternity. Sever not thyself 
 from it either in judgment or affection. Make 
 account there is not one of God's saints upon 
 earth but hath a property in thee, and thou may- 
 est challenge the same in each of them, so that 
 thou canst not but be sensible of their passions; 
 and be freely communicative of all thy graces, 
 and all serviceable offices, by example, admoni- 
 tion, exhortation, consolation, prayer, beneficence, 
 for the good of that sacred community. 
 
 And when thou raises! up thine eyes to heaven, 
 think of that* glorious society of blessed saints 
 who are gone before thee, and are now there 
 triumphing, and reigning in eternal and incom- 
 prehensible glory; bless God for them, and wish 
 thyself with them; tread in their holy steps, and 
 be ambitious of that crown of glory and immor- 
 tality which thou seest shining on their heads. 

 
 136 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Admirable directions for a sick person to follow. 
 
 When these things are taken care for, let the 
 sick man so order his affairs, that he have but 
 very little conversation with the world, but wholly 
 (as he can) attend to religion, and antedate his 
 conversation in heaven, always having intercourse 
 with God, and still conversing with the holy 
 Jesus ; kissing His wounds, admiring His good- 
 ness, begging His mercy, feeding on Him with 
 faith, and drinking His blood; to which purpose 
 it were very fit (if all circumstances be answer- 
 able), that the narrative of the passion of Christ 
 be read or discoursed to him at length, or in brief, 
 according to the style of the four Gospels ; but, in 
 all things, let his care and society be as little secu- 
 lar as is possible. 
 
 Now we suppose the man entering upon his 
 scene of sorrows and passive graces. It may be 
 he went yesterday to a wedding, merry and brisk, 
 and there he felt his sentence that he must return 
 home and die ; then he must consider that all 
 those discourses he hath heard concerning patience 
 and resignation, and conformity to Christ's suffer- 
 ings, and the melancholy lectures of the cross, 
 must, all of them, now be reduced to practice, and 
 pass from an effective contemplation to such an 
 exercise as will really try whether we were true
 
 CONSOLATIO. 137 
 
 disciples of the cross, or only believed the doctrines 
 of religion when we were at ease, and that they 
 never passed through the ear to the heart, and 
 dwelt not in our spirits. But every man should 
 consider God does nothing in vain ; that He 
 would not, to no purpose, send us preachers, and 
 gives us rules, and furnish us with discourse, and 
 lend us books, and provide sermons, and make 
 examples, and promise His Spirit, and describe 
 the blessedness of holy sufferings, and prepare us 
 with daily alarms, if He did not really purpose to 
 order our affairs, so that we should need all this, 
 and use it all. There were no such thing as the 
 grace of patience, if we were not to feel a sick- 
 ness, or enter into a state of sufferings ; whither, 
 when we are entered, we are to practise by the 
 following rules. 
 
 At the first address and presence of sickness, 
 stand still and arrest thy spirit, that it may, with- 
 out amazement or affright, consider that this was 
 that thou lookedst for, and wert always certain 
 should happen : and that now thou art to enter 
 into the actions of a new religion, the agony of 
 a strange constitution ; but at no hand suffer thy 
 spirits to be dispersed with fear or wildness of 
 thought, but stay their looseness and dispersion 
 by a serious consideration of the present and 
 future employment. For so doth the Libyan, 
 spying the fierce huntsman, first beats himself
 
 138 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 with the strokes of his tail, and curls up his 
 spirits, making them strong with union and recol- 
 lection, till, being struck with a Mauritanian spear, 
 he rushes forth into his defence and noblest con- 
 tention, and either escapes into the secrets of his 
 own dwelling, or else dies the bravest of the forest. 
 Every man, when shot with an arrow from God's 
 quiver, must then draw in the auxiliaries of rea- 
 son, and know that then is the time to try his 
 strength, and to reduce the words of religion into 
 action. Let Him set his heart firm upon this 
 resolution : " I must bear it inevitably ; and I will, 
 by God's grace, do it nobly." 
 
 Bear, in thy sickness, all along the same 
 thoughts, propositions, and discourses, concerning 
 thy person, thy life and death, thy soul and reli- 
 gion, which thou hadst in the best days of thy 
 health ; and when thou didst discourse wisely 
 concerning things spiritual. Consider, when you 
 were better able to judge and govern the accidents 
 of your life, you concluded it necessary to trust 
 in God, and possess your souls with patience. 
 Think of things as they think who stand by you, 
 and as you did when you stood by others : that it 
 is a blessed thing to be patient ; that a quietness 
 of spirit hath a certain reward : that still there is 
 infinite truth and reality in the promises of the 
 Gospel ; that still thou art in the care of God, in 
 the condition of a son, and working out thy salva-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 139 
 
 tion with labour and pain, with fear and trem- 
 bling; that now the sun is under a cloud, but it 
 still sends forth the same influence. 
 
 Do not choose the kind of thy sickness, or the 
 manner of thy death ; but let it be what God 
 please, so it be no greater than thy spirit or thy 
 patience, and for that you are to rely upon the 
 promise of God, and to secure thyself by prayer 
 and industry ; but in all things else let God be 
 thy chooser, and let it be thy work to submit in- 
 differently, and attend thy duty. Be importunate, 
 that thy spirit and its interest be secured, and let 
 Him do what seemeth good in His eyes. And as, 
 in the degrees of sickness, thou art to submit to 
 God, so in the kind of it (supposing equal degrees) 
 thou art to be altogether incurious whether God 
 will call thee by a consumption or an asthma, by 
 a dropsy or a palsy, by a fever in thy humours, 
 or a fever in thy spirits ; because all such nicety 
 of choice is nothing but a colour to a legitimate 
 impatience, and to make an excuse to murmur 
 privately, and for circumstances, when in the sum 
 of affairs we durst not own impatience. 
 
 Be patient in the desires of religion, and take 
 care that the forwardness of exterior actions do 
 not discompose thy spirit ; while thou fearest that 
 by less serving God in thy disability, thou run- 
 nest backward in the accounts of pardon and the 
 favour of God. Be content that the time, which
 
 140 COXSOLATIO. 
 
 was formerly spent in prayer, be now spent in 
 carefulness and attendances ; since God hath 
 pleased it should be so, it does not become us to 
 think hard thoughts concerning it. Do not think 
 that God is only to be found in a great prayer or 
 a solemn office ; He is moved by a sigh, by a 
 groan, by an act of love ; and therefore, when 
 your pain is great and pungent, lay all your 
 strength upon it to bear it patiently ; when the 
 evil is somewhat more tolerable, let your mind 
 think some pious, though short meditation ; let it 
 not be very busy, and full of attention, for that 
 will be but a new temptation to your patience, and 
 render your religion tedious and hateful. If' you 
 can do more, do it; but if you cannot, let it not 
 become a scruple to thee. We must not think 
 man is tied to the forms of health, or that he who 
 swoons and faints is obliged to his usual forms 
 and hours of prayer; if we cannot labour, yet let 
 us love ; nothing can hinder us from that but our 
 own uncharitableness. 
 
 Be obedient to thy physician in those things 
 that concern him, if he be a person fit to minister 
 unto thee. God is He only that needs no help, 
 and God hath created the physician for thine ; 
 therefore use Him temperately, without violent 
 confidence; and sweetly, without uncivil distrust- 
 ings. Physicians are the ministers of God's mer- 
 cies and providence, in the matter of health and
 
 CONSOLATIO. 141 
 
 ease, of restitution or death ; and when God shall 
 enable their judgments, and direct their counsels, 
 and prosper their medicines, they shall do thee 
 good, for which you must give God thanks, and 
 to the physician the honour of a blessed instru- 
 ment : but this cannot always be done. 
 
 Treat thy nurses and servants sweetly, and as 
 it becomes an obliged and necessitous person. 
 Remember that thou art very troublesome to 
 them ; that they trouble not thee willingly ; that 
 they strive to do thee ease and benefit ; that they 
 wish it, and sigh and pray for it, and are glad if 
 thou likest their attendance ; that whatsoever is 
 amiss is thy disease, and the uneasiness of thy 
 head or thy side, thy distemper or thy disaffec- 
 tions; and it will be an unhandsome injustice to 
 be troublesome to them, because thou art so to 
 thyself. 
 
 Let not the smart of your sickness make you to 
 call violently for death ; you are not patient unless 
 you be content to live. God hath made sufferance 
 to be thy work; and do not impatiently long for 
 evening, lest at night thou findest the reward of 
 him that was weary of his work. 
 
 If I felt for the disorder and danger of my soul, 
 as I do for my body in pain and sickness, I should 
 look out every way for help; be a thousand times
 
 142 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 more anxious for its recovery than I am; submit 
 to any method of cure, and say unfeignedly to 
 God, " Ure, feri, seca;" that is, "Burn, strike, 
 cut." 
 
 Spring lime, and the final regeneration. 
 
 Let these be your thoughts, brethren, especially 
 in the spring season, when the whole face of nature 
 is so rich and beautiful. Once only in the year 
 does the world which we see, show forth its hid- 
 den powers, and in a manner manifest itself; then 
 the leaves come out, and the blossoms on the 
 fruit-trees and flowers, and the grass and corn 
 spring up. There is a sudden rush and burst out- 
 wardly of that hidden life which God has lodged 
 in the material world. Well, that shows you, as 
 by a sample, what it can do at God's command, 
 when He gives the word. This earth, which now 
 buds forth in leaves and blossoms, will one day 
 burst forth into a new world of life and glory, in 
 which we shall see saints and angels dwelling. 
 Who would think, except from his experience of 
 former springs, all through his life, who would 
 conceive two or three months before, that it was 
 possible that the face of nature, which then seemed 
 so lifeless, should become so splendid and vain? 
 How different is a tree, how different is a prospect,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 143 
 
 when leaves are on it and off it ! How unlikely 
 it would seem before the event, that the dry and 
 naked branches should suddenly be clothed with 
 what is so bright and refreshing ! Yet in God's 
 good time, leaves come on the trees. The season 
 may delay, but come it will at last. So it is with 
 the coming of that Eternal Spring, for which all 
 Christians are waiting. Come it will, though it 
 delay ; yet though it tarry, let us wait for it, be- 
 cause it will surely come, it will not tarry. There- 
 fore, we say day by day, " Thy kingdom come; " 
 which means, O Lord, show thyself, manifest 
 thyself; Thou that sittest between the cherubims, 
 show thyself; stir up thy strength, and come and 
 help us. The earth that we see does not satisfy 
 us ; it is but a beginning ; it is but a promise of 
 something beyond it; even when it is gayest, with 
 all its blossoms on, and shows most touchingly 
 what lies hid in it, yet it is not enough. We 
 know much more lies hid in it than we see. A 
 world of saints and angels, a glorious world, the 
 palace of God, the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, 
 the heavenly Jerusalem, the throne of God and 
 Christ; all these wonders, everlasting, all-precious, 
 mysterious, incomprehensible, lie hid in what we 
 see. What we see is the outward shell of an 
 eternal kingdom, and on that kingdom we fix the 
 eyes of our faith. Shine forth, O Lord, as when 
 on thy nativity thine angels visited the shepherds ;
 
 144 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 let thy glory blossom forth as bloom and foliage ; 
 change with thy mighty power this visible world 
 into that diviner world, which as yet we see not ; 
 destroy what we see, that it may pass, and be 
 transformed into what we believe. Bright as is the 
 sun, and the sky, and the clouds ; green as are 
 the leaves and the fields ; sweet as is the singing 
 of the birds ; we know that they are not all, and 
 we will not take up with a part for the whole. 
 They proceed from a centre of love and goodness, 
 which is God Himself; but they are not His ful- 
 ness ; they speak of heaven, but they are not 
 heaven : they are but as stray beams and dim re- 
 flections of His image ; they are but crumbs from 
 His table. We are looking for the coming of the 
 day of God, when all this outward world, fair 
 though it be, shall perish ; when the heavens shall 
 be burnt, and the earth melt away. We can bear 
 the loss, for we know it will be but the removing 
 of a veil. We know that to remove the world 
 which is seen, will be the manifestation of the 
 world which is not seen. Vie know that what 
 we see is as a screen hiding from us God and 
 Christ, and His saints and angels ; and we ear- 
 nestly desire and pray for the dissolution of all that 
 we see, from our love and longing after that which 
 we do not see. O blessed they indeed, who are 
 destined for a sight of those wonders in which 
 they now stand, at which they now look, but
 
 CONSOLATIO. 145 
 
 which they do not recognize ! Blessed they 
 who shall at length behold what as yet mortal 
 eye hath not seen, and faith only enjoys ! Those 
 wonderful things of the new world are even now 
 as they shall be then. They are immortal and 
 eternal ; and they who shaHl then be made con- 
 scious of them will see them in their calmness 
 and their majesty, where they ever have been. 
 But who can express the surprise and rapture 
 which will come upon those, who then at least 
 apprehend them for the first time, and to whose 
 perceptions they are new ? Who can imagine, 
 by a stretch of fancy, the feelings of those, who, 
 having died in faith, wake up to enjoyment? 
 The life then begun, we know, will last for ever; 
 yet surely, if memory be to us then what it is 
 now, that will be a day much to be observed unto 
 the Lord, through all the ages of eternity. We 
 may increase, indeed, for ever in knowledge and 
 in love ; still that first awakening from the dead, 
 the day at once of our birth and our espousal, will 
 ever be endeared and hallowed in our thoughts. 
 When we find ourselves, after long rest, gifted 
 with fresh powers, vigorous with the seed of eter- 
 nal life within us, able to love God as we wish, 
 conscious that all trouble, sorrow, pain, anxiety, 
 and bereavement, is over for ever; blest in the 
 full affection of those earthly friends whom we 
 loved so poorly, and could protect so feebly, while 
 
 10
 
 146 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 they were with us in the flesh ; and, above all, 
 visited with the immediate, visible, ineffable pre- 
 sence of God Almighty, with His only-begotten 
 Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and His co-equal, co- 
 eternal Spirit; that great sight in which is the 
 fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore ! What 
 deep incommunicable and unimaginable thoughts 
 will be then upon us ! What depths will be stirred 
 up within us ! What secret harmonies awak- 
 ened, of which human nature seemed incapable ! 
 Earthly words are indeed all worthless to minister 
 to such high anticipations. Let us close our eyes, 
 and keep silence. 
 
 Communion with the invisible world, a source of 
 strength and comfort. 
 
 The world is no help-meet for man, and a help- 
 meet he needs. No one. man or woman, can 
 stand alone; we are so constituted by nature; 
 and the world, instead of helping us, is an open 
 adversary; it but increases our solitariness. 
 
 Elijah cried, " I only am left, and they seek 
 my life to take it away." How did Almighty God 
 answer him? By graciously telling him that He 
 had reserved to Himself a remnant of seven thou- 
 sand true believers. Such is the blessed truth 
 He brings home to us also ; we may be full of
 
 CONSOLATIO. 147 
 
 sorrows ; there may be fightings without, and 
 fears within : we may be exposed to the frowns, 
 censure, or contempt of men ; we may be shunned 
 by them, or to take the lightest case, we may be 
 (as we certainly shall be) wearied out by the un- 
 profitableness of this world, by its coldness and 
 unfriendliness, distance and dreariness, we shall 
 need something nearer to us. What is our re- 
 source ? It is not in arm of man, in flesh and 
 blood, in voice of friend, or in pleasant counte- 
 nance; it is that holy home which God has given 
 us in His Church ; it is in that everlasting city in 
 which He has fixed His abode ; it is that mount 
 invisible, where angels are looking at us with 
 their piercing eyes, and the voices of the dead call 
 
 ***** 
 
 Leave, then, this earthly scene, O virgin soul ; 
 aim at a higher prize, a nobler companionship. 
 Enter into the tabernacle of God. Satan may do 
 his worst ; he may afflict thee sore ; he may wound 
 thee, he may brand thee ; he may cripple thee as 
 regards this world, but he cannot touch thee in 
 things spiritual ; he has no power over thee to 
 bring thee into God's displeasure. O virgin soul, 
 let this be thy stay in the dark day. When thou 
 art sick of the world, to whom shouldst thou go? 
 To none short of Him who is the Heavenly Spouse 
 of every faithful soul. 
 
 *****
 
 148 COXSOLATIO. 
 
 Though them art in a body of flesh, a member 
 of this world, thou hast but to kneel down rever- 
 ently in prayer, and thou art at once in the society 
 of saints and angels. Wherever thou art, thou 
 canst, by God's incomprehensible mercy, in a 
 moment bring thyself into the midst of God's holy 
 Church invisible, and receive secretly that aid, 
 the very thought of which is a present sensible 
 blessing. Art thou afflicted ? Thou canst pray. 
 Art thou merry ? Thou canst sing psalms. Art 
 thou lonely, does the day run heavily 1 Fall on 
 thy knees, and thy thoughts are at once relieved 
 by the idea and the reality of thy unseen com- 
 panions. Art thou tempted to sin ? Think steadily 
 of those who perchance witness thy doings from 
 God's secret dwelling-place. Hast thou lost 
 friends? Realize them by faith. Art thou slan- 
 dered ? Thou hast the praise of angels. Art thou 
 under trial ? Thou hast their sympathy. 
 
 Godj the author of our sorrow. 
 
 In this chapter 1 God points Himself out to us as 
 the Author of affliction. He makes no attempt to 
 conceal or disguise himself; on the contrary, He 
 rather forces Himself on our notice as the source 
 of His people's troubles. It was the Assyrian 
 
 i Hosea, ii.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 149 
 
 army that laid Israel waste; it was the cruelty of 
 her enemies that desolated her country, and carried 
 her into a wretched captivity ; but not a word is 
 said in this chapter, of man or his violence : the 
 God of Israel seems determined to keep all but 
 Himself out of our sight. "I," He says, "will 
 take away my corn and my wine." "I will des- 
 troy her vines and her fig-trees." "I will cause 
 all her mirth to cease." " I will visit upon her the 
 days of Baalim." "I will bring her into the 
 wilderness." Now, why this anxiety in a God of 
 love to stand thus forward as the author of misery ; 
 and misery, observe, among people He loves the 
 most? For two reasons. First, because we are 
 so backward in affliction to discern his hand. We 
 say, indeed, when it comes, " It is the work of 
 God;" but we do not half believe what we say : 
 we have no deep or lively impression of its truth. 
 There is often lurking within us a conviction 
 directly opposed to it: else why that restless 
 anxiety in trouble, to look so closely into second 
 causes? Why are our minds continually going 
 over the circumstances that have led to our cala- 
 mities ? Why does one of us say, " Had this been 
 let alone, my buried friend might have been 
 spared." And another, " Had that been done, my 
 poor child might not have sunk." And a third, 
 " In any other situation, my withered health might 
 have stood firm."
 
 150 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 There may be some truth in all this, but the 
 incessant dwelling of our minds on it shows 
 how we labour to push God out of our concerns; 
 how unwilling our sinful hearts are in all situations 
 to acknowledge or even perceive His hand. 
 
 Bat He has another reason for ascribing to Him- 
 self our trials. We can get no good out of afflic- 
 tion, no real comfort under it, till we view it as 
 sent to us from Him. The man of the world 
 regards affliction as "coming forth of the dust," 
 and trouble as " springing out of the ground." It 
 is the necessary result, he conceives, of our present 
 condition and circumstances; and where is the 
 benefit that he derives from sorrow ? It works in 
 him no submission, it brings out of him no praise. 
 It is when the mind discovers God at the very root 
 of its sufferings ; when it sees Him desolating its 
 comforts, and robbing it of its joys with His own 
 hand; when every grave seems dug by Him, and 
 every loss and every pang are felt to be His work; 
 when it cannot banish Him from its thoughts, nor 
 disconnect with Him one of its griefs, nor even 
 wish to do either : it is then that the soul begins 
 to bethink itself, and the heart to soften, and man's 
 proud, rebellious, stubborn spirit to give way. 
 Then the knee bends, and the prayer goes up, and 
 the blessing comes down. Then, for the first 
 time, we are quieted and subdued. "I was 
 dumb," said David, " and opened not my mouth,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 151 
 
 because tbou didst it." " It is the Lord," said 
 Eli; and then that poor old parent could add, 
 " Let Him do what seemeth Him good." And 
 this conviction will carry us yet farther. Only let 
 a man once see that a Father's hand has mingled 
 his cup of bitterness, and he will soon do more 
 than say, "Shall I not drink it 7" His heart may 
 be half breaking, but there is something within 
 that heart, which, ere he is aware, will force his 
 lips to praise. " The Lord gave," said Job, " and 
 the Lord hath taken away;" and then comes this 
 noble, but yet natural exclamation, " Blessed be 
 the name of the Lord." 
 
 What it is to be with Christ. 
 
 11 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast 
 given me, be with me where I am, that they may 
 behold my glory." l Mark where the presence of 
 Christ is to be enjoyed. He prays that we may 
 be with Him, " where He is." Now in the Spirit, 
 He is every where. He is God, and as God He 
 fills all space with His existence : He must speak 
 therefore, here, of that world wherein He manifests 
 His presence, where He dwells in the body, where 
 He even now lives and reigns as the glorified Son 
 
 1 John, xvii. 24.
 
 152 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 of Man. And this is to be not only with the most 
 glorious Being in the universe, but with Him in 
 the most glorious place ; in the place which He 
 calls His own kingdom, His own city, His own 
 house ; a world which He has built to show forth 
 His power, to declare His greatness by its magni- 
 ficence as gloriously as any material things can 
 declare it; so gloriously, that when we see it, we 
 shall deem it almost worthy to be His dwelling. 
 To be with Him there, is to be with Him in a world 
 from which all sorrow and sin are excluded, where 
 not a single unholy feeling is ever experienced, 
 nor a single tear shed, nor sigh breathed ; where 
 the weary soul may rest, and the troubled soul be 
 quiet, and the tempted soul repose, and the fettered 
 soul be free. It is to be with Him not alone, but 
 with the highest and best society the universe can 
 afford ; with cherubim and seraphim, with the 
 patriarchs and fathers, with apostles, and prophets, 
 and martyrs. It is to meet again in His blissful 
 presence the companions of our youth ; the parents, 
 and children, and friends, whom death has sepa- 
 rated from us, or distance severed, or infirmity 
 estranged; and to meet them where death can 
 touch them no more, where distance can never in- 
 tervene, nor passions disturb. In a word, it is to 
 be where the Lord Christ Himself delights to be; 
 where He finds the materials of joy for His own 
 wonderful soul. It is to see His face in its bright-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 153 
 
 ness, to hear His voice in His happiness, to sit 
 down at His glorified feet. It is for the abased 
 members of the body to be united to the triumphant 
 Head: it is to meet the Bridegroom in all the 
 radiance and joy of the bridal morning; it is to be 
 with the incarnate Jehovah in Jehovah's own 
 everlasting heavens. 
 
 With such a prospect before us, shall we not say 
 one to another, Let us lift up our heads with joy 
 amidst the troubles of an evil world ? We are to 
 sojourn in Mesech but a little longer ; we are soon 
 to take our leave for ever of the tents of Kedar ; 
 we are already within the distant rays of that 
 glory which is our sure inheritance ; and can 
 the light afflictions of the present time have more 
 power to depress, than that "far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory " has to elevate and 
 gladden us 1 Oh, no ! Our concern shall be to 
 feel and act like men who are going to a happy 
 and holy Saviour, in a holy and happy world. 
 We will labor to have "our conversation in hea- 
 ven ;" to catch something of its spirit before we 
 enter into its joy. 
 
 The experience and possession of divine pity is 
 better than bodily ease, freedom from trouble, or 
 the greatest worldly prosperity.
 
 154 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 fgt* , - " .: - - >'J : l ""'' t gMbX) 
 
 Grazf suffering , a preparation for great glory. 
 
 Preparation for higher degrees of glory is like- 
 wise wrought by the grace of God, through the 
 agency of suffering, and should much reconcile us 
 to the cup. Grace in our hearts is indeed created, 
 planted, and watered, by the hand and Spirit of 
 the living God; but it is also strengthened to per- 
 fection under His power, by the exercise of afflic- 
 tion. Doubt not but that the highest who will 
 ascend to glory above, will be found to be among 
 those who not only have washed their hearts in the 
 Redeemer's blood, (this is the title to all salva- 
 tion,) but who also have been tried in the refining 
 fires of affliction more severely than others. Afflic- 
 tion is a school, under the blessing of God, to ripen 
 us for an exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 
 and vain as is the common imagination, that those 
 who are tried here are saved from all sorrow here- 
 after, be they united to Christ or not ; it is yet a 
 true doctrine, that as there are degrees of glory, so 
 the most severely afflicted ones, who are also 
 believers in Jesus, will shine the brightest in that 
 glory; not so much because of their suffering, as 
 of the grace wrought to purification in their souls 
 by the Spirit of God, through the agency of suf- 
 fering. 
 
 Take courage, therefore, any amongst you, be- 
 loved, who are the sons and daughters of tribula-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 155 
 
 tion ; if united to Jesus by a living faith, you are 
 training, through your very afflictions, for superior 
 glory. The clouds that now darken your horizon 
 will soon disappear before the brightness of the 
 sun, and your spirit of heaviness shall be ex- 
 changed for the garments of joy. Be resting on 
 Jesus for all your strength, hope, and deliverance. 
 Believe in Him as your pattern, as well as your 
 support in every tribulation. Ask of Him in every 
 fresh trial, and under every circumstance of the 
 trial, Lord, how wouldst Thou have me to act? 
 What wouldst Thou have me to do ? Beg of Him 
 increasing submission, and thankfulness of spirit. 
 Endeavour to obtain that transcendency of faith 
 which sustains the soul above the depression of 
 this low world, and the wearying contemplation of 
 pain, sorrow, fear, sin, and death ; and strive to 
 raise your senses and affections to things above, 
 where your compassionate Saviour dwells, and 
 whence He will soon return to gather you up with 
 Him to His throne, that you may behold His glory. 
 Seek of Him the Holy Spirit to intercede within 
 you, and to unite your heart to God's heart. He 
 is a counsellor and comforter from Christ to His 
 distressed ones. He is a guide to lead you into all 
 truth, to reveal to you the whole will of your 
 Heavenly Father, and to work mightily the power 
 of God in your soul; quickening you from sin to 
 holiness, and raising you up to all heavenly bless- 
 ings with Christ.
 
 156 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 And suffer not the wicked one to tempt you with 
 doubts, fears, unbelief; these evils come from be- 
 neath ; from above is faith, joy, and hope through 
 the power of the Holy Ghost. Be assured, if indeed 
 you are Christ's flock, that all shall be well with 
 you; for "all things shall work together for good 
 to them that love God ;" and " He who has showed 
 you great and sore troubles shall quicken you 
 again, and bring you up agafn from the depths of 
 the earth ; He shall increase your greatness, and 
 comfort you on every side," Meanwhile, " Fear 
 thou not, for I am with thee," saith the Lord ; " be 
 not dismayed, for I am thy God ; I will strengthen 
 thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee 
 with the right hand of my righteousness." 
 
 Thoughts on Patience. 
 
 "For ye have need of patience, that after ye 
 have done the will of God, ye might receive the 
 promise." l Such is the lesson which the Holy 
 Spirit conveys to the suffering members of Christ's 
 body, through one whose first admission to the 
 Christian faith was marked by this testimony of 
 the Lord Himself: "I will show him how great 
 
 1 Heb. i. 36.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 157 
 
 things he must suffer for my name's sake." And 
 as we follow the course of this great Apostle, we 
 find that he was ever conformed to the pattern of 
 his Master, the "Man of sorrows." Whatever he 
 was ignorant of in the future, this one truth was 
 deeply settled in his soul : " The Holy Ghost wit- 
 nesselh in every city, that bonds and afflictions 
 abide me. " He had counted the cost, and was 
 contented to win Christ, while he suffered the 
 loss of all things ; and to such a high degree was 
 the strength of his Lord perfected in his weak- 
 ness, that he could even "glory in tribulation ;" 
 he could welcome and embrace it as a precious 
 gift from heaven, a distinguishing mark of Christ's 
 favour, to be counted worthy to suffer for His 
 sake. 
 
 The same grace of patient endurance, of thank- 
 ful, rejoicing acquiescence in the severer disci- 
 pline of our Heavenly Father's will, has shone 
 forth in the saints of every age. Circumstances 
 may vary, and the trials of different periods of 
 the Church, as well as of its different members, 
 may be diverse; but still it stands an unalterable 
 law of our militant condition : " In the world ye 
 shall have tribulation." 
 
 Like Israel in the wilderness, we "are not yet 
 come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the 
 Lord our Godgiveth us." "And there should be 
 no greater comfort to Christian persons, than to
 
 158 CONSOLAT10. 
 
 be made like unto Christ, by suffering patiently 
 adversities, troubles, and sicknesses : for He Him- 
 self went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain ; 
 He entered not into His glory before He was 
 crucified. So truly our way to eternal joy is 
 to suffer here with Christ ; and our door to enter 
 into eternal life is gladly to die with Christ, that 
 we may rise again from death, and dwell with 
 Him in everlasting life." * Now, we sow in tears ; 
 the time will come when we shall reap in joy. 
 
 1. If we would attain the grace of patience 
 under suffering, let us seek first to cultivate a 
 deep sense of our own sinfulness. " Wherefore 
 doth a living man complain, a man for the pun- 
 ishment of his sins?" "Know this, that God 
 exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity de- 
 serveth." A true sight of the corruption of our 
 nature, a conviction of our innumerable depar- 
 tures from God. our quenching of His Holy 
 Spirit, our insensibility to His love, our earth- 
 liness and vanity ; the wide extent of evil in 
 heart and life, in word and deed, which a faithful 
 self-examination presents to us; all this should 
 make us rather wonder that God so lightly afflicts 
 us, and that the rod of His displeasure does not 
 more severely visit His wayward and disobedient 
 children. 
 
 1 Office of " Visitation of the Sick."
 
 CONSOLATIO.. 159 
 
 2. Let us consider the purpose of God in afflict- 
 ing us. "By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be 
 purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his 
 sin." God knows that without holiness, we can 
 have no true happiness : that our hearts can find 
 no rest till they are drawn upwards, and centered 
 in Him; and therefore He appoints us a continual 
 process of purification and refining. Sometimes 
 there is the furnace of exceeding sharp affliction ; 
 long continued bodily suffering; days and nights, 
 and months and years, of weariness and anguish ; 
 the desire of our eyes taken away with a stroke ; 
 then the inward cross of mental trial, the felt 
 burden of indwelling corruption, the thorn in the 
 flesh, the assaults of Satan, and all the various 
 ills and vexations, trials and disappointments, of 
 this mortal state. Yet all this is to be welcomed 
 as a blessing; yea, it is to be "counted all joy" 
 by the heart that knows its God. Every step of 
 sanctified suffering is a step nearer to the crown 
 of glory. It is a lesson learned in that school of 
 obedience, in which as man our blessed Lord 
 Himself was perfected ; it is an increased confor- 
 mity to the meek and patient Lamb of God ; it is 
 precious medicine from the unerring Physician of 
 our souls ; it is a token of our Heavenly Father's 
 special love, refining from dross, and polishing 
 from corruption, the blood-bought jewels of His 
 grace. God is putting to the test, (it may be of
 
 1GO CONSOLATIO. 
 
 fiery trial,) the faith which He Himself has 
 given ; thus grace is strengthened and exercised, 
 and the stone is " made ready" for its place in the 
 heavenly temple. 
 
 3. Let us habitually contemplate the sufferings 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Light, 
 indeed, ought every trial of ours to appear, when 
 we think of Him who could say, " Is there any 
 sorrow like unto my sorrow '?" In what woe or 
 pain, whether of body or mind, can we not find 
 in our faithful High Priest the sympathy of an 
 infinite sufferer? And all this for our sakes ! O 
 my Saviour ; let me be dumb like Thee, and 
 never open my mouth in complaining, whatever 
 be the bitter cup Thou givest me to drink ; for it 
 can only be a cup of blessing to thy redeemed 
 child, for whom Thou hast borne the curse, and 
 exhausted the cup of wrath and indignation. 
 Let me not shrink from any fellowship with Thee 
 in suffering, who for me didst "endure the cross, 
 despising the shame," and art now preparing for 
 me joys which " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither hath it entered into the heart of man to 
 conceive." 
 
 4. Let us dwell much on the love and mercy of 
 God, exhibited towards us in redemption. While 
 we do this, we cannot be greatly moved by the 
 sufferings of time. God has not spared His own 
 Son for me. Shall I then think that He deals
 
 CONSOLATIO. 161 
 
 hardly in taking away any creature of earth, or 
 in depriving me of any gourd in whose shelter I 
 was glad? He has granted me spiritual healing; 
 shall I complain of bodily pain 1 He has given 
 me the Holy Ghost, the Comforter ; shall I mourn 
 over the withered joys of earth ? He has given 
 me the bright hope of an everlasting home in 
 glory ; shall I count it hard to be a pilgrim and a 
 stranger during a few short days or years in this 
 thorny wilderness ? No; rather let my heart be 
 soaring upwards to the source of its hidden life, 
 in adoring gratitude to the God of my salvation, 
 who pitied me in my low estate ; " for His mercy 
 endureth for ever ! " 
 
 5. Let us live in a spirit of prayer. Suffering 
 times have ever been praying times with the 
 saints of God. " In my distress I cried unto the 
 Lord, and He heard me," said the Psalmist. 
 Hezekiah in his sickness " prayed and wept 
 sore." Our blessed Saviour, "being in agony, 
 prayed more earnestly." There is the relief of 
 utterance in pouring out our complaint before 
 God. There is the consolation of feeling that we 
 are not alone in our sorrows. Man may grow 
 weary of us, but not so our sympathizing Lord. 
 He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, 
 and His ear is ever open to our cry. Ejaculatory 
 prayer is a blessed remedy against sudden temp- 
 tations to impatience: it lifts the soul above its 
 11
 
 162 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 actual condition ; it lays hold on the strength of 
 the Everlasting, brings us into communion with 
 Him who is our peace, and calms the troubled 
 spirit. Especially should we seek the grace 
 of patience and long-suffering as a fruit of the 
 Holy Ghost, for it is not a fruit that grows 
 on nature's branch. The flesh is all impatience 
 and discontent, and can only be subdued to the 
 spirit by the mighty power of God. 
 
 6. Let us beware of looking on any trial with 
 the eye of sense. Faith in the midst of suffering 
 is like the tree cast into the bitter waters of 
 Marah, which made them sweet. But sense 
 only adds fuel to the flame of impatience. God 
 is present with the soul when faith is in exercise : 
 it is left to its own utter weakness when sight 
 prevails. Faith is content that God should order 
 and appoint every event and circumstance : sense 
 would blindly dictate to Him, and choose a path 
 of ease and self-indulgence. 
 
 7. Let us consider the shortness of time, and 
 dwell deeply on the thought of eternity and of the 
 coming of Christ. " Yet a little while, and he 
 that shall come will come, and will not tarry." 
 Then will He give rest to the weary, and conso- 
 lation to the sorrowful. Their peace shall be as a 
 river, ever flowing; they shall have entered into 
 " the joy of their Lord," a joy that fears no vicissi- 
 tude. Their sun shall never more go down, nor
 
 CONSOLATIO. l(J3 
 
 shall the passing shadow of a cloud obscure the 
 bright shining of its rays. 
 
 And let us remember, that even now God fore- 
 knows the weight and duration of our trials. He 
 sees the end from the beginning, and the happy 
 issue out of all our afflictions which he has in 
 store for us. It may be very, very soon, " O thou 
 afflicted with tempest, and not comforted ! that he 
 will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy foun- 
 dations with sapphires." " Thou shall forget thy 
 misery, and remember it as waters that pass 
 away." Surely there is an end, may be said of 
 every thing, save of the rest that remaineth for 
 the people of God. 
 
 Suffering seems long and weary, and for the 
 present grievous; yet it is but a little moment, a 
 twinkling of an eye, compared with the everlast- 
 ing inheritance of the saints in light, when the 
 days of their mourning shall be ended. " When 
 there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
 crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for 
 the former things are passed away." "All the 
 days of my appointed time will I wait, till my 
 change come." " For I reckon that the suffer- 
 ings of this present time are not worthy to be 
 compared with the glory that shall be revealed in 
 us."
 
 164 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 In affliction, see the necessity of it, and be 
 humbled ; see the use of it, and improve it ; see 
 the love there is in it, arid be thankful. I know 
 of no greater blessing than health, except pain and 
 sickness. 
 
 Comfort to the Christian, that God knows him. 
 
 You who are sufferers, whether from sickness, 
 or sorrow, or sin ; and patient sufferers for the 
 Lord's sake, He says to each of you, " I know 
 how thou hast borne, i. e. suffered, and hast pa- 
 tience, and for my sake hast labored, and not 
 fainted." (Rev. ii. 3.) Your Lord has known 
 many a secret trial, many an hour of sorrow and 
 affliction, through which you have passed, and 
 which the world has never known. Your Lord 
 has seen your domestic difficulties, your per- 
 sonal troubles, your moments of secret anguish, 
 perhaps unrevealed even to your dearest friend ; 
 for there are sorrows which ought not and cannot 
 be communicated, but to God alone ; and yet you 
 have not fainted, but persevered, and for His 
 name's sake hast patience. Of all these He says 
 in the language of commendation, "I know" 
 them; I know your every prayer for guidance, 
 your every effort to bear patiently and contentedly 
 what I have laid upon you, and to profit by the
 
 CONSOLATIO. 165 
 
 visitation ; to hear the rod, and Him who appoint- 
 ed it; your every endeavour against evil tempers 
 and evil habits. All these things, which man can 
 never know, are known and valued by me. How 
 delightful is the reflection to the child of God, 
 that we have to do with One who judges not 
 as sinners judge, and who feels not as even 
 the holiest friend on earth can feel towards our 
 patient endurance, our shortenings, or our slow 
 advancings, but who looks even at the most 
 feeble as children still ; and while those around 
 may blame us that we have borne our trials 
 no better, and have advanced no farther and 
 no faster on the heavenward road, He, that mer- 
 ciful Redeemer, commends us, that we are still 
 upon the road, and "have not fainted." 
 
 Suffering not strange. Communion with Christ in 
 trial and in glory. 
 
 "Think it not strange," 1 for it is not. Suit your 
 thoughts to the experience and verdict of all 
 times, and to the warnings that the Spirit of God 
 hath given us in the Scriptures, and our Saviour 
 Himself from His own mouth, and in the ex- 
 
 1 1 Pet. iv. 12.
 
 166 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 ample which He showed in His own person. But 
 the point goes higher. 
 
 " Rejoice." Though we think not the suffer- 
 ings " strange," yet may we not well think that 
 rule somewhat strange, to rejoice in them? No; 
 it will be found as reasonable as the other, being 
 duly considered ; and it rests upon the same 
 ground which will bear both, " Inasmuch as ye 
 are partakers of the sufferings of Christ." 
 
 So, then, 1. Consider this twofold connected 
 participation of the sufferings of Christ, and of the 
 after-glory. 2. The present joy, even in suffer- 
 ings, springing from that participation. 
 
 I need not tell you that this communion in suf- 
 ferings is not in point of expiation, or satisfaction 
 to Divine justice, which was the peculiar end of the 
 sufferings of Christ personal, but not of the com- 
 mon sufferings of Christ mystical. " He bare our 
 sins in his own body on the tree;" and in bearing 
 them, took them away : we bear His sufferings, 
 as His body united to Him by His Spirit. Those 
 sufferings which were His personal burden we 
 partake the sweet fruits of ; they are accounted 
 ours, and we are acquitted by them : but the 
 endurance of them was His high and incommu- 
 nicable task, in which none at all were with 
 Him. Our communion in these, as fully com- 
 pleted by Himself in His natural body, is the 
 ground of our comfort and joy in those sufferings
 
 OONSOLATIO. 167 
 
 that are completed in His mystical body, the 
 Church. 
 
 This is indeed our joy, that we have so light a 
 burden, so sweet an exchange ; the weight of sin 
 quite taken off our backs, and all bound on His 
 cross only ; and our crosses, the badges t of our 
 conformity to Him, laid indeed on our shoulders, 
 but the great weight of theni likewise held up by 
 His hand, that they overpress us not. These fires 
 of our trial may be corrective, and purgative of 
 the remaining power of sin, and they are so in- 
 tended ; but Jesus Christ alone, in the sufferings 
 of His own cross, was the burnt-offering, " the 
 propitiation for our sins." 
 
 Now, although He hath perfectly satisfied for 
 us, and saved us by His sufferings, yet this con- 
 formity to Him in the way of suffering is most 
 reasonable. Although our holiness doth not stand 
 in point of law, nor corne in at all in the matter 
 of justifying us, yet we are called and appointed 
 to holiness in Christ, as assimilating us to Him, 
 our glorious Head; and we do really receive it 
 from Him, that we may be like Him. So these 
 our sufferings bear a very congruous likeness to 
 Him, though in no way as an accession to His in 
 expiation, yet, as a part of His image ; and there- 
 fore the Apostle says, even in this respect, that we 
 are " predestinated to be conformed to the image 
 of his Son." (Rom. viii. 29.)
 
 168 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Is it fit that we should not follow where our 
 Captain led, and went first, but that He should 
 lead through rugged, thorny ways, and we pass 
 about to get a way through flowery meadows? 
 As His natural body shared with His head in His 
 sufferings, so ought His body mystical to share 
 with Him, as its head, the bufferings and spittings 
 on His face, the thorny crown on His head, a 
 pierced side, nailed hands and feet. If we be 
 parts of Him, can we think that a body finding 
 nothing but ease, and bathing in delight, can 
 agree to a Head so tormented ? I remember 
 what that pious duke said at Jerusalem, when 
 they offered to crown him king there, " Nolo 
 auream, ubi Christus spineam." "No crown 
 of gold, where Jesus was crowned with thorns." 
 
 This is the way we must follow, or else resolve 
 to leave Him : the way of the cross is the royal 
 way to the crown. He said it, and reminded 
 them of it again, that they might take the deep 
 impression of it : "Remember what I said unto 
 you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If 
 they have persecuted me, they will also persecute 
 you : if they have kept my saying, they will keep 
 yours also." (John xv. 20.) And particularly 
 in point of reproaches : " If they have called the 
 master Beelzebub, how much more shall they 
 call them of his household?" (Matt. x. 25.) A 
 bitter scoff, an evil name, reproaches for Christ,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 169 
 
 why do these fret thee? They were a part of 
 thy Lord's entertainment while He was here. 
 Thon art even in this a "partaker of his suffer- 
 ings " and in this way He is bringing thee for- 
 ward to the partaking of His glory. That is the 
 other thing. 
 
 "When his glory shall be revealed." Now 
 that He is hidden, little of his glory is seen. It 
 was hidden while He was on earth, and now it is 
 hidden in heaven, where He is ; and as for His 
 body here, His Church, it hath no pompous dress, 
 nor outward splendour ; and the particular parts of 
 it, the saints, are poor despised creatures, the very 
 refuse of men in outward respects and common 
 esteem. So He Himself is not seen; and His 
 followers, the more they are seen and looked on 
 by the world's eye, the more their meanness 
 appears. True, as in the days of His humiliation, 
 some rays were breaking forth through the veil of 
 His flesh and the cloud of His low despicable 
 condition ; thus it is sometimes with His follow- 
 ers : a glance of His image strikes the very eye of 
 the world, and forces some acknowledgment and 
 a kind of reverence in the ungodly; but common- 
 ly Christ and His followers are covered with all 
 the disgraces and ignominies the world can put 
 on them. But there is a day wherein He will ap- 
 pear, and it is at hand; and " He shall be glori- 
 ous, even in His despised saints," and " admired
 
 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 in them that believe." (2 Thess. i. 10.) How 
 much more in the brightness of His own glorious 
 person ! 
 
 In the mean time, He is hidden, and they are 
 hidden in Him. "Our life is hid with Christ in 
 God." (Col. iii. 3.) The world sees nothing of 
 His glory and beauty, and even His own see not 
 much; they have but a little glimmering of Him, 
 and of their own happiness in Him; know little 
 of their own high condition, and what they are 
 born to. But in that bright day, He shall shine 
 forth in His royal dignity, and " every eye shall 
 see Him," and be overcome with his splendour. 
 Terrible shall it be to those that formerly despised 
 Him and His saints, but to them it shall be the 
 gladdest day that ever arose upon them, a day 
 that shall never set or be benighted ; the day they 
 so much longed and looked out for, the full 
 accomplishment of all their hopes and desires. 
 Oh, how dark were all our days without the hope 
 of this day ! 
 
 " Then," says the Apostle, " ye shall rejoice with 
 exceeding joy;" and to the end you may not fall 
 short of that joy in the participation of glory, fall 
 not back from a cheerful progress in the commu- 
 nion of those sufferings that are so closely linked 
 with it, and will so surely lead unto it, and end in 
 it: for in this the Apostle's expression, this glory 
 and joy is set before them as the great matter of
 
 CONSOLATIO. 171 
 
 their desires and hopes, and the certain end 
 of their present sufferings. 
 
 Now, upon these grounds, the admonition will 
 appear reasonable, and not too great a demand, 
 " to rejoice " even in "sufferings." 
 
 It is true that passage in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, chap. xii. v.er. 11, opposes present afflic- 
 tion to joy. But, 1. If you mark, it is but in the 
 appearance, or outward visage. It seemeth not 
 to be matter of joy, but of grief. To look upon, 
 it hath not a smiling countenance ; yet joy may be 
 under it. And, 2. Though to the flesh it is what 
 it seems grief, and not joy yet there may 
 be under it spiritual joy; yea, the affliction itself 
 may help and advance that joy. 3. Through the 
 natural sense of it, there will be some alloy 
 or mixture of grief, so that the joy cannot be 
 pure and complete, but yet there may be joy even 
 in it. This, the Apostle here clearly grants : "Re- 
 joice" now " in" suffering, that you may " rejoice 
 exceedingly" after it, "leaping for joy." Doubt- 
 less, this joy at present is but a little parcel, a 
 drop of that sea of joy. Now it is joy, but more 
 is reserved. Then they shall leap for joy. Yet 
 even at present rejoice in "trial," yea, in "fiery 
 trial." This may be done. The children of God 
 are not called to so sad a life as the world imag- 
 ines : besides what is laid up for them in heaven, 
 they have, even here, their rejoicings and songs
 
 172 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 in their distresses, as those prisoners had their 
 psalms even at midnight, after their stripes, and 
 in their chains, before they knew of a sudden de- 
 liverance. (Acts xvi. 25.) True, there may be a 
 darkness within, clouding all the matter of their 
 joy : but even that darkness is the seed-time 
 of after-joy: light is sown in that darkness, and 
 shall spring up ; and not only shall they have a 
 rich crop at full harvest, but even some first-fruits 
 of it here, in pledge of the harvest. 
 
 And this they ought to expect, and to seek 
 after, with minds humble and submissive, as to 
 the measure and time of it, that they may be par- 
 takers of spiritual joy, and may by it be enabled 
 to go patiently, yea, cheerfully, through the tribu- 
 lations and temptations that lie in their way home- 
 ward ; and for this end they ought to endeavour 
 after a more clear discerning of their interest in 
 Christ, that they may know they partake of Him ; 
 and so, that in suffering they are partakers of His 
 sufferings, and shall be partakers of His glory. 
 
 Many afflictions will not cloud and obstruct 
 this, so much as one sin ; therefore, if ye would 
 walk cheerfully, be most careful to walk holily. 
 All the winds about the earth make not an earth- 
 quake, but only that within. 
 
 Now, this joy is grounded on this communion, 
 1. in sufferings ; then, 2. in glory. 
 
 1. Even in sufferings themselves. It is a sweet,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 173 
 
 a joyful thing, to be a sharer with Christ in any 
 tkinor. All enjoyments wherein He is not, are 
 bitter to a soul that loves Him, and all sufferings 
 with Him are sweet. The worst things of Christ 
 are more truly delightful than the best things of 
 the world; His afflictions are sweeter than their 
 pleasures, His " reproach " more glorious . than 
 their honours, and more rich than their treasures, 
 as Moses accounted them. (Heb. xi. 26.) Love 
 delights in likeness and communion, not only in 
 things otherwise pleasant, but in the hardest and 
 harshest things, which have not any thing in them 
 desirable, but only that likeness. So that this 
 thought is very sweet to a heart possessed with 
 this love. What does the world by its hatred and 
 persecutions, and revilings for the sake of Christ, 
 but make me more like Him, give me a greater 
 share with Him in that which He did so willingly 
 undergo for me? "When he was sought for to 
 be made a king," as St. Bernard remarks, " He 
 escaped; but when he was to be brought to the 
 cross, He freely yielded Himself." And shall I 
 shrink and creep back from what He calls me to 
 suffer for His sake? Yea, even all my other 
 troubles and sufferings 1 will desire to have 
 stamped thus, with this conformity to the suffer- 
 ings of Christ, in the humble, obedient, cheerful 
 endurance of them, and the giving up my will to 
 my Father's.
 
 174 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 The following of Christ makes any way pleasant. 
 
 His faithful followers refuse no march after Him, 
 
 
 
 be it through deserts, and mountains, and storms, 
 and hazards, that will affright self- pleasing, easy 
 spirits. Hearts kincfled and actuated with the 
 Spirit of Christ will " follow him wheresoever he 
 goeth." 
 
 As He speaks it for warning to His disciples, 
 " If they persecuted me. they will also persecute 
 you ; " so He speaks it for comfort to them, and 
 sufficient comfort it is, "If they hate you, they 
 hated me before you." (John xv. 18, 20.) 
 
 2. Then add the other : see whither it tends. 
 " He shall be revealed in his glory," and ye shall 
 even overflow with joy in the partaking of that 
 glory ; therefore rejoice now in the midst of all 
 your sufferings. Stand upon the advanced ground 
 of the promises and the covenant of grace, and by 
 faith look beyond this moment, and all that is in 
 it, to that day wherein "everlasting joy shall be 
 upon your heads," a crown of it, and sorrow and 
 mourning shall flee away. (Isa. li. 11.) Believe in 
 this day, and the victory is won. Oh ! that blessed 
 hope, well fixed, and exercised, would give other 
 manner of spirits. What zeal of God would it not 
 inspire ! What invincible courage against all en- 
 encounters ! How soon will this pageant of the 
 world vanish that men are gazing on, these 
 pictures, and fancies of pleasures and honours
 
 CONSOLATIO. 175 
 
 falsely so called, and give place to the real glory 
 of the sons of God, when this blessed Son, who is 
 God, shall be seen appearing in full majesty, and 
 all His brethren in glory with Him, all clothed in 
 their robes ! And if you ask, Who are they ? 
 Why. " these are they who came out of great 
 tribulation, and have washed their robes in the 
 blood of the Lamb." (Rev. vii. 14.) 
 
 It is easy to say, Blessed be God in every thing ; 
 but where is the man that is always pleased with 
 God? 
 
 Jesus Christ, an High Priest, merciful and faithful. 
 
 " In all things it behoved Him to be made like 
 unto His brethren ; " that he might be, not only 
 an High Priest, but "an High Priest merciful and 
 faithful." : Here we see the care and tenderness 
 of God. Whom do we so readily trust as one 
 whom we know to be able to enter into our con- 
 dition ? Who is best fitted to comfort mourners ? 
 He who has mourned Himself. Who can best tell 
 the dangers of prosperity? He who has pros- 
 pered Himself. Who can tell us what sickness is? 
 He whose head has often throbbed with pain. It 
 
 1 Heb. ii. 17.
 
 176 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 is so throughout ; and we never can tell exactly 
 what human sufferings and human sorrows are, 
 until we have ourselves suffered and wept. It is 
 on this account that different classes of men do 
 not exactly understand and trust each other. The 
 poor man thinks that the rich man cannot quite 
 tell what the pinch of poverty is ; and the rich 
 man, that his poor neighbour does not know the 
 thorns that are in his downy pillow, or the bitters 
 that are in his golden cup. To meet this human 
 want, Jesus became our brother; He took on Him 
 our nature, and with it all its feelings and all its 
 frailties ; and thus it is that now, every one, of 
 whatever class and condition, can look to Him 
 with confidence. The poor can look to Him, for 
 He was emphatically a poor man ; the rich, for 
 He wore the nature which the rich man wears. 
 The young can look to Him, for He was once 
 young ; He lay in a mother's bosom, He trod a 
 nursery floor, He was subject to a father's autho- 
 rity. The full-grown man can look to Him, for 
 He felt the sorrows which the full-grown man 
 must sooner or later feel. With the dying He 
 can sympathize, for He bowed His own sacred 
 head, in the hour of darkness, before the power of 
 death. 
 
 He is thus "a merciful," or (as it may be trans- 
 lated) a "pitiful High Priest." He feels for those 
 for whom He intercedes. When we come to Him
 
 CONSOLATIO. 177 
 
 in weakness and weariness, our bodies oppressed 
 by disease, our minds weighed down by care, we 
 come to One who has Himself felt oppression of 
 body and weariness of mind, and we know that 
 He pities us for He cannot forget man may 
 forget; and it often happens that he who has been 
 in a low estate will lose the memory of the trials 
 he then experienced ; and should he be advanced 
 higher, will trample unfeelingly upon those who 
 were once his equals. It is not so with Jesus ! 
 He is "faithful and true," as well as "merciful 
 and pitiful." He remembers what human weak- 
 ness is : He recalls it when the mourner is before 
 Him ; He looks upon His beating heart, upon His 
 tearful eye, upon His pale cheek, upon His anx- 
 ious brow, and He seems to say, "I once wept, I 
 once was pale. I once was sorrowful ; O my Father, 
 have compassion on this poor suppliant, as Thou 
 once in the days of my flesh hadst compassion on 
 me ! " Verily, He is a merciful, a pitiful High 
 Priest! Verily, "He knoweth our frame" by 
 personal experience ; " He remembereth that we 
 are dust ! " 
 
 But, again, He is said to be "faithful." His 
 faithfulness consists in His earnest and constant 
 intercession for His brethren ; He pleads as for 
 His own flesh and blood ; He does not forget that 
 He was Himself a man. Perhaps we may thus 
 12
 
 178 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 illustrate this part of His character. If a man 
 make a promise while he is in a certain situation, 
 as long as he remains in that situation he will be 
 likely to remember it; many things will call it to 
 his mind ; but if his situation be changed, if he 
 go to other places, form other connections, or enter 
 into other pursuits, he is too apt to forget the past, 
 and its feelings and its promises. Now Jesus is 
 ever the same. His heart is unchanged un- 
 changeable : He is passed into the heavens, but 
 He is still the God-man, the God incarnate, and 
 still feels in perfect sympathy and brotherhood 
 with man. 
 
 What solid comfort does this consideration afford 
 us. The atoning sacrifice was made eighteen 
 hundred years ago, but the Victim is still fresh 
 before the throne ; the Lamb lies bleeding on the 
 altar; the blood still seems to flow; the High 
 Priest still and for ever offers the Eternal Sacrifice ; 
 He is pitiful and faithful ! in glory, but not for- 
 getful of His shame ; in heaven, but not unmind- 
 ful of earth ; in company with God His Father 
 but bearing upon the palms of His hands, upon 
 His jewelled breastplate, and upon His swelling 
 heart, the names and the memories of His own 
 ransomed brethren.
 
 CONSOLATIO. 179 
 
 The sight of God, the soul's reward. 
 
 If such a single sincere spirit be in you, it comes 
 of God : it is a sign of the seal of the Holy One 
 setting you apart to eternal life : it is a proof of the 
 operation of the grace of Christ in your heart ; of 
 your being a child of God, as led by His Spirit. 
 If, then, rooted and grounded in Christ by godly 
 repentance and self-abasement for your sins, and 
 earnest reliance of belief on His sacrifice for your 
 reconciliation with God; if in this spirit of faith 
 and of love you are patiently walking with Him 
 in singleness and sincerity of heart, be comforted 
 with the assurance that you are of that number 
 whom He is pleased to call pure in heart, and in 
 whom, as in a temple, He promises to dwell. 
 
 And then, what shall be your recompence of 
 reward hereafter ? Hear the word of the Lord of 
 all grace: " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
 shall see God." The revelation of God in glory, 
 Father, Son, and Spirit ; and the admission per- 
 petual into the unclouded presence of His love, joy, 
 and praise, are the exceeding high reward held 
 out to all those who are purified in heart : a proof 
 how transcendently excellent the most Blessed 
 God must be, since even to behold Him is the con- 
 summation of the happiness of His beloved people.
 
 180 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 The revelation of God is the most sublime enjoy- 
 ment that the soul of man, intelligent and immor- 
 tal as it is, refined and sanctified as by grace it 
 may be, is yet capable of. The least and faintest 
 glimpses which here \ve taste of Him are the most 
 sweet, the most sacred, the most elevated delight 
 we know; in Him is the fountain of life; but 
 hereafter the pure in heart shall behold Him face 
 to face; they shall be abundantly satisfied with 
 the fatness of His house, and made to drink of the 
 rivers of His heavenly pleasures. 
 
 And shall they indeed see God? Shall mortal 
 man stand upright before His Maker ? Then shall 
 they see Him who no longer opposes the blank of 
 His offended justice and His terrible holiness 
 before their unrighteousness, and ascends in the 
 majesty of a Judge ; but they shall see Him as a 
 father, a reconciled father, who embraces them in 
 the arms of His mercy, who abhors not to call them, 
 and comfort them as sons, who has gathered 
 them beneath the wings of His parental love, 
 through the intercession of His Divine Son, in 
 order to exalt them into the presence of His 
 glory! 
 
 Shall they see God ? Then shall they behold 
 that Saviour who emptied Himself of all His glory, 
 and became man, for their redemption. Then 
 shall they see that loving and lowly Shepherd, who
 
 CONSOLATIO. 181 
 
 laboured, wrought, wept, agonized, for their sakes ; 
 who bared the breast of His compassion to the full 
 fury of the storm of Almighty wrath, wrath 
 and anguish unutterable ; compounded of the judg- 
 ment of heaven, the ingratitude of earth, and the 
 fiercest malice of hell ; wrath that terminated in 
 the extinction of His life, and the shedding of His 
 blood on the accursed cross. Moreover, that lov- 
 ing Saviour, who ceased not His compassions with 
 His mortal life, but who lives again, and for ever- 
 more, specially to appear and advocate their cause 
 in the presence of the Father ; specially also to 
 hear and answer their supplications, to receive 
 and dispense His Spirit of grace, to exercise the 
 government of heaven and earth for their preser- 
 vation, and to prepare for them mansions of divine 
 rest. This Saviour whom, here below, without 
 seeing, they loved and rejoiced in with joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory, the pure in heart shall 
 behold on His heavenly throne, encompassed with 
 His armies of angels, and shining above the sun in 
 brightness. 
 
 And shall they see God? Neither then shall 
 they be without the sight of that blessed Com- 
 forter and Counsellor, even the Holy Ghost, who 
 led, and taught, and guided them; who bore with 
 all their rebellion and perverseness; who dwelt 
 within their souls, shedding abroad His light and 
 life, His peace and holiness, to their sanctification ;
 
 182 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 and whose mighty power has raised their mortal 
 bodies to incorruption and immortality. 
 
 Shall they, I ask once more, see God? Oh, 
 then ! they shall be like Him too. The beloved 
 disciple instructs us concerning this : " We shall 
 be like him, for we shall see him as he is :" and 
 the Psalmist : " I shall be satisfied, when I awake 
 with thy likeness." Then shall be brought to 
 pass that most gracious desire of our Lord, that 
 His own should be altogether united, and should 
 be one with Him even as He is with the Father ; 
 and when His will that those whom the Father 
 has given Him may be with Him where He is, to 
 behold His glory, shall be fulfilled, to His eternal 
 praise. 
 
 In that day God, in all the glory of His Person, 
 Father, Son, and Spirit; God, in all the glory of 
 His perfections, wisdom, righteousness, faithful- 
 ness, lovingkindness ; God in His unclouded glory 
 of love, light, and life; shall be revealed to the 
 admiring, adoring eyes of His chosen and beloved 
 ones. Shall we see God ? O, brethren ! do we 
 desire to see Him ? Well, then, may we inquire : 
 Lord, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? who 
 shall ascend to the throne of thy majesty? The 
 Scripture answers, " The pure in heart shall see 
 God." Then let us seek the mighty influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, so to cleanse and purify our hearts 
 by faith as to entitle us to that most blessed sight,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 183 
 
 and that high and holy habitation ; and to make 
 us one with God, even as He is one with 
 Christ. 
 
 Real heartfelt submission to the will of God, in 
 pain, sickness, crosses, every thing, never was 
 the work of a man's own spirit; and when it 
 comes from above, in answer to prayer, is full 
 amends for all we can suffer. 
 
 The blessedness of the faithful departed. 
 
 "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, 
 Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord from henceforth. Even so, saith the Spirit ; 
 for they rest from their labours." l Not as the 
 heretics of old vainly and coldly dreamed, as if 
 they slept without thought, or stir of consciousness, 
 from the hour of death to the morning of the resur- 
 rection. Their rest is not the rest of a stone, 
 cold and lifeless, but of wearied humanity. They 
 rest from their labours ; they have no more perse- 
 cution, nor stoning, nor scourging, nor crucify- 
 ing; no more martyrdoms by fire, or the wheel, or 
 barbed shafts; they have no more false witnesses, 
 nor cutting tongues; no more bitterness of heart, 
 
 1 Rev. iiv. 13.
 
 184 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 nor iron entering into the soul ; no more burdens 
 of wrong, nor amazement, nor perplexity. Never 
 again shall they weej> for unkindness, and disap- 
 pointment, and withered hopes, and desolation of 
 heart. All is over now ; they have passed under 
 the share. " The ploughers ploughed upon their 
 back, and made long furrows;" but it is all over, 
 never to begin again. They rest, too, from the 
 weight of " the body of our humiliation," from 
 its sufferings and pains. Their last sickness is 
 over ; they shall never again bear the tokens of 
 coming dissolution ; no more the hollow eye, and 
 the sharp lines of distress, and the hue of a fading 
 loveliness. Now is their weariness changed into 
 refreshment; their weakness into excellence of 
 strength; their wasting into a spirit ever new; 
 their broken words into the perfection of praise ; 
 their weeping into a chant of bliss. And not only 
 so, but they rest also from their warfare against 
 sin, against all its strength, and subtilties, and 
 snares. Satan can tempt no more ; the world can- 
 not lure; self cannot betray; they have wrestled 
 out the strife with the unseen powers of the 
 wicked one, and they have won the mastery. 
 There is no more inward struggle, no sliding back 
 again, no swerving aside, no danger of falling; 
 they have gained the shore of eternal peace. 
 Above all, they rest from the sufferings of evil in 
 themselves. It is not persecution, nor oppression,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 185 
 
 nor the rage of Satan, nor the thronging assaults 
 of temptation, that so afflicts a holy man, as the 
 consciousness that evil dwells in his own inmost 
 soul. It is the clinging power of spiritual evil that 
 sullies his whole being; it seems to run through 
 him in every part ; it cleaves to every movement 
 of his life; his living powers are hindered and 
 biassed by its grasp. Evil tempers in sudden 
 flashes; unholy thoughts shooting across the soul, 
 kindling fires in the imagination ; thoughts of self 
 in holiest seasons ; consciousness of self in holiest 
 acts ; indevoutness of spirit ; earthliness of heart ; 
 dull musing heaviness in the life of God : all 
 these burden the highest saint with a most 
 oppressive weight. He feels always the stretch 
 and tension of his spiritual frame, as a man that 
 is weary and breathless, grappling with a foe, 
 whom, if he would live, he must hold powerless 
 to the earth. 
 
 But from all this, too, they rest. The sin 
 that dwelt in them died when through death 
 they began to live. The unimpeded soul puts 
 forth its new-born life, as a tree in a kindly soil 
 invited by a gentle sky ; all that checked it has 
 passed away; all that draws it into ripeness 
 bathes it with fostering power. Then at last shall 
 the bride hear the bridegroom's voice, "Rise up, 
 my love, my fair one, and come away ; for lo ! 
 the winter is past, the rain is over and gone."
 
 186 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 The Refiner shall perfect his work upon them, 
 cleansing them seven-fold, even as gold is some- 
 times tried, and all the taints and bias of their 
 spiritual being shall be detached and corrected ; 
 till, by direct and intense vision, not as now 
 in a glass darkly, but then face to face, shall 
 they become pure even as He is pure. Hidden as 
 is the condition of their sleep, may we not believe 
 that they remember us ? How much of all that 
 they were must they forfeit, if they lose both 
 memory and love ! Shall we think that we can 
 remember Bethel, and Gibeon, and the Valley of 
 Ajalon, and Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives ; 
 but that Jacob, and Joshua, and David, and 
 the beloved disciple, remember them not? Or 
 shall the lifeless dust that their feet stood upon be 
 remembered, and the living spirits above, that 
 dwelt with them, be clean forgotten? May we 
 not think that they who live unto God, live in the 
 unfolded sameness of personal identity, replenished 
 with charity, and filled with a holy light? They 
 reach backwards in spirit into their world of 
 warfare, and onward in blissful expectation to the 
 day of Christ's coming; and in that holy waiting 
 they adore, as the brightness of paradise ever 
 waxes unto the perfect day, when the noontide of 
 God's kingdom " shall be as the light of seven 
 days," and shall stand for ever in a meridian 
 splendour. He hath made His rest to be "glo-
 
 CONSOLATIO. 187 
 
 rious ; " and there is He gathering in His jewels. 
 There is the multitude of saints waiting and 
 worshipping; Abel is there, and Isaiah, and 
 Rachel who would not be comforted, and the 
 sonless widow, and Mary Magdalene, and all 
 martyrs, and all the holy ones of God. They 
 wore out with patience the years of this toilsome 
 life, and they are resting now ; they " sleep in 
 Jesus." Their's is a bliss only less perfect than 
 the glory of His kingdom, when the new creation 
 shall be accomplished. 
 
 The unobserved^ hit true participation of the Cross. 
 
 Let us understand what that cross is of which 
 all must be partakers; not the visible material 
 cross, but that which is more real than the reality 
 of fleshly crucifixion. It is not so much by suffer- 
 ings in the body as in the spirit, that we are 
 likened to Him. The railing thief was more 
 nearly conformed to His visible passion than all, 
 save one or two, in all the multitude of saints. 
 Yet, though conformed to Him in the flesh, he 
 was not likened to Him in the spirit. St. John 
 and the blessed Virgin did not suffer indeed in the 
 flesh, yet were they truly nailed with Him upon 
 His cross. So in all ages of the Church, kings
 
 188 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 and princes, no less than bishops and pastors of 
 His flock, not only in sackcloth and solitude, but 
 in soft clothing and in the throng of royal courts, 
 have borne the marks of the Lord Jesus, and 
 shared the reality of His Passion. Weak women, 
 too, moving in silence, and a veil, unseen of the 
 world, and never breathed on by its rough oppo- 
 sitions, have both carried their cross with Him, 
 and on it hung beside Him : they have died with 
 Him in will, and in sacrifice of self; in mortify- 
 ing the choices and affections of their earthlier 
 nature; in a glad forsaking of bright hopes and 
 fair promises in life, sitting at His feet without 
 distraction, and bearing withal a burden of many 
 sorrows, partly the awful tokens of their Master's 
 love, and partly laid upon them by the wrong and 
 enmity of the world. Among many samples, let 
 this one suffice. We read in the life of one, to 
 whom was meted out a death-sickness of uncom- 
 mon anguish, that as she drew near the end, for a 
 long season she was uncheered by the divine con- 
 solations which were the wonted stay of her soul. 
 She complained in sadness to her spiritual guide 
 of this strange and appalling desolation, until she 
 learned to seek in it the gift of a higher conformi- 
 ty to Him, who in His last passion cried aloud, 
 " My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken 
 me?" In like manner there is many a sorrow 
 fearfully hidden from the world's hard gaze,
 
 CONSOLATIO. 1S9 
 
 many an overlooked affliction, many a piercing 
 of hearts by the lesser sharpnesses of our common 
 griefs, which not the less, when borne in silence 
 for God, makes the mourning spirit to partake of 
 His mysterious cross. 
 
 God's design is to bring us happily to Himself 
 in another world, and He will leave no means 
 unessayed for this purpose. If we have the same 
 end in view, and look up to Him as carrying it 
 on steadily for us, we may be happy both here 
 and hereafter: if we have not, the consequence 
 must necessarily be despondency, vexation, and 
 fretful ness, at the ways of Providence. 
 
 A thorough entering into God's plan for our cure, the 
 only safely. 
 
 The state of heart in which alone salvation 
 consists, and on which alone the favour and bless- 
 ing of God can rest, is a turning from the flesh, 
 and a returning to God, and a trusting in Him 
 as the true rest, and life, and direction of our 
 souls. It is the condition of a heart, which, re- 
 jecting all other confidence than God, commits 
 itself unreservedly to His hands, that its purpose 
 in its creation and redemption may be fully
 
 190 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 accomplished, and which makes this surrender of 
 itself to Him, in the full knowledge both of its 
 own sinfulness and liability to punishment, and 
 of His determination to punish sin, and to slay 
 the flesh which has been tainted by sin. Such 
 a confidence, it is evident, can only have place in 
 a heart, which, believing that it is the loving 
 desire and purpose of God to make it blessed by 
 making it holy, enters fully into that purpose, 
 and gives itself into His hands for that end, in 
 the expectation of sorrow and death ; as a man 
 afflicted with some dreadful disease might put 
 himself into the hands of a surgeon of whose skill 
 he is assured, and who has said to him, "I will 
 answer for your cure even now, if you will give 
 yourself up unreservedly to my treatment. " 
 
 The preciousness of the Mediatorship. 
 
 The Mediatorship of Christ is a precious doc- 
 trine. The Kingdom is in His hands, and we 
 are privileged to receive nothing but as it passes 
 through His hand, and bears His stamp. He is 
 Himself the Father's unspeakable gift to us ; and 
 now every thing that comes to us comes to us 
 through Him; and in its passage through His 
 hands it becomes impregnated and saturated with
 
 CONSOLATIO. 191 
 
 that very love which first gave Him to us, and 
 constituted Him a Mediator, and nailed Him to 
 the cross ; and with all the holiness too. So let 
 us call nothing common or unclean ; all is holy, 
 for all comes stamped with the print of the nail, 
 which is our King's stamp. And thus there is in 
 every thing a sorrow, and also a joy which the 
 world understandeth not : a sorrow for sin, and a 
 joy that God's holy love is in action to destroy 
 sin, and that His cause must triumph, and He 
 will be glorified. 
 
 The knowledge of the Mediatorial reign of our 
 Lord seems to me to be, in a very sweet and 
 special manner, the "secret of the Lord, which is 
 with them that fear him." They will feel it to 
 be a light thing that a world of sin should be a 
 world of sorrow, and that a race which had gone 
 away from God into the far country of unbelief 
 should find it an evil and a bitter thing to do so; 
 they will sympathize with God even whilst their 
 own souls are torn by the bitter wages of sin, and 
 they will look for a coming glory. 
 
 ,. 
 
 God's will accomplished in us. 
 
 Let us receive into our hearts this blessed truth, 
 that God has and can have no other object in His 
 dealings towards us, but simply and solely that of
 
 192 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 making us holy and happy for ever. He who 
 knows this truly, can have no wish to elude any 
 of God's commandments, or corrections, or judg- 
 ments, because he feels that by this he should 
 only elude his own blessedness. He can have no 
 other wish than that all God's will should be 
 accomplished on him and in him. 
 
 He who sends the storm, steers the vessel. 
 
 Sorrow, the consequence of sm, and an instrument for 
 purification. 
 
 The sharp sting of present pain, which is God's 
 testimony, through conscience, against sin, is but 
 an intimation of the universal law of His govern- 
 ment; and all the secret hopes by which we strive 
 to silence this warning, and whisper to ourselves 
 that in our case sin will not bring misery, are met 
 here. We see that, if we will sin, we must suffer ; 
 that our sins do not, as we are ready to believe, 
 of themselves leave us as soon as we have com- 
 mitted them, but that they stay with us, and 
 become part of us. We have been weaving the 
 web of our life, and it abides still coloured by the 
 threads that we have woven into it ; and, as far 
 as we can see, sorrow is even needful, as the
 
 CONSOLATIO. 193 
 
 means of tearing out the lines of past permitted 
 evil. Not that we are to find our atonement in 
 our sorrows; God forbid ! for if it were so, our 
 case were utterly beyond the reach of remedy, 
 since all our woe could not atone for any one 
 transgression ; but because, through God's bless- 
 ing on it, suffering is made a means of carrying 
 on His cure within us; not indeed by any virtue 
 of its own, for sorrow and pain have no power 
 to renew the heart of man; of themselves they do 
 but irritate and sour his spirit. He needs a deep- 
 er and a more effectual cure ; and it is only when 
 sorrow brings us to Him who can work this with- 
 in us, that it is a blessing. Then, indeed, under 
 the blessed leading of His grace, it turns into the 
 choicest mercy ; for to the Christian man there is 
 this mystery in it, it does bring us to Him who is 
 the true and only Purifier, by driving us from the 
 world and from ourselves to Him ; by bending 
 our separate wills to His will; by leading us to 
 wait on Him, to seek His purifying Spirit, to 
 cling to the cross of His Son, with all its bitter 
 pains; by setting before us long past sins, even 
 as certain changes in the atmosphere bring out 
 again the faded spots of worn-out stains. So that 
 this connection between suffering and transgres- 
 sion rests not on an arbitrary decree, which may 
 be dispensed with in our case, but on the neces- 
 sity of God's holy nature, on the one hand, and 
 13
 
 194 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 on the very needs of the nature He has given us, 
 on the other. There can, in this world, be no 
 divorce between these true yoke-fellows, sin and 
 suffering. The man who allows himself in any 
 iniquity is taking burning coals into his bosom ; 
 and how deeply they may wound him God only 
 knows. Jacob's life was scarred by them, till 
 they brought down his grey hairs, after many 
 sorrows, to the grave. 
 
 Here, then, is a lesson of solemn warning ; and 
 close beside it, is that of joyful submission amidst 
 the afflictions of life. 
 
 For what a character does this truth stamp 
 upon them ! They are indeed, we know, the 
 consequence of sin; perhaps we may even be 
 able to trace them up to some sin of our own in 
 years long past, and in this there must be bitter- 
 ness. But, then, what joy is there in this thought 
 (which is the privilege of every believer in Jesus), 
 they are not the strokes of anger; they are the 
 blessed remedies of the most kind and skilful of 
 Physicians ; they have ever formed the thorny 
 hedge which at some period of their lives has 
 shut in the path along which God's chosen ones 
 have been led on to glory ; they are proofs that 
 we are under training ; they show that we have 
 a part in the Covenant; they give us good reason 
 to hope that the blessed Spirit has not left us ; 
 nay, that He is striving with us, and perfecting
 
 CONSOLATIO. 195 
 
 for us His blessed work ! With what words, 
 therefore, of love does He uphold us in our sharp- 
 est sufferings : " Whom the Lord loveth he 
 chasteneth : " " God dealeth with you as with 
 sons:" "Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers 
 of Christ's sufferings ! " And hear how His 
 children have replied, " Before I was afflicted I 
 went wrong ; but now have I kept thy word." 
 
 And here is the true secret of peace in this 
 world of trouble to yield ourselves always 
 meekly, as the redeemed of Christ, to the hand of 
 God, as of a loving Father ; to know that this is 
 the especial character of our lives, that we are not 
 under a grinding rule of blind necessity, nor 
 under a harsh rod of vindictive infliction, but in a 
 process of restoration ; that joy and sorrow are 
 mingled for us, as He sees best for us; that our 
 joys are but His love, our sorrows but the deeper 
 tones of that same love ; that we are safe whilst 
 He bids the sun still to shine around us, for that 
 we are His ; and that He will keep us in the 
 dangerous sunshine. Nor do the clouds on the 
 horizon trouble us, for they cannot dim that sun- 
 shine, so long as He sees that it is best for us to 
 walk with Him in its glad brightness. It may be 
 He will accept our quiet waiting on Him, and so 
 teach us through it, that we shall hardly need the 
 rougher discipline of sharp affliction. Or if our 
 sun threaten to go down in darkness, if the
 
 196 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 clouds gather over it in gloom, still we are with 
 Him ; and to be with Him is, for every child of 
 His, the most really to be at peace. In the storm, 
 He whom, we love more than life comes often- 
 times the closest to us ; and by the blessed power 
 of that divine Presence, the world, when it is the 
 barest to the eye of sense, abounds the most rich- 
 ly in the truest consolation ; and the sharp edge 
 of earthly anguish grows into the severe reality 
 of heavenly joy. 
 
 What is misfortune? Whatever separates us 
 from God. What a blessing? Every means of 
 approximation to Him. 
 
 Sorrow, an angel to be entertained. 
 
 When sorrow and the cross come upon thee, 
 seek not with the world to distract it ; drive it 
 not away with fresh sources of sorrow, but bid it 
 welcome ; cherish it as a heavenly visitant, as a 
 messenger sent from God with healing to thy 
 soul; and thou shall find that thou " entertainest 
 angels unawares." Thou shalt find the bow in 
 the cloud, His light arising out of darkness, His 
 form upon the troubled waters; and if He hush
 
 CONSOLATIO. 197 
 
 them not, He shall say to thy soul, " Fear not, 
 for I am with thee." He shall make it gladlier 
 to thee to lie down in trouble and anguish, while 
 He is with thee, than ever any of the joys of this 
 world were while He was less present with thee, 
 or wherein thou forgattest Him. 
 
 The blessed lot is not to live joyously in the 
 world undisturbed by sorrow or suffering, having 
 our good things in this life, left to our own ways; 
 it is to lie low, (well is it for us if it be of our 
 own accord, yet any how to lie low,) under His 
 cross : though for a time it lay heavy upon us, it 
 is not so heavy as sin ; though it wound us, they 
 are " the wounds of a Friend; " though its nails 
 pierce us, they are but to let forth the disease 
 which would consume us ; though it bow us to 
 the earth, it places us not so deep as we deserve 
 to be ; it casts us down only, that when we have 
 learnt to lie there in silence and humiliation, He 
 may raise us up. 
 
 Something must be left as a test of the loyalty 
 of the heart : in Paradise, the tree ; in Israel, a 
 Canaanite ; in us, temptation.
 
 198 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 Trust lightens load. 
 
 What an oppressive burden is taken off a 
 Christian's shoulders by his privilege of leaving 
 all consequences, while in the path of duty, to 
 God ! He has done with, " How shall / bear 
 this trouble ? " " How shall / remove this diffi- 
 culty 1 " " How shall J get through this deep 
 water ? " but leaves himself in the hands of 
 God. 
 
 Delay in succour, the means of refinement. 
 
 Divine relief comes not always when it is most 
 desired, but when it is most fit; and when that 
 is, He that hath at once all present, past, and 
 future things in His possession, is fittest to de- 
 termine. 
 
 ***** 
 
 St. Paul prayed thrice for the removal of that 
 rude thorn to the flesh (whatever that may mean); 
 nay, of the Blessed Virgin Mother Herself, her 
 Divine Son would not be found till the third day, 
 though she sought Him sorrowing : and Lazarus, 
 to whom, even during his sickness, He vouchsafed 
 (a title to which all Caesar's were but trifles) the 
 style of friend, was permitted, not only to lie
 
 CONSOLATIO. 199 
 
 a-dying, but to die, his rescue being deferred till 
 it was thought impossible, and was so indeed to 
 any less power than Omnipotence; which mani- 
 fests that, as no degree of distress is unrelievable 
 by His power, so no extremity of it is inconsist- 
 ent with His compassion, no, not with His friend- 
 ship. He whose Spirit inspired the prophets, is 
 in the last of them represented under the notion 
 of a refiner; and it is not the custom of refiners to 
 snatch the beloved metal out of the fire as soon 
 as it feels the violence of that purifying element, 
 nay, nor as soon as it is melted by it ; but they 
 let it long endure the brunt of the active flames, 
 actuated by exciting blasts, till it have 'stood its 
 due time in the fire, and then obtained its full 
 purity and splendour. 1 
 
 1 The great accuracy of the simile of the refiner (Mai. iy. 3, 
 " He shall sit as a refiner," ) has been very beautifully shown by 
 a reference to the known practice of persons engaged in that trade. 
 The refiner places himself before the cauldron containing the 
 metal, and separates the dross from the pure gold or silver ; he con- 
 tinues the operation until he can see his own image clearly reflected 
 in the burning ore. It is thus that God puts those whom He would 
 refine into the crucible of affliction : their " trial is much more 
 precious than that of gold or silver." He sits like a refiner before 
 them, and He does not cease to fan the flame and remove the dross, 
 until He sees His own image reflected in His tried and afflicted 
 servant.
 
 200 CONSOLATIO. 
 
 ' 'f.'<J 2rt'<ffo-; 
 The Jubilate of Nature. 
 
 To the unenlightened man the world and his 
 own kind may appear like a reed shaken by the 
 wind; by the sensual man everything may be 
 regarded as the means and fuel of luxury ; but to 
 the Christian, whose eye has been purged, the 
 sphere of whose vision has been enlarged by faith, 
 the world is as a prophet that tells him of God ; 
 and he hears all nature, animate and inanimate, 
 joining in the choral hymn of adoration and 
 thanksgiving to its Creator. Hallelujah is the 
 sound of the waves ; and the mountains reply, 
 Hallelujah ! Hallelujahs float along in the mur- 
 muring of the streams, in the whisperings of the 
 grove and forest; yea, even in the silent courses 
 of the stars, his spirit hears the mystic Halle- 
 lujahs. 1 
 
 1 This extract was the last made by the suffering hand, which 
 traced these pages, and is here given, as well because it was her 
 last, as because in its beautiful chorus, it forms a fitting close to her 
 work. " Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord from henceforth : 
 Yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors, and their 
 works do follow them."
 
 THE 
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 1 
 
 THE Communion or " fellowship " 2 of the 
 children of God, ,both dead and living, with each 
 other, and with their Father, and his blessed Son, 
 formed topic of the great Intercessional prayer of 
 the Redeemer : 3 and was beautifully exemplified 
 in the practice of the primitive Church. Where- 
 ever the enemy of the Cross of Christ turned his 
 eyes, he beheld men of every kindred, " Par- 
 thians, Medes, and dwellers at Mesopotamia," as 
 
 1 The following article, upon a subject of common interest is 
 added to the work, as kindred to its purposes ; and as forming 
 suitable topic for Christian thought, while suffering under the dis- 
 cipline of pain or sorrow from the hand of our Heavenly Father. 
 The writer has aimed, in its preparation, not so much to say some- 
 thing new, as to arrange for practical benefit, that which has already 
 been said. And as he has already drawn largely from the article 
 on this subject, prepared by the English editor, he will hold himself 
 responsible chiefly for the manner of its execution. 
 
 2 1 Cor. i. 9. Acts, ii. 42. l John, i. 3, 6, 7. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 
 
 3 " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall 
 believe on me, through their word : that they all may be One ; as 
 thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be One 
 in us." John, xvii. 20, 21.
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 well as Jews, Greeks, and Romans banded to- 
 gether in a common society, having " one Lord, 
 one Faith, one Baptism :" they were " members 
 one of another;" they of Antioch sending relief 
 to their brethren in Judea ; Corinthians to Mace- 
 donians; Phillippi to Thessaly. The waters, first 
 smitten at the Holy City, spread and circled in 
 undulations of love over the whole earth. And 
 wherever subsisted members of the great company 
 of the Baptized, they were saluted as "fellow- 
 heirs of the same grace ; " sharers of the same 
 hope; "very members incorporate in that mysti- 
 cal body, which is the blessed company of all 
 faithful people." l 
 
 Nor was this fellowship confined to the living 
 only. There was a communion with the de- 
 parted, as still members of the same body, having 
 borne the Cross first with the Church militant, to 
 
 1 This unity of Communion, and the strong terms in which the 
 ancient disciples spake of the sin of schism, furnish topic of serious 
 thought in these days. St. Paul's question : " Is Christ divided? " 
 remains still to be pondered : and it is difficult to see how Chris- 
 tians can be made " perfect in one," and " one body in Christ," and 
 " members one of another," until there is a return to the fellowship 
 and intercommunion of the days, when " though every city has its 
 own Church, it is one in all." 
 
 This remarkable unity and fraternity has given rise to the opinion 
 of a filiation between the early Christian Church, and those secret 
 Associations for benevolent and other purposes, which, under Mason- 
 ic and other names, have subsisted from a remote age ; and the 
 ancient " Tesserae hospitales," and the mysteries attending the 
 Eucharistic feast, have been adduced as proofs.
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 203 
 
 wear the Crown afterward, with the Church 
 triumphant. " The general assembly of the 
 Church of the First-born" embraced the "spirits 
 of just men made perfect; " and it was not with- 
 out reason that the Dead in Christ, like the 
 "souls under the Altar" whom St. John saw 1 
 were believed to subsist in full consciousness, 
 memory and love of the Church on earth, and 
 were commemorated in Christian assemblies, as 
 partakers of the same blessedness. 2 ' 
 
 This communion is something more than a 
 mere external bond, however essential to its vital- 
 ity " the outward and visible sign" may be con- 
 sidered. It is a real One-ness, which no rupture 
 of the visible bond can destroy. It is a commu- 
 nion, which, because it is based upon Christ, can 
 never die. It is felt by the dead, who have gone 
 beyond the pale of an external body, as well as 
 by the living, whose hearts swell and throb in the 
 sympathies of a common brotherhood. It is the 
 sharing of a common life, one with another, all 
 with Christ; and because it is a life, whose pul- 
 sations are derived from Christ, the communica- 
 tion must be interior and secret; it must be a 
 partaking of the same circulation of feeling, the 
 same holiness, the same love ; just as the distant 
 vine-leaf on the trellis partakes, by the instrumen- 
 
 i RCT. vi. 10. 
 
 2 Bingham's Antiq. Christian Ch. book 23, c. 3, s. 12, 13.
 
 204 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 talities of a visible connection of the life from the 
 interior and unseen root. 1 Christ is, indeed, " Head 
 over all things to the Church, which is His body: 2 
 but the vitality of the membership in that body 
 lies in the secret communion with Him, and from 
 Him ; and the fellowship of one branch with an- 
 other, and one member with another is dependent 
 on the fact, that both can trace their life to the 
 same source and fountain-head, finding that " all 
 its fresh springs are in Him." 3 And therefore, 
 when a Christian leaves the communion of the 
 Church below, he does not leave Christ, for the 
 communion is interior and spiritual. The Body 
 of which Christ is Head, is a mystical body, of 
 which the dead, no less than the living, are "mem- 
 bers incorporate." The company of the Saved is 
 that "great multitude," made white in the blood 
 of the Lamb ; " 4 and the same life, which beats 
 in the Christian soul, offering itself at the altar of 
 faith, is that which quickens the Dead in Christ, 
 who "never die," 5 and constitutes their perfect 
 communion with Christ and with us. 
 
 Now. it is when the outer life has departed, and 
 when those, with whom we took sweet counsel, 
 leave the circle of a visible communion of saints, 
 and go down to the dust, that this inner life and 
 communion becomes most precious. The heart 
 
 1 " I am the Vine ; ye are the Branches." John xv. 5. 
 
 2 Eph. i. 22. 3 Ps. Ixxxvii. 7. 4 Rev. vii. 14. 5 John, xi. 26.
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 205 
 
 craves its wonted companionship. Death seems 
 to have oust a broad shadow between us and 
 them. They have departed from us, and we feel 
 the loneliness. And in its desolation, the mind 
 turns to the revealed Word of God, and the dis- 
 closures and traditions of the Christian faith, to 
 learn how Christ is their Resurrection and life ; 
 and where is that sympathy, and communion, and 
 love, which the dead still maintain towards the 
 living ; and wherein our buried ones are " gone, 
 but not lost." It is natural that we should seek 
 to know, where they are ; what their life ; and 
 how they are employed. We ask, do they live 
 near us '? are they yet with us ? can they know 
 our sorrows for them ? do they love us, still? and 
 God permits us to suffer from such unsatisfied 
 longings and inquiries, proposing to our faith only 
 this that they live in Christ, and that in Him, 
 we should seek them, and shall know them. But 
 we do riot sorrow as those without hope. 
 
 Something is known of their destiny. And it 
 is written in the records of that Gospel, which 
 reveals the life of the soul, that when Christ shall 
 come again, He will bring back those, who sleep 
 in Him. 1 They are not dead. They sleep. And 
 they sleep in Him: they are in His keeping; 
 hidden within the shady hollow of His mighty 
 heart; for if He will bring them then, they must 
 
 1 1 Thess. iri
 
 206 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 be under His keeping now. St. Paul has in posi- 
 tive terms assured us of this, when he says, that 
 " to be absent from the body is to be present with 
 the Lord;" and no less so when he declares by 
 implication, that " to depart" and " to be with 
 Christ" is one and the same thing. 
 
 It is upon such texts as these, that we ground 
 our strong assurance of the conscious happiness 
 and blessedness of the Dead in Christ. They are 
 with him : and they are therefore blest, and our 
 faith that they are conscious of this blessedness 
 is world-wide expressed in those funeral prayers 
 of the Anglican communion, which are known 
 and read wherever the language of our Father- 
 land prevails. " Almighty God, with whom do 
 live the spirits of them that depart hence in the 
 Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, 
 after they are delivered from the burden of the 
 flesh, are in joy and felicity ; we give Thee hearty 
 thanks, for that it hath pleased Thee to deliver 
 this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful 
 world ; beseeching Thee, that it may please Thee, 
 of thy gracious goodness, shortly to % accomplish 
 the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy king- 
 dom ; that we, with all those that are departed in 
 the true faith of thy holy name, may have our 
 perfect consummation and bliss, both in body 
 and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory ; 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 207 
 
 The coffin is lowered : dust is committed to 
 dust : we have lost sight of the object of our 
 heart's tenderest affections : the cold grave seems 
 to possess that which was once ours, and which 
 we long to recover, and to moclc any words of 
 resurrection and hope, which can be said over 
 the dead. But our faith tells us it is not so: 
 Christ is still our life and theirs : our brother, or 
 our sister; our mother, or our child, is not there. 
 The dews of heaven shall descend, the showers 
 shall fall, and the storms shall sweep over their 
 coffined forms, but they themselves are far away; 
 they are at home ; they are in the presence of 
 Christ ; in the keeping of God : they test, happy, 
 happy spirits! in His presence, "in joy and 
 felicity." No room, therefore, for our pity: let 
 us neither pity, nor what we may be more 
 tempted to do too keenly envy them; let us 
 bless God who has delivered them from the 
 miseries of this sinful world ; and whilst we ear- 
 nestly strive to follow and patiently wait to meet 
 them, let us constantly pray for " that perfect 
 consummation in bliss, both of body and soul," 
 for them as well as for ourselves, which our 
 Master has prepared in the many mansions of our 
 Father's house. 1 
 
 There is a peculiar expression of the Apostle 
 
 i John, xiv. 2.
 
 208 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 St. Paul in relation to this inner and immortal 
 life, which deserves note. He says " Ye are 
 dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." l 
 The death here spoken of is the death to sin : he 
 says therefore, to true Christians, that they are 
 already dead and buried; nay more, that their 
 life is even now in the company aud keeping of 
 Christ. But if this be the case, death natural can 
 make no alteration in this respect. The life of a 
 saint departed can only be with Christ : this is its 
 euthanasia. But it was with Him before: it is 
 not therefore changed in locality : it remains 
 where it was, in blessedness and in bliss. 
 
 If, then, I am in Christ, my life is with Him : 
 the lives of those whom I have lost are with Him: 
 and so shall ever be with the Lord. The body, 
 indeed, is laid down ; but the life is where it was 
 before, only exalted through the struggle well and 
 safely passed, and now perfectly purified. They 
 live, no matter how or where, with Christ, in the 
 place of the departed. My imaginings, sanctified 
 by faith and prayer, may enable me to see some- 
 thing of them and their employments, but nothing 
 distinctly. I see but darkly. Yet if I, by faith, 
 by prayer, by holy obedience, draw nearer to 
 Him now, surely in thus doing I draw nearer to 
 them. He is their centre ; He is mine also ; the 
 
 1 Col. iii. 3.
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 209 
 
 shorter the radius of my distance from Him, the 
 shorter the diameter of my separation from them. 
 u Thus draw we nearer day by day each to the 
 other, all to God." l 
 
 1 " The saints of God, living in the Church of Christ, are in com- 
 munion with all the saints departed out of this life and admitted to 
 the presence of God. Jerusalem is sometimes taken for the Church 
 on earth, sometimes for that part of the Church which is in heaven, 
 to show that as both are represented by one, so both are but one city 
 of God. Wherefore thus doth the Apostle speak to such as are 
 called to the Christian faith : ' Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and 
 unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and an 
 innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church 
 of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge 
 of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
 mediator of the new covenant.' (Heb. xii. 22 24.) Indeed^ the 
 communion of saints in the Church of Christ with those which are 
 departed, is demonstrated by their communion with the saints alive. 
 For if I have communion with a saint of God, as such, while he 
 liveth here, I must still have communion with him when he is de- 
 parted hence ; because the foundation of that communion cannot be 
 removed by death. The mystical union between Christ and His 
 Church, the spiritual conjunction of the members to the Head, is 
 the true foundation of that communion which one member had with 
 another, all the members living and increasing by the same influence 
 which they receive from Him. But death, which is nothing else 
 but the separation of the soul from the body, maketh no separation 
 in the mystical union, no breach of the spiritual conjunction ; and 
 consequently there must continue the same communion, because 
 there remaineth the same foundation. Indeed, the saint departed, 
 before his death, had some communion with the hypocrite, as 
 hearing the word, professing the faith, receiving the sacraments 
 together ; which being in things only external, as they were com- 
 mon to them both, and all such external actions ceasing in the 
 person dead, the hypocrite remaining, loseth all communion with 
 
 14
 
 210 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 But then the heart sighs involuntarily, Yes, but 
 there was a sensible communication then ; the 
 voice, the hand, the eye, there is no such com- 
 munication now. Most true there is not, and yet 
 there is that which is like it. My Saviour, the 
 Son of Man, the new Head of humanity, has 
 declared His presence by sensible tokens. 
 
 The agreement of the two on earth ; l the as- 
 sembly of the two or three in His name ; 2 and 
 especially the receiving by a lively faith of His 
 body and blood in the Lord's Supper: 3 these 
 mark His mystical presence. 
 
 But if I thus truly meet Him if I thus really 
 feed on Him, in whose presence my departed 
 friends live, and if / have His mystical presence, 
 and they His actual presence, have I not a sensi- 
 ble token of their nearness to me? Do I not in 
 that blessed ordinance enjoy in a peculiar manner 
 the communion of saints ? For the very reason 
 why it is called the sacrament of the Holy Com- 
 munion is, that it is the most marked symbol, as 
 
 the saint departing; and the saints surviving, cease to have further 
 fellowship with the hypocrite dying. But the true and unfeigned 
 holiness of man, wrought by the powerful influence of the Spirit 
 of God, not only remaineth, but also is improved after death ; as the 
 correspondence of the internal holiness was the communion be- 
 tween their persons in their life, they cannot be said to be divided 
 by death, which had no power over that sanctity by which they 
 were first conjoined." Bishop Pearson on the Creed. 
 1 Matth. iviii. 19. 2 Matth. xviii. 20. 3 Matth. xxvi. 26, 23.
 
 COMMUNION OP SAINTS. 211 
 
 well as the most efficacious and affecting means 
 of communion with them. It is in that blessed 
 ordinance that Jesus Christ is most evidently set 
 forth as crucified amongst us ; it shows forth His 
 death until He come ; it is in that sacrament that 
 all the rays of Divine love and tenderness seem to 
 meet as in the focus of a burning-glass. If we 
 have (and blessed be His name we both have and 
 enjoy!) communion with Him by faith, and in 
 prayer, and in praise, and in the Word, we speci- 
 ally, as well as most significantly, enjoy commu- 
 nion in that sacrament, and do verily and indeed 
 partake His body broken and His blood poured 
 out ; we are very members incorporate in His 
 mystical body ; we are one with Him, and He 
 with us ; and that, by a very special, lively, and 
 faithful intercommunion of us the members with 
 Him the Head. 
 
 We stand before the face of the Lord, though 
 we do not see each other. And just as two 
 friends, far distant from each other, can gaze, at 
 the same moment, upon the same planet, upon 
 the same star, and the beams of light from both 
 shall meet in the same focus : so Christ looks, at 
 once, upon me and the loved one I have lost ; and 
 at the same moment, our forms and figures are in 
 the mirror of His beautiful countenance, as much 
 as we were ever together on the earth; perhaps 
 far more so: for here, flesh and blood, sin and
 
 212 COMMUNION OP SAINTS. 
 
 mortality darken, defile, deface every thing ; they 
 are the great separation walls between the truest 
 and the tenderest hearts: but there, all barriers 
 are removed : all is true, and clear, and open. 
 
 But, do those whom we love, and who have 
 gone before us into the world of spiritual realities, 
 actually know what we are doing ? The Scriptures 
 intimate, that in part they do: Their brethren 
 and their father's house, as they have still place 
 in their affections, have, also, a place in their 
 knowledge. They know that still they have 
 brethren, if they know not how much need there 
 is to testify unto them ; * and as they love them, 
 we cannot suppose they would omit any means, 
 in their power, to gain knowledge of them and to 
 benefit them. 2 But the nature, and the amount, 
 and the power of that knowledge are hidden from 
 us. Now, we see but darkly ; and know only in 
 part. And the obscurity of our knowledge will, 
 no doubt, suggest to any mind, exercised upon 
 this subject, modes and ways, in which all its 
 difficulties shall be solved. At times, there seems 
 to be such a nearness of the departed to the sur- 
 vivor, as that he can almost hear the rustling of 
 the plume, in the deep silence, which surrounds 
 
 1 Luke, xvi. 23. 
 
 3 See Bp. Heber's letter to Miss Stowe. Heh. Trav. vol. 2. 
 (Load. Edit.) p. 350.
 
 COMMUNION OP SAINTS. 213 
 
 him. At times, and specially in that near contact 
 of the finite with the Infinite, the meeting of the 
 two worlds, the line of boundary between the 
 revolted province of Earth, and the kingdom of 
 our Father, which is touched and felt at the Altar 
 of the Holy Communion, there seems a communi- 
 cation opened between us and them, and Christ 
 bridges over the space, and " living and dead but 
 one communion make." But, still, all these feel- 
 ings have no solid Scripture to rest upon, except 
 the union of the soul with Christ, and the solem- 
 nities of Christian worship, because of the pres- 
 ence of Christ, 1 and because of the angels. 2 And 
 though our hopes and theories are pleasant and 
 plausible, yet from the imperfect revelations upon 
 the subject, we must rest satified with the know- 
 ledge, that memory and consciousness and love 
 are still exercised by the departed, and that per- 
 haps they are, indeed, very near to us. 
 
 But, if they know what we are doing and can 
 take knowledge of our souls, only as spirit can 
 know spirit, even as the Infinite Spirit is capable 
 of communion with our minds, do they know all 
 that befalls us, the evil that happens to us, our 
 woes, our sorrows, or our weakness? Would not 
 such a knowledge be a "troubling" of those, who 
 have escaped from trouble? But, here is a 
 
 1 Matth. xviii. 19,20. 8 1 Cor. xi. 10.
 
 214 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 serious difficulty. If they do know a//, then 
 must their views of things be so elevated, and 
 their knowledge of the Divine purposes and plans 
 so intimate, and their minds so conformed to the 
 Divine will as to say, in all, and through all, 
 " Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy 
 sight : " or else, they must be pained, in that 
 place of the departed, where pain should have 
 end; and their sympathies be painfully aroused 
 by our smugglings. I see no way to solve the 
 difficulty, but in the faith that their communion 
 with us, is in and through the Lord Jesus Himself; 
 and of course that it is by Him, adapted to their 
 circumstances and ours. 
 
 That they know something; seems to be evident. 
 St. Paul, writing to the Hebrews, (Heb. xii.) 
 exhorts them to activity by the thought of the 
 great cloud of witnesses, with which they are 
 surrounded. The figure is borrowed from the 
 games and combats of the Roman amphitheatre : 
 where, it should be noted, that a special seat was 
 assigned to those, who had been crowned in 
 former contests. How the thought of their pre- 
 sence would stimulate a combatant ! How he 
 would feel the discriminating eye with which 
 they would regard him ! how they would under- 
 stand the merits of his practice ; appreciate his 
 skill ; or mourn over his failure. It is true that 
 " witness " may mean only witness in the sense
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 215 
 
 of martyr; but this meaning would neither satisfy 
 the figure nor the reasoning. Taking it in the 
 other, which we may conclude to be the true 
 sense, it satisfies both; and then see how it 
 applies to us as Christian gladiators. We believe 
 those that have gone before us, the conquering, 
 triumphant dead, to be spectators of our contest. 
 Here is the limit, they are witnesses to the way 
 in which we are carrying on the great battle, but 
 not of any thing else. But are they witnesses of 
 all our falls, our wounds, our blows, or buffets? 
 If sometimes we are smitten down by the great 
 enemy ; if sometimes our own evil hearts lead us 
 astray ; if we fall aside, do they see us then? If 
 at their departure from us we are weighed down 
 with overmuch sorrow, do they see that? The 
 question is difficult, and I would thus venture to 
 answer it. We may believe that Christ communi- 
 cates to them all that it would do us service, or give 
 them happiness to know. 
 
 If, therefore, we are growing in faith, deepening 
 our repentance, waxing more valiant in fight, 
 turning to flight, as we have never done before, 
 the armies of the lusts that are aliens to our peace; 
 then we may really believe that all these blessed 
 symptoms of our spiritual state are communicated 
 to them : and it is a right rejoicing thing to think 
 how their souls may bathe in new delight as they 
 receive the blessed intelligence.
 
 216 COMMUNION OP SAINTS. 
 
 But can this be all that they know? We can 
 scarcely believe so, and for this reason : a sym- 
 pathy, only in success, is a very imperfect sym- 
 pathy ; it is not the sympathy of the Son of Man : 
 but if it be not His sympathy, and if they are one 
 with Him, we can scarcely conceive it to be 
 theirs. Real communion does evidently imply 
 something more than this. 
 
 But then the objection arises, that more than 
 this might interrupt their rest. Now, in answer, 
 it may be observed, that it is perhaps a low con- 
 ception of their state previous to the great consum- 
 mation to imagine of it that it can only tolerate 
 happiness. When they were upon earth, they 
 deeply felt our difficulties. It was one of their 
 greatest privileges, and they felt it to be so, to 
 energize in prayer for those they loved, when 
 those beloved ones were in sadness or in difficulty. 
 May we not imagine that the same feelings of this 
 kind of pleasurable, though not passionate energy, 
 may still be theirs 1 l They are not weighed 
 
 1 " They which first found this part of the article in the Creed, 
 and delivered their exposition to us, have made no greater enlarge- 
 ment of this communion, as to the saints of heaven, than the society 
 of hope, esteem, and imitation, on our side, of desires and supplica- 
 tions on their side, 
 
 " What is now taught by the Church of Rome is, as an unwar- 
 rantable, 9o a novilious interpretation." Bp. Pearson on the Creed. 
 
 " Why do we not run with eager haste to see our country? A 
 great multitude of beloved ones, parents, brethren, children, await
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 217 
 
 down now by the body of death ; they can pray 
 as " angels that excel in strength," flying on 
 wings that never tire. And to pray thus, to 
 wrestle like Him who was a " Prince with God " 
 in prayer, may be a part of the privileges of 
 their triumphant condition. Passive rest is not 
 that which we can imagine to be the happiness 
 of a soul even in the separate state. As the sky- 
 birds whirl and soar with a kind of joyous energy 
 
 our arrival : the thick and thronging crowd regret our absence 
 secure of their own safety, they are solicitous for our salvation." 
 St. Augustine, Sermon 181, quoted by Bp. Pearson. 
 
 " I believe, O most holy Jesus, that thy saints here below have 
 communion with the saints above ; they praying for us in heaven, 
 we here on earth celebrating their memorials, rejoicing at their bliss, 
 giving Thee thanks for their labours of love, and imitating their 
 examples ; for which all love and glory be to Thee." Bishop Ken, 
 Practice of Divine Love. 
 
 " Nor have we communion only with the saints on earth, but are 
 of one city, and one family, with such as are already got safe to 
 heaven. Doubtless, they exercise that communion towards us, by 
 loving and praying for their brethren, whom they have left behind 
 them. And we are to exercise it towards them, not by addressing 
 petitions to them, which we are neither authorized to offer, nor have 
 any ground to think they can hear ; but by rejoicing in their happi- 
 ness, thanking God for the grace which He hath bestowed on them, 
 and the examples which they have left us, holding their memories in 
 honour, imitating their virtues, and beseeching the Disposer of all 
 things, that, having followed them in holiness here, we may meet 
 them in happiness hereafter ; and become, in the fullest sense, 
 fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; having; 
 with all those that are departed in the true faith of His holy Name, 
 our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in His 
 eternal and everlasting' glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 Amen.'" From Archbishop Seeker's Lectures on the Catechism.
 
 218 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 when the winds are high, battling almost with 
 the clouds ; so may we imagine those blessed 
 heavenly ones that have gone from us, to wrestle 
 in prayer, and meet and contend with the sorrow- 
 clouds that darken and distress us, whom they so 
 deeply love. There is nothing derogatory to the 
 high-priestly intercession of Christ in this, although 
 it is perfectly evident that it might be easily car- 
 w ried loo far. This, however, is our safety, that 
 all communion of the saints, whether on earth or 
 in heaven, is through the medium of Christ. It 
 is not, as the Romanists say, that they. (the saints 
 and the blessed Virgin) are between Christ and 
 our souls ; but that Christ, the perfection of mercy, 
 may very probably allow them in heaven the 
 great privilege of intercession which He gave 
 them on earth ; He Himself being the centre of 
 all such communion. 
 
 For, consider again : When our Lord gra- 
 ciously commands us, by His Apostle, to pray 
 one for the other, this would seem, in the first 
 instance, to conflict with the all-sufficiency of His 
 prevailing mediation. Why does it not? Simply 
 because no prayer made for our brother or our 
 sister here upon earth can be availing, unless it be 
 made through Him. 
 
 But why is this kind of intercession enjoined ? 
 Most evidently to bind up ALL the members of 
 Christ's body in the communion of a most holy
 
 It*-
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 219 
 
 and perfect sympathy. That this sympathy does 
 exist in the bosoms of those that are gone, is 
 evident from various parts of Scripture. 
 
 When Moses and Elias appeared on the trans- 
 figuration mount, the theme that filled their souls, 
 was the sufferings and the kingdom of Christ. 
 That which fills now the souls of the saints 
 departed must be the same ; and their interest in 
 the saints on earth must be all based on their 
 interest in that same kingdom of Christ, and be 
 connected with the share 'which they (that is, we) 
 are taking or should take in this great consum- 
 mation. 
 
 But then there is more than this general interest ; 
 there is a feeling and a compassion connected with 
 our sufferings, our dangers, and our trials. The 
 cry of the souls under the altar 1 shows us this: 
 it was a cry of weariness at the long-continued 
 sufferings of the saints in general. 
 
 But if there is this general interest, may we not 
 conclude that there is a special anxiety about the 
 state of those they love ? The parable of Dives 
 and Lazarus shows us this incidentally. We can- 
 not imagine our Lord to have put a case which 
 had not a foundation of truth. We cannot 
 imagine Him to have described Dives as caring 
 for his brethren, if those that sleep have no care 
 at all for those that are alive and remain. 
 
 1 Her. vi. 9.
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 There is something to a sorrowing heart very 
 soothing in these thoughts. We look to Jesus as 
 our common centre. As friends at a distance 
 hold communion by looking each night at some 
 bright meridian star, so do we look at the face of 
 Jesus, and know that onr departed friend is gazing 
 too. As friends read the same passage of Holy 
 Writ at a certain hour, and believe that the com- 
 mon Spirit through this means doth beget a per- 
 fect communion ; nay, as the whole Church, in 
 her daily or weekly services, holds blessed sym- 
 pathetic communion by the means of this common 
 reading of God's Word, and by united prayer, so 
 do we, looking up in like manner to Jesus, com- 
 municate our thoughts, our feelings, our regrets, 
 or our gratitude, in respect of those our friends 
 that are with Him. Can we believe that He 
 makes no communication of what we are doing 
 to them ? 
 
 If we have ever neglected or injured them, and 
 desire that they should know that we are lying 
 on our bosoms, and smiting upon them in deep 
 soul-penitence, would not such penitence give 
 them a serious joy ? Or, if we look back at their 
 graces and 'their virtues, and call them daily to 
 mind, and thank God that we have seen and 
 known, and loved and honoured them ; is it un- 
 scriptural to believe, that He, our common Friend, 
 may communicate this to them as they now lie
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 221 
 
 in His bosom? Can we not imagine that they 
 would strike their lyres to new tunes of praise, 
 and sing fresh hallelujahs to Him who had 
 enabled them to glorify Him by obedience when 
 they were here, and to leave the bright legacy of 
 their examples behind them? Or, if. we are sigh- 
 ing or sad, or in difficulty, and pine after the love 
 of those that were once our friends and our coun- 
 sellors ; is it contrary to Scriptural analogy that 
 He should communicate these sorrows of ours to 
 them, and give them new opportunities of inter- 
 ceding for us? If the souls under the altar cry 
 out in compassion and sympathy for their suffer- 
 ing brethren, may we not believe that they who 
 are also there, our friend, our brother, our 
 parent, or our child, implores for us? Or if we 
 arrive in our daily reading at some passage of 
 Holy Writ, which we remember to have given 
 them instruction or comfort, when they were with 
 us ; and if such passage come to us with a fresh 
 and sensible power, when we connect it with 
 their memories ; may we not well imagine, yea 
 believe, that He, in whose presence they dwell, 
 communicates the fact and the feeling, and so 
 brings a new wave of satisfaction over their 
 beatified spirits ? 
 
 How soothing are these thoughts ! We are 
 bereaved, it may be ; we walk on earth in silence 
 and in solitude ; we live a lonely life ; so it seems
 
 222 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 to others, so too often it will seem to us. But 
 then, think of the communion of saints. We are 
 all of us together in the great circle of which He 
 our Head is the centre ; yea, all of us are together, 
 both living and dead. When, therefore, I seem 
 alone in my chamber, or alone on the hills, or 
 alone on the sea-shore, or alone in the crowd, I 
 am not really alone; I have companionship, both 
 earthly and heavenly; I am with Christ, whom 
 I know as a brother, for I am acquainted with 
 Him as the son of Joseph, the poor carpenter; 
 and I remember Him as the lonely man who 
 walked by the Lake of Tiberias, and used to cross 
 over Kedron, and to wander about Mount Olivet. 
 I remember Him, therefore, as I would remember 
 and think of a dead friend, by the places He fre- 
 quented, the walks He used to take, and the 
 pursuits He followed. But my earthly friend 
 whom I have lost is with that lowly lofty Man; 
 they talk together, as He once talked with John, 
 or Peter, or James, or Philip, or Levi. And do 
 they not talk of me ? And if I speak to Him, 
 exalted as He now is in power and omnipresent 
 Majesty, will He not communicate all that I say 
 of right and true, to my friend that now lies in 
 His bosom, and is with Him as a chosen dis- 
 ciple ? 
 
 The reason that these thoughts may seem 
 strange to some is twofold. The first is, the
 
 COMMUNION OP SAINTS. 223 
 
 Romish abuse of the doctrine of communion of 
 saints ; the other is, the forgetfulness of men that 
 the body, like the Head, is but One. 
 
 If we required a visible Head, as the Romanists 
 do, this twofold Headship, that on earth and that 
 in heaven would almost preclude, or at least 
 would sensibly interfere with the communion of 
 the saints through the One only true Head and 
 centre of union. But we do not want this earthly 
 Head ; it goes to destroy this oneness of the body ; 
 it separates the Church below from the Church 
 above, by giving to the former a distinct head of 
 union on earth. We believe the Body to be One 
 all through the universe ; and the unseen state to 
 be as real as the visible ; and both together, to 
 make up this great Church Catholic, of which 
 Christ alone is the Head. Thus we live, looking 
 not at the things that are seen, but at the things 
 that are not seen : holding communion with the 
 saints departed, as well as with the saints alive ; 
 with those that are absent in heaven, as well as 
 those that are distant and absent on earth. 
 
 And this feeling of the reality of this commu- 
 nion helps us wonderfully in submitting to death's 
 cold and dark separation. 
 
 If we are removed from a friend on earth, we 
 know ordinarily that we can find him at any time ; 
 and, if we have the means, and if duty permits, 
 that we can go to him ; or at any rate, that we
 
 224 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. ^ 
 
 can correspond with him by letter. There is 
 and we should expect in that dispensation that 
 has brought life and immortality to light, that 
 there must be, that which is analogous to all this 
 in our communion with the saints that rest. We 
 always know where to find them, for they are in 
 Christ. We shall go to them when duty permits, 
 for we shall go when God, the Lord of duty, calls 
 us ; and until we go, we can correspond ; for Jesus 
 will communicate every letter of holy love we 
 write, or pray, or sigh. He is (so to speak) the 
 centre of our correspondence : He will communi- 
 cate nothing that would break their rest, and 
 every thing that would pour balm into their hearts 
 and into ours. 
 
 We must remember that earthly things and 
 earthly relationships are but patterns of heavenly 
 things and heavenly relationships. All that there 
 is of a blessed character here, has its perfect cor- 
 relative there; and if the body be. therefore, as we 
 believe it to be, One ; then our correspondence and 
 communion with them in Him, now that they are 
 gone, is the same as it was with them before their 
 departure : the Body, as we have observed above, 
 is as strictly One as the Head is One. 
 
 And this was beautifully signified by the habit 
 which for a long time prevailed in the Church, 
 of celebrating the Holy Communion on the death 
 of any eminent saint. It figured forth the truth
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 225 
 
 of the oneness of the body of Christ. It repeated 
 to the Church the truth of its Catholic incorpora- 
 tion. . It told the members that dwell on earth 
 that they were members with those who had 
 gone to heaven. It told the quick that they were 
 still one with the dead ; for they were partakers 
 of one life, and that life was Christ. 1 
 
 i This faith of the early Church is strikingly illustrated in the 
 monumental inscriptions, brought to light from the recesses of the 
 Catacombs at Rome. They have been uncovered to the number of 
 more than three thousand, and, both Pagan and Christian, ranging 
 in antiquity as far down as to the fourth century, are now placed in 
 a hall of the Vatican ; and they are interesting in the contrast of the 
 light of life and hope, breathed by the Christian mourner through 
 the tears of surviving affection, to the darkness and despair of the 
 Pagan. 
 
 " O relentless fortune ! " writes the Roman mother in her grief for 
 the loss of her child. " Thou, who delightest in cruel death, why is 
 Maximus so early snatched from me ? " 
 
 "Valeria sleeps in peace," writes the Christian mother, "borne 
 away by angels on the Ides of January." " You Have already," 
 writes another over the infant, sealed in holy Baptism, "[begun to be 
 among the innocent ones." 
 
 The Pagan inscribes upon the tomb of his friend : " Balnea, Vi- 
 num, Venus corrumpunt corpora : sed vitam faciuut." The Chris- 
 tian writes, as Placas over his wife Albaua : " Jaces in pace : sapore 
 merita: resurgis temporalis tibi data requetio." " Vidalio in Christo 
 pace." 
 
 The oneness of the body of Christ, the dead with the living : hope 
 of life and reunion beyond the grave ; these characterize the sepul- 
 chres of the early Christians: and they evidently looked through 
 the days of bloody persecutions, in which so many sealed their faith 
 in Christ, to that " Communion of Saints," whose full fruition could 
 only be had in the "'many mansions above." 
 
 15
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 Thus it is that we think of the departed as still 
 living; still sharing with us a common life; and 
 having that life with God, though disencumbered 
 of the bodies which we bear with us : we are both 
 and all in the same great temple, but they have 
 passed within its veil ; we that are here are in the 
 outer court, they are in the heavenly chancel : l 
 there they converse with those who seemed once 
 so separated from them merely because they lived 
 here long ago; but who were, in fact, all their 
 lives, their companions in sympathy and hope : 
 they mingle among the early saints ; they salute 
 Abel, and Enoch, and Abraham, and Moses, and 
 the prophets, and the Apostles, and the saints, and 
 the martyrs ; they see the mysterious form of the 
 kingly Melchisedeck, and the veil is removed from 
 the hidden history of Adam and Eve. In such 
 
 1 1 am fully persuaded of this as of a necessary and infallible truth, 
 that such persons as are truly sanctified in the Church of Christ, 
 while they live among the crooked generations of men, and struggle 
 with all the miseries of this world, have fellowship with God the 
 Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, dwelling with them, 
 and taking up their habitations in them : that beside the external 
 fellowship which they have iu the Word and sacraments with all 
 the members of the Church, they have an intimate union and con- 
 junction with all the saints on earth as the living members of Christ : 
 nor is this union separated by the death of any ; but as Christ, in 
 whom we live, is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, 
 so have they fellowship with all the saints which, from the death of 
 Abel, have ever departed in the true faith and fear of God, and now 
 enjoy the presence of the Father, and follow the Lamb whithersoever 
 He goelh. Pearson on the Creed.
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 227 
 
 society we may feel confident they are moving, 
 lohere, exactly, we do not know; and it is an 
 almost bewildering thought, that they who talked 
 with us but a few hours ago, are now perhaps far 
 beyond the stars and the sunlight; but such is the 
 infinitude of the power of God, and such is the 
 majesty of our destiny ! 
 
 " As there is a perfect union," says Bishop 
 Hall, "betwixt the glorious saints in heaven, and 
 a union (though imperfect) betwixt the saints on 
 earth ; so there is a union (partly perfect and 
 partly imperfect) between the saints in heaven 
 and the saints below upon earth ; perfect in re- 
 spect of those glorified saints above, imperfect in 
 respect of the weak returns we are able to make 
 them again. Let no man think, that because 
 those blessed souls are out of sight, far distant in 
 another world, and we are here toiling in a vale 
 of tears, that we have therefore lost all mutual 
 regard to each other. No, there is still, and ever 
 will be, a secret but unfailing correspondence be- 
 tween heaven and earth. The present happiness 
 of those heavenly citizens cannot have abated 
 aught of their knowledge and charity, but must 
 needs have raised them to a higher pitch of both ; 
 they, therefore, who are now glorious comprehen- 
 sors, cannot but in a generality retain the notice 
 of the sad condition of us poor travellers here 
 below, panting towards our rest together with
 
 228 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 them ; and in common wish for the happy con- 
 summation of this our weary pilgrimage, in the 
 fruition of their glory. 
 
 O ye blessed saints above, we honour your 
 memories so far as we ought ; we do with praise 
 recount your virtues; we magnify your victories; 
 we bless God for your happy exemption from the 
 misery of this world, and for your estate in that 
 blessed immortality ; we imitate your holy exam- 
 ples ; we long and pray for a happy consociation 
 with you; we dare not raise temples, dedicate 
 altars, direct prayers to you; we dare not, finally, 
 offer any thing to you which you are unwilling to 
 receive, nor put any thing upon you which you 
 would disclaim as prejudicial to your Creator and 
 Redeemer. It is abundant comfort to us, that 
 some part of us is in the fruition of that glory 
 whereto we (the other poor labouring part) desire 
 and strive to aspire; that our heads and shoulders 
 are above water, whilst the other limbs are yet 
 wading through the stream." 
 
 Therefore, with angels and archangels, and 
 with all the company of heaven, we laud and 
 magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising 
 Thee, and saying, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
 of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory. 
 Glory be to thee, O Lord most High."
 
 PRAYERS 
 
 tfot t&e use of Sfcfc persons. 1 
 
 IN THE BEGINNING OF SICKNESS. 
 
 O ALMIGHTY God, merciful and gracious, who 
 in thy justice didst send sorrow and tears, sick- 
 ness and death, into the world as a punishment 
 for man's sins, and hast comprehended all under 
 sin, and this sad covenant of suffering; not to 
 destroy us, but that Thou mightest have mercy 
 upon all, making thy justice to minister to mercy, 
 short afflictions to an eternal weight of glory. As 
 Thou hast turned my sins into sickness, so turn 
 my sickness to the advantages of holiness and 
 religion, of mercy and pardon ; of faith and hope, 
 
 1 These few prayers, selected chiefly from the works of Jeremy 
 Taylor, are here added to supply words to those who want them ; 
 to direct the thoughts of the weak into a suitable channel ; and to 
 excite that spirit of habitual devotion, which will send up its 
 thoughts best in its own words to Him, " who heareth prayer."
 
 230 PRAYERS. 
 
 of grace and glory. Thou hast now called me to 
 the fellowship of sufferings : Lord, by the instru- 
 ment of religion, let my present condition be so 
 sanctified, that my sufferings may be united to 
 the sufferings of my Lord, that so Thou mayest 
 pity me and assist me. Relieve my sorrow, and 
 support my spirit : direct my thoughts, and sanc- 
 tify the accidents of my sickness, so that the pun- 
 ishment of my sin may be the school of virtue ; 
 in which, since Thou hast now entered me, Lord, 
 make me a holy proficient ; that I may behave 
 myself as a son under discipline, humbly and 
 obediently, evenly and penitently, that I may 
 come by this means nearer unto Thee ; that if I 
 shall go forth of this sickness by the gate of life 
 and health, I may return to the world with great 
 strength of spirit, to run a new race of a stricter 
 holiness and a more severe religion ; or, if I pass 
 from hence with the outlet of death, I may enter 
 into the bosom of my Lord, and may feel the 
 present joys of a certain hope of that sea of 
 pleasures in which all thy saints and servants 
 shall be comprehended to eternal ages. Grant 
 this for Jesus Christ's sake, our dearest Lord and 
 Saviour. Amen.
 
 PRAYERS. 231 
 
 UNDER THE PRESSURE OF GREAT INFIRMITY. 
 
 O holy Jesus, Thou art a merciful High Priest, 
 and touched with the sense of our infirmities: 
 Thou knowest the sharpness of my sickness, and 
 the weakness of my person. The clouds are 
 gathered about me, and Thou hast covered me 
 with thy storm. My understanding hath not 
 such apprehension of things as formerly. Lord ! 
 let thy mercy support me, thy Spirit guide me, 
 and lead me through the valley of this death 
 safely; that I may pass it patiently, holily, with 
 perfect resignation ; and let me rejoice in the 
 Lord, in the hopes of pardon, in the expectation 
 of glory, in the sense of thy mercies, in the 
 refreshments of thy Spirit, in a victory over all 
 temptations. 
 
 Thou hast promised to be with us in tribula- 
 tion. Lord ! my soul is troubled, and my body 
 is weak, and my hope is in Thee, and my enemies 
 are busy and mighty ; now make good thy holy 
 promise. 
 
 O take from me all tediousness of spirit : let me 
 possess my soul in patience, resigning soul and 
 body into thy hands as into the hands of a faith- 
 ful Creator, and a blessed Redeemer. 
 
 Lay on me no more than Thou shalt enable me 
 to bear. I have deserved it all, and more, and 
 infinitely more. Lord, I am weak and ignorant
 
 232 PRAYERS. 
 
 timorous and inconstant, and I fear lest some- 
 thing should happen that may discompose the 
 state of my soul, and that may displease Thee. 
 Do what Thou wilt with me, so Thou dost but 
 preserve me in thy fear and favour. Thou know- 
 est that it is my great fear, but let thy Spirit 
 secure, that nothing may be able to separate me 
 from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Then 
 smite me here, that Thou mayest spare me for 
 ever : and yet, O Lord, " smite me friendly," for 
 Thou knowest my infirmities. Into thy hands I 
 commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, 
 O Lord, Thou God of truth. Amen. 
 
 FOR THE GRACE OF PATIENCE. 
 
 Thou who art the God of patience and conso- 
 lation, strengthen me in the inner man, that I may 
 bear the yoke and burden of the Lord without 
 any uneasy and useless murmurs, and ineffective 
 unwillingness. Lord, I am unable to stand under 
 the cross, unable of myself; but Thou, O holy 
 Jesus, who didst feel the burden of it, who didst 
 sink under it, and wert pleased to admit a man 
 to bear part of the load, when Thou underwentest 
 all for him, be Thou pleased to ease this load 
 by fortifying my spirit, that I may be strongest
 
 PRAYERS. 233 
 
 when I am weakest, and may he able to do and 
 suffer every thing Thou pleasest, through Christ, 
 who strengthens me. Lord, if Thou wilt support 
 me, I will for ever praise Thee : if Thou wilt 
 suffer the load to press me yet more heavily, 1 
 will cry unto Thee, and complain unto my God; 
 and at last I will lie down and die, and by the 
 mercies and intercession of the Holy Jesus, and 
 the conduct of thy blessed Spirit, and the ministry 
 of angels, pass into those mansions where holy 
 souls rest and weep no more. Lord, pity me; 
 Lord, sanctify this my sickness ; Lord, strengthen 
 me : Holy Jesus, save me and deliver me. Thou 
 knowest how shamefully I have fallen with 
 pleasure ; in thy mercy and very pity, let me not 
 fall with pain too. O, let me never charge God 
 foolishly, nor ofiend Thee by my impatience and 
 uneasy spirit, nor weaken the hands and hearts 
 of those that charitably minister to my needs ; 
 but let me pass through the valley of tears, the 
 valley of the shadow of death, with safety and 
 peace, with a meek spirit, and a sense of the 
 Divine mercies ; and though Thou breakest me in 
 pieces, my hope is, Thou wilt gather me up in the 
 gatherings of eternity. Grant this, Eternal God, 
 gracious Father, for the merits and intercession of 
 our merciful High Priest, who once suffered for 
 us, and for ever intercedes for us, our most 
 gracious and ever -blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 A. men.
 
 234 PRAYERS. 
 
 FOR SUBMISSION. 
 
 O most gracious and eternal God, Father and 
 Lord of all, I confess I am unworthy of any 
 favour ; I am less than the least of thy mercies ; 
 yet our weakness and unworthiness cannot be 
 measures of thy mercy : Thou art good and 
 gracious, and delightest in showing mercy to 
 them that call upon Thee, and that put their trust 
 in Thee. I know, O God, that Thou lovest to 
 hear our prayers, and Thou delightest in the 
 humble and resigned desires of thy servants. O 
 God, I humbly submit my desires, my interests, 
 and all that I am or have, to thy holy will and 
 pleasure ; humbly begging of Thee that I may 
 cheerfully suffer, and obediently do thy will, and 
 choose what Thou choosest, and observe the 
 ways of thy Providence, and revere thy judg- 
 ment, and wait for thy mercy, and delight in thy 
 dispensation, and expect that all things shall 
 work together for good to them that fear Thee. 
 Oh, let thy holy Spirit for ever be present with 
 me, and make me to fear Thee and to love Thee 
 above all things in the world, for ever ; and then 
 no ill can come unto thy servant, for whosoever 
 loves Thee cannot perish. 
 
 Hear the prayer of thy servant, and relieve my 
 sorrow, and sanctify my desires, arid accept me 
 in the Son of thy love, our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
 PRAYERS. 235 
 
 FOR GRACE. 
 
 O Almighty God, Thou art the Judge of all the 
 world, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 Father of mercies, the Fathjsr of men and angels; 
 Thou lovest not that a sinner should perish, but 
 delightest in our salvation, and hast in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ established the covenant of repent- 
 ance, and promised pardon to all them that 
 confess their sins, and forsake them. O my God, 
 be pleased to work in me what Thou hast com- 
 manded should be in me. Lord, I am a dry tree, 
 who neither have brought forth fruit unto Thee 
 and unto holiness, nor have wept out salutary 
 tears, the instrument of life and restitution, but 
 have behaved myself like an unconcerned person 
 in the ruins and breaches of my soul ; but, O 
 God, Thou art my God ; early will I seek Thee : 
 my soul thirsteth for Thee in a barren and thirsty 
 land, where no water is. 
 
 Oh, let the cry of thy Son's blood, who offers 
 an eternal sacrifice to Thee, speak on my behalf. 
 My conscience does accuse me ; the devils rejoice 
 in my fall, and aggravate my crimes, already too 
 great; and thy holy Spirit is grieved by me. But 
 my Saviour Jesus Christ died for me, and Thou 
 pitiest me ; and thy holy Spirit still calls upon 
 me, and I am willing to come; but I cannot come 
 unless Thou drawest me with cords of love. Oh,
 
 236 PRAYERS. 
 
 draw me unto Thee by the arguments of charity, 
 by the endearments of thy mercies, by the order 
 of thy Providence, by the hope of thy promises, 
 by the sense of thy comforts, by the conviction of 
 my understanding, by the zeal and passion of holy 
 affections, by an unreproveable faith and an hum- 
 ble hope, by a religious fear and an increasing 
 love, by the obedience of precepts and efficacy of 
 holy example, by thy power and thy wisdom, by 
 the love of thy Son, and the grace of thy Spirit. 
 
 I am not worthy, O Lord, I am not worthy to 
 come into thy presence; and where shall I appear, 
 who have put my Lord to death, and crucified 
 the Lord of Life ? Where should I appear but 
 before my Saviour, who died for them that have 
 murdered Him ; who hath loved them that hated 
 Him; who is the Saviour of his enemies, and the 
 life of the dead, and the redemption of captives, 
 and the advocate for sinners; and all we do need, 
 and all we can desire? 
 
 Lord, give me the grace of tears and pungent 
 sorrow ; turn my sin into repentance, and let my 
 repentance proceed to pardon and refreshment. 
 Support me with thy graces, strengthen me with 
 thy Spirit, soften my heart with the dew of 
 heaven, with penitential showers. Make the re- 
 maining portion of my days full of caution and 
 observance, strong and resolute, patient and 
 severe.
 
 PRAYERS. 237 
 
 Grant that in thy wounds I may find safety; in 
 thy stripes, my cure; in thy pain my peace; in 
 thy cross, my victory; in thy resurrection, my 
 triumph ; and a crown of righteousness in the 
 glories of thy eternal kingdom. 
 
 CONFORMITY OF WILL AND JOYFUL HOPE. 
 
 Give me grace, O merciful Father, to put the 
 rudder of my life into thy hands, to steer the 
 course of it as seemeth Thee good ; for believing 
 that Thou lovest me, and believing withal that 
 Thou art wiser than I am, I needs must confess, 
 that whatsoever Thou doest with me is better 
 than my own choosing for myself would be ; and 
 by all the troubles and unhappiuessof this life, en- 
 able me to gain this, that when they most abound 
 upon me, I may feel myself a stranger, and be- 
 have as such ; and think, thereupon, with, more 
 delight and stronger desires on my own country, 
 and the rich and sure inheritance that lies there, 
 and the ease and rest I shall have when I come 
 thither. O happy indeed, good Lord, are the 
 stones Thou choosest to be living stones in thy 
 spiritual temple, though they be hewed, and ham- 
 mered, and polished for it by trials and afflictions. 
 How much happier to be the meanest expectant
 
 238 PRAYERS. 
 
 of the glory to come, than the sole possessor of all 
 the world ! May my soul have a continual de- 
 sire to go to that company which is above ; to the 
 spirits of just men made perfect, to the company 
 of angels, but most of all to Thee, O God, and to 
 Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament ! In 
 that excellent country, Thou hast told me, O Fa- 
 ther, that there is light and love, and nothing else; 
 that thy saints will there be happy for ever ; that 
 they shall die no more, shall sorrow no more, 
 shall be sick no more, shall doubt no more. How 
 cheerfully, then, may a Christian go through all 
 the sorrows and adversities of this transitory life ! 
 To Thee, O blessed Lord, I commend and com- 
 mit myself, both for time and eternity, in the 
 name of my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 O compassionate Father, I would render unto 
 Thee most humble thanks -for that wonderful 
 gradation of mercies shown to me in thy Son. In 
 Him Thou dost offer me thy holy Spirit, and with 
 it the whole golden mine of all spiritual comfort 
 and good; allowing me, when wearied by the fol- 
 lies and miseries of the world, to refresh my soul 
 in Thee ; yea, enjoining it upon me to speak my 
 mind to Thee freely, as the kindest and tenderest 
 of all Fathers, with the sure confidence that, as 
 Thou art withal the Lord of heaven and earth, so 
 Thou wilt make all different lines always to con-
 
 PRAYERS. 039 
 
 center in my highest good, how opposite soever in 
 appearance now. I do humbly confess my great 
 need of afflictions, yea, of many afflictions ; 
 keep me, therefore, I pray Thee, from ever prom- 
 ising myself an exemption, although my present 
 state be ever so free from them ; and for the 
 number and weight of them, let me resign that 
 altogether into thy hands, who art my wise Father 
 and Physician, who knowest my mould and mal- 
 adies, and what kind of chastisement is needful 
 for my cure. But, merciful Father, let me never 
 so wrong myself as to entertain any care at all 
 but such as I may put into thy hands, and make 
 thine on my behalf. May I have grace to give 
 up all outward things into thy hands, referring 
 the disposal of them to Thee, and that heartily 
 and fully ! Even in the darkest night of sorrow, 
 may I cast anchor in Thee, an4 repose "on Thee 
 when I see no light ; remembering that this is not 
 my hope, nor the place of my rest, but the place 
 of my trial and conflict ; and that my home is 
 above. Good Lord and Father, of thine infinite 
 mercy Thou hast called me to eternal glory ; save 
 me, then, I pray Thee, from ever being so un- 
 grateful as to repine against Thee, and so to drown 
 a hundred great blessings in any little trouble that 
 befalls me ; give me more deep thoughts of the 
 things of the world to come; lift my eyes to that 
 state that I am most nearly related to; direct my
 
 240 PRAYERS. 
 
 steps to it, and lead me towards it, cheerful and 
 unwearied, by an assured hope that the joyful 
 day will at length come, when, as Christ's dis- 
 ciple, I shall be admitted into the fullest light. 
 
 EJACULATORY PRAYERS FOR ONE UNDER ANY SEVERE 
 SUFFERING. 
 
 Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and hear me, for 
 I am poor and in misery; help me, meekly and 
 gratefully, and with perfect resignation, to bear 
 the chastening of the Lord ; to feel that it comes 
 from the hand of a Father, and is sent with de- 
 signs of the tenderest mercy. I implore Thee to 
 bring home to my heart the blessed assurance 
 that Thou dost not afflict willingly nor grieve thy 
 children ; that Thou dost it for our profit, to make 
 us partakers of thine holiness; and that Thou art 
 sitting as a Refiner, watching the process, and 
 wilt keep thy gold no longer in the fire than as 
 Thou seest needful for the clear reflecting of thine 
 image in it. 
 
 O subdue all my unwillingness to suffer, and 
 turn it into a meek and grateful acquiescence, 
 that so I may glorify Thee, and show forth the
 
 PRAYERS. 241 
 
 power of thy grace. O my God, I lament before 
 Thee, and am most truly grieved and sorry at 
 heart, that I feel so little of this divine and thank- 
 ful reception of thy chastenings. I acknowledge 
 and bewail this my great sinfulness, and do the 
 more earnestly cry for grace and help ; for I know 
 thy grace is sufficient for me, and that I can do 
 and bear all things through Christ which strength- 
 eneth me. Leave me not to struggle alone through 
 these dark waters, but let me feel thy helping, 
 supporting hand : let me hear thy sweet voice of 
 tender mercy, saying, "It is I, be not afraid." 
 
 Who am I, that I should complain when Thou 
 dost afflict me ? Do I not richly deserve thy 
 chastenings? Have I not every reason to expect 
 them, seeing*that there is no son whom the father 
 chasteneth not, and that not mildly alone, but 
 even "with scourges?" Thy scourges are upon 
 me, O my God, and my flesh quaileth beneath 
 thy strokes ; yet will I not say, " Remove thy 
 heavy hand from me ; " but rather, I implore Thee 
 while Thou art scourging, be also supporting; 
 while Thou art wounding, be also pouring in oil 
 and wine : as my sufferings abound, let my con- 
 solations abound also ; and let me feel that Thou 
 art very pitiful and of tender mercy. Blessed 
 Father, I know that thy judgments are right, and 
 16
 
 PRAYERS. 
 
 that in very faithfulness Thou art afflicting me. 
 I beseech Thee let thy merciful kindness be for 
 my comfort, according to thy word unto thy ser- 
 vant. 
 
 
 
 Be not far from me while trouble is so near ; 
 without Thee, my frailty cannot but fall. Un- 
 less Thou sustain me, I shall faint under my 
 burden. Leave me not, therefore, neither forsake 
 me, Thou God of my salvation. Give me a holy 
 readiness to suffer as much and as long as Thou 
 pleasest. Let me say with Jesus, " Not my will, 
 but thine be done." O Jesus, my Lord, and my 
 God, my gracious, compassionate, loving Saviour 
 my High Priest, who art touched with the 
 feelings of my infirmities, because Thou wast 
 thyself made perfect through suffering, teach me 
 to reckon that the sufferings of this present time 
 are not worthy to be compared with the glory that 
 shall be revealed, and enable me even to rejoice 
 in bearing in my body the marks of the Lord 
 Jesus. May I joyfully surfer here with Thee, 
 that I may gloriously reign with Thee hereafter. 
 Let me count of this affliction that it is light, and 
 but for a moment ; and let it work for me a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
 
 PRAYERS. 243 
 
 O meek and suffering Lamb of God, may I 
 suffer meekly like Thee. May I give my back to 
 Him that smiteth me, even my righteous Father ; 
 and since it "pleased Him to bruise Thee," who 
 " knewest no sin," O let me, who am so full of 
 sin, humbly bend beneath thy chastening rod, and 
 meekly bear the bruises caused by its strokes. 
 
 Thou hast promised, blessed Saviour, that thy 
 people shall indeed " drink of thy cup," and " be 
 baptized with thy baptism;" and shall I turn 
 away my lips from that sacred cup, and not 
 rather count it all joy to share it with Thee? 
 Thy holy Apostle Paul desired to know the 
 fellowship of thy sufferings, and shall not I desire 
 also? Shall I only desire communion in thy 
 glory and thy joy, and not rather account myself 
 blessed to have fellowship with thy griefs ? 
 * :"ra - 
 
 I beseech Thee, for thy Name's sake, and " to 
 the praise of the glory of thy grace," bring every 
 murmuring thought into a glad captivity to thy 
 holy cross. Strengthen me with "all might, 
 according to thy glorious power, unto all patience 
 and long-suffering with joyfulness." Oh, that I 
 may be a spectacle to angels and to men, of thy 
 mighty power to uphold, yea, of thy glorious 
 power to make me, out of these depths, raise
 
 244 PRAYERS. 
 
 unto Thee not the voice of prayer alone, but also 
 the song of praise ! May I glorify Thee by ex- 
 hibiting all the graces of thy holy Spirit, the love 
 which endureth all things, and gladly welcomes 
 every instrument of communion with her Lord ; 
 humility, which deems all far less than her ini- 
 quities deserve ; faith, which realizes the blessed 
 end and effect of suffering; and hope, which 
 rejoices in the prospect of the glory that shall 
 follow. 
 
 Let the Holy Ghost the Comforter, comfort me 
 in this sad hour, with the sure and certain expec- 
 tation of eternal joy and endless felicity. Quicken 
 my faith, that I may realize those joys which are 
 at thy right hand. Oh, that my pains may be as 
 blessed angels bearing me upon their wings to 
 heaven, and making that "pleasant land" appear 
 more exceeding pleasant in contrast with this 
 great and terrible wilderness. Blessed be Thou, 
 my God, who givest me such expectations, so full 
 of rapture and transport. Blessed be Thou, my 
 Saviour, who of thy tender mercy didst suffer and 
 die to purchase for us such a glorious inheritance. 
 Blessed be the Eternal Spirit, who brings these 
 precious realities before our sad eyes, filling us 
 with joy and peace in believing, and making us, 
 mourners, to abound in hope. Accept, most mer-
 
 PRAYERS. 245 
 
 ciful God, these prayers and praises ; and pardon, 
 comfort, sanctify, and, if it may be, relieve thy 
 poor child, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. 
 
 PRAYER FOR SUBMISSION WITH JOY. 
 
 O God, let my earnest prayer now ascend with 
 acceptance before Thee through Jesus. Father, 
 withhold not thy tender mercies from me, but let 
 thy grace replenish my soul. Give me a very 
 enlarged patience, even grace to rejoice in tribu- 
 lation, however severe or long continued. Give 
 me a more humbled heart, a sense of my need of 
 suffering, a deeper sense of the value of suffering, 
 a deeper sense of my own unworthiness, and of 
 thy great goodness in refining and purifying me 
 for thyself. Ah ! Lord, let me not shrink from 
 thy holy discipline, or faint under thy kind re- 
 bukes. Let me never be weary of thy corrections, 
 or turn away with an unwilling and unthankful 
 heart from the medicinal cup of affliction. En- 
 grave with thine own Spirit on my heart those 
 gracious words, " Whom the Lord loveth, He 
 chasteneth." May every day and hour of trial 
 cut the holy lines yet deeper into the substance 
 of my spirit. Teach me to estimate more highly 
 the value of trial as a means of glorifying Thee,
 
 246 PRAYERS. 
 
 and as affording golden opportunities of showing 
 mylove to Thee, and exercising the graces which 
 are by Jesus Christ unto the praise and honour of 
 God. Let me, like a good soldier of the cross, 
 rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer for and with 
 my Lord, and with a firm and grateful heart let 
 me take and keep my appointed station, though 
 in the hottest of the battle. O God, weak and 
 feeble, and utterly helpless as I am in myself, I 
 yet trust in Thee to make me strong in Thyself, 
 and in the power of thy might ; for Thou givest 
 power to the faint, and to them that have no 
 might Thou increasest strength. Amen, so let it 
 be to me, for Jesus Christ's sake ! to whom with 
 Thee and the Holy Ghost be all praise, and 
 honour, and glory, henceforth even for ever. 
 
 SHORTER PRAYERS FOR TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 O Righteous Father, and ever to be praised, 
 the hour is now come that thy servant is to be 
 tried. 
 
 Behold, Father, it is fit that in this hour thy 
 servant suffer something for Thee. Most ador- 
 able Father, now for a short time I am to be
 
 PRAYERS. 247 
 
 oppressed, afflicted, humbled, and disquieted, 
 with many passions and infirmities. 
 
 So it has been appointed by Thee ; and nothing 
 happens of all I suffer but that which is accord- 
 ing to thy blessed will. This is a mercy Thou 
 showest thy friends, that they be afflicted and 
 Buffer something in this world for Thee ; in what 
 manner and by whomsoever Thou pleasest. 
 
 Without thy counsel and providence, nothing 
 happens upon earth. It is good for me, Lord, 
 that Thou hast humbled me, that so I may learn 
 to obey Thee, and cast from me all pride and 
 presumption of heart. Behold, beloved Father, 
 I am in thy hands; behold, I bow myself under 
 the rod of thy correction. 
 
 Strike me now, and make my proud neck and 
 stubborn will bend under the appointments of thy 
 will. 
 
 Make me devout and humble, that I may be 
 ready to follow every beck of thy Divine plea- 
 sure. 
 
 I recommend myself, and all that belongs to 
 me, into thy hands, to receive the correction Thou 
 shalt think fit; for it is better for me to be 
 chastised here than hereafter. Thou knowest 
 what is expedient for my good, and what tribu- 
 lation is necessary to purge me from the filth of 
 sin.
 
 248 PRAYERS. 
 
 Do with me according to thy pleasure, and 
 despise not the sighs of a sinful soul. 
 
 Thou art my God and my Deliverer : help me 
 in the day of tribulation. 
 
 When my heart is overwhelmed within me, 
 lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. Why 
 art thou cast down, O my soul ; and why art 
 thou so disquieted within me? Hope thou in 
 God : for I shall yet praise Him, who is the 
 health of my countenance, and my God. 
 
 THE END.
 
 JOLV, 1848. 
 
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