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THE CHRISTIAN, IN PROSPERITY.

your bounty has fed. And after the morning sunshine, the noon or the evening of life may set in with dark waters and thick clouds of the sky. Is such vicissitude impossible? Improbable? Unfrequent? Let the day in which we live answer this.

And such desolation religion may not interfere to prevent. Is it then useless? And does it keep aloof when we need its aid? No. When it does not rescue us from the evil day, it prepares us for it. What it does not prevent, it softens. What it does not hinder, it sanctifies. It in- . demnifies the sufferer by inward supports, and future expectation. It renders every loss a gain. It turns the curse into a blessing.

What will the worldling do in the loss of his prosperity? His portion is gone. His hope is wrecked. His heart is desolate. Refuge fails him. He curses God and his king, and looks upward. Or he lies down in his shame, and his soul prefers strangling and death rather than life. His time ends with one hell, and his eternity begins with another. But to the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. God is his refuge and strength: a very present help in trouble. He feels, but he is not miserable. He is perplexed, but not in despair. He is cast down, but not destroyed. He is laid waste, but he is not resourceless: "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places."

But this falls in with the subject of our next Lecture; which will show us the Christian in Adversity.

LECTURE VII.

THE CHRISTIAN, IN ADVERSITY.

"In the day of adversity consider."—Eccles. vii. 14.

THE Condition in which we have recently viewed the Christian is not a very common one. We felt the difficulty; and in the course of the Lecture, were often led to make the PROSPEROUS the subjects of reflection, rather than the objects of address. For when a minister enters his pulpit, how few among the godly can he see in his audience, that are set on the high places of the earth, and have the waters of a full cup wrung out unto them, and have more than heart can wish!

But, of this kind, we feel no difficulty in the present service. We are no more at a loss to find persons to address, than topics to enlarge upon, when we treat of AFFLICTION. The inheritance of griefs is as sure to mortals, as the laws of nature are inviolable-Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." Some parts of his destiny are less exposed, and less painful, than others; but after every concession, life is a warfare, and earth is a vale of tears.

"I hang the world in mourning?" It is Solomon, who saw its most favoured aspects, and enjoyed its most envied resources: it is all history; it is universal observation; it is individual experience, that proclaims, "All is vanity, and vexation of spirit." Who has purchased an assurance from accident and disease? Who has not enemies that oppose him? Cares that corrode him? Fears that dismay him? Disappointments that confound him? Who does not find in his comforts, the elements of sorrow? In his possessions, the sources of danger? In his distinctions, the excitements of envy and detraction? In his affections, the seeds of anxiety and anguish? In his connexions, the pledges of apprehension and bereavement?

"E'en roses grow on thorns,
And honey wears a sting.”

singular, and you are man that hath seen "Behold and see, if But this is the lan"For there hath

Sufferer! You think your case is often urged to exclaim, "I am the affliction by the rod of his wrath." there be sorrow like unto my sorrow." guage of self-importance, and ignorance. no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man." But you ask, "How is it, not with the man, but with the Christian? Has the favourite of heaven no indulgences, or, at least, no exemptions on earth? Surely, if they had it in their power: surely, the friend would secure the companion of his bosom, and the father the child of his love, from every thing hurtful and distressing. And if God was my father and my friend, he could by one volition of his will set me at ease; and would he suffer me to walk in the midst of trouble, to be straitened in want, and to pine away with sickness? If I am His, why am I thus?" Yet David said, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." And our Saviour says to his disciples, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." And it is the Christian we are to view, this morning,

In ADVERSITY.

It is to "the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father," that the Apostle Peter addressed himself, when to break the force of their surprise, he said, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." No. Religion does not preclude the evil day; but it prepares us for it; and shows itself to most advantage, when all other resources must fail.

We have a thousand instructions and admonitions concerning the spirit and demeanour of the Christion in tribulation; but they may all be summed up in the words of our text, "In the day of adversity consider."

We enter upon our subject with one important remark. Whatever the people of the world may think of it, the religion of Christ is "a reasonable service." Nothing can be more distinguishable from groundless belief, from the enthusiasm of ignorant impulses, from a mere mass of unintelligible feelings. It commences in the renewing of the mind. It is carried on through the medium of thought. Nothing

can be moral that does not arise from design, and is not influenced by motive. Spiritual agencies are not like the cures of a charm, of whose efficiency no account can be given. They are not like the forced motions of a machine insensible of its workings and results. Neither are they like the operations of the physical powers in the human body: these are carried on independently of the mind and will. The digestive action, the secretion of the fluids, the circulation of the blood, go on as well, if not better, when we are asleep, as when we are awake. This, it would appear, is too much the notion some entertain of the work of the Spirit. But this is the perversion of the language of Scripture. According to the sacred writers, as to religious influences, we are not only the subjects, but the instruments. What is done in us, is done by us. God is the author of every thing good: our progress is from him; but he does not carry us along in the way everlasting, but enables us to walk. He works in us; but it is to will and to do. We are not only impressed, but employed. Faith and repentance are the gifts of God; yet we believe and repent, and not God.

This being premised, we observe, that religion arises from consideration. Therefore, God, complaining of the Jews, says, "My people do not consider." Therefore he cries, "Consider your ways." Therefore David says, "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies." This extends to each part of religion, as well as the whole. The Christian's abhorrence of sin is not a thoughtless aversion—"How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" His godly sorrow is not a thoughtless grief-"They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn." His confidence is not a thoughtless trust-"They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." His hope is not a presumptuous expectation-He is "ready to give a reason of the hope that is in him.” His conduct in trouble is not the result of a natural hardihood, a brutal apathy, a careless desperation it is the effect of thought, scriptural thought, sanctified thought—“ In the day of adversity consider.

Christian! there are many things you ought to consider in the day of trouble; but we shall confine your attention to two only. The DESIGN of affliction. And the RELIEF of affliction.

I. The DESIGN OF AFFLICTION, to regulate your duty. And

II. The RELIEFf of afflicton, to support your HOPE.

The one will keep you from "despising the chastening of the Lord:" the other, from "fainting when you are rebuked of him."

I. Consider the DESIGN OF AFFLICTION.

Without this, you cannot discharge the duty of the condition. For what is this duty? It is not only to possess your souls in patience-it is not only to submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God-but to acquiesce in the pleasure of the Almighty. It is not to say, "This is my grief, and I must bear it;" but "Here I am, let him do what seemeth him good." Nothing less is required of you, as Christians, than a willing, cheerful resignation. But this can only flow from a knowledge of him that smiteth you. You may yield, but you cannot acquiesce, without confidence in him. You may, with David, be dumb and open not your mouth, because he doeth it; and you may say, with Watts,

“Peace, all our angry passions: then

Let each rebellious sigh

Be silent at his sovereign will,

And every murmur die—"

-But you cannot render a voluntary, and cheerful, and grateful resignation, till you see the righteousness, the wisdom, and, above all, the kindness of his dispensations towards you. Therefore you are commanded to hear the rod-What does it say?" And in the day of adversity consider"—to consider the ends he has in view in afflicting you. What are these ends? They all show that resignation is the most dutiful and becoming thing in the world. They are all founded in our exigencies and advantages: but they are various; and none of them must be lost sight of. For a Christian will often find it necessary to turn to each of them before he can obtain an answer to the prayer, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me?" They include Correction-Prevention-Trial-Instruction-and Usefulness.

First, Correction. How absurd it is to suppose that God will suffer his children to act improperly, and not reprove them! The very discipline shows that they are not aban

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