which Satan was allowed to inflict, to try his patience and love to God. But unless we can imagine our faith and obedience to be like his, to be as well pleasing to God as Job's were, it will be more likely that our trials will also be judgments upon some sin or some unfruitfulness which God sees in us; and it will be wise in us to treat them as if they were so. Compare yourself with the Scriptural standard of a Christian character, living by faith, devoting itself to God, denying every lust of the flesh and mind for Him, enduring persecution without repining, taking the spoiling of goods without regret, and death without a tear, and then think how necessary in these last days must be the judgments of this life, lest you should be condemned with the world. Look earnestly at your own defective state, your daily shortcomings, the little faith which enters into your daily life, the want of devotion to God's service, the little selfdenial you practise, the worldliness which security of life and goods produces; and then do not wonder if God sees fit to lay upon you some judgments to correct, and awaken, and chastise you. Call to mind the actual sins, the deeds of evil, you have done and forgotten, and made light of, and hoped were never to appear against you, and remember that nothing but the blood of Christ can wash away one of them, and that they must be brought in repentance to his cross; and then be not surprised if the rod of chastisement is employed to send you to the neglected mercy seat. And when the judgment comes; when we feel the pains or the weakness of a body struck by the hand of sickness, let it be our care to demean ourselves meekly, and wisely, and humbly towards God, our chastening parent. It is not meekness or wisdom to murmur,-it is not the highest wisdom merely to say that all must be right, when you cannot see it to be so. We should not only confess, in general terms, that God afflicts his people, and that "all must have their trials." That is very true, but the "present truth" may be something more particular and distinct. And this it is which we ought to try to learn. The wisest and best question a Christian can then put to himself would be, Why is this judgment sent? "Show

me wherefore Thou contendest with me?" for what sin, for what wrong temper in me, or wrong principle I have lately fallen into? I am convinced God has some controversy with me. I have offended Him in something, and have not repented, or confessed it with the resolu tion to seek forgiveness. I must discover it by his help, that I may honour Him by abasing myself before Him Self-examination will then be rigidly com→

for it.

menced. Our later lives will be reviewed: first the principles we have acted upon,-Have they been to live in the worship and service of Christ, by faith and not by sight? Next, our temper and disposition will be examined. Has it been meek, and lowly, and gentle, and good to others, forbearing and forgiving? For we know that God has not forgiven us, if we have not forgiven others their trespasses. Next, we shall examine our deeds and conversation. Have we been strictly just, scrupulously honest, faithful, true, so that no particular curse cleaves to us, the curse of withholding that which is due, or having in possession what is not ours? Perhaps the best method might be to take up the commandments of the law of Christ, and go through them all, to see if there be any we are wilfully breaking, in thought, word, or deed. The retirement forced upon us by sickness, the silence and solitude of our bed, and wakeful nights, are all occasions given us by Him especially for this purpose of self-examination. And now let us consider the promise which is attached to a faithful and true performance of this exercise; if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. God has promised us this. If we will faithfully condemn our own sins, mourn over them, punish our own souls by sincere repentance for them, He will not judge us. When we

bring them before Him to condemn them, and condemn ourselves, uttering our own just sentence as sinners guilty of death, and seeking no justification but that through His Son's death and satisfaction, we are received for Christ's sake, and sin is put away.

But this is but one sense of the passage, "If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged." To judge means to correct and punish: and God here graciously F C

declares, that if we will correct ourselves, He will not chastise us. If we will seasonably examine our ownselves by the light of God's Word, and amend our lives by his grace, He will have no need and no will to chastise us. Our very afflictions are made to depend on our selves. If we will walk carelessly, and without earnestly examining ourselves, and correcting our evil ways from day to day, He must judge us with afflictions, or suffer us to perish. But judge yourselves; seek out your faults and errors; labour, through the grace of Christ in prayer, to attain the purpose of affliction, which is sanctification of soul and body; live a life of preparation for death, and you will have a less share of judgment here than you otherwise would. So this Scripture teaches. Endeavour to live near God every day, and He will never then have to recall you, by the voice of loud warning, or with the lash of correction. Walk humbly with thy God, and you will then require no grievous humiliating judgments. Let your conscience be lively and tender, and it will require no awakening, Watch every sin both of the heart and lips, and bring each to Christ for healing as it arises, and there will be no forgotten transgressions to rise up and call for correction. Hear the voice of the good Shepherd every day, and feed in his safe pastures, on the word of his truth and grace, and so avoid the necessity of having all to learn on a bed of suffering and of languishing. Let the believer take heed to his ways from this passage of promise; for it is especially his. It promises us a less share of mortal grief, for a greater share of spiritual watchfulness and earnestness. "Let your loins be girded, and lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that watch for their Lord, that when He cometh and knocketh, ye may open to Him immediately." E.

"WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.”

MR. EDITOR, I read with much interest two anecdotes which appeared in your last number, in proof of the above maxim, and beg to add a little incident to the same effect, which came under my notice a short time

ago. A poor old man in the village lately became quite blind; and having spent a long life in constant hard labour, and never been used to leisure, he felt the time now hang very heavy on his hands. His next door neighbour, I learned, daily goes in, and reads a chapter in the Bible to him. She has a husband and little boy, and their respectable appearance, and the comfort and neatness of her cottage, show that she does not neglect home duties; but still she always finds time to read the chapter to poor old H. One day, when calling on her, she said, "Sir, are you going in to see H.? If you are, would you ask him to say his hymns? I know he would be so pleased to repeat them to you." I asked what hymns she meant; and she replied, "Sir, I have been teaching him the Morning and Evening hymns, and we just finished them yesterday. It took us a long time, for he could only learn a line a day; but we persevered, and have now got through them; and he would, I know, be very much pleased if you would hear him say them." I need hardly say that S. B. has herself tasted the sweetness of the word of God; that she has felt the love of Christ to her own soul; this led her to desire to be "eyes to the blind." She wishes to communicate the same happiness to others which she finds in these things herself; to feed those about her with that bread of life which is the support of her own soul; and the love of Christ constrains her to try and do something for his glory. Where there is this love and this desire, there will always be found opportunities of exercising it. Let us ask ourselves whether we are doing any thing for the good of our neighbours, and try to set ourselves about some good work, for the sake of Him who has shown such love to us, and who has said, "Forasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me."

J.

LOT'S ESCAPE FROM SODOM.

WHEN Adam of old was commanded to leave Paradise, force only could induce him to comply. God "drove out the man." This great reluctance on the part of our

progenitor to forsake the bowers of Eden, where he had tasted unmingled happiness, and to go forth into a world which presented a dreary aspect when contrasted with the beauty he had left, need not surprise us; but it may well astonish us to find that the same force was necessary to induce Lot to quit a city which was about to sink into a grave of fire. And yet, astonishing as this fact is, it is repeated in the case of every sinner who is saved. Although we are assured that the earth is in a little while to be burnt with fire; that the day of the Lord cometh, "in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat;" that all the glory of the world is but as the flower of the field; yet do we believe this? Sin possesses over our vision the power of enchantment; and under its influence the world around us appears a paradise clothed with flowers which are never to fade, and refreshed with waters whereat, if we drink, our thirst for happiness shall be quenched to the full; so that the command to us to rise up, and leave all, and follow Christ, is even harder than that which enjoined Adam to rise up and depart from Paradise. And though fearful indications are given, from time to time, of the approaching fate of the world, still we linger amid its vanities and pleasures, loath to leave them, willing to be detained by them; and if God did not lay hold upon us, as the angel did on Lot, we should continue in the midst of these pleasures till we perished along with them. What are all the afflictions, the sorrows, the disappointments, the crosses we meet with here, but a merciful violence on the part of our Heavenly Father, to pull us out of a world that is soon to be destroyed? How slow are men to believe the reality of Divine judgments! How difficult, or rather how impossible, it is to persuade the sinner that his danger is half so imminent as the Bible declares it to be! Its representations he regards as written on purpose to alarm him; and therefore, though they may have some foundation in truth, he believes that they are greatly overcharged, and need not alarm him so much after all. Hence it is that he continues to hover above the snare till he is taken; to slumber on the mouth of