Treasures from James Smith - A collection of choice quotes from his works - Part 1

James Smith (1802—1862) was a predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel in London from 1841 until 1850. Early on, Smith's readings were even more popular than Spurgeon's!


How His eyes will sparkle with delight!

"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus!" 2 Timothy 2:3 

"There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day!" 2 Timothy 4:8

Christian soldier, for encouragement in every conflict — look up to your Captain for supplies — and look forward to the glory that awaits you! The war will soon be over. Yourdischarge will soon be signed and sent to you. Home is even now in view! 

The promised land will be far above our greatest expectations! 

The glory to be revealed will far exceed our most enlarged desires! 

The weight of glory will transcend our most comprehensive thoughts! 

A crown is reserved for you! Not a corruptible crown of laurel or myrtle — but a diadem. A diadem of glory! More durable than gold, more costly than any earthy monarch's crown. Gold, pearls, and precious stones — are not to be compared to it! Its gems will sparkle brighter that the stars on a winter's evening! As a whole, it will shine brighter than the sun on a summer's noon! 

It is a crown of glory — a most glorious crown. Not merited by your labors or sufferings in the Lord's service — but graciously promised, and gratuitously bestowed. Promised by your glorious Leader, preserved most carefully in the palace of the Most High God — to be awarded to every faithful soldier at the final and grand review. 

Yes, it will be placed on your brow by His hands, who . . .
  won you to His service,
  led you to the battlefield,
  made you victorious, and
  will rejoice in your honor and happiness forever!
It will be worn before God's own throne, before the angelic hosts, among God's saints forever. What thrilling joy, what ecstatic pleasure, what inconceivable delight — will you realize, when you first feel it rest on your brow! What a look will your Savior give you — when you lift up your head that He may place it on you, and your eye meets His! 

Grace, free grace will shine most gloriously on that day! The songs of the enraptured company will be divinely sweet. O how our blessed Savior's heart will dance for joy! How His eyes will sparkle with delight! His mighty spirit will realize full satisfaction — to see the whole of His redeemed people collected, arranged, and glorified before Him!
Not one missing!
All whom the Father gave Him — there!
All for whom He offered up Himself as a sacrifice — there!
All to whom He sent the Comforter — there!
All who enlisted under His banner and were sworn into His army — there!
Those who were once wounded, weeping, and lagging behind the regiment — there! O glorious salvation — in which every poor, maimed, weather-beaten, discouraged soldier of the cross shall share!

What a prospect is this! How bright, how glowing, how enchanting!

Then, O with what rapture we will sing, "Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father — to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen."

Surely, surely we ought to be fired with love, filled with zeal, and prepared for every conflict, however arduous — by such a glorious prospect!
~  ~  ~  ~
If God had not helped us!
"I was pushed back and about to fall — but the Lord helped me!" Psalm 118:13
The psalmist had been reviewing his toils, his trials, and his dangers; he commemorates his deliverances, his conquests, and his triumphs; and he ascribes the whole, to the help of God! If God had not helped him — his faith would have failed, his expectations would have been disappointed, and his foes would have prevailed. Through the Lord, he did valiantly; and now, with joyful heart, he records the loving-kindness of the Lord.
How sweet to look back upon the rough road, the bloody battle-field, the scenes of peculiar trial. Then, if ever, gratitude will work within us, and praises will flow from our tongues and hearts. Delivered from the mouth of the lion, and the paw of the bear — we thankfully acknowledge, "The Lord helped me!"
In looking back we see that we have needed help — and more help than any mere creature could afford us!
The daily cross, 
the inward conflict, 
the domestic troubles, 
the perplexities of business,
the state of the church, 
the affairs of the world — 
have all combined to teach us that Divine help was necessary!
If God had not helped us . . .
   we would have fallen into sin, 
   we would have disgraced our profession, 
   we would have been crushed by our foes, 
   we would have fainted under our trials,
   we would have apostatized from the faith!
God alone knows what would have been the result — if we had been left to our own resources. We needed help in infancy, in youth, in manhood. We needed help in prosperity — and in adversity! We needed help in temporals — and spirituals. We found our own strength — to be weakness, and our own wisdom — to be folly.
The feeblest of our foes — would have been more than a match for us!
The least corruption in our hearts — would have overcome us!
And we need help now — as much as we ever did; for, unless the Lord helps us . . .
   our foes will yet triumph over us, 
   our crosses will yet prove to be too much for us, 
   and we shall yet faint in the day of adversity!
The Lord has promised help. He has said, "Fear not — for I am with you; be not dismayed — for I am your God! I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness!" And because His people feel themselves to be vile, weak, and incompetent; He stoops to speak to them according to their own views of themselves and says, "Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel — for I Myself will help you! declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel!"
Oh, precious promise, of a good and gracious God! 
It extends to all times, 
it embraces all circumstances, 
it belongs to all believers, and 
it ensures us triumph over all our foes!
Yes, the strength of Jesus has been perfected in our weakness! We have found His grace to be sufficient for us; and to the praise of His glorious grace, in reference to all our trials, troubles, and conflicts — we can truly say, "The Lord helped me!"
Oh, beloved, it is an unspeakable mercy to have God for our helper!
~  ~  ~  ~
When His influence is put forth within us

All that the Spirit does for us, and all that He works within us — is of grace. He graciously . . .
  quickens the dead,
  instructs the ignorant,
  liberates the captives,
  restores the wanderers,
  comforts the dejected,
  strengthens the weak,
  and sanctifies the impure. 
His work is His delight — and to see us holy and happy is His pleasure!

The Holy Spirit produces all our graces within us. He is the root — and our graces are His fruits; hence we read, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." 

When His influence is put forth within us — then we . . .
  believe God's Word, 
  hope in His mercy, 
  rejoice in His goodness, 
  cleave to His cause, 
  walk in His ways, 
  love His truth, His people, and Himself,
  holiness is then happiness,
  duties are then pleasant, and
  even the cross lays light upon our shoulders. 

But if the Spirit hides Himself, withdraws His influences, and leaves us to ourselves — then we . . .
  doubt and fear,
  fret and pine, 
  kick and rebel, 
  rove from thing to thing, and 
  nothing will either please or satisfy us. 
We often then . . .
  question the past, 
  are wretched at present, 
  and dread the future.

But when He puts forth His power in us again . . .
  our graces shoot forth like bulbous roots in the spring, 
  our sighs are exchanged for songs, 
  our fears are exchanged for fortitude, 
  our doubts are exchanged for confidence, and
  our murmurings are exchanged for gratitude and love. 
We then . . .
  sink into the dust of self-abasement, 
  admire the forbearance and patience of God, 
  condemn our own conduct, and 
  wonder that we are out of Hell. 

Then we take down our harps from the willows, and with a melting heart, a weeping eye, and a tremulous voice we sing, "The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance." Ourwilderness is now turned into an Eden — and our desert into the garden of the Lord! 

Come, Holy Spirit, come, and produce a spring season in our souls!

Brethren, we need the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of grace — to make us gracious and graceful Christians. Without the Spirit of grace . . .
  we cannot live up to our profession; 
  we cannot copy the example of our beloved Master; 
  we cannot keep His commandments;
  we cannot love one another as He has loved us; 
  we cannot sympathize with lost sinners as we should; 
  we cannot keep God's glory in view in all that we do; 
  we cannot walk in high and holy fellowship with God;
  we cannot meet death with peace and joy!
~  ~  ~  ~
The life-boat of free grace!

"I am cast down!" 

And why are you cast down? 

"My heart is burdened with a sense of my short-comings! 
Every duty I perform is so imperfect. 
Every purpose I form is so soon frustrated. 
Every hope of seeing better days is so soon beclouded. 
My heart is so fearfully depraved. 
My life is so unlike the life of Jesus. 
My temper is so unholy. 
My prayers are so brief and heartless. 
My praises are so feeble and fitful. 
I do so little good. 
I live to so little purpose. 
My evidences are so dim. 
My prospects are so overcast. 
I am harassed sometimes with the fear of death. 
I cannot realize the glories of Heaven. 
I am dissatisfied with the world — and yet glued to it! 
I hate sin — and yet fall into it! 
I am a riddle, a mystery, a mass of inconsistency! 
Is it, then, any wonder that I am cast down?" 

No, if you look at yourself, and pore over the things you have named — then it is no wonder that you are cast down! They are enough to cast anyone down! But if you carry them to the throne of grace, if you there confess them before God, if you look to Jesus to save you from them — then, in spite of them — you will not long be cast down. 

I know it is difficult to do this. There is a natural proneness to pore over such things. One feels at times a secret liking to indulge in gloomy thoughts. 

But we must look away from self — for if we do not, we shall become anxious, doubting and gloomy! We must run the race, not looking at our imperfections, short-comings, and failures — but looking unto Jesus. He knows what we are. He knew what we would be — before He called us by His grace; yes, before He shed His blood for us! 
He loved us, as sinners. 
He died for us, as sinners. 
He called us, as sinners. 
He saves us, as sinners. He will have all the glory of saving us, and He will get great glory by doing so, because we are such great sinners; and do not, cannot, do anything torepay Him for His wondrous love! Salvation is by free grace — from first to last! Believe this, and it will raise up your drooping mind! 

The life-boat of free grace has put you on board the vessel of salvation, and that will convey you safely to the port of glory! Do not look at your spiritual destitution, or feebleness, or incapacity, or imperfections — but trust in your Pilot, rely on your Captain, and expect His mercy and merit to land you safe in Heaven at last! 

As imperfect as you now are, and as imperfect you will be — your dying prayer will still be, "God be merciful unto me — a sinner!"

Hope in God!
His mercy is great unto the heavens, 
His grace is as free as the air, 
His love is as changeless as His nature,
His promise is as immutable as His love. 

Hope in God, for you shall yet praise Him. He will save you for His own sake, and present you before assembled worlds as a monument of His mercy, and a trophy of His grace! 
~  ~  ~  ~
One hour after death!

One hour after death, WHERE shall I be? 

One hour after death, WHAT shall I be? 

One hour after death, How shall I be EMPLOYED? 

One hour after death, What will be my FEELINGS? 

One hour after death, How shall I THINK?
How differently we shall think of money, pleasure, the indulgence of our lusts, all that we now call great, grand, and desirable — one hour after death! Let us endeavor to think now— as it is probable we shall think then! 
Let us place ourselves in Heaven — and try to think there!
Let us place ourselves in Hell — and try to think there! 
How different will things then appear!
~  ~  ~  ~
He will show to the whole world what you have been doing in the dark!

"The Lord does not see it!" Ezekiel 9:9 

"My way is hidden from the Lord!" Isaiah 40:27

The only thing some fear is exposure. They would not be exhibited in their true colors before their fellow-men — for all the world! They wish to live and act in the dark. They do not fear the eye of God — but they dread the eye of man! In public they are one thing — and in private just the opposite! No one really knows them. 

There is a vast amount of hypocrisy in the world. Multitudes wear a mask. They are not at all — what they seem to be. The consequences will be fearful by and bye. 

Open sinners offend both God and men — secret sinners offend God only! 
But it is better offend the whole world — than offend God! 

The power of SIN is great. And one of the most fearful things in sin — is its power of self-concealment. It hides its own deformity from many — who are actually under its influence. 

The subtlety of SATAN is great. He is said to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9). Suppose he should have deceived you! If you are acting under his influence — you have deceived yourself! 

Your sin may be hidden from men, it may even be hidden from yourself — but it is not hidden from God! His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. He searches the heart, and tries the thoughts! 

The revealing day is coming! Then if wrong, God will set our iniquities before His face, and our secret sins in the light of His countenance. He will expose every secret sinner! He will show to the whole world what you have been doing in the dark! Hear His own Word, "For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil!" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). The sins that are hidden now — will be hidden no longer! 

The Judge on the throne will act justly and impartially, and will render to every man according to his deeds. "The guilt of Ephraim is stored up — his sins are kept on record!"Hosea 13:12

Many will be condemned — who expected to be acquitted! 

Many will be driven to Hell — who were sure of being invited to Heaven! 

Every false covering will then be stripped off, every deceitful heart will be laid bare — and no longer will anyone say, "My way is hidden from the Lord!"

Then shall be brought to pass the fearful prediction, "The sinners in Zion (God's professing people) shake with fear! Terror seizes the godless! Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" (Isaiah 33:14).
~  ~  ~  ~
Up and at it! 
"ALL at it — and ALWAYS at it!" 
 
This was what John Wesley endeavored to impress upon all his followers — and this is what we would like to see impressed upon the mind of every Christian. We have much to do— and we have little time to do it in. We had need therefore, to be up and at it!
If ignorance is to be chased away,
if gospel knowledge is to be circulated,
if souls are to be saved,
if children are to be taught,
if churches are to grow,
if villages, towns, and cities are to be evangelized
 — then we had need be ALL at it — and ALWAYS at it!
This is just . . .
  what the times call for,
  what the Gospel inculcates,
  what Satan dreads,
  what the carnal world dislikes — 
therefore let us be "all at it — and always at it."
Let everyone undertake that part of the work for which he is most adapted — and persevere in that which he commences.
How many there are who profess Christ — who are doing nothing! 
How many may easily do twice as much as they currently do. 
Is it surprising . . .
  that the church is in such a poor spiritual state,
  that Popery spreads,
  that ignorance prevails,
  that congregations are thin,
  that little is accomplished,
  that ministers are dispirited, and
  that mature Christians are going home to sigh?
No! It is not at all surprising! The wonder is, that things are not worse! 
 
Self-denial is rarely practiced,
the flesh is indulged,
the world is loved,
the earthly is preferred to the spiritual — and the present to the future.
Let us all go at it, and let us be always at it — until we hear the Master's voice calling unto us and saying, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into the joy of your Lord!"
But if we . . .
  neglect duty, 
  despise warning, 
  love ease,
  court pleasure,
  hunt for honor,
  use our Lord's money selfishly,
  and settle down upon our lees — 
we shall by and bye see the day, when we will wish we had been ALL at it — and ALWAYS at it!

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain!" 1 Corinthians 15:58

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF TRIAL - Part 4

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF GOD - 

by Octavius Winslow, 1859

THIS BOOK HAS BEEN FORMATTED AS A KINDLE AND IT IS AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE . click here

Trial has brought us to our right place—the feet of Jesus. There, in the spirit of self-examination, of self-loathing, of self-renunciation, we have been led to ask, "Will this evidence serve me when I come to die? will this love give me boldness in the day of judgment? will this faith present me faultless before the throne of God and the Lamb?" Thus relinquishing our vain fancies, our foolish dreams, our dubious evidences, we have been enabled to take a renewed hold of Christ, to fly afresh to the fountain of His blood, and to enfold ourselves more closely within the robe of His righteousness. Thus emptied, humbled at His feet, we praise and adore Him for the discipline that consumed the dross, scattered the chaff, swept from beneath us the sand, and that strengthened our evidences, brightened our hope, unfolded the Spirit, and enthroned the Redeemer, more vividly and supremely within our soul. O precious trial! dark though you are, that yet bear beneath your somber wing blessings of grace so sacred and costly as these!

As a moral discipline it would seem impossible to overrate the preciousness of trial. No believer has been placed in a true position for the formation, development, and completeness of his Christian character who has not passed in some degree through this discipline. Not more essential is it that the vessel of the craftsman should be exposed to the heat of the furnace, in order to impart transparency to the material, consolidation to its form, and brilliance and permanence to the colors his pencil has traced upon it, than it is for a "vessel of mercy whom God has afore prepared unto glory," to be tried though it be as by fire. From this moral discipline there is in the family of God no exception. It is a remark of the seraphic Leighton—true as it is beautiful—that, "God had but one Son without sin, and never one without suffering." 

How touching and conclusive the argument and appeal of the apostle—himself purified in this crucible and instructed in this school—"You have forgotten the exhortation, which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those who are exercised thereby."

Thus is it clear that chastisement or trial is an evidence and seal of adoption; and that without it we should lack that spiritual discipline, apart from which there is no proper symmetry and completeness of Christian character. Who has not marked the wide and striking difference in the character and deportment of a child trained beneath the wholesome discipline of a parent, and a child who has grown up without that discipline, left to its own self? To what is that difference to be traced but the forming influence of discipline in the one, and its entire absence in the other? There is a development and strength of character, a maturity of mind and mellowed refinement of feeling and address in the child thus schooled, which you in vain look for in the child neglected. "A wise son hears the instruction of his father." 

In the Hebrew this passage may be literally rendered, "A wise son is the chastisement of his father." On this text, thus rendered, in all probability the Jews founded their proverb, "If you see a wise child, be sure that his father has chastised him." Now, how gracious and tender is our heavenly Father to condescend thus to deal with us! In everything would He sustain the relation He stands to us as a Father. Not only in loving us, thinking of us, providing for us, guiding and keeping us, but also chastising us. He has undertaken a father's office, and He will fully and faithfully discharge it, even though it may compel the frequent and painful, though loving and righteous, use of the rod. Oh to be assured that this stroke is a fresh seal of adoption! Who would not cheerfully exclaim, "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?"

And yet we think there is a yet higher end accomplished by precious trial, even than this authentication of our adoption. We refer to the Divine holiness to which it assimilates us. "He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." Next to his justification, sanctification must be the grand aim of the believer; and whatever is promotive of this must be precious. God would make us happy, but He can only make us happy by making us holy. Happiness and holiness are cognate truths: they are relative terms; they are twin sisters. He must be happy who is holy. Sin is the parent of all misery; holiness the root of all happiness. Now the holiness which God would bring us into sympathy with, and make us partakers of, is His own holiness. There is much that passes in the religious world for holiness which is spurious in its nature, and which is disowned by God. 

There is no real holiness but that which moulds us into the Divine image—that which makes us God-like. We cannot possess God's essential holiness, but we may partake of His imparted holiness. In the same sense in which we are said to be "partakers of the Divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), we are "partakers of the Divine holiness." What a portrait is a child of God purified, sanctified, and disciplined by trial! God is the divine original; he is the human copy. Upon that heart softened, upon that spirit subdued, upon that will laid low, the holy Lord God has imprinted, inlaid, His own likeness. And as the polished mirror reflects the likeness of the man who looks into it, and as the glassy lake images the sun that beams down upon it, so does the disciplined child of God,—the grossness of the fleshly eliminated from the spiritual—the dross of the natural separated from the divine—his purified soul reflects, and sparkles, and shines with the holiness of God. 

Oh, to be like God, who would not welcome the trial, exclaiming with the psalmist, "I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that you in faithfulness has afflicted me." How tenderly, soothingly, lovingly does your Father address you, His tried child—"My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord." Is there rigor in the discipline?—there is love in the rod. Is there bitterness in the cup?—there is sweetness upon its brim. Is there acuteness in the suffering? there is soothing in the relation—"My son!" Never can He forget in the severest discipline, in the most painful correction, that He is our Father, and we His children. "Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my affections are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, says the Lord." Never does God employ a rebuke without a cordial, or the pruning knife without the balm. How frequently the mercy precedes, and thus prepares for, the judgment. It was so in the case of our first parents. 

Before God pronounces the dreadful sentence, He breathes the gracious promise. Mercy digs the channel of judgment—prepares and paves its way. Thus, God's corrections, rebukes, and chastisements come tempered, softened, and subdued; and like the smitings and reproofs of the righteous, are a "kindness," and "an excellent oil, which shall not break the head." Thus it is that the tried believer can look into the face of his Father and say, "Righteous are you, O Lord, when I plead with you; yet let me talk with you of your judgments" (Jer. 12:1). How sweetly and tenderly did Jesus blend the warning with the consolation, "In the world you shall have tribulation, but in me you shall havepeace!" Our Lord wisely and graciously presents the world to us as a scene of sorrow, trial, and tribulation, but the counterpart shall be that in its midst we shall experience His presence, love, and grace as our peace. Thus the remark of a quaint writer holds good, "Affliction's rods are made of many keen twigs, but they are all cut from the tree of life.

 It is a great mercy to have a bitter put into that draught which Satan has sweetened as a vehicle for his poison." Never is the believer so near to Christ's heart, and the Spirit's comforts, and Heaven's joys, as when the flood of dark and broken waters is surging beneath and around him, lifting him upon their crested billows. The higher the ark which bore the Church of old rose upon the flood, the nearer it mounted toward heaven. As earth receded, heaven approached; and the vessel, floating away upon the bosom of the swelling deep, mounted higher and higher. Is it not so with the believing soul when floods of great waters come into it? As these waters swell and rise, sinful follies, worldly vanities, carnal pursuits, pride, self, and ignorance, disappear, and the soul gets nearer to heaven. Precious trial that buries earth's vanity and corruption, and unveils heaven's joy and glory to the soul! Thus out of the eater comes food. The trial that looked so threatening has brought such mercy. 

The cloud that seemed charged with electricity empties a fruitful shower. Oh, trying seasons are our most spiritual, most prayerful, most Christ-endearing, Christ-conforming seasons, and so trial becomes precious. Stars shine the brightest in the darkest night; torches are the better for the heating; grapes do not come to the proof until they come to the press; spices smell sweetest when pounded; young trees root the fastest for shaking; vines are better for bleeding; gold looks the brightest for scouring; glow-worms glisten best in the dark; juniper smells the sweetest in the fire; the palm tree proves the better for pressing; cammomile, the more you tread it the more you spread it. Such is the condition of all God's children; they are then most triumphant when most trampled, most glorious when most afflicted; often most in the favor of God when least in man's; as their conflicts, so their conquests; as their tribulations, so their joys; they live best in the furnace of persecution, so that heavy afflictions are the best benefactors to heavenly blessings, and when afflictions hang heaviest corruptions hang loosest, and grace that is hid in nature, as sweet water in rose leaves, is then most fragrant when the fire of affliction is put under to distill it out." (Spencer.) 

Favored child of God, whose Father's discipline in providence and grace wafts such blessings into the soul! Precious trial that makes Jesus more precious, the throne of grace more precious, the discipline of the covenant more precious, holiness more precious, the saints of God more precious, the word of God more precious, and the prospect of going home to glory more precious! "Happy the believer who, the more afflictions assail him, cleaves the more closely to the Lord. Like the traveler overtaken in a storm, who, when the rain beats upon him, or the snow drifts upon his person, or the mountain wind drives furiously against him, lays firmer hold of his cloak and wraps it closely around him, he, amid the storm of troubles, keeps faster hold of the 'Man who is an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest.'"

A time of trial is a time of sensibility. God often sends it for this very end. There is nothing in the gospel of Christ that forbids emotion, everything to awaken it; there is nothing in the religion of Jesus to crush sensibility, everything to create it. Christianity is a religion of feeling—deep, hallowed, sanctified feeling. It is the only religion that thoroughly appeals to our emotional nature, that touches the deep, hidden springs of our humanity, and tells us we may—weep. With Christ's tears at Bethany, and with his drops of blood in Gethsemane before us, surely we may express the deepest sympathy with the adversity of others, and may indulge in deep, chastened grief with our own. Weep on, then, beloved mourner! We would not seal up those tears. 

"Jesus wept," and you too may weep. "No chastening for the present is joyous, but grievous;" therefore, it is no sin to give expression to emotion, to indulge in sensibility, to "water our couch with tears, and to make our bed to swim." Without a measure of grief our affliction would leave no trace of good. When God speaks, we should hear; when He smites, we should feel. Only let your grief be moderate, chastened, and submissive, embodying its sentiment, and expressing its intensity in the language and spirit of the "Man of Sorrows," "Not my will, O my Father, but your be done."

What shall we then say to these things? Shall we not count among the precious things of God, not the least precious, the trial whose discipline removes from us so much evil, and confers upon us so much good? How little should we know experimentally of the Lord Jesus—what depths there were in His love, what soothing in His sympathy, what condescension in His grace, what gentleness and delicacy in His conduct, what exquisite beauty in His tears, what safety beneath His sheltering wing, and what repose upon His loving heart, but for this very adversity. Your ark is tossed amid the broken waters, but you have Christ on board your vessel, and it shall not founder. He may seem, as of old, "when asleep upon a pillow," ignorant of, and indifferent to, the storm that rages wildly around you; yet the eye of His Godhead never slumbers, and He will, and at the best moment, arise in majesty and power, hush the tempest and still the waves, and there shall be peace. 

And will you not then count that a precious adversity that awakens in your breast the adoring exclamation, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" Yes; Christ treads the limpid pathway of your sorrow. He comes to you walking upon the sea of your trouble. He approaches to quell your fears, to calm your mind, to give you peace. And but for this alienation of property, this sore bereavement, this terrible calamity, this wasting disease, this languor, suffering, and decay, these restless days and wakeful nights, oh, how many a precious visit from the Beloved of your soul would you have lost! Be still then; trial will bring a precious Jesus to you; and the presence, the love, the sympathy, and the grace of Jesus will lighten, soothe, and sweeten your trial. 

We shall soon be at home, where "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." The last truth of God will be seen, the last lesson of holiness will be learned, the last taint of sin will be effaced, and there will be no more need of sorrow's discipline, nor the hallowing influence of precious trial; the last ember of the furnace will be extinguished, the last wave of trouble will die upon the shore, and we shall be forever with Jesus. Until then, "commit your way unto the Lord," leave your concerns in His hands, "trust in Him," and come up from the wilderness clinging to His almighty arm, and leaning upon His loving breast, to uphold you in weakness, to soothe you in grief, and to bring you home to Himself, where the days of your mourning shall be ended, and "GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR EYES."

"When sore afflictions crush the soul,
And riven is each earthly tie,
The heart must cling to God alone:
He wipes the tear from every eye.

"Through wakeful nights, when racked with pain,
On bed of languishing you lie,
Remember still your God is near
To wipe the tear from every eye.

"A few short years, and all is o'er;
Your sorrows, pains, will soon pass by;
Then lean in faith on God's dear Son,
He'll wipe the tear from every eye.

"Oh, never be your soul cast down,
Nor let your heart desponding sigh,
Assured that God, whose name is Love,
Will wipe the tear from every eye!"
—Mrs. Mackinlay