has become by Him a germ of life.

And, in fact, brethren, after having accepted Jesus Christ, imagine all suffering suppressed; suppose that with Jesus Christ death itself had died, introduce the believer without transition into peace and security; were not this to take from faith all its exercise, all means of establishing and developing itself, and were it not to wish that the germ should never become a tree? How will you prove it not to be necessary after, as before the advent of Christ, for man to pass through suffering in order to arrive at joy? And through death in order to arrive at life? There could be no change of this necessity a necessity as inevitable as that which nailed the Saviour to the cross-no, there could be no change of this necessity. Jesus Christ, then, has not abolished it, but He has given a meaning to our sufferings and our mortality, and He has made them, what they never could have been without Him, a bitter dew which develops and matures in our souls the blessed germ of faith."

THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY.

PART FOURTH.

"Nevertheless, I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever."ASAPH.

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."-PAUL.

"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ."-PETER.

ALTHOUGH this is the fourth meditation on the School of Adversity, the subject appears to my own mind to widen, extend, and increase in interest. It is a mine in which, the deeper you dig, the more precious and sparkling are the treasures which you discover. It is a vale in which, the further you proceed, and the longer you remain, the more lovely the flowers appear, the more refreshing the breezes, and the more musical and salutary "the streams that murmur there."

There are sufferers who, I hope, have been

consoled and instructed by the views of truth that have been presented, and who have thus become more reconciled to their painful lot, and resolved, calmly and firmly, by the aid of Divine grace, "to glorify God in the fires."

Let each of us, however, remember that the afflictive dealings of God towards us are only useful, as they induce us piously to acknowledge His Providence, bow meekly to His will, and seek assimilation and conformity to His image and revealed purpose. This will be the case if we are wise in the use and improvement of the dispensations of Providence, and the opportunities with which we are blest. But if Adversity be not sanctified and improved,-if it do not produce "the peaceable fruits of righteousness,"-its influence on our souls will be injurious; and Our Father may say, "Why should you be stricken any more; ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.' The power of the human spirit is an awful power-that of rendering everything, whether painful or pleasant, subservient, either to its elevation or depression,-its weal or woe,-its final and eternal happiness or misery. How many, alas! by their own perverseness, render trial a means of making them "wax worse and worse," until they become at last "vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." Were it not for the perverseness of their minds, the insubordination and rebelliousness of their wills, and the crookedness of their ways, they might be made "perfect through

suffering"-" meet, through consecrated pain, to see the face Divine." But they live and die without "kissing the rod, and Him that appointed it.”

Thoughtful reader, let us fear lest this be our fate. It need not be so. God is love. With a Father's eye He looks upon us; with a Father's hand He chastens us; and with more than a Father's patience He "waits to be gracious." If we bow uncomplainingly to His will; "if we take hold of His strength;" if we meekly suffer, and unfalteringly trust, if we "love God," "all things" shall work together for our good. Our characters are forming for eternity; our natures are developing either under wrong or right principles-the principles of selfishness or love, rebellion or subordination we are becoming what we shall continue to be for ever. Ere long the Great Arbiter of our final destiny will say, with an authority that cannot be disannulled, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him bet righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

I most solemnly conjure thee, serious reader, that thou frustrate not the designs of Infinite Love; that thou reject not the counsel of God against thyself; and judge not thyself "unworthy of everlasting life." But, oh, as thou wouldst be eternally happy, be resolved that henceforth thy unfailing aim shall be that of bringing thy whole soul into complete harmony with the

will of Him, who says, "My son, give me thine heart."

In endeavouring to point out some of the ends, uses, and results of sanctified suffering, I have stated that it leads to a better understanding and appreciation of the Bible; that it ministers to the development and manifestation of the sublimity and transcendent power of mind; and to the maturity and perfection of the Christian's character; and in the present meditation I proceed to remark that

IV. Sanctified trial is a Means of Preparation for Future Usefulness.

It is one of the many admirable and deeply suggestive sayings of Paul, that "no man liveth to himself." A man's affections and personal aims may centre in himself; he may have no regard or concern for the welfare of others; he may be dead to all public or philanthropic sensibilities; he may be a living personification and embodiment of selfism; his reply to every inquiry made, as to what he is doing for the good of others, may be that of the first murderer, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Nevertheless, the saying remains true, "No man liveth to himself." He may have as little fear of God as regard for man: he may be "without God;" or he may adopt the daring language of the haughty Egyptian tyrant, "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" But he is unable to shake off his dependence on, and his responsibility to, God. He is a creature; God