EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN TROUBLE. They who would always rejoice, must derive their joy from a source which is invariably the same; in other words, from Jesus. On that name! what a person, what an office, what a love, what a life, what a death, does it recal to our mind! Come, madam, let us leave our troubles to themselves for a while, and let us walk to Golgotha, and there take a view of his. We stop, as we are going, at Gethsemane, for it is not a step out of the road. There he lies, bleeding though not wounded, it is by an invisible, an Almighty hand. Now I begin to see what sin has done. Now let me bring my sorrows, and compare, measure, and weigh them, against the sorrows of my Saviour! Foolish attempt! to weigh a mote against a mountain, against the universe! Thus far we have attained already, and aim to say, Now let our pains be all forgot, Our hearts no more repine ! Our suff'rings are not worth a thought, We are still more confirmed at our next station. Now we are at the foot of the cross. Behold the man! attend to his groans: contemplate his wounds. Now let us sit down here awhile, and weep for our crosses, if we can.. pardon. For a Now we are at For our crosses! Nay, rather let us weep for our sins, which brought the Son of God into such distress. Agreed. I feel that we, not He, deserved to be crucified, and to be utterly forsaken. But this is not all: His death not only shews our desert, but seals our fuller proof, let us take another station. his tomb. But the stone is rolled away. He is not here. He is risen. The debt is paid, and surety discharged. Not here! where then is He? Look up! Methinks the clouds part, and glory breaks through-Behold a throne ! What a transition! He who hung upon the cross, is seated upon the throne! Hark! He speaks! May every word sink deep into your heart and mine! He says, 66 I know your sorrows, yea, I appoint them; they are tokens of my love; It is thus I call you by the honor of following me. See a place prepared for you near to myself! Fear none of these things: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." It is enough, Lord. Now then, let us compute, let us calculate again. These scales are the balances of the sanctuary. Let us put in our trials and griefs on one side. What an alteration! I thought them lately very heavy: now I find them light, the scale hardly turns with them. But how shall we manage to put in the weight on the other side? It is heavy indeed an exceeding eternal weight of glory. It is beyond my grasp and power. No matter. Comparison is needless. I see with the glance of an eye, there is no proportion. I am content. I am satisfied. I am ashamed. Have I been so long mourning, and is this all the cause? Well, if the flesh will grieve, it shall grieve by itself. The Spirit, the Lord enabling me, shall rejoice, yea, it does. From this moment I wipe away my tears, and forbid them to flow; or, if I must weep, they shall be tears of gratitude, love and joy! The bitter is sweet; the medicine is food. But the cloud closes. I can no longer see what I lately saw. However, I have seen it. I know it is there. He ever liveth, full of compassion and care, to plead for me above, to manage for me below. He is mine, and I am his therefore all is well. EXTRACTS FROM A TOKEN FOR MOURNERS. [The concluding part.] LUKE Vii. 13.-And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, Weep not. THE lamentations and wailings of this distressed mother, moved the tender compassions of the Lord in beholding them, and stirred up more pity in his heart for her, than could be in her heart for her dear and only son. Plea 1. You press me, by many great considerations to meekness, and quiet submission under this heavy stroke of God; but you little know what stings my soul feels now in it. This child was a child of many prayers, it was a Samuel begged of the Lord, and I concluded, when I had it, that it brought with it the returns and answers of many prayers. But now I see it was nothing less; God had no regard to my prayer about it, nor was it given me in that special way of mercy, as I imagined it to be: My child is not only dead, but my prayers in the same day slut out and denied. Answer 1. That you prayed for your children before you had them, was your duty; and if you prayed not for them submissively, referring it to the pleasure of God to give, or deny them, to continue, or remove them, as should seem good to him, that was your sin: You ought not to limit the Holy One of Israel, nor prescribe to him, or capitulate with him, for what term you shall enjoy your outward comforts: If you did So, it was your evil, and God hath justly rebuked it by this stroke. If you did pray conditionally, and submissively referring both the mercy asked, and continuance of it to the will of God, as you ought to do; then there is nothing in the death of your child that crosses the true scope and intent of your prayer. Ans. 2. Your prayers may be answered, though the thing prayed for be withheld, yea, or though it should be given for a little while, and snatched away from you again. There are four ways of God's answering prayers; by giving things prayed for presently, or by suspending the answer for a time, and giving afterwards, or by withholding from you that mercy which you ask, and giving you a much better mercy in the room of it. Or, lastly, by giving you patience to bear the loss or want of it. Now, if the Lord have taken away your child, or friend, and in lieu thereof given you a meek, quiet, submissive heart to his will, you need not say he hath shut 'out your cry. Plea 2. But I have lost a lovely, obliging, and most endearing child, one that was beautiful and sweet; it is a stony heart that would not dissolve into tears for the loss of one so desirable, so engaging as this was: Ah! it is no common loss. Ans. 1. The more lovely, and engaging, your relation was, the more excellent will your patience, and contentment with the will of God, in its death, be; the more |