follow Him, He has required the bearing of the cross; and without exception has said to all, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." 1

When, therefore, we have read all books, and examined all methods, to find out the path that I will lead us back to the blessed state from which we have wandered, this conclusion only will remain, that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God." 2

V

THOMAS A KEMPIS.

The greatest blessing which man can receive, is to have his private individual will subordinated to the sentiment of his relation with God. And yet his continual business in this world is to strengthen this individual will, which opposes the entrance of God into his heart. He seeks its gratification in all things, and is ever guarding against anything which may cross it. He thus blindly loves and feeds his disease, and resists all the attempts of Divine love to cure it. This is man's way, and it is a way which leads down to death. God's way is to cross man's way, that he may be turned from it and live. He crosses him in his good opinion of himself, in his confidence in his own strength and in his own wisdom. He crosses him in his favourite schemes of happiness. He sends affliction after

1 Matt. xvi. 24.

2 Acts xiv. 22.

affliction. He pours bitterness into his soul.

He sends disease and death into the circle of his friends. He gives him up to the idolatry of the creature, and then tears his idol from him, or makes it a curse to him. He lays him on a bed of sickness, and tries him with pain and restlessness, and brings him to the boundary which separates time from eternity, and makes him look backwards into past time and forwards into the future eternity, and shows him that he was made to dwell with God through eternity, and yet that all his past days have been spent in unfitting himself for this state; and He says to him, "How can thy heart endure or thy hands be strong on the day that I plead with thee?" turn unto Me, the only strength of the creature. This is the way of God towards man, of that God whose name is Love: and this is the way that He expresses His love. It is thus that He shakes the bulwarks of independence which guard the entrance of the soul against God. It is thus that He convinces man of his guilt, and weakness, and ignorance, and misery, and persuades him to open the door of his heart to God, and to take shelter under His compassionate omnipotence. Blessed are they who are persuaded; blessed are they in whose hearts God makes a place for Himself, though it is. by casting out all other joys.

1 Ezek. xxii, 14.

T. ERSKINE.

VI

We know that the government of the world is in the hand of God, and therefore we may rest assured, that there is not a single link in the apparently perplexed chain of human things which does not connect with, and guide to, the coming glory; we may rest assured, not only that all the histories of the kingdoms of this world are under the influence of an unfelt but irresistible control, preparing the way for that kingdom which never can be moved, but also that personal events as well as national, private as well as public, are all under the same mandate, commissioned to lead on to the same great consummation. This truth gives a seriousness and a dignity to everything: it banishes littleness from life, because it connects all with the glory of God and the eradication of evil; and it seems to conduct us under the shadow of everlasting and omnipotent love, where we may rest in peace until all calamities be overpast.

When the eye of the spirit is thus opened to see God is working in everything, and by everything, to bring on the reign of righteousness; the heart will feel itself invited to the blessed privilege of entering into the purposes of God, of sympathizing with the everlasting counsels of His grace, of rejoicing in their assured success, and of being a fellowworker with Him in every action of life. These actions may appear small and insignificant in the world's judgment, but the believer knows that it is

These

not in vain that the Ruler of the universe has called him to do all things to the glory of God. are animating thoughts for poor wanderers in the wilderness, who have listened to the Saviour's voice. For them the fall, with all its sin, and misery, and darkness, will soon pass away; having served, under the control of Him who bringeth good out of evil, to glorify the Divine attributes, and to introduce a high, and holy, and happy order of things; higher, and holier, and happier, than that which Adam lost, because founded on a nearer relation with God, and a fuller manifestation of His character. The gate of Eden will once again be unbarred, and the banished ones be brought back; and, in the meantime, though their path lie through the desert, yet that path is the way of holiness, and in it He will be with them, whose presence can make the wilderness to be glad, and the desert to " rejoice and blossom like the rose.' T. ERSKINE.

"1

VII

"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 2

This peace keeps the heart in affliction. It is a pledge of the special love of God to the soul; and as such it begets confidence in Him, so that the soul can stay itself on His promises, and encourage itself in His faithfulness, and look to His

care and power for a happy issue out of all its troubles. It both begets hope and strengthens hope; and he who is going full of hope to heaven is not easily shaken or depressed. With a crown of life before him, he feels that he can afford to bear the light affliction of the way that leads to it. Besides, it leaves us something to fall back on, when other props, and refuges, and consolations, are withdrawn. Let a worldly man lose his earthly comforts, and he has lost his all; but let a man of God lose what he may, his main support, his chief treasure is yet safe. Put this peace into his heart, and then place him where you will, on the bed of sickness, in the house of mourning, by the grave of his best, and dearest, and only friend; strike him where you may, and how you may, he can bear the blow. He grieves, grieves perhaps more than other men; for his religion has enlarged his powers of suffering, it has extended his view, it has deepened his feelings and refined his heart; but he is not moved; no practical, no abiding impression is made on him. He may weep for an hour, but he will soon take up the language of the destitute Paul, and say, "I have all, and abound; I am full. None of these things move me; nay, in all these things I am more than conqueror, through Him that loved me." 1 BRADLEY.

1 Rom. viii. 37.

B