and days of languor upon his couch, he has no employment but to count the hours; no companions but restlessness and pain. All worth living for to him has fled; his occupation is gone: a burthen to himself, and still left to himself, when "in the night he communes with his own heart, and searches out his spirit;" what can he find there but the mournful conviction that he is "clean forgotten, as a dead man out of mind;" that he is "become like a broken vessel ?"2 3 How different is the experience of that man who knows that he is a "fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God!" Though cast into the deepest shade of what the world calls solitude, he is never less alone than when alone; he is cheered by the consciousness that God is "about his path, and about his bed, and spieth out all his ways" he has a never-failing and animating motive for the right performance of every, the most trifling action; for all is done in the presence of that Being "in whose favour is life," and whose smile is the sunshine of the world of spirits. In the chamber of disease, in silence, and in darkness, he has still his duties to perform, his part to act, his battles to fight, and victories to gain; and all this not only in the sight of God, but in the view of that cloud of witnesses, before whom every candidate for an immortal crown runs his heavenward race. He feels that no silent submission to his cross, no patient 1 Ps. lxxvii. 6. 3 Eph. ii. 19. 2 Ps. xxxi. 12. endurance of his pain, no tear of penitence, or sigh that breathes towards heaven, is forgotten before God; nay, he is assured that if God approves, angels and ministering spirits rejoice in witnessing how his "light afflictions which are but for a moment, work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Such is the only solitude which the man of faith and prayer can know; such are the scenes which open to his view in the loneliness of his closet; such the stars and constellations which appear when the light of this world is withdrawn, and its sun goes down. WOODWARD. 66 XXVII Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who 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 corrected us, after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." There is a reverence due to earthly parents, and children are required to submit to their correction, although herein they often consult their own will and pleasure more than their children's profit. And is not greater reverence due to the Father of our spirits, and shall we not submit to His corrections? especially since His design in them is to promote 1 2 Cor. iv, 17. 2 Heb. xii. 9, 10. the greatest dignity and highest happiness of His children, even to make them partakers of His holiness; for, to partake is not only to give them a title to, but also to give them possession of, to communicate, to have fellowship with Him, to share with Him His holiness. And the heavenly Husbandman, purposing to make the branches very fruitful, has provided effectual means, among which the chief is His Fatherly correction. This He sends to all His children, and in the tenderest love. He would have them to bring forth much fruit, that herein He may be glorified; holy fruit, produced by His care and culture, and ripened by daily communication of His grace; therefore, He appoints many heavy trials and crosses, by which He designs to bring them not only to believe in His love, but also to a growing enjoyment of it. He would communicate to them an increase of its blessings: He would have them nearer to Himself, and more like to Himself; holy as He is holy-not in degree, but in likeness; He would teach them more submission to His will, for which He wisely and mercifully suits the cross: He would improve their love to Him, which he does by manifesting His to them; therefore He sends His cross to deaden their hearts to other love, that He may give them a happier sense of His; and His children have found suffering times blessed times; they never had such nearness to their Father; such holy freedom with Him, and such heavenly refreshments from Him, as under the cross it only took away what stopped the in crease of his happiness, which thereby was made more spiritual and exalted. The cross, thus sanctified, is the greatest blessing on this side heaven, because by it the Father keeps His children in the closest communion that they have with Him upon earth by it He purges them, makes them fruitful, and partakers of His holiness: by it He crucifies the life of sense, deadens them to the world, mortifies their lusts and passions; and by it, as the outward man perisheth, the inward man is renewed day by day. Most blessed renewal ! Daily, the Father communicates (and by means of the cross) new life, new strength, and new comfort to the inward man. By the right spirit renewed within him, he learns the necessity of the daily cross; he sees the merciful appointment of it, to teach resignation to the Father's holy will, to work a conformity to the first-born among many brethren, both in suffering and by suffering, to bring in sensible experience of the Father's support and comfort. What blessings are these! How great! how precious! to be branches in the vine, and to have the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the husbandman, who grafts them into Him. Oh, what an infinite mercy is this! And to be under His special care, faithfully watched over, in order to remove everything hurtful, and to bestow everything useful, this love passeth understanding. And to have this love to feast upon in the absence of other comforts; to have them taken away only to make room for this; to enjoy this most plentifully, even under troubles and afflic tions; and to be only purged by them in order to bring forth much fruit: these are triumphs of Divine love. ROMAINE. XXVIII Nothing so likens us to the example of Christ, as suffering. It seems to be an inevitable law, arising out of the fall of the old, and the perfecting of the new creation; first, that the second Adam should be " a man of sorrows:" and, next, that we should be conformed to Him in this aspect of His perfection: "It became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." And it is not more in relation to sanctity than to sufferings, that St. Paul says that we were predestinated "to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; and therefore, "What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" and argues that to be free from chastisement, is an awful exception, rather to be feared than coveted, as clouding the bright though keen tokens of sonship, which are seen in them that suffer. There is a breadth and universality in this reasoning, which seems to force upon us the conviction, that no true member of His body, who was made perfect through sufferings, shall pass out of life without at some time drinking of the cup that He drank of, and being baptized with the baptism 112 3 Heb. xii. 7. |