them to study, to hard labour, and afflictive contingencies. They rejoice when the bold boy strikes. a lion with his hunting-spear, and shrinks not when the beast comes to affright his early courage. And the man that designs his son for noble employments, to honours and to triumphs, to consular dignities and presidencies of councils, loves to see him pale with study, or panting with labour, hardened with sufference or eminent by dangers. And so God dresses us for heaven. He loves to see us struggling with a disease, and resisting the devil, and contesting against the weaknesses of nature, and against hope to believe in hope, resigning ourselves to God's will, praying Him to choose for us, and dying in all things but faith and its blessed consequences, ut ad officium cum periculo simus prompti; and the danger and the resistance shall endear the office. For so I have known the boisterous north wind pass through the yielding air, which opened its bosom, and appeased its violence, by entertaining it with easy compliance in all the regions of its reception! but when the same breath of heaven hath been checked with the stiffness of a tower, or the united strength of a wood, it grew mighty, and dwelt there, and made the highest branches stoop, and make a smooth path for it on the top of all its glories. So is sickness, and so is the grace of God: when sickness hath made the difficulty, then God's grace hath made a triumph, and by doubling its power hath created new proportions of a reward; and then shows its biggest

glory when it hath the greatest difficulty to master, the greatest weaknesses to support, the most busy temptations to contest with; for so God loves that His strength should be seen in our weakness and our danger. BISHOP TAYLOR.

IV

In the cross is life, in the cross is health, in the cross protection from every enemy; from the cross are derived heavenly meekness, true fortitude, the joys of the Spirit, the conquest of self, the perfection of holiness! There is no redemption, no foundation for the hope of the Divine life, but in the cross. Take up thy cross, therefore, and follow Jesus in the path that leads to everlasting peace. He hath gone before, bearing that cross upon which He died for thee, that thou mightest follow, patiently bearing thy own cross, and upon that die to thyself for Him; and if we die with Him, we shall also live with Him: "if we are partakers of His sufferings, we shall be partakers also of His glory."

Though thou disposest all thy affairs according to thy own fancy, and conductest them by the dictates of thy own judgment, still thou wilt continually meet with some evil, which thou must necessarily bear, either with or against thy will, and therefore wilt continually find the cross; thou wilt feel either pain of body, or distress and anguish of spirit. Sometimes thou wilt experience the absence of

11 Pet. v. 1.

grace; sometimes thy neighbour will put thy meekness and patience to the test; and what is more than this, thou wilt sometimes feel a burden in thyself, which no human help can remove, no earthly comfort lighten; but bear it thou must, as long as it is the will of God to continue it upon thee. It is the blessed will of God, in permitting no ray of comfort to visit us in the darkness of distress, that we should learn such profound humility and submission, as to resign our whole state, present and future, to His absolute disposal.

No heart can have so true a sense of the sufferings of Christ, as that which has suffered in the same kind. The cross is always ready, and waits for thee in every place. Run where thou wilt, thou canst not avoid it; for wherever thou runnest, thou takest thyself with thee, and art always sure of finding thyself. Turn which way thou wilt, either to the things above or to the things below, to that which is within, or that which is without thee, thou wilt in all certainty find the cross; and if thou wouldest enjoy peace, and obtain the unfading crown of glory, it is necessary that in every place and in all events thou shouldest bear it willingly, and in patience possess thy soul.

If thou bearest the cross willingly, it will soon bear thee, and lead thee beyond the reach of suffering, where God shall take away all suffering from thy heart. But if thou bearest it with reluctance, it will be a burden inexpressively painful, which yet thou must still feel; and by every impatient

effort to throw it from thee, thou wilt only render thyself less and less able to sustain its weight, till at length it crush thee.

Why hopest thou to avoid that from which no human being has been exempt? Who among the saints hath accomplished his pilgrimage in this world without adversity and distress? Even our

1

blessed Lord passed not one hour of His most holy life, without tasting "the bitter cup that was given Him to drink;" and of Himself He saith, that it "behoved Him to suffer, and to rise from the dead, and so to enter into His glory." And why dost thou seek any other path to glory but that in which, bearing the cross, thou art called to follow "the Captain of thy salvation?" The life of Christ was a continual cross, an unbroken chain of sufferings; and desirest thou a perpetuity of repose and joy?

This meek and patient submission under it, is not the effect of any power which is inherent in man, and which he can boast of as his own: but is the pure fruit of the grace of Christ. No; it is not in man to love and bear the cross; to resist the appetites of the body, and bring them under absolute subjection to the Spirit; to shun honours; to receive affronts with meekness; to bear with calm resignation the loss of fortune, health, and friends; and to have no desire after the riches, the honours, and pleasures of the world. If thou dependest upon thy own will and strength to do and to suffer all this, thou wilt find thyself as unable to accomplish

1 Luke xxiv. 26.

it, as to create another world; but if thou turnest to the divine power within thee, and trustest only to that as the doer and sufferer of all, the strength of Omnipotence will be imparted to thee, and the world and the flesh shall be put under thy feet: armed with this holy confidence, and defended by the cross of Christ, thou needest not fear the most malignant efforts of thy great adversary the devil.

Dispose thyself, therefore, like a true and faithful servant, to bear with fortitude and resolution the cross of thy blessed Lord, to which He was nailed in testimony of His infinite love of thee. Prepare thy spirit to suffer patiently the innumerable inconveniences and troubles of this miserable life; for these thou wilt find, though thou runnest to the ends of the earth, or hidest thyself in its deepest caverns: and it is patient suffering alone that can either disarm their power, or heal the wounds they have made. Drink freely and affectionately of thy Lord's bitter cup, if thou desirest to manifest thy friendship for Him, and the part thou hast with Him.

To suffer, therefore, is thy portion; and to suffer patiently and willingly, is the great testimony of thy love and allegiance to thy Lord.

If any way but bearing the cross and dying to his own will could have redeemed man from that fallen life of self in flesh and blood, which is his alienation from, and enmity to, God; Christ would have taught it in His word, and established it by His example. But of all universally, that desire to