Elimelech had

upon this family in Moab. hoped to increase, or at any rate, to save his wealth; but, instead of this his store had little by little decreased. We can imagine him growing fretful and impatient. Of this, at least, we are sure, that sorrow did not soften his heart, or lead him back to God. In Naomi's case all was different. Affliction was sanctified to her. Elimelech might have returned, but he did not. Naomi, so soon as she had the opportunity, set her face to go back.

Let us ask ourselves; is it thus with me? Trials, no doubt, are very hard to bear. To see the wealth, for which we have laboured long, make to itself wings, and fly away. To have to stand and serve, where beforetime we have sat and ruled. To lay loved ones in the lonesome grave. To miss the merry laugh, and the glad welcome, and the protecting hand, or the guid ing mind. To see the fairest flower in our garden withered; the brightest light in our

households quenched. These things are not joyous, but grievous; just as winter is not the pleasant season that summer brings, with her merry songs, and her sunny days, and her gorgeous wealth of foliage and flowers; and just as bitter medicines are not savoury meat. But, then, winter is needed in nature, and medicines are needed for the body; and afflictions also are needed. The sharp frosts, and the keen biting winds of winter, kill the weeds, and break up the soil, and so prepare it for the spring rains, and the summer suns. And afflictions, when sanctified by God, wean us from earth, and nurture us for heaven: God's people have ever found it so.

There is a beautiful passage in a striking sermon, by a living writer, on the text, "I will make thy windows of agates," (Isa. liv, 12,) which may be quoted in this connection. After calling attention to the suffering condition of those to whom this promise was made, he says, "Agates are

precious stones, partially transparent and uncrystallized. They are mere varieties of quartz, variously coloured by admixtures of different earths; although the neutral tints are the most frequent. They generally occur in rounded nodules, or in veins in igneous rocks, dropping out when such rocks decompose by the action of the elements, and being washed down to the places where they are found by mountain streams. They seem to be the product of elements fused by fire; and in this respect they carry out most faithfully the analogy between the condition of the Church, and the nature of the promise, "O thou afflicted, tempest tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will make thy windows of agates." "Out of their fiery trials precious media of spiritual vision will be constructed for it." Then further on he says, "Through the dim windows of affliction how changed is the aspect of the world, how cold, and grey, and desolate; all its radiant glory

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departed; all its beauteous hues reduced. to one dull leaden sadness. The tears of sorrow are like spiritual lenses, shewing us the world in its true character as a poor, empty, unsatisfying inheritance. One glimpse through the agate windows of sickness, bereavement, or adversity will impress us more with the vanity of the world's portion, and of a life of sense, than all that the most pensive poetry ever sang, or the most cynical philosophy ever taught. But affliction brings its own precious compensations with it. Rich issues unfold from its seeming poverty; the tearful cloud is painted with a rainbow; the waste lonesome night is made cheerful with songs and radiant with stars; amid the darkness and emptiness of earthly scenes the glories of the New Jerusalem shine forth with a new and surpassing lustre. The outside of a stained glass window looks dingy and unsightly it has no beauty or attraction. And so the coloured windows of pain, sick

ness, bereavement, to those who look at them from without, from the busy street of the world's pursuits and pleasures, may appear gloomy and uninviting; but within, to God's true children, worshipping in that most solemn of temples-the temple of sorrow-where all earthly clamours are hushed, and all hearts are awed into earnestness and devotion, what a grand and radiant sight is disclosed by these windows! The blue sky is concealed, but a golden glory floats around; the sunshine is dimmed, but dimmed into the radiance of ruby and sapphire of emerald and topaz; the common familiar sights of earth are obscured, but painted in hues of living light on these windows-hues that bathe the soul with their splendour-are the sublime scenes of the life and death of the Redeemer-scenes well fitted to hide the world by their overpowering glory." Such, brethren, is sanctified affliction, one of the greatest blessings God can send to us.