anxiety, and danger, the change was very great ! But Christ knew it, and Christ appointed it, and it was working for their good.
Trial, we must distinctly understand, is part of the diet which all true Christians must expect. It is one of the means by which their grace is proved, and by which they find out what there is in themselves. Winter as well as summer, — cold as well as heat, — clouds as well as sun- shine,— are all necessary to bring the fruit of the Spirit to ripeness and maturity. We do not naturally like this. We would rather cross the lake with calm weather and favourable winds, with Christ always by our side, and the sun shining down on our faces. But it may not be. It i? not in this way that God's children are made "partakers of His holiness." (Heb. xii. 10.) Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Job were all men of many trials. Let us be content to walk in their footsteps, and to drink of their cup. In our darkest hours we may seem to be left, — but we are never really alone.
Let us notice, in the last place, our Lord Jesus Chrisfa power over the waves of the sea. He came to His disciples as they were rowing on the stormy lake, " walking on " the waters. He walked on them as easily as we walk on dry land. They bore Him as firmly as the pavement of the Temple, or the hills around Nazareth. That which is contrary to all natural reason was perfectly possible to Christ.
The Lord Jesus, we must remember, is not only the Lord, but the Maker of all creation. "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." (John i. 3.) It was just as easy for Him to walk on the sea as to form the sea at the beginning, — just as easy to suspend the common laws of nature, as they are called, as to injpose those laws at the first. Learned men talk solemn nonsense sometimes about the eternal