hewing and squaring begin. And God uses affliction as his hammer and chisel for accom- plishing this. Many a stroke is needed : and after being thus hewn into shape, the polish- .. ing goes on. All roughness must be smoothed away. The stone must be turned round and round on every side, that no part of it may ) be left unpolished.
The temple indeed is above, and we are ,« below. But this is God's design. As the stones of Solomon's temple were all to be prepared at a distance, and then brought to Jerusalem, there to be builded together, so the living stones of the heavenly temple are all made ready here, to be fitted in without the noise of an axe or hammer, to the glorious building not made with hands. Every one then must be polished here : and whilst there are many ways for doing this, the most effec tual is suffering. And this is God's design in chastisement. This is what the Holy Spirit effects : as like a workman, he stands over each stone, touching and retouching it, turn- ing it on every side, marking its blemishes and roughness, and then applying his tools to effect the desired shape and polish. Some parts of the stone are so rugged and hard, ) 10*
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that nothing save heavy and repeated strokes and touches will smooth them down. They resist every milder treatment. And yet, in patient love, this heavenly workman carries on the Father's purpose concerning us. Keep- ing beside him, if one may thus speak after the manner of men, the perfect model accord- ing to which the stone is to be fashioned, — even Jesus, the Father's chosen one, — he labors till every part is shaped according to his likeness, line after line. No pains are spared, no watchfulness relaxed, till we are made entirely like him, being changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.
Thus affliction moulds and purifies. Thus it effaces the resemblance of the first Adam, and traces in us each lineament of the second, that " as we have borne the image of the earthly, we may also bear the image of the heavenly." " Oh," said a saint of other days, " what I owe to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus !"
Come, then, let us question ourselves and endeavor to ascertain what affliction has been doing for us, and what progress we are making in putting off the old man and in putting on
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the new. Am I losing my worldliness of spirit, an I becoming heavenly-minded? Am I get- ting quit of my pride, my passion, my stub- bornness, and becoming humble, mild, and teachable ? Are all rny idols displaced and broken, and my creature comforts do I use as though I used them not ? Am I caring less for the honors of time, for man's love, man's smile, man's applause? Am I crucified to the world, and is the world crucified to me, by the cross of Christ ; or am I still ashamed of his reproach, and half-reluctant to follow him through bad report and through good, through honor and through shame ? Do I count it my glory and my joy to walk where he has led the way, to suffer wherein he suffered, to drink of the cup of which he drank, and to be baptized with the baptism wherewith he was baptized? Or3 while professing to seek the kingdom hereafter, do I refuse to undergo that tribulation through which it must be entered ; whilst willing to secure the crown of glory, do I shrink back from the crown of thorns ? Am I every day becoming more and more unlike the children of earth, more and more fashioned after the likeness, and bearing the special lineaments of my Elder Brother, of whom the whole family
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in heaven and earth is named ? Do I realize this earth as neither my portion nor my rest, and, knowing that one chain may bind me as fast to the world as a thousand, am I careful to shake off every fetter that may bind me to ( the vanities of a world like this ? Is chastise- ment really purifying me ? Am I conscious of its blessed effects upon my soul ? Can I look back upon such and such scenes of trial and say, " there and then I learnt most precious lessons ; there and then I got rid of some of the body of this death ; there and then I got up to a higher level, from which I am striving to ascend to one higher still?" Have I learned much of the sympathy of Jesus, and known the blessedness of having such an one as he to weep along with me in my day of sorrow? Have I wiped off my rebellious tears and been taught to shed only those of love arid submis- sive fondness ; tears of brotherhood and sym- pathy, tears of longing to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord ?
To make us " partakers of his holiness," 13 God's great design, as stated by the apostle. And there is something very remarkable about the expression. It corresponds to a similar on 3 .'n the second epistle of Peter, " partakers of
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