erring, mellowing influence which has been often observed in affliction. During the actual pressure of the sorrow there was less of this. Perhaps we were so stunned and stupified, as almost to be deprived of feeling. Or if we did feel, still there was so much of sharpness and bitterness about it that we were bruised rather than softened. There was such a struggle, and such confusion of spirit thav we sometimes wondered if we were pro- fiting ai all, and thought that the sorrow was too great to be productive of benefit.
But in the retrospect all is different. " No chastening for the present seemeth to be joy- ous but grievous ; nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." The wound has ceased to bleed, and, though it will remain a scar forever, it is no longer open. It is then that the mellowing process goes on, and each remembrance of the past helps it forward. This is less perceptible than the others : we are not so directly conscious of it ; but its silent influence upon our character, our temper, our will, pur judgment, is wonder- ful. The death-bed, the farewell, the funeral- scene, the open tomb, the earth striking rudely
160 THE RECOLLECTIONS.
on the coffin, the grave filled up, the turf rolled on by stranger hands ; these are like swords going through the very vitals. But they sad- den more than they soften. It is the remem- brance of these scenes, the frequent visit to the closed tomb, the calm after-inquiry into and meditation upon God's meaning in all this ; — it is these that so gently exercise a whole life-time's influence upon the soul. They surround us with a softening atmos- phere, and the light they shed down on us is the light of sunset, mellowed and shaded in its passage through the clouds of evening.
In another way also these recollections are precious. They teach us that God is true. The trials themselves taught us this ; but their remembrance teaches us this yet more. And it is a lesson which even the saints need much to learn. Even they need to be taught how surely He is the AMEN, " the faithful and the true ;" and that in all that he has spoken to his church he has spoken truly. What refreshing confirmations of this do we gather up as we call to mind the past and see how the Lord hath led us. We can add our Amen every day to what Joshua declared to Israel •Q his death-bed. "Behold this day I am
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going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake con- cerning you : all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof."*
Yes, "all "things work together for our good," — the past as well as the present. And thus the stream of which we drink is a swell- ing one. Innumerable tributaries are flowing into it. This year it is " to the ancles." Next year it' will be "to the knees." After that it will rise " to the loins." And as it reaches the ocean, bearing us calmly on its bosom, it will be a great river " that cannot be passed over."
Yet oh, how little have the saints learned to prize these memorials of chastisement ; these recollections of the wilderness, which are so rich in instruction,, so fraught with blessing and with joy !
* Joshua xxxii. 14.
u*
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONSOLATION.
" To bring many sons unto glory," was the end for which the Son of God took flesh and died. This was no common, no inferior object. So vast and worthy did Jehovah deem it that it pleased him for the attaining of it to "make the captain of our salvation perfect through suffering." It was an object worthy of the God " for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." It was an object glorious enough to render it " becoming " in him to make Jesus pass through suffering and death, and to justify the Father in not sparing his only begotten Son.*
They for whom God has done all this must be very precious in his sight. He must be much in earnest indeed to bless them and to take them to be with Him forever. As he so delighted in Enoch that he could no longer bear the separation and the distance, but took him to be with Him without tasting death, and long ero he had run the common race of man, so witli his saints. He is making haste to bring them to glory, foi the day of absence has been long. * Heb. ii. 10.
THE CONSOLATION. 163