8. We are preparing for usefulness while here. We have but a few years below, and it concerns us much that these should be useful years. We have but one life, and it must be laid out for God. But we need preparation for usefulness. We need a thorough breaking down ; a thorough emptying, a thorough bruis- ing. God cannot trust us with success till we are thus laid low. We are not fit to receive it; nor would he get the glory. Therefore he sends sore and heavy trials, in order to make us vessels fit for the master's use. And oftentimes we see that the heaviest trials are forerunners of our greatest usefulness. When we are entirely pros- trated and crushed, then it is safe to grant us success, for God gets all the glory. And oh, what wonders has God often done by bruised reeds ! Yea, it is the bruised reed that is often- est the instrument in his hand for working his mighty signs and wonders. What consolation is this ! Suffering is stripped of half its bitter- ness, if it thus brings with it a double portion of the Spirit, and fits for double usefulness on earth.
9. We have the Holy Spirit as our Com- forter. He is mighty to comfort as well as to sanctify. His name is " the Comforter." His
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office is to console. And in the discharge of this office he puts forth his power, not only mediately and indirectly through the word, but immediately and directly upon the soul, sus- taining and strengthening it when fainting and troubled. It is consolation unspeakable to know that there is a hand, a divine and omnipotent hand, laid upon our wounded spirit, not only upholding it, but drying up, as it were, the very springs of grief within. In the day of oppres- sive sorrow, when bowed down to the dust, what is it that we feel so much our need of as a hand that can come into close and direct contact with our souls, to lift them up and strengthen them? For it is here that hu- man consolation fails. Friends can say much to soothe us, but they cannot lay their finger upon the hidden seat of sorrow. They can put their hand around the fainting body ; but not around the fainting spirit. To that they have only distant and indirect access. But here the heavenly aid comes in. The Spirit throws around us the everlasting arms, and we are invincibly upheld. We cannot sink, for he sustains, he comforts, he cheers. And who knows so well as he, how to sustain, and com- fort, and cheer?
10. The time is short. We have not a pil-
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grimage like Seth's or Noah's, or even like Abraham's, to pass through. Ours is but a hand-breadth in comparison with theirs. We have not many days to suffer, nor many nights to watch, even though our whole life were rilled up with weary days and sleepless nights. " Our light affliction is but for a moment." And be- sides the briefness of our earthly span, we know that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. This is consolation, for it tells not only of the end of our tribulation, but of the beginning of our triumph ; nay, and not only of our indi- vidual rest from trouble ; but of the rest and deliverance of the whole church together. For then the whole " body of Christ," waking or sleeping, shall be glorified with their glorified Lord, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. In the day of bereavement, the day of mourning over those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, this consolation is especially precious. Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. And if the Lord be near, the time of re-union may not be far off. They that lie down at evening have a whole night's slumber before them ; but they who lie down towards morning have, it may be, but an hour or less till the dawn awakes them. So with the dead in Christ, in these last days. They will not
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have long to sleep, for it is now the fourth watch of the night, and the day-star is pre- paring to arise. What consolation ! How it soothes the pain of parting ! How it cheers the wounded spirit ! " Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in dust," is now our watchword every day. We take our stand upon our watch- tower, and look out amidst the darkness of night for the first streaks of morn. We lay our ear to the ground and listen, that amid all the discord of earth, the uproar of war, the tumults of the nations, we may catch the first sound of our Lord's chariot- wheels, — those chariot- wheels that are to s"weep in vengeance over the field of Armageddon, crushing the confederate nations leagued against the Lord and his anointed, and also to bring to the bosom of the long-betrothed bride, the husband of her youth, the desire of her soul, for whom, amid tears and loneliness, she has waited for many a generation, many a century, in vain.