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strength, and we feel as if a chain were on our limbs. There is not indeed the bond- age arising from any uncertainty as to the relationship in which we stand towards God. These fetters fell from us when we received God's record of forgiving love, and knew what it is to be freely pardoned. These fetters no amount of trial can re- impose on us, if " we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." Nay, it is often in a day of grief that we realize most blessedly how completely grace has set us free. But though there is no re-placement of our chains, and no bit- terness of bondage again tasted, still chas- tisement is u not joyous but grievous ; " and ts being grievous " it sometimes disheartens and disables us, so that we cannot do the same amount of service, or undergo the same degree of toil for God, as otherwise we might have done. At the first light- ing down of the stroke this is always felt, for we are men in the flesh, and the flesh p 2
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gives way. "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak." And for a con- siderable time this continues to be experi- enced ; shorter or longer, according to our natural characters, or according to the specialties of the trial.
Hence it is that affliction is often more a season of preparation for service than a time of actual service, save only as patience is service, for " they also serve who only stand and wait." Let us not fret, then, nor be cast down, because we feel dis- abled for zealous service for a time. Let it suffice us to know that we are preparing for this. And when the load is lifted off or becomes lighter, then we run. with speedier foot, then we labour with fuller strength and freer heart. We cannot ex- pect to be wholly free from sorrow here, for some amount of trial is always needful to keep us from forgetting that tliis is not our
rest, — that this is the night and not the day ; but still these intervals of calm and
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sunshine are precious times, — times of blessing ; times of service ; times for the swift race and the busy life.
These mornings here, coming after the nights that thicken over us, are most profitable. They not only relieve the " o'er-fraught heart," but are seasons in which we find leisure to learn lessons of wisdom and holiness, which in the time of the sorrow we had overlooked or put from us. The returning elasticity of spirit en- ables us to rise from our depression, now that the weight has in some measure been lifted off. Too continuous a pressure of grief is apt to make us moody, selfish, desponding, slothful. It narrows the circle alike of vision and of sympathy, and dries up the springs of our nature. But when peace returns after a season of trouble, we seem doubly fitted as well as nerved for duty. The trial has sobered and mellowed us. It has taught us to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. It has f 3
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rubbed off excrescences. It has made us less selfish, less contracted in soul. It has taught us to look round with sympathy upon a suffering world and a weeping church. It was as if we had been taken aside for a season into some quiet nook or dark cave, from which, while alone and undistracted, we could look out unobserved upon the multitudes that passed and re- passed. And having been thus brought to form truer, riper judgments, we are led forth again to act — to act more unselfishly, more zealously, yet more stedfastly and soberly.
Our life, after a night of trial has passed over us, should be a life of truer aims, of steadier walk, of higher level, of keener, purer vision. If not, we have suffered in vain.
During the night, much was of necessity hidden from us. But the morning dis- closes what the night had hidden. It shows us how desperate the struggle was
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between us and our God, of which at the time we were hardly aware. It shows the amount of patience, love, and faithfulness, that have been expended on us by God. It shows the extent of the evil in us which had drawn down the chastening. It puts us in a position for bringing into practice the knowledge of the world's vanity and wretchedness which sorrow had taught us. Thus the morning carries out the lessons of the night, and gives us opportunity for exemplifying them. And thus the alterna- tion of trial and rest which makes up our lot on earth, is in truth but a succession of lessons, and of opportunities for practising them. " Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." (Psa. xix. 2.)
Thus trial prepares for service. It nerves us, it braces us for toil. It showrs us what alone is worth living for, so that when the force of it is in some measure abated, wTe find ourselves ready to start anew for the
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race, ready to wield the weapons of our warfare with a firmer and more skilful hand.