""Eph. vi. 16. ^ Acts XX. 24, '' 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8.
' Prov. xviii. 14, '^ Heb. xi. 33, 34. ' lb. ver. 36, 37 '"Hos. v. 13. " Job V. 6.
is the direction which God himself gives us : he reminds us of his wisdom and power to over-rule our trials for good ; and ex- horts us, when weary and fainting to wait on him as our all- sufficient Helper °.]
1, Expect deliverance from him—
[To what end has God given us such '' exceeding great and precious promises," if we do not rest upon them, and expect their accomplishment ? The refiner does not put his vessels into the furnace, to leave them there ; but to take them out again when they are fitted for his use. And it is to purify us as " vessels of honour," that God subjects us to the fiery trial. We should 6ay therefore, with Job, " When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold p." It was this expectation that supported David : '' I had fainted," says he, " unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living i." We are told that *' light is sown for the righteous' :" that is sufficient for us : between seed-time and harvest there may be a long and dreary winter ; but still every day brings forward the appointed time of harvest ; and the husbandman waiteth in an assured ex- pectation of its arrival \ Thus must we wait, however long the promise may seem to tarry* : and as those who are now in hea- ven were once in great tribulation like ourselves", so shall we in due season be with them freed from all remains of sin and sorrow. In our darkest hours we should hold fast this confidence, " 1 shall yet praise him''."]
3. View him in his covenant-relation to you — •
[It is observable, that our Lord, in the midst of his derelic- tion, addressed his Father, " Mxj God ! my God !" Now thus should we do. God is the God of all his people ; yea, he dwells in them", and is, as it were, the very life of their souls ^. How- ever distressed then we be, we should regard him as " the health of our countenance and our God." What a foundation of hope did the remembrance of God's paternal relation to them afford to the Church of old"! And what a sweet assurance does God himself teach us also to derive from the same source '' ! If we unfeignedly desire to be his, we have good reason to believe that we are his : and if we be his, he will never suffer any to pluck us out of his hand ''. Hold fast this therefore, as an anchor of the soul 5 and it shall keep you stcdfast amidst all the storms and tempests that can possibly assail you.]
Address,
"Isai. xl. 2S— 31. p Job xxiii. 10. i Ps. xxvii. 13.
■^ Ps. xcvii. 11. 'Jam. V.7. ' Hab. ii. 3.
"Rev.vii. 14 * Compare Ps. cxviii. 17,18. wilh the text,
y 2 Cor. vi. 16. » Col. iii. 4. ^ Isai. Ixiii. 15, 1 6.
!* laai. xlix. 14—10. " John x, 27, 26. .
864.] sources and remedy of dejection. 153 Address,
1 , Those who are in a drooping desponding frame —
[We cannot give you better counsel than that suggested by the example of David.
Liquire, first, into the reasons of your disquietude. If it pro- ceed from temporal afflictions, recollect, that they are rather tokens of God's love, than of his hatred ; for " whom he loveth he chasteneth''." If it arise from the temptations of Satan, take not all the blame to yourselves ; but cast a good measure of it at least on him from whom they proceed. If you are troubled about the hidings of God's face, intreat him to return, and to lift up upon you once more the light of his countenance. And if, as is most probable, " your own sins have hid his face from you," humble yourself for them, and implore his grace that you may be enabled henceforth to mortify and subdue them. At all events, having once searched out the cause, you will know the better how to apply a remedy.