without and fears within." Much as such a character is admired in theory, it never is really exhibited before men without exciting great offence. From the days of Abel to the present moment, have " those who were born after the flesh hated and persecuted those who were born after the Spirit :" and for the most part has that been found true, that " the greatest foes have been those of a man's own household." If infallible wisdom, unbounded love, and sinless perfection could have obtained an exemption from the common lot, our blessed Lord would have passed without offence : but He, who was the most perfect of the human race, was pursued with more bitter acrimony than any other from the foundation of the world: and if they so hated him, they will hate us also : "if they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, much more will they those of his household."
In his own soul, too, the saint feels much to humble and to try him. He still has a carnal principle within him, and is only renewed in part : " the flesh still lusteth against the Spirit, so that he cannot do the things that he would." The Apostle Paul himself " groaned within himself, being bur- thened;" and, under a distressing sense of his in-dwelling corruptions, cried, " O wretched man that I am ; who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?" It may be, too, that he is assaulted with violent temptations, and that the fiery darts of Satan are permitted to pierce his soul. At such a season as this he may be ready to write bitter things against himself, and to call in question all that he has ever experienced of the grace of God.]
But, whatever be his trials, a happy issue of them most assuredly awaits him —
[" Light and gladness are sown for him ;" and, though he may wait long for the harvest, " he shall surely reap, if he faint not."
There is in the purposes of God a harvest of happiness secured to him. The trials of Joseph appeared, for a season, to defeat all the expectations which his dreams had excited ; but they led, all of them in succession, to the accomplishment of his predestined elevation. Our blessed Lord, if viewed in the garden, on the cross, and in the grave, seemed to have been utterly defeated ; but these were the forerunners of his glory : his resurrection soon changed the scene ; his ascension speedily followed ; and his sending of the Holy Spirit shewed, that all which had been ordained respecting him was fulfilled, and that he was invested with ail power to save a ruined world. Thus shall God's purposes be accomplished in the final salvation of all his people. They may be tried, and sorely too, for a season : but they may adopt the language of the Church of old,