the common feelings of humanity, they must find afflictions grievous to them, exactly as others do. Even the most eminent saints have at times been ready to sink under their burthens. Behold David on the death of his rebellious son, Absalom; how bitterly he bewailed his loss'! See Hezekiah under the pres- sure of what he supposed to be an incurable disease ; how " he mourned like a dove, and his eyes failed with looking upward k ! " Thus it is with many under the loss of dear relatives, or the pressure of embarrassed circumstances, or the agonies of an acute disorder : they are ready to faint under their trials, and to be " weary even of life itself1."]
2. Persecutions —
[Fitly is persecution compared to the scorching heat of the meridian sun. We are told what fatal effects it produces on those who have no root of grace in themselves"1; and the most steadfast Christians are exhorted to " consider Him who en- dured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest they should be weary and faint in their minds n." Even the Apostle Paul himself was sometimes "cast down0," and needed pecu- liar supports from heaven". And though we are not now ex- posed to all those cruelties which the first Christians endured, yet there are many and heavy trials to be borne by " all who will live godly in Christ Jesus :" and he must be a faithful labourer, who supports without fainting " the burthen and heat of the day."]
3. Temptations —
[It is not without reason that the weapons with which Satan assaults the believer are represented as "fiery darts;" for when injected into the soul, they set the whole man, as it were, on fire, and " the poison of them altogether drinks up our spirits'1." Who has ever known what it is to be haunted with atheistical and blasphemous thoughts ; or what, to be harassed with doubts about the truth of Christianity; or what, to be tormented with apprehensions of having committed the sin against the Holy Ghost : who that has ever felt the almost irresistible impulses of corruption, aided by the dreadful work- ings of despair ; who, in short, is in any respect acquainted with the wiles of Satan, and the depths of his own depravity ; and has not been constrained to cry, " Lord, I am oppressed ; undertake for me!"?]
1 2 Sam. xviii. 33. k Isai. xxxviii. 10 — 14.
1 See Ps. cvii. 5, 10, 18, 26, 27. and xxxviii. 1 — 8. and xlii. 7. and Job x. 1.
'" Matt. xiii. 6, 21. " Heb. xii. 3. ° 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9.
P Acts xviii. 9, 10. See also Ps. cxliii. 3 — 8. i Job vi. 4.
933.] god's kindness to his people. 173
But these troubles shall only bring them to the enjoyment of,
III. The mercies reserved for them —
As once God made the rivers and the sea to become dry land, so will he open rivers in the dry and thirsty wilderness. He will supply the wants of his drooping and dejected people : he has treasured up for them an inexhaustible fund of consolation,
1. In the promises of his Gospel —
[What " wells of salvation" are opened in the holy Scriptures ! and with what unspeakable joy do thirsting souls " draw water out of them ! " A believing application of one single promise to the soul is more reviving, even in the most disconsolate state, than any cup of water can possibly be to one perishing with thirst. Let, for instance, that consoling declaration which was made to Paul, when he complained so bitterly of the thorn in his flesh, and of the buffetings of Satan ; let that promise, I say, come home in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and the very same effects will instantly follow ; our tears will be wiped away, and all our complaints be changed into triumphant exultations'".]
2. In the communications of his grace —