same holy confidence in our God. This is assuredly both our duty and our privilege1; and \vc may comfort ourselves with this reflection, that, " if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together."]
1 Rom. viii. 33 — 39. Mark the peculiar correspondence of this passage with the text, both in spirit and expression.
Isai. 1. 10, 11. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorroio.
OUR blessed Lord was thoroughly furnished for the great work he had undertaken : he had " the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season" to every character. In the days of his flesh he encouraged the weary and heavy-laden with most affectionate invita- tions : but against the proud and persecuting Phari- sees he denounced the heaviest woes. Thus also he did in the passage before us. It is in his name that the prophet speaks : it was he who " gave his back to the smiters," and encountered all his enemies with a full assurance of final success : and he it is who, in the text, proclaims,
I. Comfort to the desponding —
There are some of God's people, who, notwith- standing their integrity, walk in a disconsolate and desponding frame —
[For the most part, the ways of religion are ways of pleasantness and peace ; though there may be found some ex- ceptions to this general rule. Not but that real and unmixt religion must of necessity make men happy : but there are some, whose views of divine truth are clouded, whose souls are harassed with the temptations of Satan, and who are at the same time too much under the influence of unbelief, who therefore, as might well be expected, are not happy ; notwith- standing they truly " fear God, and conscientiously obey his