accomplishment under the Christian dispensation3. I may well, therefore, lead you to consider,
I. To what circumstances God's people may be re- duced—
The whole Bible attests, that God's people are more or less " a poor and afflicted people b."
They are exposed, like others, to temporal afflic- tions—
[They have no exemption from troubles, either personal or domestic. Disease, with all its attendant evils, will press on them as well as others ; and the loss of dear relatives be felt by them as keenly as by any others. And especially if there be misconduct in their offspring, it will be more acute and pungent in them, in proportion as they feel the value of their own souls, and are concerned for the souls of those connected with them. In addition to the common calamities of life, they have also some as arising from religion itself. For who ever followed the Lord fully without having a cross to bear? We are told, that " all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." And so we find it in actual experience. From the time of Abel to the present hour, there has not been one who was " really born after the Spirit that has not been hated and persecuted by those who have been born only after the flesh c."]
To spiritual troubles, also, they are subjected in no slight degree —
[At their first turning to the Lord, they are not unfre- quently bowed down under such a load of guilt as makes them apprehensive that they shall never find acceptance with their offended God. And, at subsequent periods also, they are often "in heaviness, through manifold temptations." Satan, their malignant adversary, harasses them with his assaults ; and with his fiery darts inflicts a wound upon their inmost soulsd. Sometimes, too, they are made to experience the hidings of God's face, and to fear that he has utterly withdrawn his loving- kindness from theme. In comparison of this, all other troubles are light : " The spirit of a man may sustain any common infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Even our blessed Lord, who uttered no complaint on account of any other sufferings, cried out by reason of this, " My God, my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ? "]
a Compare chap. lxiv. 4. with 1 Cor. ii. 9. b Zeph. iii. 12. c Gal. iv. 29. A Eph. vi. 16. e Ps. lxxvii. 2, 3, 7, 8, 9.