formidable then your enemies may appear, remember, that " your Redeemer also is mighty ;" and that, " whilst God is for you, none can with any effect be against you."]
3. His love to overrule every thing for good —
[God has promised to his people that " all things shall work together for their good." How the good shall be elicited from the evil, and especially at the time, they have no idea. But God knows how to accomplish his own gracious purposes by the very means which his enemies are using to defeat them. The history of Joseph, and the book of Esther, draw aside the veil, and shew us how God is acting at this very hour. The instances that occur are invisible to mortal eyes, as they were in the histories referred to: but the plot is going forward; and in due time millions of other instances will be seen, no less real, and no less wonderful than they. It is the privilege of God's people to " commit their ways entirely to him," and he engages that he " will bring to pass " what shall eventually be for their greatest good.]
4. His faithfulness to keep them, even to the end —
[Never does he forsake his poor and afflicted people. He has promised them, " I will never leave thee ; I will never, never forsake thee." We may be confident, as the Apostle was, that " where God has begun a good work, he will carry it on, and perfect it till the day of Christ." This is assured to them by covenant and by oath, that they may have the stronger consolation11. Not that a reliance on their Saviour is to super- sede their own efforts, but rather to encourage them ; seeing that it is by their own efforts he will work : but still it is their privilege to anticipate the issue of their conflicts with confidence; and to rest assured, that " nothing shall ever separate them from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus their Lord."]
Address —
1. Let it not be a grief to any that they are " af- flicted and poor" —
[Such the Saviour himself was ; " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." And shall it be a grief to any to be
made like unto Him ? Besides, it is by our own utter
destitution of all good, that the power and grace of Christ will be magnified. And shall we not thankfully acquiesce in any thing that glorifies him ? The Apostle Paul " took pleasure in his infirmities and distresses," because " the power of Christ was made perfect, and manifested to be perfect, by his weak- ness' :" and this is the proper disposition for us all. Be con- tented to be nothing ; that " Christ may be all in all."]
h Heb. vi. 17—19. * 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.
vol. x. D D