care of a refiner c, and the solicitude of a parent3: and when he sees that his rod has produced its desired effect, he is glad to return to us in the endearments of love, and to confirm our confidence in him by the sweetest tokens of reconciliation and acceptance6.]
2. In multiplying afflictions —
[When our troubles, like those of Job, are many and various, we are ready to conclude that they are sent in wrath. But it is not for us to prescribe how many, or of what con- tinuance, our afflictions shall be. We must consider God as a physician, who prescribes with unerring wisdom, and con- sults the benefit, rather than the inclination, of his patients. We must " walk by faith, and not by sight :" it will be time enough hereafter to see the reasons of God's procedure f. Job was induced at last to account God his enemy : and they who beheld the afflictions of Christ, were ready to say, that " he was judicially stricken, and smitten of God" as the most abandoned of mankind8. But we know that, as Job was, so was Christ, beloved of the Father; and never more beloved than when crying in the depths of his dereliction, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"
Let not any then " write bitter things against themselves" on account of the greatness of their afflictions, but rather accept their trials as tokens of his love; for, " whom he loveth he chasteneth ; and scourgeth every son whom he re- ceivethV]
Advice —
1. Let none be secure, as though affliction were far off from them —
[We may be to-day in affluence ; to-morrow in want : to-day in health ; to-morrow languishing on a bed of sickness : to-day enjoying the society of wife, or children ; to-morrow lamenting their loss. Let us remember, that whatever we have is God's ; it is only lent us for a little while, to be recalled at any hour he shall see fit. Let us learn to hold every thing as by this tenure, that we may be ready at any moment to give up whatever he shall be pleased to require of us. Since " we know not what a day may bring forth," we should stand girt for the service of our God, ever ready to do or suffer his righteous will.]
2. Let none be hasty in their judgments, when called to suffer —
c Mai. iii. 3. rt Ps. ciii. 13. e Jer. xxxi. 20.
f John xiii. 7. s Isai. liii. 4. h Ileb. xii. 6.