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not to give vent to a querulous temper, but to solicit aid in presenting such considerations as may animate your resolution and confirm your fortitude. How sad is it when men find in their families, when they detail the losses and the indignities they have met with, auditors who encourage their fretfulness and excite their revenge, instead of softening the rancour of irritated pride and the bitterness of disappointed hope!

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Search the Scriptures daily. The Bible is the word of Christ's patience. There you will see a goodly company who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises, and there the most animating motives are presented to excite you to follow them. Unless thy law had been my delight my soul had perished in mine affliction. Here patience finds the balm which she drops into the wounds of the heart, the staff by which she supports the weary pilgrim, the light by which she guides through a dark place, and the pillow which she lays beneath the aching head.

Think on the lustre which this will shed on the religion you profess. This has been one of the boasts of philosophy, that it has made men superior to the evils of life, and nothing will degrade Christianity more, in the estimation of such men, than a querulous temper in its followers. Let your conduct therefore be such, that the ministers of Christ will say of you as Paul does of the Thessalonians," We ourselves glory in you in the churches of Christ, for your patience and faith in all the tribulations and persecutions which ye endure; which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may

be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye suffer."*

Think on the approbation which Christ will express of the perfect work of patience; he will whisper to your hearts his gracious message to the church of Thyatira,—“ I know thy works, and thy charity, and service, and thy faith, and thy patience; and thy last works to be more than the first."+ And at the day of judgment he will confess you before his Father and before the angels. He will then confess you as the possessors of passive graces, tried and perfected in suffering, peculiar in heaven to himself and you. And consider, that the time is at hand when God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes, and when Christ shall present his followers to his Father a glorious church, nor having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

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ment in it, and many of the hinderances, which persons in youth and manhood experience in the exercise of this grace, do not impede you. Ye have felt the benefits of affliction, and may now be expected to glorify God in the fire; ye have felt the misery of contention and revenge, and may now be expected to be quiet and gentle; you are about to give account of yourselves to God, and is it not fit that you should labour to stand complete in all his will? Your friends are bound to bear with your infirmities and weak nesses; but much more respectable and happy will it be, both for you and for them, if your contentment and meekness be such as that you make no claims on their forbearance, and are no hinderance to their joy. An aged saint, thus perfect in patience, hath the life of God amidst the decays of nature, and the peace of heaven in the days of evil.

CONCLUSION.

In concluding this discourse, I shall give you a few counsels to aid you in the cultivation of this principle.

Be frequent in your prayers to the God of patience, that he may confirm you to the end. Let the prayer of Paul for the Colossians be your request for yourselves," That you may be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, to all longsuffering and patience with joyfulness." While worldly men pray for the removal of affliction, good men pray for grace to bear it patiently; and while the aged, who are strangers to piety, fret under infirmities which must be borne, the Christian is thankful that

they are so alleviated to him, and that he can obtain mercy and find grace to help him in the time of need.

Study with care the character of Jesus, and especially his patience. The character of the Saviour is altogether lovely, Fancy can conceive nothing so beautiful as his purity, and nothing so sweet as his gentleness and benignity. Behold the Lamb of God, and, whatever your temptations to impatience are, you will find an answer to them in the life of Jesus. Are you ready to fret that you have such difficulties to struggle with in your endeavours to promote the spiritual welfare of your connexions? Think of Christ's gentleness with the froward, his condescension to the simple, and his long-suffering with the perverse. Are you ready to fret that you meet with so many indignities in an inoffensive and beneficent life? Think of him who found insult and injury in every scene to which he went in mercy. Are you ready to fret that you have not a more comfortable bed on which to repose after the labours of a toilsome day? Consider, that thy bed of chaff and straw is better than the sides of the ship on which Christ lay down. Are you ready to fret that you have not more of the comforts of God's presence? Think of him who died forsaken. And are you ready to fret at the thought that your last days are likely to be imbittered by indigence and pain and the company of the worthless? Think of him who died on a cross betwixt two thieves.

Converse frequently with your companions in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. You should state your sorrows to each other,

not to give vent to a querulous temper, but to solicit aid in presenting such considerations as may animate your resolution and confirm your fortitude. How sad is it when men find in their families, when they detail the losses and the indignities they have met with, auditors who encourage their fretfulness and excite their revenge, instead of softening the rancour of irritated pride and the bitterness of disappointed hope!

Search the Scriptures daily. The Bible is the word of Christ's patience. There you will see a goodly company who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises, and there the most animating motives are presented to excite you to follow them. Unless thy law had been my delight my soul had perished in mine affliction. Here patience finds the balm which she drops into the wounds of the heart, the staff by which she supports the weary pilgrim, the light by which she guides through a dark place, and the pillow which she lays beneath the aching head.

Think on the lustre which this will shed on the religion you profess. This has been one of the boasts of philosophy, that it has made men superior to the evils of life, and nothing will degrade Christianity more, in the estimation of such men, than a querulous temper in its followers. Let your conduct therefore be such, that the ministers of Christ will say of you as Paul does of the Thessalonians," We ourselves glory in you in the churches of Christ, for your patience and faith in all the tribulations and persecutions which ye endure; which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may

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