if any man lack wisdom, he may ask of God, and find that he giveth to all men liberally. He deals with us as a father with his children. He secures our application to him, by letting us feel our daily need. Perhaps here is the secret cause of many of the trials, both inward and outward, which befal the Christian. They drive us to prayer. Thus God keeps us dependent on himself, and promotes that free and gracious intercourse which belongs to those whom he has adopted in Christ Jesus: who, as his children, have liberty to come boldly to the throne of grace; to "cry, Abba, Father." For if earthly parents, with all the evil that is in their hearts, still seldom fail in giving good gifts to their children; "shall not your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Only let them ask in faith, nothing wavering.

Many things, no doubt, we might ask, and not obtain. God will grant the petitions of his servants as may be most expedient for them. The unlimited promise is given, not to every prayer, but to the prayer for spiritual aid; for wisdom, true and heavenly wisdom-wisdom we shall not seek in vain, if we ask in faith, nothing wavering: nothing wavering in our desire for it, nothing wavering in our conviction that it must come, and can come, from God alone. Seasons there will be when the Christian's path may seem to himself so dark and perplexing, so beset with difficulties, that nothing is before him but despair. And yet, in that darkest hour and day of gloom, there is light prepared and safety provided; the way we know not, for "we walk by faith, and not by sight;" but it is sure, for

"he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." The history of Elisha illustrates this, as related 2 Kings vi. 15. The king of Syria had resolved to seize the prophet, and encompassed the city in which he was lodging" with a host of men, horses, and chariots." The servant of the man of God rising early perceived this, and said, "Alas, master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: they that be with us are more than they which be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." There was a power encompassing him, invisible to mortal eye, but seen by the prophet's faith, which restrained the enemies of Elisha.

And thus it is that God's children are preserved and strengthened, and guided in a way that they know not. The timid Christian faints at the thought of the difficulties which he must encounter, the enemy without and the enemy within, one assaulting and the other betraying, as he works out his salvation against the power of Satan in an evil world. We may use the words of Elisha, and say, "Open his eyes, Lord, that he may see." Could his eyes be thus opened, he would behold the preparation made for his security: no assault of Satan, for which a way of escape was not provided; no inward weakness which there was not grace to strengthen; no outward obstacle which there was not power to overcome. In fact, we have abundant proof of this, in what God has

already done, and is daily effecting for those who take him at his word, and do ask wisdom of him, nothing wavering. Do we not find the truth confirmed: He giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not? In all the temptations which poverty or wealth, which contempt or honour, which the feebleness of age or the frailty of youth, present, do we not find wisdom given, by which the children of God are carried safely through all their trials? We see those who have this world's good, not trusting in uncertain riches, but "rich towards God," "rich in good works." We see others, whose lot is poverty, like Paul of old, able, "in whatsoever state they are, therewith to be content." We see one who is honoured of his fellow-men, "lowly in his own eyes," and "setting others before himself." We see the simple become wise; the meek become bold in the cause of God. We see the beauty and energy of youth preferring "the reproach of Christ to the pleasures of sin for a season," and devoting the first-fruits of life to the service of God. We see the feeble and delicate braving pain with cheerfulness, and the heart that bleeds with sorrow smiling through tears. In short, we see wisdom supplied, the very wisdom which the case requires, to those that are indeed the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. So that, to encourage us, we have both promise and performance. We have the promise of Him, whose character it is that he is. "faithful," not one who turns or varies. And we have the performance too. God does bestow wisdom on his people, that others, led by their example, and convinced by

C

their good conversation which they behold, may in their turn be brought to the same heavenly Father, to ask the same wisdom, and experience the same almighty power.

Therefore, if any of you lack wisdom, or be in difficulty and "heaviness through manifold temptations," take your example from that history which has been recorded in scripture for our instruction in righteousness. We are there informed how Hezekiah received from the king of Assyria the message which threatened destruction to his kingdom. "And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand." 8

Do thus in the case of any prevalent temptation, any present perplexity, any seeming danger, any besetting sin. Spread it before the Lord in faith, nothing wavering. And be assured that the answer will be to you, as it was to Hezekiah, "That which thou hast prayed unto me, I have heard."

82 Kings xix. 19-20.

LECTURE III.

THE SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF TRIAL.

JAMES i. 9-12.

9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice, in that he is exalted.

10. But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

11. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

The apostle returns to the trials of which he had before been speaking: the trials which the Christians to whom he wrote were often called to suffer, because they were Christians. They were liable to be imprisoned: to be ill treated in various ways: to be deserted by their friends: to lose their means of livelihood to be deprived of their estates and goods. This might happen to either class: to the rich, or to the brother of low degree. And he offers reasons to both why they might submit to such afflictions with cheerfulness, and count it all joy, find reason to rejoice, when they fell into such temptations.

It might happen to the poor. It had happened in a special manner to those whom St. James was now addressing, the twelve tribes that were scat