then, for these lesser trials and petty martyrdoms that you must seek a deeper and more abiding sense of love to our adorable Redeemer; it is the only principle which can enable you to subdue your own wayward tempers, to correct your own rebellious will, to rise superior alike to the smiles or frowns of your fellow-sinners, and to "endure hardness," as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, whenever His name, or His honor, or His word, or His people, need your countenance and your support.

Continuing the narrative, we read, the well-meant advice of St. Paul's friends proving fruitless, "When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done."

It would have been well had they said this sooner, and before they had caused the faithful and affectionate apostle so much unnecessary pain; but alas! brethren, how few are enabled

to say and to feel this at all, how very few, precisely at the proper moment! It is the last lesson which the child of God learns perfectly, even in the school of affliction itself. Yet some there are, we trust in every generation of God's people, who do learn and practice it, as those who have, indeed, been taught of God. It is recorded of the truly pious Fenelon, that, when standing by the dead body of his most valued friend, he gave utterance to this sublime and Christian sentiment: "There lies my friend, and, with him, all my hopes of earthly happiness; but if the moving of a straw would bring him back to life again, I would not be the mover of that straw, without the will of my God, for a thousand worlds." This, indeed, is real Christianity, an entire conformity of man's will to God's will. Let this be your one great aim in passing through life, to know no will but God's; to have your own will so

identified with God's will, so moulded into His, that nothing which He ordains, nothing which He permits, can disappoint, or grieve, or perplex you. There is nothing enthusiastic, nothing overstrained in this feeling; nothing which does not approve itself as readily to the soundest judgment, as to the most ardent affection. For For what is God's will upon every occasion which can occur in the life of a child of God? Is it not precisely that which, if you could see with perfect prescience, and arrange with perfect wisdom, you would, each for himself, unquestionably select? To the real Christian, it does not admit of a doubt that such is the fact; in the will of his Lord, whether manifested towards him in the way of sorrows or of joys, he simply sees the will of his Friend, One who so loved him, even while an enemy and an alien, as to die for him; One who surely cannot love him less, since he

has brought him to Himself.-In every dispensation of the will of his Lord, therefore, he sees that which he is assured Eternity will unquestionably justify, by proving, even to his own comprehension, that every act of that will has been either among his needful food, or his necessary medicines, on the road which leads to Zion. Do I, then, at this moment address any to whom the dispensations of God's will have been often filled with sorrow; and, in this vale of tears, where was there ever yet a large assemblage of Christians, in which no secret mourner found a place? I would say to you, Be not tempted to complain that however the "will of God" may thus be kindness and mercy to others, it is harshness and severity to you; that he has taken from you your most valued comforts or your most cherished joys; your health, your property, your husband, your wife, your child, your only child.

If you are indeed a true believer, the severest privation will not induce you to rebel against the will of your God. Far, very far from it; although for the present "no chastening seemeth joyous but grievous," as even St. Paul himself declares, yet it will not be long before you will do ample justice to Him who chastens you; when "patience has had her perfect work," and faith is once more in exercise, you will think nothing too good for God; you will even acknowledge, as was beautifully expressed by one of old, that "the choicest, the fairest, the sweetest flowers, are fittest for the bosom of God: that if he has taken the best flower in all your garden to plant it in a better soil, you have far more call for gratitude than for repinings, and will still endeavour, prayerfully endeavour, to say from your heart, The will of the Lord be done.""

Christian brethren, if you desire true