16. On divine consolation in trib-

ULATION FOR Christ's sake.

" In mundo pressuram hahebitis ; sed confidite. Ego vici miiTidum.^^* " In the world you shall have distress ; but haoe confidence^ I have overcome the world.^^ 1 ." It is a comfort to have a companion in misery," saith the proo o o c verb. But who is that friend so affectionate and so good, who shares our miseries and sympathizes in our infirmities ? That friend is Jesus Christ our Lord, who suffered and was crucified for us ; and who, in the gospel, calls Himself the physician and shepherd of our souls, the comforter of the poor, the weak and the afflicted ; the physician of the sick, and the stay of those that fall : — for " they that are well," says He, " have no need of a physician, but they that are sick."* And in like manner David speaks of Him, when he addresses these words of comfort to afflicted souls, '• the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart ;"t and in another Psalm, to give confidence to his servant, proved by temptations and tribulations, God himself says, o o o •' I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify Truly there is mrch. comfort and consolation to all tb'it are sad or afflicted with many calamities; where as Christ wav Himself tempted and afflicted a'^d stricken with many sorro'x^f.. lor our sake.

2. God, v/h.o is sovereignly good and jus* in ail His ways, would not serd r.ains and tribulations in this 'if':; ]t they were not useful and s^Jutary to our souls.

Js)i\ who art thou, sinner, who art ihou, loaded with many sins ? — who art thou who wilt dare, in affliction, to wince under the hand of Him who spared not His own : Son ? — for it is meet and just that the guilty and unprofitable servant should bear without murmuring the light corrections which his master inflicts on him ; since His well-beloved Son, — and He all innocence, was wounded with so many stripes.

It is meet and just that a sick man, anxious to recover his health, should sip some drops from the bitter chalice, which already his physician — who required no such remedy — had drained before him, to neutralize the mortal poison, with which, humanity had been so deeply infected, and to cure perfectly and free from eternal death, erring man, whom sin had deprived of life spiritual, as well as corporal.

The heavy burthen of the servant should be much alleviated by the remembrance of the heavier burthen of sorrows that his innocent master has borne ; and the sick should be much comforted in his sufferinns, when he reflects that these, if borne with resignation, shall serve to cleanse him frum sins, and to assure his hope ot life eternal.

3. It is, indeed, great and glorious for a poor slave to be clothed with the same cloth as his master ; and to wear, as son and heir, the royal purple, that will give a title to assist at the eternal spousals of the Lamb.

The cloth with which Jesus is clothed, is humility of heart, selfdenial, the privation of necessarythings, patience in adversity, and perseverance in virtue.

He that receives with gratitude the chastisements which God inflicts on him, finds in his sorrows, the safety of his soul, and shall receive in heaven a fairer crown of glory.

" Blessed is he that understandeth, concerning the needy and the poor,"* Jesus, who though richer o o than all, willed, for the love of us, to become needy and poor. Blessed is he, thac despising the riches and ease of this lite, walks wisely in His footsteps, and takes up His cross daily to the hour of his death for the siiidty of his soul.