Part I: Consolation

Yes! consolation. Yours, even yours is not a case that excludes all comfort. There is balm for the wounds of a widow’s heart.

1. It may seem a strange and unlikely method of comforting you, to remind you of happiness Tor ever led, and scenes of enjoyment that have vanished like some bright vision; but is it not a comfort to retrace the history of your union, and to remember that you loved and were beloved; that you lived in harmony and peace with your departed husband; that you had his confidence and his heart, and he yours; that you travelled pleasantly together in this desert world, and made the journey a delightful one while it lasted? You have nothing but holy and happy reminiscences. Is not this better than the retrospect of an ill-assorted match, and the scenes of discord and strife which such unions bring with them? His picture, his chair, his dear name, if they form the most sorrowful, yet, at the same time, do they awaken the most sacred associations. His image, as it rises in the region of imagination, is no sullen spectre, cold, frowning, and perturbed, and that looks upon you as if to upbraid you for the past; but it is a blessed shadep smiling, complacent, and calm, that still beams with the same affection with which it was wont to do: and you feel as if you had nothing to offer in the way of apology or atonement, for the purpose of propitiating and tranquillizing it. You still feel in mysterious and happy fellowship, though separated by the wide deep gulph of the grave. Extract comfort, then, from your very tears, for love has left a drop even in them. You were happy, and that should prevent you being wretched now: you were his comfort on earth, and assisted him on his pilgrimage to heaven; where, perhaps, he is now thinking of you before the throne, and finding a place for your name in the song of his gratitude before the fountain of mercy.

2. Perhaps you were permitted to be with him in his mortal sickness, and to minister to his comfort, as long as he needed it and was capable of understanding your ministrations. “I am glad I am not a king,” said a dying husband to an affectionate and devoted wife, who never left him night or day, till his spirit forsook its clay: “for then,” continued he, “I should not be waited upon by you.” How tender and how soothing are the attentions of a wife at all times; but oh what are they not in the chamber of sickness and death. Men who set little value on the kind offices of their wifes in the time of health and activity, have been glad to have them at their bed-side, in the season of disease, and at the last hour: but how doubly precious are such offices in death, to those who loved their wives, and prized their attentions in life. Such, afflicted woman, was, perhaps, your case. You were his constant attendant. You waited, watched and laboured, to the uttermost of your strength, to smooth the pillow of sickness, and the bed of death. The food, and the medicine were always most welcome from your gentle hand; he forgot his pains in your presence; and it was some mitigation of her sorrows, while as his ministering angel you occupied the post of observation, darker every hour, that you saw how much you contributed to his comfort. You heard the words of love and gratitude that fell from the sufferer’s lips; you saw the looks and tears which spoke what words were too weak to utter; and taxed your energies almost boyond what nature could supply, to meet the necessities of one whose flickering lamp seemed to be kept from extinction, by your vigilance and tenderness.

Well, it is all over now* Affection has done its last, as well as its best, and its uttermost. Is it not consoling to you to think of all this? — Especially if you were enabled to minister to the comfort of the soul, as well as to the body, and by words of scripture promise, to drive away the gloomy thoughts and disturbing fears which lighted upon his spirit as he approached the dark valley. Perhaps it was reserved for that solemn hour, for your dying husband to disclose to you the state of his soul, and to express to Vour more entire satisfaction, than you had felt before, his sense of sin, his faith in Christ, and his hope of glory. How beautifully is this described in the life of Mrs. Graham, of New York. “He brought me, and my idol,” says that excellent woman, “out of a barren land, placed us under the breath of prayer, among a dear little society of methodists; he laid us upon their spirits, and when the messenger, death, was sent for my beloved, the breath of prayer ascended from his bedside, from their little meeting; and I believe from their families and closets. The God of mercy prepared their hearts to pray, and his ear to hear, and the answers did not tarry. Behold, my husband prayeth; confesses sin; applies to the Saviour; pleads for forgiveness for his sake; receives comfort; blesses God for Jesus Christ, and dies with these words upon his tongue, ‘I hold fast by the Saviour.’ Behold another wonder! the idolatress in an ecstasy of joy. She who never could realise a separation for one single minute during his life, now resigns her heart’s treasure, with praise and thanksgiving. 0 the joy of that hour! its savour remains in my heart to this moment. For five days and nights, I had been little off my knees, it was my ordinary posture at his bed-side, and in all that time, I had but once requested his life. The Spirit helped my infirmities with groanings that could not be uttered, leading me to pray for that which God had determined to bestow; making intercession for my husband according to the will of God.’” 3. And this is intimately connected with another source of consolation, I mean the consideration of the happiness of your departed sainted husband, where indeed there is satisfactory ground to believe he died in the Lord. “How does the reflection,” says Mrs. Huntingdon, after she became a widow, “that our departed friends have reached the point which we must reach before we can be happy, sweeten and soothe the anguish of separation! Let us contemplate them in every supposable view, and the prospect is full of consolation. We cannot think of them as what they were, or what they are, without pleasure. They are the highly favoured of the Lord, who, having finished all that they had to do in this vale of tears, are admitted to the higher services of the upper temple. True, when we look at our loss, nature will feel.” Be it so, tha* you are sorrowful, it is not, as regards your husband, a sorrow without hope. You have no grief on his account. Time was when you wept for him: you saw him hardened with care; exhausted by labour; perplexed with difficulties; sometimes humbled by a sense of his imperfections; and in his closing scenes, pale with sickness, racked with pain, till the tears glistened in his eye, and the groan escaped his breast; but he will suffer no more; the days of his mourning are ended; and he is floating on a fullness of joy in God’s presence, and surrounded with pleasures for evermore at his right hand. Strive then so far to rise above your grief, as to rejoice with him, though he cannot weep with you. You loved, and tried to make him I appy upon earth, and smiled when you in any measure succeedec, take some comfort in the thought that God has made him happy in heaven. Think jf him not as in the grave, but as in glory. Say in the language of that beautiful epitaph,

Forgive, blest shade! the tributary tear,

That mourns thy exit from a world like this,

Forgive the wish, that would have kept thee here, Aud stayed thy progress to the seats of bliss.

No more confin’d to grovelling scenes of night,

No more a tenant pent in mortal clay, Now should we rather hail thy glorious flight,

And trace thy journey to the realms of day.

But perhaps, in all this, I do but lacerate some widows’ heart already wounded, by the fear, their husbands’ spirits are not in heaven. Then turn from the subject in deep and silent submission. Confide in the equity of God. Rely upon his unerring wisdom. If you cannot reflect with comfort, and hope, endeavour not to reflect at all. Say, “shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” If this source of consolation be closed, turn to the others, and they are many.

4. Recollect that God lives. “He lives, said the Psalmist,” and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.” God lives! What a compass of thought and of consolation is there in that one expression; and akin to it is the language of Christ, to the beloved apostle in the isle of Patmos, “Behold, I am alive for evermore.” Die who will, Christ lives. How often is he called in scripture, u the living God;” it is one of his most frequently repeated titles; and dwelling as we do, amidst the tombs, it is one of his most comforting, as well as one of his most sublime and impressive ones, especially to those who have been called to sustain the loss of friends by death. Thus we find there is a title, and attribute, and view, and operation of God, suited to all the varieties of our circumstances, our wants, our woes, and our fears. There is bounty for our wants; mercy for our sins and miseries; patience for our provocations; power for our weakness; truth for our fears; wisdom for our ignorance; immutability for our vicissitudes; and because our friends are dying, and we also are following them to the grave, he is presented to us as the living God. And as he lives, all that belongs to him lives with him. His attributes neither change nor die. Just look at one view of his nature and conduct as given by the apostle: “The God of all comfort:’ — 2 Cor. i. 3.” Beautiful representation! And akin to it is that other, “God that comforteth those that are cast down.” — 2 Cor. vii. 7. What ideas are contained in these two aspects of God. They seem to tell us that not only is all comfort in him, and from him, and for all people who are willing to be comforted; not only that his consolations are such as by way of eminence and excellence, deserve to be called comfort, almost exclusively; but also that he is in his nature all comfort to his people, and in his dealings always comforting them. His nature is one vast fountain of consolation, and his operations, so many streams flowing from it. Now this God lives; lives to comfort you. Your earthly comforter is gone; but your heavenly one remains. Is there not enough in his power to protect and support you; in his wisdom to guide you; in his all sufficiency to provide for you; in his goodness to pity you; in his love to supply you; in his presence to cheer you? In your troubled and broken condition of mind, you need subjects oi consolation which are not only sufficient in themselves, but which can be simply expressed and easily apprehended, without any long train of thought, or elaboration of argument. Here then is one, containing all comforts in one, “God lives.” Seize the simple yet wondrous conception; take it home to your afflicted bosom; apply it to your forlorn and desolate spirit; repeat it to yourself; and by the power of it drive away unbelief, distrust, and all the crowd of dark, desponding thoughts, which hover like foul birds of night over the desolate heart, there to nestle, and utter their moaning voices. Learn from a little child who seeing her widowed mother in weeds and in tears, asked the question, “Is God Almighty dead, mamma?”

5. The Lord Jesus Christ in all his mediatorial offices, all his redeeming grace, all his tender sympathy, and all the blessings of his salvation, still remains. “Fear not,” said he to John, in language already quoted, “I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell, (the unseen world) and of death.” — Rev. i. 19. Oh there is enough in these sublime words to support and comfort all the widows that are at this moment, or ever will be upon earth. Here they are not only told, that the Redeemer has exclusive dominion over death and the invisible world, so that none ever turns, or holds the key but himself, but also that he lives in all the plenitude of his power and grace to comfort those who survive. All that there is in the incarnation and death of Christ as the Saviour of a lost and ruined world; in his resurrection from the grave; in his ascension into heaven, and intercession at the right hand of the Father; in his universal government of the world; in the promise, the purpose, and the hope of his second coming; in the assurance that he is now in the midst of his church, and will never leave it; in the distant prospect of the millennial days when his glory shall cover all lands; — all this remains to console the hearts of his mourning people in their sorrows upon earth, and connected with all this, are the blessings that result from his mediatorial work, the pardon of all our sins, the justification of our persons, the sanctification of our nature, adoption, perseverance; — in short a perfect salvation. And is there one who can think so little of these things as to find in them no adequate consolation in the hour and scene of her woe! Oh believer, is there not enough in all thisp to save you from fainting? Bereaved woman, shall your sorrows at the grave of the most affectionate husband that a wife ever had, or ever lost, weigh down the cross, the atonement, the righteousness, the sympathy, the grace of Christ? He is still the same as to compassion, as he was when upon earth. Those eyes that wept at the grave of Lazurus, look on you; that bosom that groaned over the sorrows of Martha and Mary, cherishes you. He that pitied the widow ofNain, pities you. “In all your affliction, he is afflicted, and the angel of his presence is with you.’* In all his unsearchable riches of grace, in his promises of truth, and in his invitations he is with you, and has said,” I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Not a promise died, when your husband did; not a fruit of grace, or an earnest of glory whithered when he departed. Not a single gospel consolation lies entombed in his sepulchre. The cup of your earthly prosperity may be emptied, but not a drop is lost from the cup of salvation. Death has deprived you of your temporal enjoyment, but your eternal salvation in Christ still remains. You are called to bear your cross, but look up, there is Christ bearing, and borne by, his also. In one sense your husband sleeps in the tomb of Jesus; for we “are dead and buried with him.” Wherefore comfort yourself with these thoughts.

5. God has in a most especial manner interested himself on behalf of widows, and their fatherless children.

Just see how he has literally crowded the page of inspiration, with declarations concerning them. He has revealed himself in a very especial manner as the widow’s God.

Observe how he has fenced in their interests and protected them from injury. “Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherelss child.” — Exod. xxh. 22. “Thou shalt not take the widow’s garment to pledge.” — Deut. xxiv. 17. “Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the fatherless and the widow.” — Deut. xxix. 19. “Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” — Isaiah i. 17. “If ye oppress the fatherless and the widow, then will I cause you to dwell in this place.” — Jer. iii. 6. “Oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless.” — Zech. vii. 10. “In this have they vexed the widow.” — Ezek. xxii. 7.

Observe next the injunctions delivered not even to neglect the widow. “And the fatherless and the widow which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and shall be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in ail the work of thy hand, that thou doest.” — Deut. xiv. 29. “When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them onto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the father- •ess, and to the widow, according to all the commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them.” — I)eut. xxvi. 12, 13.

Then dwell upon those passages in which kindness to widows is spoken of by men, or by God himself. “I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.’1 — Job xxvi. 13. In opposition to which he gives it as the mark of the wicked; “They drive away the ass of the fatherless, and take the widow’s ox for a pledge.” — Job xxiv. 3. “The Lord will establish the border of the widow.” — Prov. xv. 25. “A judge of the fatherless and widows is God in his holy habitation.” — Psalm lxix. 5. “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me.” — Jer. xlix. 11. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, — to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” — James i. 27.

“What widow is there who in casting her eye over such passages as these, but must be comforted in thus witnessing the deep interest God takes in her forlorn condition, when he has not only promised her what he will do himself, but commanded in every variety of form and expression all others to sympathise with her, and actually to befriend her. She may surely say: —

Poor though I am, despised, forgot,
Yet God, my God! forsakes me not.

Whoever is passed over by Jehovah, the widow receives his special notice.

6. Perhaps you have still many friends left; foi it is rarely the case that a widow has none, either on her own side, or on that of her late husband. There is something in your case that calls forth sympathy. Your very dress with silent but expressive signs, seems to say, “My husband is in his grave, pity me.” Hearts not easily moved have relented, and eyes unaccustomed to weep have shed tears, at the recital of your loss. Low as human nature has sunk by our apostacy from God, it has not lost all that is kind and amiable towards our fellow-creatures, and in the exercise of this kindness, many are predisposed to be the friends of the widow. Do not refuse their friendship. Open your hearts and let them pour in the balm of sympathy. Do not discourage them in their efforts to interest or please, nor undervalue them. The sun of your bright day has set, and it is night: but do not despise the lunar beams, nor even the twinkling of a few scattered stars: even this is better than rayless gloom. Some, I admit there are, who in losing husband, lose almost every friend they have on earth. Let them think of the friend, who is all friends in one, I mean, the widow’s God.

7. Is there not upon record such an assurance as this, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his promise.” — Rom. viii. 28. The consolation I know is limited to a particular class of persons, “to them that love God and are called according to his purpose,” and none have a right to appropriate the the comfort, but they who answer to the character. To none else can good come out of evil: for none else is God preparing a happy result of all their troubles; for none else are his mighty and glorious attributes of wisdom and power weaving the dark threads of their history into a texture of felicity, and a garment of praise. But then all are invited, and may instantly accept the invitation, to come within the comprehension of this circle of good, by coming through faith into the love of God. To those who are already there, how inexpressibly consoling, if they have faith to receive it, is the assurance, that there is good to be extracted for the widow, from her tears. Observe it is good, not ease: concealed, not apparent good; future, not present good. What an illustration of this passage of scripture is the history of the patriarch Joseph. Sorrow upon sorrow settled on the heart of his venerable father, as one bad report of his children after another fell upon his ear, till in the agony of his spirit he exclaimed, “All these things are against me.” And judging by appearances, he was right. Appearances, however were fallacious. Jacob could not see to the end, and he who cannot, should not pronounce what the end will be. All things were at die time working together for good, though it was impossible for him to conjecture in what way. Equally impossible is it for you to see, or even to imagine, nor do I pretend to foretel, in what way good can rise to you from a husband’s grave. All your brightest prospects have vanished; all your springs of earthly consolation are dried up; your support and that of your children, is cut off; in such an event, reason can see nothing but unmixed evil for the present, and portents of woe for the future; and it really seems like a mockery of your woe to tell you, it will work for your good. But is it not promised? If so, it must be fulfilled, though in a way unknown to us. Suppose any one had gone to the venerable patriarch when he was weeping, first for Joseph, and then for Benjamin, and uttered this astonishing language in his hearing, “All is working for your good;” would he not have looked up, and with a reproving voice, said, “Do you come to mock me?” Yet he lived to see that it was so. If God says it is good, it must be so, for he can make it good. It may not be good for your temporal comfort, but it may be for your eternal welfare; and if not for yours, it may be for your children’s; if not for theirs, it may have been for your husband’s. You may never see how it is for good in this world. Many go all their lives without having the mystic characters of the event decyphered, and the secret workings of God’s love laid open; they die in ignorance of his plans, though not of his purposes. So it may be with you. The right side of the embroidery may never be turned to you here, and looking only at the tangled threads and dark colours of the back part, all now appears confusion; but when the front view shall be seen, and the design of the divine artist, and all the connexions of the piece shall be pointed out, and the colouring shall be shown in the light of heaven, with what adoring wonder, delight, and gratitude will you exclaim, as the whole bursts upon your sight, “0 the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. All things have worked together for my good.”

8. Recollect the admonition of the apostle; “This I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that use the world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away.” — 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. Time is short. Solemn expression! The death of the worldling’s joy; but the solace of the Christian’s sorrows. WidoAV, you cannot weep long, even though you go weeping to your grave. The days of your mourning are numbered, and must end soon. The vale of tears is not interminable. You are passing through it; and will soon pass out of it. Be patient, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Eternity is at hand, through the everlasting ages of which you will weep no more, for God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people. In hell sinners weep for ever; in heaven saints never weep.

9. And then what felicity awaits you on that blessed shore, on which your departed husband stands looking back wonderingly on the dark waters of the river he has passed, and beckoning you away to the realms of immortality. You will soon follow to the regions of which it is said, “there will be no more death.” Heaven is a world of life, eternal life, never to be interrupted by the entrance, or even the fear of death; and this is before you. They who are united by the bonds of Christian, as well as conjugal love, do not lose one another in the dark valley never to meet in the world of immortals. They drop the fleshly bond in the grave, and all that appertained to it, but not the spiritual tie that makes them one in Christ. United in the honors and felicities of that blessed world, where all are blessed perfectly, and for ever, you shall receive together the answer of those prayers you presented upon earth; realise the anticipations you indulged while travelling across the desert of mortality; trace together the providential events of your earthly history; learn why you were united, and why separated; see the wisdom and goodness of those events, which once appeared so dark, and drew so many tears from your eyes; indulge in reminiscences, all of which will furnish new occasions of wonder, new motives to praise, and new sources of delight; point one another to the vista of everlasting ages opening before you, through which an endless succession of joys are advancing to meet you; and then, filled with a pure, unearthly love for each other, fall down before the throne of the Lamb, and feel every other affection absorbed in supreme, adoring love to him. Such a scene is before you; and if it be, then bear your sorrows, afflicted woman, for in what felicities are they to issue, and how soon!

But, perhap j, I should help to comfort the mourner, if, in addition to those gracious promises and directions which are specially appropriate to the case of widows, and which have been already presented to your notice, I lay before you a selection of passages of scripture, which are applicable to all persons in trouble. What words may be expected to have such power over the sorrowful heart, as those of God. Many of these have been already quoted, but there may be an advantage in bringing them all together in one view before the mind.

GOD’S END IN AFFLICTING.

For thou, oh God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. — Psalm lxvi. 10.

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. — Heb. xii. 9, 10.

GOD’S JUSTICE AND FAITHFULNESS IN OUR TRIALS.

Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee. — Jer. xii. 1.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. — Psalm ciii. 10.

It is of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed. — Lam. iii. 22.

Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? — Lam. iii. 39.

I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. — Micah vii. 9.

I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me. Psalm cxix. 75.

GOD’S LOVE IN AFFLICTING US.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father doth the son, in whom he delighteth. — Prov. iii. 11, 12.

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourge th every son whom he receiveth. — Heb. xii. 6.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. — Rev. iii. 19.

GOD A COMFORTER.

The God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. — 2 Cor. i. 3.

God that comforteth those that are cast down. — 2 Cor vii. 6.

GOD A REFUGE.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. The Lord of Hosts is with us. the God of Jacob is our refuge. — Psalm xlvi. 1.

GOD’S PRESENCE WITH US IN THE DEEPEST TRIBULATION.

When thou passest through the waters I will be With thee; and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. — Isaiah xliii. 2.

GOD’S EYE UPON HIS PEOPLE IN SORROW.

He knoweth the way that I take, when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold. — Job xxiii. 10.

GOD CANNOT FORGET HIS PEOPLE.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee. — Isaiah xlix. 15.

TRUST IN GOD ENJOINED, ENCOURAGED, AND EXEMPLIFIED.

And they that know thy name, will put their trust in thee, for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee. — Psalm ix. 10.

And now Lord, what wait I for, my hope is in thee. — Psalm xxxix. 7.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. — Isaiah xxvi. 3-4.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. — Job xiii. 15.

CONSOLATORY ASSURANCES.

Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground. — Job v. 6.

They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. — Psalm xxxiv. 10.

Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. — Psalm xxxvii. 3.

I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. — Psalm xxxvii. 25.

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. — Heb. xiii. 5.

Therefore take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. — Mat. vi. 34.

In all their afflictions he is afflicted. — Isaiah lxiii. 9.

In that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, lie is able to succour them that are tempted. — Heb. ii. 18.

THE SHORT DURATION OF OUR TRIALS.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. — Psalm xxx. 5.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. — Psalm cxxvi. 5.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations. — I Peter i. 6.

But this I say, the time is short — let those that weep be as though they wept not. — 1 Cor. vii. 30.

The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed in us. — Romans viii. 18.

Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. — 2 Cor. iv. 17.

ENCOURAGEMENTS TO CAST OURSELVES AND OUR BURDENS UPON THE LORD.

Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. — Psalm 1. 15.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. — Psalm Iv. 22.

DIRECTIONS AND EXAMPLES HOW TO BEHAVE IN TROUBLE.

And Aaron held his peace. — Lev. x. 3.

It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good. — 1 Sam. iii. 18.

In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. — Job i. 22.

What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not receive evil? — Job ii. 10.

Surely it is meet to say unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more. — Job xxxiv. 3L

I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because
Thou didst it. — Psalm xxxix. 9.

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. — Luke xxii. 42.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Let patience have her perfect work. — James i. 3, 4.

BENEFICIAL RESULT OF AFFLICTION.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted: before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept thy word. — Psalm cxix. 67, 71.

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say it is my people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God. — Zech. xiii. 9.

“We glory in tribulation also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given us. — Rom. v. 3 — 5.

END OF ALL OUR AFFLICTIONS.

There are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before they throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, .leither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. — Rev. vii. 14 — 17.

In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. — Psalm xvi. 11.

Daughter of sorrow, these are the words of God: and they are tried words. Millions now in glory, and myriads more on the way to it, have tried them in the dark hour of their affliction, and have found them a cordial to their fainting spirits. “Unless thy word had supported me,” they have each said, “I had perished in my affliction.” That word did support them, and though the torrent was roaring and rushing furiously, kept them buoyant upon its surface, when they otherwise must have sunk. A single text has in some instances saved the despairing soul from destruction. Read this selected list; what variety of representation, what kindness and compassion of sentiment, what tenderness of language, what beauty in the figures, what force in the allusions, what appropriateness in the epithets, what comprehension in the descriptions! Whose case is omitted? Whose circumstances are tin* touched? Whose sorrows are unnoticed? Re* member, I say again, this is the consolation oi God. It is Jehovah coming to you, and saying to you, “Woman, why weepest thou? Is not all this enough to comfort you? Close not thine hear* against such consolations as these. Be still, ana know that I am God.”