sometimes a thorny and tangled path.  Dangers also, more or less near and alarming, keep the pilgrim often under apprehension, and always on his guard.  Still, he pursues a straight-forward course, from which he deviates little—for he possesses a guide more unerring than the compass of the mariner, and that guide is the infallible Word of God.  When darkness obscures, difficulties perplex, and dangers environ his road, in his unfailing “lamp” he finds light, guidance, and safety.

At this moment, a dark cloud hangs over this country:—nay, more, the storm of Divine displeasure has already commenced.  Lest, therefore, it should burst upon us in its full “fury,” let all betake themselves to that blessed light, which, amid the thickest darkness and most appalling storm, can “guide our feet into the way of peace.” [14a]  Let the enquiry be made as to the course to be adopted in the words of a Prophet: “What will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far?  To whom will ye flee for help?” [14b]  Let the same Prophet reply: “Trust ye in the lord for ever, for in the lord jehovah is everlasting strength.” [14c]

Trust in God is the necessary fruit of faith, which is the only basis on which religion can rest: “he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him:” [14d] thus, except with one philosophical school of antiquity, a belief in the being of a God has, even amongst the Heathen, always been accompanied by a trust in His Providence.  In the Christian scheme, this trust is a fixed, governing principle.  “To take notice of the hand of God in every thing that befalls us,” says the learned and excellent Sherlock, “to attribute all the evils we suffer, and all the good things, to His sovereign will and appointment: this is the foundation of all the other duties which we owe to Providence, and the general neglect of this makes us defective in all the rest.” [15a]

This passage supplies a clear view of Christian duty under afflictive dispensations.  As faith recognises an Almighty Father’s will in the appointment, and His hand in the direction of events, the believer refers equally national and individual prosperity and adversity, mercies and visitations, to Him, “whose power ruleth over all.”  And as he refers all events to the will and appointment of the great Governor of the Universe, he endeavours to receive whatever befalls him, as coming from His hand, with patient submission and humble thankfulness: for he knows how immeasurably his punishment falls short of his deserts; and he is assured, that “God chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.” [15b]  At the same time, therefore, that he relies with firm dependence on the tender mercies, the blessed guidance, and sure protection of his Heavenly Father; he seeks for grace to improve to the spiritual advancement of himself and others, the divine chastisements,—“chastisements which originate in love, and are tempered with mercy:” [15c] “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”[16a]  He enters, therefore, anew upon a careful review of his past life, and again summons before the bar of conscience, “the sins of his youth, and the offences of his riper age;” he recalls to mind the warnings he has had, the privileges he has enjoyed, and the mercies he has received; and he institutes a rigid scrutiny into his present life, which he tries by the unerring test of God’s holy word.  And if he be sincere and honest, and not a dissembler with God, and a deceiver of himself, the language will spontaneously burst from his lips; “It is good for me that I have been in trouble, that I may learn Thy statutes.” [16b]  “Oh, Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction,” [16c]—“Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and in misery.  The sorrows of my heart are enlarged; oh, bring Thou me out of my troubles; look upon my adversity and misery, and forgive me all my sin.” [16d]

Not that probably his life has been stained with deeper or more numerous offences than the generality of men: it may be that he has been “brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” and has never departed from serving his God; it may be that he has long ranked amongst those who strive to be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, amongst whom they shine as lights in the world.” [17a]  But still there lives not the man who has not much to repent of, and to humble himself for, before the Lord.  And when the sorrows of life, the judgments of God, or the approach of death, loosen the hold of earthly ties upon the affections, and the attention becomes intently fixed on that invisible world of spirits, whither all are hastening: then, even he, who has long sought to serve his God with devout reverence and holy obedience, feels with stronger force, and sees with clearer view, the fearful extent of his omissions of duty and commissions of sin.  When he considers that one moment may suffice to usher him into the presence of that Great Being, of infinite purity, in whose sight the heavens are not clean; when he remembers the condemnation passed on all sin by a righteous law;—conscious guilt compels him to bow before the Lord with the deep self-abasement of him who “smote