fore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job xlii. 5, 6.

"The people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day." Isaiah ix. 13, 14.

"O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgement of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgement of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities : every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in

pieces because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased." Jer. v. 3-6.

[In conversing once with a good man, who had been heavily afflicted, I was much struck with the anxiety he expressed to know, whether the end was gained for which those trials were intended? This seemed to be the one point about which he was most deeply concerned : and this at once commended itself to my mind as the language and feeling of a man of God.

In the two passages quoted from Isaiah and Jeremiah, it should be particularly observed that continued impenitence, and the want of improvement, under suffering and under the lighter strokes of the rod, exposes us to the fiercest infliction of Divine judgements, and to irremediable destruction. For chastisement is a last resource: that to which the God of all goodness and mercy does not ordinarily appeal, till other means have been tried long and without effect. If this, therefore, through our perverseness and obstinacy, should be long

continued, but in vain, there is nothing to be expected but judgement and wrath to the uttermost. "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Prov, xxix. 1. Chastisement, we should remember, is only another kind of reproof, and the ideas are often connected. Rev. iii. 19.

What then shall we think of those who, in the midst of afflictions and sore bereavements, are seeking to drown thought in carnal pleasures and worldly amusements? Who, while God (by the strokes of His rod) says, 'Stop and think,' by their conduct say, 'No, we will not think we will go on in the way of the world, even though it should lead us to destruction?' There are such persons: persons too, who profess and call themselves Christians. Some such may be known to those who will read these reflections. Have they not claims on your compassion and your prayers? But alas! what mortal voice can utter a cry so shrill and piercing as to awaken and alarm them, when God's chastening scourge hath spoken in vain? when

they will not hear the rod, and Him who hath appointed it?]

Have afflictions made God's word more sweet?

"Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. When I said, My foot slippeth; Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul." Psalm xciv. 17-19.

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word.-It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes." Psalm cxix. 67, 71.

[How much is there of the sweetness of God's word which we only taste in the seasons of tribulation and affliction! And how many have found it precious at such times, who had lightly regarded it in prosperity! If then I do not find that word to be more sweet and precious in connection with my sufferings, and in consequence of what I endure, is it not an alarming

proof of a very questionable state of soul? Is there not reason to fear that I am sinking into an awful frame?]

Before I knew Thy chastening rod,

My feet were apt to stray;

But now I learn to know Thy word,
Nor wander from the way.

Have my trials made my prayers more humble and earnest ?

"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray." James v. 13.

"Then Jacob, was greatly afraid and distressed and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will do well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed