sadness become gladness, its thorns a crown, if we but see in them the Eternal Hand of God, moulding us by them for everlasting glory; refining away, through outward ills, our own inward evils; chastening us that we might not perish; checking us, that we might not go astray; recalling us when astray; alluring us by His Goodness; and then again, weaning us from this world, by its very unrest and suffering, that in Him we might find everlasting rest and peace.

A firm faith knows that whatever befalls it from without, will, if, by God's grace, it perseveres, turn to its everlasting good. "There should be no greater comfort to Christian persons," our Church teaches when we are sick, "than to be made like unto Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles and sicknesses. For He Himself went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain; He entered not into His Glory before He was crucified. So truly our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ; and our door to enter into eternal life is gladly to die with Christ, that we may rise again from death, and dwell with Him in everlasting life.”

To this faith, the stepping-stone is humility. Faith tells us that all which befalls us, is the will of God. A humble faith knows, that if it is good, it is of God's goodness, not of our desert; if evil, it is less than we deserve. There was no evil in Paradise. Death, sickness, pain of body and soul, came to us by sin. We are sinners, sick in soul, more or less, whether we know our sickness or no. They know their sickness best, who are least sick. It is the worst sickness, not to know that we are sick. St. John,

whom Jesus loved, says "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Life is one long sickness, in which those of us who are using God's grace, are regaining our health, until the time come, when He Who "forgiveth all our sin," shall “heal all our infirmities, and crown us with mercy and loving-kindness."

Meanwhile, every evil is, in God's purpose, a medicine to our soul, bitter, painful, but full of everlasting health. If we have a mortal disease of the body, we bear, if we are wise, the knife which severs a limb, that the whole body may live; we take readily what is nauseous, endure what is hard, abstain from our food, if we indeed believe that it is for the life of this body. Even so, if we are wise, we should receive every ill of life, not as God's will only, but as the wise and loving will of God, the tender Physician of our souls, Who gives us no one pain which is not, in His Hands, a means to everlasting joy.

"No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous." Every, the least, trial has its own weight. It is our wisdom and humility to own this. Were it not so, people would not bear petty trials so ill. It is not lack of patience to feel an ill, nor to be oppressed by it, nor to be "heavy and exceeding sorrowful under it." Our Loving Lord sanctified such human feelings by the heaviness which, in the garden, He allowed to come over His Soul. Impatience is not, to feel the weight of suffering, but to attempt to throw it off; not, to be bowed down, but to rebel; not, to be cut to the heart with anguish, nor to writhe in agony, but not "out of the deep, to call upon God." Impatience is not, mutely to shrink

from suffering, but to toss feverishly, forgetting God. The heart may, and must, rise and sink; we can, by God's grace, control it, hold it down, keep it outwardly still, hinder it from having any wrong vent; we cannot hush its beatings. Hard words will vex; unkindness will pierce; neglect will wound; threatened evils will make the soul quiver; sharp pain or weariness will rack the body, or make it restless; cold will fret the frame; hunger will gnaw it. But what says the Psalmist ? "When my heart is vexed, I will complain." To whom? Not of God, but to God.

As thou learnest this lesson, to carry all thy sorrows to God, and lie at thy Saviour's Feet, and spread thy grief before Him, thou wilt find a calm come over thee, thou knowest not whence; thou wilt see, through the clouds, a bright opening, small perhaps and quickly closed, but telling of eternal rest, and everlasting day, and of the depth of the Love of God; thou wilt forget the darkness of the cloud, in the rich beauty of His all-encompassing Bow, the witness of His enduring love, and of His unwillingness to punish, which, without the cloud, thou couldest not see. Thy heart will still rise and sink; but it will rise and sink, not restlessly, nor waywardly, not in violent gusts of passion; but, whether rising or sinking, amid all outward heavings of this world's waves, resting in stillness on the bosom of the ocean of the Love of God.

Then wilt thou know for thyself, that "God is nothing but good" to thee; that chastisements are but an austere form of His Love. Thou will find for thyself, that tribulation, by the grace of God, opens

thine eyes to thine own defects, and to the love of God; softens thine heart; cleanses thy soul; guards thee from resting in the things of this life, and taking up with thy portion here; rouses thee from carelessness; keeps thee humble, even when thou succeedest well with thyself; teaches thee to mistrust thyself, and trust wholly in God, thy everlasting Strength.

66

Then shalt thou learn, not to endure only patiently, but, in everything against thy will, humbly and quickly to see and to love the loving Will of God. Thy faith, and thy love, and thy hope will grow, the more thou seest the work of God with thee; thou wilt joy in thy sorrow, and thy sorrow will be turned into joy. It will be a joy to thee, to be likened in suffering to thy Lord, even though it be like the dying robber at His Side. Thou," says a holy man, "O Lord Jesu, art both, to me, the Mirror of suffering, and the Reward of the sufferer. Each strongly urges me on, and mightily kindles me. Thou teachest my hands to fight, by the example of Thy virtue ; Thou, after victory, crownest my head with the Presence of Thy Majesty. Whether I look on Thee fighting, or look for Thee, not crowning only, but the Crown, both ways Thou allurest me wondrously. Both ways art Thou a most mighty cord to draw me. Draw me after Thee; gladly do I follow Thee; more gladly to enjoy Thee. If Thou art so good to those who follow Thee, what to those who attain Thee!"

• S. Bern. in Cant. Serm. 47. § 6.

H

SERMON VI.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

ST. MATTHEW XX. 22.

"Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto Him, We are able.”

WITH glowing, burning fire of love did the two blessed Apostles say, "We are able." With their whole heart and with the lightning swiftness of their affections, did they say it; yet ignorantly. They loved their Master. They had shared all with Him till now; His poverty, His temptations, His loneliness, the contempt and upbraidings and strivings of the world. They thought that they could share all besides which was His, His Cup; because it was His. To love, nothing seems too hard, if shared with him whom it loves. They thought, perhaps, of toil and labour and weariness and other sufferings to which they were accustomed; but with the sustain