Gilead, which alone will allay your anguish, and heal the ulcer of the heart. The world is a wretched empiric, ignorant alike of your disease, and of its cure; and after a long and empty parade of skill and assiduity, will leave you, when you have spent upon it your all, nothing better, but rather grown worse. To all your other sufferings will also be added this severe and dreadful one; that you will then find it too late to apply, where alone relief could have been found.

The afflicted the world has always been accustomed to regard with a cold eye, and an icy heart. To the mourner it is a solitude, dreary and desolate; in which he is alone; like one cast on an uninhabited island without a companion, and left to tell his sorrows to the rocks and the waves. To the man, deprived of his property, it is a mere almshouse; where, feeding on his own pittance, he looks abroad and sees plenty flowing around him; but it flows in the cup of Tantalus, which he is doomed never to taste. To the man who has lost his good name, however innocent he may be, it is a barred castle, into which he can gain no admission; where he hears nothing but the hiss of contempt, and sees nothing but the finger of derision pointed at himself. To the hopeless victim of disease it is a gloomy lazarhouse, where Sorrow sighs over her unceasing anguish, and Despair in ghastly silence fixes his eye on a neighbouring tomb.

But from Religion the afflicted can derive consolation, and sufficient consolation, in every sorrow.

To the poor, afflicted race of man, Religion is a heavenly messenger; who, like the angels sent to the Bethlehem shepherds, to announce the birth of the Saviour, while she proclaims unceasingly "Glory to GOD in the highest," sings, also, "peace on earth, and good will towards men." Towards every sufferer, labouring under heavy sorrows, and in the midst of despondency casting around his eyes in vain to find consolation and relief, she approaches with her own serene and benevolent smile, and proffers herself as a comforter to mourners. In her hand she carries the word of God; and opening the wonderful book, points to lines written with the divine finger, and dictated by the voice of infi

nite compassion. "Behold," she cries, "the testimonies of the Lord are the heritage of the afflicted, forever. They are the rejoicing of the broken heart." In this sacred volume read, and find all the relief, which your sorrows need. Here the infinitely blessed JEHOVAH has pourtrayed himself, in characters of light, as "the Father of all mercies, and the GoD of all grace and consolation." Here he has disclosed himself as the common, kind, and compassionate parent of men; and has taught them that all his chastisements are inflicted only for the good of the sufferers; that it is their frowardness, which requires them; and their frowardness only, which prevents them from being the choicest blessings. To cure your melancholy diseases, to overcome your dangerous and deadly passions, they have descended on you; that you may be a partaker of his holiness and live forever. The boundless love, which contrived the deliverance of this world from sin and ruin, is here seen to watch with infinite tenderness over you. Hear the affectionate language, in which is disclosed to you the glorious and benevolent character of Him who made you. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his names sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Hear his own most wonderful words, and learn that exalted character from his own mouth. "Thus saith the High and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite heart and humble spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls that I have made." In exact accordance VOL. II.

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with this character he also declares, "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 burnt; neither shall the flame kindle on thee."

Turn we now to another page. Here behold the Saviour of men, the Messiah of GoD, "by whom all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible, and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; who is the brightness of his father's glory, and the express image of his person." This transcendent person is here seen "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" sorrows undergone for sinful men, grief voluntarily borne for rebels and enemies. In what manner did he bear his agonies; such as never were borne by any other? "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The whole language of his heart, the whole language of his life, was "Not my will, but thine be done." In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and many tears, unto him that was able to save him from death; and was heard, in that he feared. Follow his glorious and perfect example; offer up your prayers and supplications in the same nanner; fear as he did, and you will be heard. By his own temptations, and sorrows, "he is become a merciful High Priest; who can be touched with the feeling of your infirmities," and those of all the race of Adam. Accordingly he has declared, that "the bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." He has promised, that he "will never leave you nor forsake you. Peace has he left with you, and all his followers; his own Peace hath he given unto you; not as the world giveth doth he give unto you."

Are you distressed and perplexed concerning the nature and end of your afflictions? He has told you that, "although no afflic tion for the present is joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them

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that are exercised thereby ;" and that, heavy as it may seem to you, it is in truth comparatively light; and worketh for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

Behold in this book, also, unanswerable proofs, that your af flictions will make you wiser and better, produce in you patience, submission, resignation, and all that meek and lowly spirit, which in the sight of GOD is of great price: that they will dissolve the chains, which bind you to dust and sin; prepare you by spiritual refinement for a better world; and prune and strengthen your wings for a final flight to the regions of immortality.

In these luminous pages see, also, the declarations of the same glorious person, that the friends whom you lament, are, if they have loved and believed him, only gone before you to that happy world. In that world you will find them all; and all others whom you love in the truth. In the mean time, see around you those, who have entered that same happy way, weeping with you when you weep; taking kindly, and readily, a share in all your burdens; bearing you on their prayers every morning and evening to the throne of mercy; and calling down upon you the best of blessings.

Such are some of the consolations, which Religion brings to the afflicted. How suited are they to the circumstances of sufferers! How numerous; how great; how divine! A balm to that wounded spirit, which none can bear, and none beside this heav.. enly physician can heal. To every sufferer who loves her voice, and delights in her conversation, she is a constant and charming companion by night and by day; soothes with a still, small voice all his sins and sorrows; spreads the path of life with roses; makes his bed a bed of down; surrounds his head with a mild and steady sunshine; and opens through the clouds of mortality a bright passage, for the eye of Faith, to heavens, clear, serene, and eternal.

II. I shall now close the discourse with suggesting several motives for this consideration.

1st. It is the command of God.

The path of duty is always the path of safety; and equally so in the present case, as in any other. "The law of the Lord is

perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." All the openings of his lips are, as he has said they should be, right things. Consideration is, therefore, to the afflicted, right. It will contribute to produce all these divine effects; "to convert the soul, to make wise the simple, to rejoice the heart, and to enlighten the eyes."

Besides, GoD is always pleased when he obeys. To please him is all, for which we were made, for which we live. To an ingenuous mind no joy can be compared with serving and pleasing the Lord. Were there no other motive to this conduct, but this, that God hath required it; this would determine completely the obedience of every good man; and he would ask, and wish, for no other.

But happily for such beings as we are, so cold, indifferent, and dead to our duty, all other motives unite with this; all, I mean, which ought to influence a rational mind. For

2dly. God has informed us, that it is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to heart.

Even to those, who are mere visiters in the house of mourning, there is, in the eye of God, good, furnished by that melancholy mansion; and good, which even they will naturally find.

The two reasons, here given by the wise man, why such as visit the house of mourning will be profited by going to it, are the nature of the place, and the emotions, which it inspires in their hearts. "That is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to heart." The end of all men, the most solemn and affecting of all things here below, is found in the house of mourning; and is not barely taught, but most affectingly taught: It is taught in fact; in the person of a friend, or neighbour; one whose death affects us particularly, on a great variety of accounts. Death in such circumstances affects us deeply, solemnly, and permanently.