mfortably unto them;" He gives
them "their vineyards from thence:" in the places they least expected,
wells of heavenly consolation break forth at their feet. As Jonathan of
old, when faint and weary, had his strength revived by the honey he
found dropping in the tangled thicket: so the faint and woe-worn
children of God find "honey in the wood"--everlasting consolation
dropping from the tree of life, in the midst of the thorniest thickets
of affliction.

Comfortless ones, be comforted! Jesus often makes you _portionless_
here, to drive you to Himself, the _everlasting portion_. He often dries
every rill and fountain of earthly bliss, that He may lead you to say,
"All my springs are in Thee." "He seems intent," says one who could
speak from experience, "to fill up every gap love has been forced to
make; one of his errands from heaven was to bind up the broken-hearted."
How beautifully in one amazing verse does he conjoin the depth and
tenderness of his comfort with the certainty of it--"As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye SHALL be comforted!"

Ah, how many would not have their wilderness-state altered, with all
its trials, and gloom, and sorrow, just that they might enjoy the
unutterable sympathy and love of this Comforter of the comfortless, one
ray of whose approving smile can dispel the deepest earthly gloom? As
the clustering constellations shine with intensest lustre in the
midnight sky, so these "words of Jesus" come out like ministering angels
in the deep dark night of earthly sorrow. We may see no beauty in them
when the world is sunny and bright; but He has laid them up in store for
us for the dark and cloudy day.

"THESE THINGS HAVE I TOLD YOU, THAT WHEN THE TIME COMETH, YE MAY
REMEMBER THAT I TOLD YOU OF THEM."

12TH DAY.

"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I
have overcome the world."--John xvi. 33.

The World Conquered.

And shall I be afraid of a world already conquered? The Almighty Victor,
within view of His Crown, turns round to His faint and weary soldiers,
and bids them take courage. They are not fighting their way through
untried enemies. The God-Man Mediator "_knows_ their sorrows." "He was
in _all points_ tempted." "Both He (_i. e._, Christ) who sanctifieth,
and they (His people) who are sanctified, are all of one (nature)." As
the great Precursor, he head