n you feel the sustaining power of His
exceeding great and precious promises;--what is this, but the Holy
Spirit, in fulfilment of His all-gracious office, taking of all things
of Christ, and showing them unto you; thus enabling you to magnify Him
in your body, whether it be by life or death? As your motto should ever
be, "_None BUT Christ_," and your ever-increasing aspiration, "_More
OF Christ_," seek to bear in mind who it is that is alone qualified to
impart the "excellency of this knowledge."

"THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH WHICH PROCEEDETH FROM THE FATHER, _HE_ SHALL
TESTIFY OF ME."

22D DAY.

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

"Your sorrow shall be turned into joy."--John xvi. 20.

The Joyful Transformation.

Christ's people are a sorrowing people! Chastisement is their
badge--"great tribulation" is their appointed discipline. When they
enter the gates of glory, He is represented as wiping away tears from
their eyes. But, weeping ones, be comforted! Your Lord's special mission
to earth--the great errand He came from heaven to fulfil, was "to bind
up the broken-hearted." Your trials are meted out by a tender hand. He
_knows_ you too well--He _loves_ you too well--to make this world
tearless and sorrowless! "There must be rain, and hail, and storm," says
Rutherford, "in the saint's cloud." Were your earthy course strewed
with flowers, and nothing but sunbeams played around your dwelling, it
would lead you to forget your _nomadic_ life,--that you are but a
sojourner here. The tent must at times be struck, pin by pin of the
moveable tabernacle taken down, to enable you to say and to feel in the
spirit of a pilgrim, "I desire a better country." Meantime, while sorrow
is your portion, think of Him who says, "I know your sorrows." Angels
cannot say so--they cannot sympathise with you, for trial is a strange
word to them. But there is a mightier than they who _can_. All He sends
you and appoints you is in love. There is a provision and condition
wrapt up in the bosom of every affliction, "_if need be_;" coming from
His hand, sorrows and riches are to His people convertible terms. If
tempted to murmur at their trials, they are often murmuring at disguised
mercies. "Why do you ask me," said Simeon, on his deathbed, "what I
_like_? I am the Lord's patient--I cannot but like _everything_."

And _then_--"your sorrow shall be turned into joy." "The morning
cometh"--that bright morning when