y more
importance, consider how far you have been realising God's purpose in
sending them. That purpose may have been to perfect you by trial; or
to prove your loyalty to Him; or to _prevent_ evil in yourselves and
others. But never forget that the lesson of all lessons is, that we or
others should find _life_, and life eternal--that is, as I have said,
life in the knowledge and in the love of God, which will satisfy and
endure for ever; or, if this is already found by us, that we should
possess it "more abundantly." Now, whatever tends to make us realise
that what we often call and think to be "our life" is yet no
life--that money, friends, or earthly enjoyments cannot fill the
immortal soul, or be its portion for ever;--whatever awakes us from
this dream and dispels the delusion, and makes us know the excellence
and reality of true life in God, must be a blessing of the highest and
richest kind. Yet what has such a tendency to do all this as sorrow,
and the very trials which we so much deplore? The pain is no doubt
great--often agony--a very cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a
right eye; but the gain intended by the operation is incalculable and
endless. Yet, what if all the good is lost through our blindness,
ignorance, hardness of heart, pride, self-will, and unbelief? Alas!
alas! if we too "go away sorrowful" from Christ when He threatens to
take away our "much riches," though He does so in order only through
this very discipline to induce us to follow Himself, and by the cross
to gain life eternal! Alas! when it can be said of us, "Yet the Lord
hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to
hear, unto this day; that ye might know that I am the Lord your God."
And what is their punishment? "They have forsaken the Lord, they have
provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.
_Why should ye be stricken any more?_ Ye will revolt more and more!"
What a real loss of friends would this be! For by separating ourselves
through unbelief from Christ, we thereby for ever separate ourselves
from our friends in Christ, if they are with Him!

Ye who have experienced comfort from good in affliction, bless God!
"O Lord, my strength, my fortress, and my refuge in the day of
affliction!" "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me,
bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all
His benefits." Let the remembrance of the past, also, strengthen your