,
blessed the sad remembrance of our sins, and a broken heart and a
repentant spirit. Blessed is death, and blest the unknown realms, where
souls await the resurrection day, for Christ redeemed them by His death.
Blessed are all things, weak as well as strong. Blessed are all days,
dark as well as bright, for all are His, and He is ours; and all are
ours, and we are His for ever.

Therefore sigh on, ye sad ones, and rejoice in your own sadness; ache on,
ye suffering ones, and rejoice in your own sorrows. Rejoice that you are
made free of the holy brotherhood of mourners; rejoice that you are
counted worthy of a fellowship in the sufferings of the Son of God.
Rejoice and trust on, for after sorrow shall come joy. Trust on; for in
man's weakness God's strength shall be made perfect. Trust on; for death
is the gate of life. Endure on to the end, and possess your souls in
patience for a little while, and that, perhaps, a very little while.
Death comes swiftly, and more swiftly still perhaps, the day of the Lord.
The deeper the sorrow, the nearer the salvation:--

The night is darkest before the dawn;
When the pain is sorest, the child is born;
And the day of the Lord at hand.

_National Sermons_.

Thou who art weary and heavy laden; thou who fanciest at moments that the
Lord's arm is shortened that it cannot save, and art ready to cry, God
hath forgotten me, take comfort, and look upon Christ. Thou wilt never
be sure of the love of God, unless thou rememberest that it is the same
as the love of Christ; and by looking at Christ, learnest to know thy
Father and His Father, whose likeness and image He is, and see that the
Spirit which proceeds alike from both of them is the Spirit of humanity
and love, which cannot help going forth to seek and to save thee, simply
because thou art lost. Look, I say, unto Christ; and be sure that what
the good Samaritan did to the wounded traveller, that same will He do to
thee, because He is the Son of Man, human and humane.

Art thou robbed, wounded, deserted, left to die, worsted in the battle of
life, and fallen in its rugged road, with no counsel, no strength, no
hope, no purpose left? Then remember that there is One walking to and
fro in this world unseen, but ever present, whose form is as the form of
the Son of Man. And He has time, as He has will, to turn aside and
minister to such as thee! No human being so mean, no human sorrow so
petty, but that He has the