real blessing; he makes it the means of increasing faith and patience, sweetens it with a sense of his presence, and demon strates that it comes from love, by its increasing love to him in the heart of the righteous. This is the best deliverance, as one of the greatest sufferers for Christ witnesses, who, upon the mention of his afflictions, declares: "Out of them all the Lord delivered me," by saving me from the evil that was in them, and by making them yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

The Lord has also engaged to bestow upon believers all good: "They that "seek the Lord shall not want any good

thing," Psal. xxxiv. 10. Their loving shepherd will see that they lack nothing, no good thing will he with-hold from them. To the same purpose are the promises in the New Testament, Matt. vi. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, food, and raiment, and all necessaries shall be added unto you: I your God and Saviour give you my word for it; trust me, and you shall never want. shall never want. With confi dence did he believe it, who said to the

Philippians iv. 19. " "all your need, accor glory, by Christ Je erful motive is here ing of our faith, that so many, ever so grea gaged to supply them ly then cast all our ca he careth for us, and his managing our wh infinitely better than selves. What trouble, we be entirely eased mind shall we enjoy, up all our temporal Lord's hands, and by conducted for our go wisdom and almighty ly is the man, who thu in the Lord his God. from the anxious care from the fear of losing he is easy about the p he leaves to the Lord: is without covetousnes tent with such things

thereby he escanes thou

he enjoys his soul, because the Lord has said to him,—“I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," in any state, in any want, or in any distress-I will be ever with thee to turn all things, seem they ever so afflicting, into real blessings. Trusting to this word which cannot be broken, he may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me: let the world persecute me, my trade fail, poverty pinch me, sickness pain me, friends leave me, and all outward comforts forsake me, nevertheless I am a happy man.

The

Lord Christ is my portion, my all-sufficient portion still, and these things, being of his appoitnment, are for the best. I find them so, glory be to him. He makes them the means of weaning me from the world, deadening the old man of sin, bringing me to a more intimate acquaintance with himself, and to a greater experience of his goodness to my soul: whereby he enables me to trust all things for time and for eternity in his hands, who hath said unto me, and faithful is he that hath spoken, who also will do it, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

But some may say, Are there any persons who live thus above the world, freed from its cares and fears, and troubles? Yes, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. He has promised to make all things work together for good to them that love him, and he has had witnesses in every age of his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises. Read that little book of martyrs, Hebrews xi. and you will see how happy they were in God, not only in prosperity, but also when all the world was against them. Great were the triumphs of their faith. They chose to suffer afflic tion, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; they esteemed the reproach of Christ, and set more value upon it than upon riches and honours.

And we have a great cloud of witnesses in the New Testament, who rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, who blessed their revilers, prayed for their persecutors, and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. Hear one of them speaking the sentiments of the rest: "I account all things but lost, "for the excellency of the knowledge of "Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have

"suffered the loss of all things, and do account them but dung, that I may win "Christ." Still there are some among us of Paul's mind. The Lord hath not left himself without witness. We have a few names, (may the Lord daily add to their number) who can trust all their temporal affairs in the hands of Christ, and who find the happiness of having them in his management. He does all things well for them: what would make them unhappy he takes upon himself" Cast thy burden "on the Lord," says he, " and he shall "sustain thee," and he does sustain the weight of it, and thereby frees them from anxious care, and gives them sweet content. They have enough, let them have ever so little of outward things, because they have got the pearl of great price. Christ is theirs, and the Spirit of Christ enables them to make up all their happiness in him, and not in the things which perish in the using. Christ, with bread and water, is worth ten thousand worlds. Christ, with pain, is better than the highest pleasures of sin. Christ, with all outward sufferings, is matter of present, and of eternal joy. Surely these are the only