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to buffet us,” shall we murmur because he labors to promote our sanctification, and to make “our faith turn to praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Would we be crowned without " striving lawfully ?" Is it not written, “ Blessed is the man that endureth temptation ; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life? Is it not written, “ Resist the devil ?” Now to resist him is not to repine and to murmur, because he tempts us. See Jesus our model, who “ was tempted, yet without sin;" he continually resisted the devil; he never yielded to him for an instant; but at the same time he submitted without murmuring to his temptations, and with an astonishing condescension he allowed Satan to transport him at one time to a pinnacle of the temple; at another, to the top of an exceeding high mountain. He did not complain of being tempted; and thus he has taught us by his example, that if, on the one hand, we ought never to yield to the temptations of the enemy through cow. ardice, we ought, on the other, humbly to consent to suffer his temptations as often and as long as it shall please the Lord to allow them.

Besides, what is the use of repining when you are exposed to temptations ? What do you gain by struggling under the hand of him who humbles you, and who alone can raise you up again when the appointed time comes ? May you not be reproached, as Job was by his friends, with “ tearing yourself in your anger ??? Job xviii. 4. You are like a man who, having a thorn in his flesh, enflames the wound by making vain efforts to take it out, instead of waiting for a skilful and tender hand to extract it. You add to the misery of a painful state of mind, the misery of impatience. You have doubts, temptations, and weaknesses, and you are discouraged and discontented, because you have them ;, a second evil worse than the first. Oh! how much more happy would you be if you could put in practice that counsel which the Lord gave to his people Isreal, and which that stiff-necked people refused : “ Your strength is to sit still : in returning and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." How much more happy would you be if, instead of crying continually, “Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous,” you said with the prophet, “ Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.” Jer. x. 19. With this submission to the will of God, you would find a kind of peace even in the most miserable condition, and in the midst of many contests. By this means you would hasten your deliverance; for it is written, “The salvation of the Lord is nigh 'unto them that fear him.” Now, what is to fear him but to submit to all the humiliations through which he sees fit to make you pass ; and you cannot doubt that such a respectful submission to dispensations mortifying to the flesh, is well calculated to move his compassion, and to make him lift up upon you the light of his countenance.

In cases of inward assaults made by Satan, there is, lastly, a silence which I may call a silence of prudence and of precaution, which consists in avoiding too long discussions with the enemy of our souls. attention which we give to any thing, often adds to its real importance; the more we dwell on the temptations of the enemy,

the more do they take hold of us; we must listen to them as little as possible, and treat them as we would treat a troublesome person who will not hold his tongue, and whom we allow to speak on without giving him any answer. This is a great means to weaken the force of their impression upon our minds. Besides, we may say in a manner, that the breath of Satan is envenomed, and the longer we stop to dispute with

The great

upon

him, the more does the poison penetrate into our heart. In fine, there cannot but result much weariness from these long discussions with an enemy, who, being crafty, finds means to entangle us in the meshes of his subtile reasonings, so that we are unable to disengage ourselves, and sink down through fatigue. As soon as possible we must leave the tempter, and turn our back him. Instead of losing our time in useless conversations with him, we must go as Hezekiah did, and hold converse with God. What does the enemy of our souls desire above all things ? To draw us from God, by drawing us from confidence and prayer ; he desires by his reasonings and temptations to prevent us from going to the Saviour. What is the best answer to make him ? To go immediately to Him from whom he wishes to withdraw us, and to say to the tempter, Instead of losing my time in answering thee, I will go and pray. I will have recourse to Him in whom thou sayest it is useless for me to trust, or in whom thou reproachest me with having never really trusted.

THE CONDUCT OF HEZEKIAH IN HIS DISTRESS.

:As soon as they told Hezekiah what the messenger of the king of Assyria had said," he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.” Hezekiah did not consult with his principal officers what was to be done; the first want which he felt was to go and pour out his soul before God, and to seek relief from him who is “ refuge and strength, and present help in time of trouble." But why did he not remain in his palace ? Why did he go to the house of the Lord ? Could he not enter his closet, and there having shut his door about

our

him, pray to his heavenly Father who seeth in secret ? Yes, doubtless, but there were special promises made to prayer addressed to the Almighty in his temple at Jerusalem. In answer to the demand of Solomon, who asked that God would hear " whatsoever prayer or supplication should be made by any of the people of Israel, when they should spread out their hands inthat house,” which he had just built; the Lord had said unto him, “ Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place; for I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there for ever; and mine

eyes

and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” 2 Chron. vii. 15, 16. It was for this reason that Daniel, when he was at Babylon,“ prayed three times a-day, his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem.” Daniel vi. 10.

Now, the temple of Jerusalem was a representation of Christ, who answers to it as to a type.-Christ is that Angel of the Covenant, of whom the Lord tells us,

My name is in him,” Exod. xxiii. 21, as he had said of the temple of Jerusalem, “My name shall be there continually.” “Christ is the Elect of God,” Isa. xlii. 1, as the temple of Jerusalem was the house which “ he had chosen.” Christ is “ he whom the Father hath sanctified,” John x. 36, as the temple of Jerusalem was the house which God had sanctified. As the Lord had said of the temple, “ Mine eyes and mine heart shall be there continually,” in like manner he hath said of Christ, “ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In fine, as God had said that his ears should be attent unto the prayer that should be made in the temple, so Jesus Christ hath said, “ Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he will give it you.” Jesus Christ also called himself the temple of

God; when pointing to his body, he said to the Jews,

1 “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up again.”—It is, then, towards this true temple of God towards Jesus, in “ whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," that we must turn in our eyes in all our afflictions. It is from a looking to him by faith that our prayers derive all their efficacy, and our soul all its consolation. It is to the feet of that Saviour, on whom all the promises of God rest, and who is the mysterious ladder by which all prayers ascend with acceptance to heaven, and descend again : it is to his feet we must flee for refuge, when Satan pursues us. This is the lesson which Hezekiah gives us, when, upon hearing the threats of Sennacherib, he goes to seek consolation and strength in the house of the Lord.

While Hezekiah himself goes to supplicate the Lord in his temple, he at the same time sends two officers of his household, and the elders of the priests, to Isaiah the prophet to make known to him his distress, and to request him to pray for him. “ Then came they to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, covered with sackcloth, and said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard ; wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left."

We see from this, that Hezekiah feared not to declare what he felt to others; he tells it to his officers, to the priests, to the prophet Isaiah. And what does he, tell them he felt ? trouble, and such