others who fall into error. The case of Peter is an example. The Saviour had warned him of the approach of temptation; unconscious, however, of his weakness, he boldly professed his readiness to follow his master even unto death,-" I will lay down my life for thee;" nay, he even places himself above all his brethren, and considers himself less likely to fall then they,-"Though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended." When Peter said this he was no doubt sincere, he spake according to his feelings; -but sincerity is not constancy; there is a goodness compared to the "morning cloud and the early dew, which goeth away." Peter did not distinguish between an impulse and a principle-between an hour of ease and a moment of danger. How was he to be corrected and instructed but by trial? He was therefore put to the test, and he failed. When danger looked him in the face, and the cross to which he promised to follow his master stood before him, his fears predominated his courage fled; to shelter himself from the threatening danger, he denied his Lord,-denied him again and again,-denied him with oaths and imprecations; and became in consequence an object of grief and abhorrence to himself. In this way afflictions are rendered humbling to the christian; they show him the lurking and unsuspected evils of his heart; they convince him that he has much less grace than, perhaps, he presumed on possessing, and thus they excite him to a closer walk with God.

But trials may be intended for the manifestation of grace, as well as for the detection of sin and error. Look at Job. The accuser of the brethren had charged him with serving God from interested motives; and had boldly asserted, that if his possessions were withdrawn he would curse God to his face. How was this to be decided? God allowed Satan to strip him of his cattle, his servants, and his children. What was the result? Instead of breaking out into rebellion, he wor

ships and says, "the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Satan was disappointed, but not silenced. He now affirms, that if Job's person were touched, his hypocrisy would be rendered apparent: "behold, he is in thine hand," was the reply, "only spare his life;" and presently Job is tried to the uttermost. See him covered with sore boils, sitting among ashes, and scraping himself with a potsherd. Around him sit his friends, who cruelly irritate his wounds, by endeavouring to prove that uncommon suffering is the mark of uncommon guilt; whilst his wife, amazed at his integrity, derides him as a dotard, and asks, in the language of contempt, "dost thou still retain thine integrity, blessing God and dying?" for such alone can be considered the rational rendering of her words. Here was the trial. His faith, however, sustained him: "in all this Job sinred not, nor charged God foolishly.” He bore the proof, and was found to be gold; but he was not free from dross. He partially failed in the process, and even cursed the day of his birth; nevertheless, the reality and extent of his grace were demonstrated,-Satan was defeated, -God was glorified,-religion was ornamented,-Job himself was ultimately benefitted,—and an example of meek submission and patient endurance was furnished for the edification of the church to all succeeding ages. Thus God often proves his people. He places them for a time in the furnace of affliction; he heaps up the fuel, and increases the heat of the furnace to an intensity which threatens to consume rather than purify them; yet he sits by, and watches the process; and as the refiner is satisfied when he sees his face reflected on the surface of the silver, from a conviction that the purifying process is completed, so the Lord is well pleased when he hath thus turned his hand upon them, and purely purged away their dross, and taken away all their tin ;

"He looks, and loves his image there."

He then withdraws the fuel, takes out the gold, and sweetly whispers to the soul," the trial of your faith, which is much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried as with fire, shall be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

Afflictions are intended for instruction.-Therefore we are commanded, "to hear the voice of the rod, and who hath appointed it." It was the saying of Luther, "the school of affliction is the school that giveth light;" and, indeed, it is one where not a few have commenced their acquaintance with God and divine things. God spake to them in their prosperity, but they would not hear. He then changed the scene, and brought them into trouble, and this became the mean of exciting their attention, and led them to say, "speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth: " "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Affliction, by stopping our career in wrong, and by giving us, as it were, a pause, awakens the mind to reflection, and opens upon our view a scene to which, in a course of uninterrupted prosperity, we, perhaps, should never have raised our eyes. When the mind of man is engrossed by wrong desires and pursuits, his whole attention engaged, and his whole heart filled, to speak to him of the error of his ways, or to suggest to him the impropriety of his conduct, generally produces as little impression as the sun-beam playing upon the dry and barren rock. But let his desires be thwarted, and his pursuits disappointed; let the good on which his heart is fixed be withdrawn, and the evil which he dislikes and dreads be given in its place; and he will soon be in a disposition proper for serious reflection and divine instruction. In this way many, like Manasseh, have had reason to bless God for their affliction and bonds, as the means of their repentance and deliverance from ruin.

Affliction is also a school of divine institution, for training up the children of God for their inheritance in heaven. Here

some of the most eminent saints have had the principal part of their education, and it is here they have made their richest acquisitions in the knowledge and experience of divine things. Here they have learned to estimate aright the comparative value of the creature and the Creator,-the life of sense and the life of faith,- the things of time, and the things of eternity. When they were first placed there, they knew but little of God, cr of themselves, or of the methods of providence and grace. They thought that as soon as they had passed the straight gate their difficulties would be entirely over ;that, having obtained a good hope through grace, and an adoption into the family of God, they should be in trouble no more as other men, but walk in a path of uninterrupted enjoyment. When, therefore, they saw holy persons greatly afflicted, they knew not how to account for it. They supposed that to be afflicted was to be miserable,—that inward peace and outward trouble were incompatible; and to rejoice in tribulation seemed a paradoxical saying, altogether incomprehensible. So foolish were they and ignorant. But when they were brought into affliction themselves, they found that it was not so formidable and destructive as they had imagined, but in an eminent degree beneficial and consolatory. They were brought to see so much of the deceitfulness and corruption of their own hearts, of the vanity of the world, of the evil sin, of the insufficiency of the creature; and so much of divine wisdom, love, and faithfulness, in their affliction itself; and they felt also such supports and comforts under it, that at the very time their eyes were streaming with tears, you inight have heard them sing,—

"Dear Father, we consent,

To discipline divine;

And bless the pangs that make our souls

Still more completely thine."

Yet, it is in affliction that many of the saints of God have learned some of their sweetest lessons, and received some of the most endearing manifestations of the faithfulness and truth, of the power and love of God. Often, when compelled to spend their days in pain and solitude, Jesus has appeared to them in such glorious and gracious manifestations of his presence, and spoken to them words of such condescending compassion and love, and given them such glimpses of the glory to be revealed hereafter, that their solitude has become a kind of Patmos to their souls, where they have been favored with the fullest revelation of a Redeemer's love. Hence, said David, "blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest out of thy law." Nor did he speak from reasoning or observation merely, but from experience: "it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." "We fear," says Bishop Hall, “our best friends; for my part I have learned more of God and of myself from one week's extremity, than the prosperity of a whole life had taught me." Another eminent saint, on his recovery from a severe affliction, informed his congregation, "that during the ten weeks he had been confined by sickness, he had learned more of Christ than he had previously acquired by forty years' reading and study.