35 CATHERINE RADDEN. PART II. "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."-PSALM 1. 15. "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." ISAIAH XXXiii. 16. THIS is a world of sin, therefore it must be a world of sorrow; and were our feet not "shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace," we could make no way, amidst the briars and thorns of the wilderness; but when "our soul is much discouraged because of the way,' be it from temporal or spiritual trials, O how full of sweetness and encouragement are the words of the Psalmist; "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." (Psalm lxxxiv.) We enter more fully into the meaning of this passage by knowing, that in these countries, it was usual to have reservoirs or cisterns, placed at different distances, filled with rain from the clouds of heaven, to refresh the weary traveller. The Almighty influences of the Holy Spirit are as reservoirs to quicken, sanctify, and comfort the soul, every step of our journey; and our dependence on them must be not daily and hourly only, but moment by moment-" The exceeding great and precious promises” (in every one of which Christ is represented as clothed, or vested, with one or other of his mediatory offices of prophet, priest, or king); the ordinances of God, filled with the influences of the Holy Ghost, these also are "the wells of salvation," that refresh, and animate, and strengthen the traveller to Zion; and he goes on, as the morning light increases to the perfect day, in faith, and hope, and love. "My glory will I not give to another, saith the LORD God of Hosts," (Isa. xlvii. 8;) but the fallen and polluted heart is so continually prone to set its affections on the gift, instead of the gracious Giver, that, in infinite mercy, he takes from us the desire of our eyes, (Ezek. xxiv. 25,) to drive "the buyers and sellers out of his temple," that he may reign "LORD over every motion there." When a vehement east wind smites our gourd, and lays it; low for a season the voice of nature drowns the voice of faith; but what the LORD said to his disciples when on earth, he says to all his disciples now, "I will send the Comforter." When the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when, as to outward things, we shall say, we have no pleasure in them, O happy they, whose life, as Catherine's, is "hid with Christ in God"-who finds him their "refuge from the storm, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." (Isa. xxxii. 2.) "Strong affections make strong afflictions;" but during the days of the years of her pilgrimage, Catherine was particularly led to see more clearly, and to feel more practically, that the LORD Jesus is "the repairer of the breach ;" and on each is written, Is not the LORD able, by the communications of his Spirit, to give thee much more than this? (2 Chron. xxv. 9.) He is to us every relation he may take away; the Husband, |