He may see fit to allow numerous and heavy afflictions to press upon you. To what sacrifices were not the early Christians called? Were not they called to the sacrifice of every present possession, and to the endurance for righteousness' sake of the most cruel sufferings? Yet, what is our Lord's declaration ? Verily, I say unto you, There is no man that bath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake and the Gospel's; but he shall receive an hundred-fold now, in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions (f). He shall receive now, even in this present time, even in the midst of unceasing persecutions, a recompense which shall give him an hundred-fold more delight than he could have derived from ease and security, from worldly riches, and even from the most dear and tender connections. He shall possess joy in the Holy Ghost. He shall have that peace of God which passeth all understanding. He shall rejoice in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He shall exult in the prospect of dwelling to eternity in My presence, saith the Lord, where there is fulness of joy, and at My (f) Mark, x. 29, 30. Luke, xviii. 29, 30. right hand, where there are pleasures for ever more.. To conclude this branch of the subject. Whatever God may grant, or whatever with equal goodness he may withhold, or withdraw, from His faithful servant, while that servant continues in the body: every sacrifice made for the sake of God in this state of trial shall be overpaid in the world to come; and overpaid in a measure which neither language can describe, nor imagination attain. In the world to come life everlasting! Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him! He alone, who knows our nature, our inherent helplessness and corruption, and the particular temptations which each individual respectively would find it the most difficult to withstand, knows what station of life, what course of events, will be the most beneficial to each of his servants. Healone who surveys at one view the past, the present, and the future, knows in what station of life and under what course of events each of His servants will most efficaciously answer the great purposes and plans of His Universal Providence. To this man He sees that riches may properly be vouchsafed: from another He knows knows that it is fitting to withhold thems The one He blesses by giving: the other by denying or by taking away. This man He appoints to magnify the Divine mercy in prosperity: that, to glorify His Lord by suffering. But whether the blessing bestowed in the present world on His servants shall have been wealth or poverty, honour or dishonour, ease or tribulation; the end which awaits them all is the same. In the world to come life everlasting! They have filled the stations upon earth to which Infinite Wisdom appointed them. They have served the Lord in their generation under the different circumstances in which, for their good and for His glory, He chose respectively to place them. They have passed, under the guidance and in the strength of His grace, through the various modes of trial and purification, by which He led them onward to Himself. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They have now died in the Lord, and are blessed. They rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Justified by faith, sanctified by grace, they are now perfected in glory. Whatever sacrifices they may have sustained for the sake of God and their Redeemer, they now find the full extent of the assurance, The Lord is able to give thee much more more than this. They now experience in happiness inexpressible that the hope by which they were encouraged while on earth was a hope which maketh not ashamed (g); that it was not in vain that they reckoned, that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. Their light afflictions, which were but for a moment, have worked for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. For they looked not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. They felt that the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Such are the encouragements, which the reply of the man of God to Amaziah may suggest to us. And which, you ask, of the encouragements, pertaining to the present life, were verified to Amaziah? Perhaps you may learn in the most useful manner the answer to this question, by turning your attention to the warnings, which the subject affords. II. The history of the King of Judah warns us, when we are impelled to any undertaking by prospects of worldly profit, to study in the first instance the will of God concerning (g) Rom. v. 5. His will, to it. It warns us, if the undertaking be found conformable to His will, to pursue it by such methods only as are agreeable to His good pleasure if it be contrary to abandon our purpose at once. false step of Amaziah, the step which led him into all the difficulties that followed, was the hiring of the army of the Israelites without enquiring of the Lord. Their assistance he regarded as ensuring victory; and grasped at the supposed advantage at once. Be admonished by the example. But perhaps you will reply; "I know not in what manner I am to accommodate the example to my"self. My situation is very different from "that of the King of Judah, so different "that there is no resemblance, no analogy, "between them. Amaziah was blessed with an opportunity of solemnly seeking coun"sel from God Himself, in the appointed "method, by the mouth of the High Priest. "And if he had thus laid the matter before "the Lord, he would have received specific "directions for his own conduct. But in "the present day God does not thus re"solve the questions of man. How am "I to learn whether my proposed un"dertaking will be pleasing to Him?" You are to learn His will concerning it by |