usually long in our favoured clime, but some years have seen the earth covered with snow and fettered in ice for many a dreary month; so also many souls are soon cheered by the light of God's countenance, but a few find, to their own sorrow, that at times the promise tarries. When the sun sets, we usually see him in the morning; but Paul, when in a tempest at sea, saw neither sun, moon, nor stars, for three days: many a tried soul hath been longer than this in finding light. All ships do not make speedy voyages: the peculiar build of the vessel, the winds, the waves, and the mistakes of the captain, all affect the time of the journey. Some seeds send forth their germs in a few days; others abide long in darkness, hidden under the clods. The Lord can, when it is his good pleasure, send conviction and comfort as rapidly in succession as the flash of lightning and the clap of thunder; but at times he delays it for purposes which, though we know not now, we shall know hereafter. Men shall not have an Easter until they have had Lent; but God's Lents are not all of the same duration. Let none, then, foolishly imagine that they have entered a long lane which will have no turning; let them consider how long they were in sin, and they will have little cause to complain that they are so long in humiliation. When they remember their own ignorance, they will not think they are detained too long in the school of peni

tence. No man has any right to murmur because he is waiting a little for the King of mercy; for if he considereth what he waits for, he will see it to be well worthy of a thousand years waiting. God may say, "To-day if ye will hear my voice;" but thou, O sinner, hast no right to demand that he should hear thine at all, much less to-day. Great men often have petitioners in their halls, who will wait for hours, and come again and again to obtain promotion: surely, the God of heaven should be waited for by them that seek him. Thrice happy is he that getteth an early interview, and doubly blest is he who getteth one at all. Yet it does at imes seem hard to stand at a door which opens not to repeated knocking "hope deferred maketh the heart sick:" and it may be, some reader of this volume is driven to doubt the eventual result of his strivings and prayers; he may be crying, "My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing."

"How oft have these bare knees been bent to gain

The slender alms of one poor smile in vain?

How often tir'd with the fastidious light

Have my faint lips implored the shades of night?

How often have my nightly torments pray'd

For ling'ring twilight, glutted with the shade?

Day worse than night, night worse than day appears;
In fears I spend my nights, my days in tears:

I moan unpitied, groan without relief,

There is no end or measure of my grief.

The branded slave, that tugs the weary oar,
Obtains the Sabbath of a welcome shore;

His ransom'd stripes are heal'd; his native soil
Sweetens the mem'ry of his foreign toil:
But ah! my sorrows are not half so blest;
My labours find no point, my pains no rest:
I barter sighs for tears, and tears for groans,
Still vainly rolling Sisyphæan stones."

Cease thy complaint, O mourner, the angel is on his way, and faith shall quicken his flight; while thou art yet speaking, He hears, yea, before thou callest again, He may answer thee.

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4. Divine sovereignty displays itself in the manner whereby souls are brought to Jesus; for while many, as we have said, are smitten with deep wounds, there are perhaps a larger number whose smartings are less severe, and their suffering far less acute. Let us never make apologies for the superficial religion too common in the present day; above all, let us never lead others to mistake fancies for realities, and evanescent feelings for enduring workings of grace. We fear too many are deluded with a false religion, which will be utterly consumed when the fire shall try all things; and we solemnly warn our readers to rest short of nothing less than a real experience of grace within, true repentance, deep self-abhorrence, and complete subjection to salvation by grace. Yet we do believe and know that some of the Lord's family

are, by his marvellous kindness, exempted from the exceeding rigour of the terrors of Sinai, and the excessive griefs engendered by the working of the Law. God openeth many hearts with gentle picklocks, while with others he useth the crowbar of terrible judgments. The wind of the Spirit, which bloweth where it listeth, also bloweth how it pleaseth it is oftentimes a gentle gale, not always a hurricane. When the lofty palm of Zeilan putteth forth its flower, the sheath bursts with a report which shakes the forest, but thousands of other flowers of equal value open in the morning, and the very dew-drops hear no sound; so many souls blossom in mercy, and the world hears neither whirlwind nor tempest. Showers frequently fall upon this earth too gently to be heard, though truly at other seasons the rattling drops proclaim them; grace also "droppeth, like the gentle dew from heaven," on souls whom Jesus would favour, and they know nothing of heavy hail and drenching torrents.

Let none doubt their calling because it came not with sound of the trumpet; let them not sit down to measure their own feelings by those of other men, and because they are not precisely the same, at once conclude that they are no children of the kingdom. No two leaves upon a tree are precisely alike-variety is the rule of nature; the line of beauty runs not in one undeviating course; and in

grace the same rule holds good. Do not, therefore, desire another man's repentance, or thy brother's apprehensions of wrath. Be not wishful to try the depth of the cavern of misery, but rather rejoice that thou hast a partial immunity from its glooms. Be concerned to flee for refuge to Jesus; but ask not that the avenger of blood may almost overtake thee. Be content to enter the ark like a sheep led by its shepherd; desire not to come like an unruly bullock, which must be driven to the door with stripes. Adore the power which is not bound down to a unity of method, but which can open the eye by the clay and spittle, or by the simple touch of the finger. Jesus cried, with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" but the restoration was as easily effected when he gently said, "Maid, arise!" Zaccheus was called from the tree with a voice that the crowd could hear; but it was a still voice which in the garden said, "Mary." Can any man say but that equal benefits flowed from these varied voices? It is arrogance for any man to map out the path of the Eternal, or dictate to Jesus the methods of his mercy. Let us be content with gentle wounds, and let us not seek heavy blows as a proof of his faithfulness.

Much more might have been discoursed concerning the means used by Providence to break the hard heart. Bereavement, disappointment, sickness, poverty, have had their share of uses; the