petty annoyances caused by the ill-temper, the selfishness, the inconsideration of our fellow-creatures. And therefore it is that those who have bowed submissively to the strokes that crush their dearest earthly hopes, often allow their spirits to chafe rebelliously beneath the daily discipline of common life. It is upon this daily discipline, however, that the formation of the character principally depends; and it is this, if looked upon with the eye of faith, that proves the vigilant lovingkindness of our Covenant God with a more special distinctness than the heavier afflictions with which He, at times, sees it needful to visit us. The history of one day's petty trials, set before us, in the light of eternity, would fill the heart with grateful and admiring love: through faith we might view our daily life by a faint reflection of that light, even now, even here. Though in this present state we can, at the best, only "see as through a

glass, darkly," yet it will be found that the eye of the mind may gradually adapt itself to a new, a clearer medium, and each hour reveal to the believer stronger evidences of guiding wisdom and protecting love.

66

It is an indisputable fact, that each of us has a daily cross to bear: no impatient efforts on our own part will avail to shake off the burden. Anger will not make others gentle; discontent will not alter circumstances; an unforgiving temper will not avert offences. There is but one way to lighten the burden of the inevitable "daily cross;" and that is, the spirit in which it is borne. If, instead of rebelliously seeking to escape from it, the commands of the blessed Saviour, "to take it up,"* were obeyed, grace would then be given to see, day by day, more and more distinctly, how each harassing vexation is specially adapted, by the love

* Luke, ix. 23.

and the wisdom of God, to bring us hourly into closer conformity with His image. The daily annoyances of life will altogether change their aspect, when we learn, by experience, that they are each and all exactly calculated to promote our sanctification, to increase our real happiness, even upon earth. For real happiness is not to be advanced by the alteration of mere external circumstances, which, however they may alter, will still be accompanied by their own peculiar daily cross; real happiness, on the contrary, depends alone on the temper of mind with which these circumstances are met.

It has been truly said, that "the pain is not in that which seems to wound us, but in ourselves." And thus the small annoyances of every-day life may serve to show us which are the more tender, and which the diseased parts of our mental constitution. They are sent, not at random, but for the purpose of eradicating

every hitherto-undiscovered root of bitterness; of bending the stubborn will; of humbling to the dust every imagination of self-righteousness. To make them effectual for this purpose, however, there is need of close inquiry respecting the nature of the annoyances that affect our daily peace; there is need of constant self-examination; above all, of earnest prayer. "The heart is deceitful above all things," and if we do not obtain of God the freely-offered gift of His enlightening Spirit, no correct view can be taken of our own mental and moral condition. For no efforts of human will, no powers of human intellect, may ever avail to enable us to view aright the real nature of sin-its cost, its penalty. Be it always remembered that a part of this penalty is temporal unhappiness. Discipline becomes necessary on account of past sin; and it is principally on account of present sin, that discipline gives pain and irritates.

It is hoped that the plan recommended in the following pages may be found a help to some of those who have been hitherto vainly mourning over the burden of their "daily cross," instead of obeying the Saviour's injunction, to "take it up,” and seeking for experimental conviction of the wisdom that adapted a peculiar cross to their own peculiar case. We are, in general, too vague, too indefinite in the vigilance exercised against temptations, and in endeavours after greater conformity of our own will to the will of God. If the system were tried, of directing all our watchfulness, for a given time, towards the temptations to which we are chiefly liable on one particular point, there would be less danger of such temptations being yielded to or unnoticed. The nature of "the daily cross," of the discipline of life, would then be more correctly understood; and the grateful sense of God's lovingkindness, manifested in the Wisdom of