we cry, chide our anxious spirits, and mourning complaints "It is the Lord, let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him." "My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him." Happy is such a frame! It is good for me-it is fitit becomes a creature mean and vile, a sinner guilty and wretched. Salvation in any way, at any time, will be mercy indeed to such a one. How becoming is it to a believer who has taken God's word as his heritage for ever, and confessed himself a pilgrim and stranger on the earth, and what a present recompence of inward peace it brings with it; and, which is beyond every other consideration, what glory this unshaken hope, this patient, quiet expectation brings to God! Yet God works by means-let me.trust in the Lord, and do good-let me in my expectations from him be, not slumbering nor slothful, but active and industrious-let no means within my power be neglected; let me plough and sow; let me stretch the sails, and wait till he be pleased to send forth the wind that brings and works salvation:—and, if his measures cross my sensual inclinations; if he do not grant what I would have, or when I would have it; if he take away what I would have spared, let me listen whether his Spirit whisper no complaint against me;—whether conscience will not say, It is fit, it is good, that such a worm as I, rescued by a miracle of mercy from the wrath to come, should both hope and quietly wait. It is a fit, a becoming, a beneficial temper; yet how rare, even among Christians, and how difficult! But why difficult? Because we are ever setting an undue value on creature comforts. We idolize them: we rest in them, instead of rising to God by them: we bind them to our hearts; therefore the separation wounds us to agony. Another reason is: we are angry with the instrument, and overlook the Hand that directed it, not being apprised that the Lord had bidden Shimei to curse David, or dispatched this disease or blasting providence as a messenger of his sovereign will to us. Sometimes we are looking with undue expectation to creature-remedies and means of relief; nay, we become atheistical in the use of them, and forget that no Bethesda can heal until the Spirit of the Lord be revealed, and then no further than he pleases. And, alas! how prone are we to consult with flesh and blood, and to be more solicitous to tread a smooth and flowery path, than to be led in the right though rugged way to heaven. My dear children, I could enlarge very pleasantly, and beyond the limits of a letter, in representing to you those views of God which are calculated very sweetly to relieve the difficulty and cause the mind "both to hope and quietly wait." What reverence is due to the sovereignty of God! Arise, my soul, and go down to the potter's house, and learn subjection to the will of God. This would be to destroy the Jonah within us that raises many a storm. How it silences man, to contemplate the righteousness of God! "Just and true are all thy ways, O Lord." But let us search and try our own. The faithfulness of God,-what a resting-place is that!— "I know that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me !" The holiness and spotless purity of God, rightly considered, will cause us to be afraid of any risings of corruption under affliction. The almighty power of God, how it carries the mind above improbabilities, and helps it to hope even against hope! The unsearchable and infinite wisdom of God, who cannot err in the measure or continuance of affliction, and who knows both how to deliver from it and how to bring good out of it;-the infinite goodness, the love, and mercy of God, who appoints the furnace, sits by it, and secures to the soul advantage from it; --and, above all, the boundless all-sufficiency of God to repair every loss, and be a fountain of pure, sublime, and eternal delight: these are hints for your improvement. The beams of this various glory of the Lord, let into the soul, will clear the vale of suffering, and give songs in the night. We cannot wonder that you sigh in solitude, and lament when you remember Zion. But what mercy it is, that constrained distance from the house of God is no separation from the God of the house! He is the God of consolation, and can shine through other mediums-can open rivers in high places, and springs in the valleys. I bless God, he leads you by the springs of water, though in the wilderness of affliction; and provides you an anchor of hope amidst stormy trials. Glorious hope, which his covenant promise inspires! What may not be expected from infinite Love! How reviving its beams, even in this dark and distant world! Well might Luther say, Lord, forgive my sin, and strike me where thou wilt: even a cloud brings a message of love and a shower of blessings." Yet may it please the Lord of health to bless the means you are trying. Truly the Lord is good, and he will shew us more and more of his mercy. My very soul doth magnify the Lord when I think of dear R, and the hand of the Lord working in him and by him. I am, my dear children, affectionately Your Father, J. BOWDEN. LETTER XIX. TO MR. R▬▬▬ B———, Sept. 15, 1793. MY DEAR R THE account you have given us of your safe arrival at N--, your welcome reception, and prospects of comfort, affords us pleasure. I am happy to hear that you have found a few among your fellow-students who have the same serious views of religion and the Gospel ministry that you have, and the same apprehensions of Gospel truth. I trust you will be enabled to strengthen each other's hands under every discouragement, and regard it as your duty affectionately to consider each other to provoke to love and to good works. Mr. H- will, undoubtedly, give you all the countenance he can without incurring the charge of partiality; and you will soon find yourselves kindly noticed by the serious part of the congregation: but, beyond every other encouragement, you may assure yourself, while you hold fast your profession, and are actuated by the fear and love of God, you will have a Patron in heaven, in whose smiles you will find an abundant recompence: “ the Lord is with you while you are with him." You will not fail, I hope, to be assiduous in your application to those branches of learning in which you are engaged. It were a pity that those who differ from you in their views of the Gospel, should outshine you in their literary acquirements. But with all your getting, get understanding; study the Scripture; and study your own heart. Compare those books together, and you will find the remedy as powerful as the disease, and admirably adapted to it. Study the Cross of Christ, and you will see more and more reason to cleave to it, and to rejoice and glory in it. Indeed, if there be not redemption in the blood of Christ for guilty sinners, we are yet without hope if this truth be not contained in revelation, there is nothing there which deserves the name of Gospel. But, blessed be God, there are a happy few who have found this pearl of great price in this sacred field, and found it a soul-enriching treasure. Nor are the saints in heaven governed by a mis : |