April 12

men; and Achilles—his bravest of men, frequently weeping. Jonathan and David were the most heroical young men of the age; yet they wept on each other's neck, till each exceeded. Yea, we read that the Lord of all wept at the grave of Lazarus. What can equal beauty in tears? The moment a female appears devoid of tenderness, she wants an excellence so essential that nothing can atone for in her; and though she may possess talent, and retain the dress of the sex, she forfeits the honourable and endeared name of woman.

It will also be acknowledged that this sensibility prepares persons for usefulness. In numberless cases where the relief and comfort of our fellow-creatures are concerned, many are not excited and constrained to act, because they do not feel.

APRIL 12.—"God maketh my heart soft."—Job 23:14.

THERE is a soft heart derived from affliction—Thus God maketh the heart soft as the God of Providence.

To this Job immediately refers. "For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me, because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face."

Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. But we shall not enlarge upon the multitude and variety; the sources, kinds, and degrees of human sufferings in this vale of tears. And we shall turn away as soon as possible from those who seem insensible under their trials, and despise the chastening of the Lord. When God strikes them, they strike again; and repair in their calamity to places of sin or dissipation, to drown all sense of sorrow. Of this temper were those of whom Jeremiah complained: "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." The judgments of God which befall some men are like blows inflicted upon wild beasts, which instead of taming, enrage them the more. Isaiah describes some incorrigible rebels as saying, in their pride and stoutness of heart, "the bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." And we read that Hiel, the daring re-builder of Jericho, not only disregarded the threatening of Joshua, but even when one half of it was fulfilled, he went on still in his trespasses, and having "laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub." Thus many if not verbally yet practically express a determination to proceed in an evil course, notwithstanding obvious and repeated discouragements and checks thrown in their way. Ahab was reduced very low, "yet in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord." And God brands him with infamy, that all future ages may know that this was the desperate wretch who, when the Edomites, and the Philistines, and the Assyrians, were upon him even then he provoked a greater adversary than all, and would fight against God—"This is that king Ahab." And is even this a peculiar case? Can nothing

VOL. I.

of this kind deservedly stigmatize you?—"This is the man who when desolated in his circumstances, bereaved of his connexions, and more than once the subject of disease, instead of humbling himself under the mighty hand of God, waxed worse and worse, and proceeded from evil to evil."

But in a general way, when people come into trouble, they feel, feel seriously and softened. But what is the result? It is threefold. First—It often wears off, and the effect produced is like the morning cloud and early dew that passeth away. Oh what a difference has there frequently been between the same persons in sickness and health! They "howled upon their beds." "They poured out a prayer when his chastening hand was upon them." O "let my soul live and it shall praise thee." And "spare me a little longer." "I will not offend any more." And they added to their prayer confessions, resolves, and vows. But no sooner were they raised up and set free, than they returned again to folly, and endeavour to drive from their minds the remembrance of what could only charge them with inconsistency, and clothe them with shame. Pharaoh after every plague cried, I have sinned; entreat the Lord for me; but when there was respite he hardened his heart.

Secondly—As this softening is frequently transient, so it is sometimes fatal. It seems indeed wonderful that those who know nothing of the grace of God, should often bear their troubles as they do; and that they are not always driven by the heavy pressure of anguish to distraction or despair. And so it is with not a few. They droop and sink in the day of adversity; and are swallowed up of over much sorrow. They verify the words of the Apostle; "The sorrow of the world worketh death"—It deprives them of reputation, subjects them to contempt, deprives them of support, preys upon their health, breaks down their spirits: and the sufferer gradually drops into the grave, or by self destruction is hurried from the evils of time into those of eternity—for whatever he endured here was only the beginning of sorrows. Oh how desirable is it when the heart is wounded to apply to it the balm of Gilead! and when it is softened to give it the impression of heaven! And,

Thirdly—This is sometimes the case, and the heart by suffering is softened to purpose, and the man can say with David, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." As therefore when I see the smith putting a bar of iron into the fire, I conclude he is going to work upon it, and form it for some useful purpose, which could not be done while it was cold and hard; so I always lock prayerfully and hopefully towards a man when the Lord brings him into trouble. Manasseh in his distress sought the God of his father, and found him. The famine made the Prodigal think of home, and he was starved back into a return. The Grecian said, I should have been lost had I not been lost. And there are those now living who can say, I should have been poor had I not been impoverished. The darkening of my earthly prospects made me long after a better country, that is an heavenly. Ah! Happy unkindnesses and treacheries that said, "Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide"—it was you that induced me to say, "Therefore will I look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me." Ah! vain world—