June 12

names they often give to persons, places, and objects taken from their own economy. Surely if a Jewish prophecy or promise be allowed to refer to Christian times, influences, and blessings, the phraseologies in which it is announced should be taken, not in a Jewish, but in a Christian interpretation. Admit the reverse, and we should kill people, and think we did God service from the words before us; and fetch a thousand absurdities from other passages also.

JUNE 12.—“That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”—2 Corinthians 1:4.

THE Apostle mentions this as the purpose for which God had comforted him and his companions in all their tribulation. This is very instructive and edifying. We see the aim of God in the favours he confers upon us. He means them not to terminate in ourselves, but to extend to others, like the streams which flow on and turn mill after mill, and refresh and fertilize meadow after meadow. We are not the proprietors, but only the stewards of the manifold grace of God: and we are to consider ourselves debtors, not only to him but to our fellow-creatures. If we are rich in this world’s good, we are to be ready to distribute. If we are enlightened, we are to arise and shine. If we are converted, we are to strengthen our brethren—and if we are comforted, we are to be comforters.

We also see how the Lord employs human instrumentality. He is the God of all comfort; but though he is the source, we are the mediums. He could dispense with our services, but he wisely employs them; as he thereby secures our own improvement; promotes brotherly love; unites the giver to the receiver by pity, and the receiver to the giver by gratitude; shows us that there is a connexion between all ranks and degrees in society; that there is no such thing as independence; that every man has something to receive to teach him humility, and that every man has something to impart to keep him from discouragement. “If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”

We therefore learn also, how free our minds should be from that selfishness which is satisfied with personal advantage and enjoyment. “Look not,” says the Apostle, “every man to his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” And how well does he exemplify his own admonition! He delights in the thought that the crown of righteousness was secured for others as well as himself. He wishes that all his hearers had all his blessedness without his bonds. And we here see how he prized the consolations he had enjoyed, not because he had been comforted by them in his suffering, but because they would render him useful to others who are in any trouble.

Such as are “in any trouble” have peculiar claims upon us; and we are “able to comfort them with those comforts wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God,” three ways. First, by excitement—They dispose and stir us up to exertion and communica-