December 5

grace; to prove whether we are humble enough to stoop, and patient enough to wait: whether we can love God when he corrects, and trust in him when he hideth himself.

Gold comes forth purified. A stranger to the process of refining, when he saw it melting in the intenseness of the fire, might suppose that it was likely to be destroyed, or at least that it must be injured. And it is reduced in size, and something is taken away from it—but it is only the dross, and this is better removed than retained. And who hath said, "I will also purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin." "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up." What did the three Hebrews lose in the flames? Only their bonds. When they were thrown in they were bound; "and they fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace." In this state they could not have moved. But without the smell of fire passing upon their bodies; their bonds were burnt, and they were seen walking with the Son of God! Much like this Young sings.

"Our hearts are fasten'd to the world, With strong and various ties; But every trouble cuts a string, And urges us to rise."

Gold comes forth prepared. It is then fitted to be coined for circulation, or framed into vessels of ornament and use; and now rendered capable of a lustre which it had not before. So Christians are improved and advanced by their trials, and can say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." "For a season, if needs be," says Peter, "ye are in heaviness." "That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Job speaks with confidence of the blessed result, before he had realized it. So may every believer. For "all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth." And "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God"

DECEMBER 5.—"And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire."—Jeremiah 38:6.

HERE he was not as "an evil-doer," but "for righteousness sake," and a faithful discharge of his duty. "And this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." The condition was dreadful, owing to the depth, and dreariness, and unwholesomeness, and foulness of the place; and the heart revolts at the thought of the sufferer, sinking lower and lower in the mire by every effort to raise himself up, parched with thirst, fainting with hunger, gasping for free air, and a stone being laid upon the mouth of the pit, excluding not only ventilation, but light! And the design of the princes

was, that he should not only suffer there, but die of privation and disease; longing to rid themselves of their reprover, but fearing that a public execution would excite popular pity—Thus Herod sent and beheaded John in prison—And how many fearful secrets of this kind will be divulged when He maketh inquisition for blood!

Who could think that a number of persons in higher and more refined life, and commonly called "the better sort of people," would be able to leave a fellow creature, a prophet of the Lord, to perish by so lingering and frightful a death! Lord, what is man! But all things come alike to all. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. These wicked princes are in their palaces, and Jeremiah is in the miry dungeon. But where is the God of judgment? We shall presently see—"Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him, in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator."

We are not told here, what Jeremiah did: but he himself has informed us in one of his lamentations. "They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not." And what was the consequence? The wrath of man praises God: the evil is overruled for good; and the prophet learns by experience that the Master he served, commanded the issues from death, and was a very present help in trouble.

What a scene here opens! "Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin; Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spake to the king, saying, My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city. Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die." Here we find how the Lord can raise up helpers for his people from quarters the most unlikely. He "knoweth how to deliver the godly;" and often renders his interposition as marvellous as it is relieving. Here we also see that the Lord has his hidden ones, and that they are frequently found where we should little think of looking after them—"Surely the fear of God," said Abraham, "is not in this place;" but it was there, and prevented the sin which would otherwise have been committed. Abijah had some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Daniel was the prime minister of Darius, and yet worshipped God three times a day. Yea, we read of saints even in Cæsar's household! Zedekiah's court was a very wicked one, yet here was a man of principle, and of religious principle, found in it. But who was he? A foreigner, an "Ethiopian," and probably a negro. Call nothing common or unclean. The first may be last, and the last may be first. While all the princes and the men of Judah were destitute of humanity and piety, this Ethiopian abounded in both.