December 3

Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.—John 16:20.

A MID the many sorrows and trials and anxieties of life, do I bear in mind this precious assurance and promise of the blessed Saviour? Do I endeavor so to improve by all the dispensations of his providence, as more and more to cherish that spirit and temper of heart with which Christ delights to dwell? Does sorrow lead me nearer to the Saviour? Do I acknowledge his hand and his love in it? Is every sorrow training me to a higher spirituality, and for eternal joy?

Trials and sorrows make us feel our dependence, and work in us tenderness of spirit and humble submission to the will of God. They are the medicine that God sees we need, and that with his own hand he weighs out to us; and they are for the healing of the soul.

"All sorrow ought to be home-sickness," says a German poet. It ought to fill Christ's pilgrim-band with longings after rest in his likeness and bosom. All the trials and troubles of this life are but the active ministers of God, ordained and employed by him to discipline his people into independence of this world, and into a ripeness for immortality—H. DARLING.

The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks by sorrow made; Stronger by trial, wiser men become, As they draw nearer their eternal home. Weaned from this world, a brighter they descry, And press with firmer step to joys on high!