eyes ; and they have been embraced in the arms
into which others have but desired to climb. Give
us the Christ of affliction, for he is Christ indeed.

2. As under sanctified affliction the manifesta
tions of Christ are more clear, so are his visitations
more frequent. If he pay us a daily visit when we
are in our high estate, he will be with us hourly
when we are cast down from our high places. As
the sick child hath the most of the mother s eye, so
doth the afflicted believer receive the most of his
Saviour s attention, for like as a mother comforteth
her children, even so doth the Lord comfort his peo
ple. Pious Brooks writes, " Oh, the love-tokens, the
love-letters, the bracelets, the jewels that the saints
are able to produce since they have been in the fur
nace of affliction !" Of these they had but one in
a season before, but now that their troubles have
driven them nearer to their Saviour, they have
enough to store their cabinet. Now they can truly
say, " How precious also are thy thoughts unto
me, O God ! how great is the sum of them !"
Mercies before came so constantly that memory
could not compute their number ; but now they
appear to come in wave after wave, without a
moment s cessation. Happy is the man who finds
the furnace as hot with love as with affliction. Let
the tried believer look for increased privileges, and
his faithful Lord will not deceive his expectations.



332 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUE.

He who rides upon the storm when it is tossing
the ocean, will not be absent when it is beating
about his saints * The Lord of hosts is with us,"
is not the song of them that make merry in the
dance, but of those who are struggling in battle.
" David, doubtless, had worse devils than we, for
without great tribulations he could not have had
so great and glorious revelations. David made
psalms ; "we also will make psalms, and sing, as
well as we can, to the honour of our Lord God,
and to spite and mock the devil." * Surely, it
would be long before our " songs of deliverance "
would end, if we were mindful of the manifold
tokens for good which our glorious Lord vouch
safes us in the hour of sadness. How doth he
waken us morning by morning with the turtle
voice of love ; and how doth he lull us to our
evening repose with notes of kind compassion !
Each hour brings favours on its wings. He is now
become an abiding companion, that while we tarry
with the stuff we share in the. spoil. f Oh, sweet
trouble, which brings Jesus nearer to us ! Afflic
tion is the black chariot of Christ, in which he
rideth to his children. Welcome, shades that
herald or accompany our Lord !

3. In trying times the compassion and sympathy
of Jesus become more delightfully the subject of

* Luther, in his Table-talk. 1 Sam. xxx. 24



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 333

faith and experience. He ever feels the woes of
all the members of his mystical body ; in all their
afflictions he is afflicted, for he is touched with
a feeling of our infirmities. This golden truth
becomes most precious to the soul, when, in the
midst of losses and crosses, by the Holy Spirit s
influence, the power of it is felt in the soul. A
confident belief in the fact that Jesus is not an
unconcerned spectator of our tribulation, and a
confident assurance that he is in the furnace with
us, will furnish a downy pillow for our aching
head. When the hours limp tardily along, how
sweet to reflect that he has felt the weariness of
time when sorrows multiplied ! When the spirit
is wounded by reproach and slander, how comfort
ing to remember that he also once said, Reproach
has broken mine heart !" And, above all, how
abundantly full of consolation is the thought that
now, even now, he feels for us, and is a living
head, sympathising in every pang of his wounded
body. The certainty that Jesus knows and feels all
that we endure, is one of the dainties with which
afflicted souls are comforted. More especially is
this a cheering thought when our good is evil
spoken of, our motives misrepresented, and our zeal
condemned. Then, in absence of all other balms,
this acts as a sovereign remedy for decay of spirit.
Give us Christ with us, and we can afford to smile
in the face bf our foes.



334: THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.

" As to appreciation and sympathy, we do not
depend for these on fellow-worms. We can be
content to be unappreciated here, so long as Christ
understands us, and has a fellow-feeling for us.
It is for him we labour. One of his smiles out
weighs all other commendation. To him we look
for our reward ; and oh ! is it not enough that
he has promised it at his coming ? It will not be
long to wait. Do our hearts crave human fellow
ship and sympathy ? We surely have it in our
great High Priest. Oh, how often should we faint
but for the humanity of our divine Redeemer!
He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; yet
he has an almighty arm for our deliverance
human to feel, divine to aid ; faithful over all oui
failures and imperfections. What need we more ?" *
We may fancy we w r ant some other encourage
ment, but if we know the value of the sympathy of
Christ we shall soon find it all-sufficient. We shall
think Christ alone to be enough to make a list
of friends. The orator spake on so long as Plato
listened, thinking one wise man enough audience
for him ; let us labour on, and hope on, if Jesus be
our only helper. Let us, in all time of our tribula
tion and affliction, content ourselves with one Com
forter, if all others fail us. Job had three mise
rable comforters ; better far to have one who is full

* Vide Shady Side, by a Pastor s Wife.



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 335

of pity and able to console. And who can do this
so truly as our own most loving Lord Jesus ?
Moreover, it is not only true that he can do it, but
he actually does do it, and that in no small degree,
by making apparent the motions of his own heart.
He bids us see his breast, as it heaves in unison
with ours, and he invites us to read his heart, to see
if the same lines of suffering be not written there.

" I feel at my heart all thy sighs and thy groans,
For thou art most near me, my flesh and my bones ;
In all thy distresses thy Head feels the pain,
They all are most needful, not one is in vain."

Thus doth he gently assuage the floods of our swell
ing grief.

4. The Lord Jesus is graciously pleased in many
cases to give his afflicted saints an unusual insight
into the deep things of his word, and an unwonted
relish in meditation upon them. Our losses fre
quently act toward us as if they had cleared our
eyes ; at any rate, sickness and sorrow have often
been the fingers of Jesus, with which he applied
the salve of illuminating grace. Either the under
standing is more than ordinarily enlarged, or else
the promises are more simply opened up and
explained by the Holy Spirit. Who has not
observed the supernatural wisdom of the long
afflicted saint ? Who has not known the fact that
the school of sanctified sorrow is that in which are
to be found the ripest scholars ?



336 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.

"We learn more true divinity by our trials than
by our books. The great Eeformer said, " Prayer
is the best book in my library." He might have
added affliction as the next. Sickness is the best
Doctor of Divinity in all the world ; and trial is
the finest exposition of Scripture. This is so inesti
mable a mark of the love of our blessed Lord that
we might almost desire trouble for the sake of it.
This proves him to be wise in his hardest dealings
towards us, and therefore supremely kind ; for is it
not kindness which puts us to a little trouble for
the sake of an immense advantage, and doth, as it
were, take our money out of our coffers at home
that it may return again with mighty interest?
Jesus is a friend indeed !

5. If the presence of Jesus ~be not felt and
realised, he nevertheless sustains the soul ~by a secret
and unseen energy which he imparts to the spirit.
Jesus is not always absent when he is unseen ; but,
on the contrary, he is frequently near to us when
we have no assurance of his presence. Many times
the man who pours oil upon the flame of our com
fort to prevent the quenching of the enemy, is
behind the wall, where we cannot perceive him.*
The Lord hath a heart which is ever full of affec
tion towards his elect, and when he seems to leave
them he is still sustaining them. Patience under
withdrawals of his sensible presence is a sure sign

* See Parable in Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress.



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 337

of his real, though secret presence, in the soul. A
blind man is really nourished by the food he eats,
even though he cannot see it ; so, when by the
blindness of our spiritual vision, we are unable
to discern the Saviour, yet his grace sustains our
strength and keeps us alive in famine. The intense
desire after Jesus, the struggling of the soul with
doubts and fears, and the inward panting of the
whole being after the living God, prove beyond
a doubt that Jesus is at work in the soul, though
he may be concealed from the eye of faith. How
should it, therefore, be a matter of wonder that
secretly he should be able to afford support to the
sinking saint, even at seasons when his absence
is bemoaned with lamentations and tears ? " The
real gracious influences and effects of his favour
may be continued, upholding, strengthening, and
carrying on the soul still to obey and fear God,
whilst he yet conceals his favour ; for when Christ
complained, My God, my God, why hast thou for
saken me f (when as great an eclipse in regard of
the light of God s countenance was upon his spirit,
as was upon the earth in regard to the sun) yet he
never more obeyed God, was never more strongly
supported than at that time, for then he was obey
ing to the death" * God s favour most assuredly
rests on his children s hearts and strengthens their

* Goodwin s Child of Light, &c.

15



338 THE SAINT AND HIS SATIOUE.

spirits, when the light and comfort of it are phut
out from their perceptions. Christ puts his chil
dren upon his lap, and healeth their wounds when,
by reason of their swooning condition, they feel not
his hand, and see not his smile. It is said, " All is
not gold that glitters ;" certainly, we may alter the
proverb, for it is true spiritually that all gold does
not glitter ; but this dimness does not aifecj its
intrinsic worth and value.

The old theologians used to say, " Grace may be
in the heart in esse et operari, when not in cognosci f
it may have a being and a working there when not
in thy apprehension." Let us praise our bounteous
Lord for unseen favours, and let us love our Lord
JQSUS for his mercies imparted in silence, unob
served.

6. After long seasons of depression Jesus becomes
sweetly the consolation of Israel by removing our
load in a manner at once singularly felicitous and
marvellously efficacious. It may be that the nature
or design of the trial prevents us from enjoying
any comfortable sense of our Lord s love during
the time of its endurance ; in such cases the grace
of our Lord Jesus discovers itself in the hour of
.our escape. If we do not see our Lord in the pri
son, we shall meet him on the threshold in that
day which shall see him break the gates of brass
and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Marvellous
are his works in the day wherein he brings us out



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 339

of the house of bondage. Halyburton, after escape
from a clould and desertion, thus broke silence to
a friend " Oh, what a terrible conflict had I yes
terday ! but now I can say I have fought the
good light; I have kept the faith. Now he has
filled my mouth with a new song, i Jehovah Jireh
in the mount of the Lord. Praise, praise is
comely to the upright. Shortly I shall get a bet
ter sight of God than ever I have had, and be
more meet to praise him than ever. Oh, the
thoughts of an incarnate God are sweet and
ravishing ! And oh, how do I wonder at myself
that I do not love him more that I do not admire
him more. Oh, that I could honour him ! What
a wonder that I enjoy such composure under*all
my bodily troubles ! Oh, what a mercy that I
have the use of my reason till I have declared his
goodness to me !" Thus it seems that the sun is
all the brighter for having been awhile hidden
from us. And here the reader must pardon the
writer if he introduces a personal narrative, which
is to him a most memorable proof of the loving-
kindness of the Lord. Such an opportunity of
recording my Lord s goodness may never occur
again to me ; and therefore now, while my soul is
warm with gratitude for so recent a delivera nce,
let me lay aside the language of an author, and
speak for myself, as I should tell the story to my
friends in conversation. It may be egotiern to



340 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.

weave one s own sorrows into the warp and woof
of this meditation ; but if the heart prompts the
act, and the motions of the Holy Spirit are not
contrary thereto, I think I may venture for this
once to raise an Ebenezer in public, and rehearse
the praise of Jesus at the setting up thereof. Egot
ism is not so frightful a thing as ungrateful silence;
certainly it is not more contemptible than mock
humility. Eight or wrong, here followeth my
story.

On a night which time will never erase from
my memory, large numbers of my congregation
were scattered, many of them wounded and some
killed, by the malicious act of wicked men. Strong
amid danger, I battled the storm, nor did my spirit
yield to the overwhelming pressure while my
courage could reassure the wavering or confirm
the bold. But when, like a whirlwind, the destruc
tion had overpast, when the whole of its devasta
tion was visible to my eye, who can conceive the
anguish of my spirit ? I refused to be comforted,
tears w T ere my meat by day, and dreams my terror
by night. 1 felt as I had never felt before. " My
thoughts were all a case of knives," cutting my
heart in pieces, until a kind of stupor of grief
ministered a mournful medicine to me. I could
have truly said, " I am not mad, but surely I have
had enough to madden me, if I should indulge in
meditation on it." I sought and found a solitude



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 341

which seemed congenial to me. I could tell my
griefs to the flowers, and the dews could weep
with me. Here my mind lay, like a wreck upon
the sand, incapable of its usual motion. I was in
a strange land, and a stranger in it. My Bible,
once my daily food, was but a hand to lift the
sluices of my woe. Prayer yielded no balm to me ;
in fact, my soul was like an infant s soul, and I
could not rise to the dignity of supplication.
" Broken in pieces all asunder," my thoughts,
which had been to me like a cup of delights, were
like pieces of broken glass, the piercing and cut
ting miseries of my pilgrimage :

" The tumult of my thoughts

Doth but enlarge my woe ;
My spirit languishes, my heart

Is desolate and low.
With every morning light

My sorrow new begins :
Look on my anguish and my pain,

And pardon all my sins."

Then came " the slander of many " barefaced
fabrications, libellous slanders, and barbarous accu
sations. These alone might have scooped out the
last drop of consolation from my cup of happiness,
but the worst had come to the worst, and the
utmost malice of the enemy could do no more.
Lower they cannot sink who are already in the
nethermost depths. Misery itself is the guardian



342 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUR.

of the miserable. All things combined to keep me
for a season in the darkness where neither sun nor
moon appeared. I had hoped for a gradual return
to peaceful consciousness, and patiently did I wait
for the dawning light. But it came not as I had
desired, for He who doeth for us exceeding abun
dantly above what we can ask or think, sent me a
happier answer to my requests. I had striven to
think of the unmeasurable love of Jehovah, as dis
played in the sacrifice of Calvary ; I had endea
voured to muse upon the glorious character of the
exalted Jesus ; but I found it impossible to collect
my thoughts in the quiver of meditation, or, indeed,
to place them anywhere but with their points in
my wounded spirit, or else at my feet, trodden
down in an almost childish thoughtlessness. On a
sudden, like a flash of lightning from the sky, my
soul returned unto me. The burning lava of my
brain cooled in an instant. The throbbings of my
brow were still ; the cool wind of comfort fanned
my cheek, which had been scorched in the fur
nace. I was free, the iron fetter was broken in
pieces, my prison door was open, I leaped for joy
of heart. On wings of a dove my spirit mounted
to the stars yea, beyond them. Whither did it
wing its flight? and where did it sing its song of
gratitude? It was at the feet of Jesus, whoso
name had charmed its fears, and placed an end to
its mourning. The name the precious name of



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 343

Jesus, was like Ithuriel s spear, bringing back my
soul to its own right and happy state. I was a
man again, and what is more, a believer. The
garden in which I stood became an Eden to me,
and the spot was then most solemnly consecrated
in my most grateful memory. Happy hour.
Thrice blessed Lord, who thus in an instant deliv
ered me from the rock of my despair, and slew the
vulture of my grief! Before I told to others the
glad news of my recovery, my heart was melodious
with song, and my tongue endeavoured tardily to
express the music. Then did I give to my Well-
Beloved a song touching my Well-Beloved ; and
oh ! with what rapture did my soul flash forth its
praises ! but all all were to the honour of Him,
the first and the last, the Brother born for adver
sity, the Deliverer of the captive, the Breaker of
my fetters, the Restorer of my soul. Then did I
cast my burden upon the Lord ; I left my ashes
and did array myself in the garments of praise,
while He did anoint me with fresh oil. I could
have riven the very firmament to get at Him, to
cast myself at his feet, and lie there bathed in the
tears of joy and love, ^"ever since the day of my
conversion had I known so much of his infinite
excellence, never had my spirit leaped with such
unutterable delight. Scorn, tumult, and woe
seemed less than nothing for his sake. I girded
up my loins to run before his chariot, and shout



344: THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUK.

forth his glory, for mf? soul was absorbed in the
one idea of his glorious exaltation and divine com
passion.

After a declaration of the exceeding grace of
God towards me, made to my dearest kindred and
friends, I essayed again to preach. The task which
I had dreaded to perform was another means of
comfort, and I can truly declare that the words of
that morning were as much the utterance of my
inner man as if I had been standing before the bar
of God. The text selected runs thus " Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted Him, and given him
a name which is above every name : that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
earth ; and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father." * May I trouble the reader with some of
the utterances of the morning, for they were the
un veilings of my own experience.

When the mind is intensely set upon one object,
however much it may by divers calamities be
tossed to and fro, it invariably returns to the place
which it had chosen to be its dwelling place. Ye
have noticed it in the case of David. When the
battle had been-won by his warriors, they returned
flushed with victory. David s mind had doubtless

* Phil. ii. 911.



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF T-KOUBLE. 345

suffered much perturbation in the meantime ; he
had dreaded alike the effects of victory and of de
feat ; but have you not noticed how his thoughts in
one moment returned to the darling object of his
affections ? " Is the young man Absalom safe ?"
said he, as if it mattered not what else had oc
curred, if his beloved son were but secure ! So,
beloved, is it with the Christian. In the midst of
calamities, whether they be the wreck of nations,
the crash of empires, the heaving of revolutions,
or the scourge of war, the great question which he
asks himself, and asks of others too, is this " Is
Christ s kingdom safe ?" In his own personal
afflictions his chief anxiety is "Will God be glori
fied, and will his honour be increased by it ? If it
be so, says he, although I be but as smoking flax,
yet if the sun is not dimmed I will rejoice ; and
though I be a bruised reed, if the pillars of the
temple are unbroken, what matters it that my reed
is bruised? He finds it sufficient consolation, in
the midst of all the breaking in pieces which he
endures, to think that Christ s throne stands fast
and firm, and that though the earth hath rocked
beneath his feet, yet Christ standeth on a rock
which never can be moved. Some of these feel
ings, I think, have crossed our minds. Amidst
much tumult and divers rushing to and fro of
troublous thoughts, our souls have returned to the
dearest object of our desires, and we have found it
15*



34:6 THE SAINT AN1? HIS SAVIOUR.

no small consolation, after all, to. say, "It .matters
not what shall become of us ; God hath highly ex
alted him, and given him a name which is above
every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow."

Thus is the thought of the love of Jesus in his
delivering grace most indelibly impressed upon my
memory ; and the fact that this experience is to me
the most memorable crisis of my life, must be my
apology for narrating it an apology which I trust
the indulgent reader will accept.

7. Although it may be thought that we have
reached the legitimate boundary of our subject, we
cannot refrain from adding, that Jesus renders him
self peculiarly precious by the gracious manner in
which, in bestowing an amazing increase of joy, he
entirely obliterates every scar which the sword of
adversity may have left in our flesh. As the joy
that a man child is born into the world is said to
destroy the remembrance of the previous travail
of the mother, so the giorious manifestations of the
Lord do wipe out all the bitter memories of the
trials of the past. After the showers have fallen
from the dark and lowering skies, how pleasant is
the breath of nature. How delightfully the sun
peers through the thick trees, transforming all the
rain-drops to sparkling gems ; and even so, after a
shower of troubles, it is marvellous to feel the
divine refreshings of the Lord of hosts right speed-



JESUS IN THE HOUR OF TROUBLE. 34-7

ily transforming every tear into a jewel of delight,
and satisfying the soul with balmy peace. The
soul s calm is deep and profound when the tem
pest has fully spent itself, for the same Jesus who
in the storm said, " It is I," will comfort his people
with royal dainties when the winds have been
hushed to slumber. At the heels of our sorrows
we find our joys. Great ebbs are succeeded by
great floods, and sharp winters are followed by
bright summers. This is the sweet fruit of Christ s
love, he will not have his brethren so much as
remember their sorrows with regret ; he so works
in them and towards them that their light afflic
tion is forgotten in happy contemplation upon his
eternal weight of glory. Happy is that unhappi-
ness which brings with it such surpassing privi
leges, and more than excellent the grace which
makes it so. We need a poet to sing the sweet
uses of adversity. An ancient writer, whose words
we are about to quote, has unconsciously produced
a sonnet in prose upon this subject:
" Stars shine brightest in the darkest night ;
torches are better for the beating ; grapes come not
to the proof till they come to the press ; spices
smell sweetest when pounded; young trees root the
faster for shaking ; vines are the better for bleed
ing; gold looks the brighter for scouring; glow
worms glisten best in the dark ; juniper smells
sweetest in the fire ; pomander becomes most fra-



348 THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOUK.

grant from chafing ; the palm-tree proves the better
for pressing ; camomile the more you tread it the
more you spread it : such is the condition of all
God s children, they are most triumphant when
they are most tempted ; most glorious when most
afflicted ; most in the favour of God when least in
man s esteem. As their conflicts, so their con
quests; as their tribulations, so their triumphs.
True salamanders, they live best in the furnace of
persecution ; so that heavy afflictions are the best