So long thy power hath blessed me, Will lead me on -sure, it still O'er vale and hill, through stream and torrent, till The night is gone; And with the morn those angel faces smile, Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. O LAMP OF LIFE! that on the bloody cross (Whate'er be lost in that tempestuous war,) Thee I retain, my Compass and my Star! That, when arrived upon the wished-for strand, pass of death th' irrevocable bar, I And at the gate of heaven, trembling, stand, CHARLES DYSON. CHAPTER XI. CHRIST A SUFFERER DISCIPLINE OF SORROW - CONSOLATION FOR THE AFFLICTED THE DEATH OF CHRIST AS RELATED TO AFFLICTION. -- THE "Surely be hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." Isaiah 53:4. HE CHURCH UNDER THE CROSS, SO did the Reformed Church of Holland style itself in the days of its early weakness and persecution. Days of trial and sorrow they were, but of purity and spiritual growth. "From the day when Jesus Christ purchased us upon a cross, all that is great, powerful, healthful, is tinged with sadness; and all the seeds of life and regeneration are sown in sorrow and death."1 There is something almost sacred in sorrow. 1 Adolphe Monod. Discourses on St. Paul. "It is a relic of Christ in the world; an image of the great Sufferer; a shadow of the cross." 1 "The holy name of Grief; holy herein, That by the grief of ONE came all our good." How noble its discipline, how valuable its lessons, when the Divine Spirit uses it in the exercise of his great office as Enlightener, Comforter, and Sanctifier. Then it is no longer the "sorrow of the world, which worketh death," but that godly sorrow which is unto life." Then shall it be found true, that, though "weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning." 66 The heart that has never felt the "furnaceheat" of a great affliction has paid dear for its exemption. Its faith may be genuine, but it lacks that quality of calm and steadfast assurance which belongs to the faith that has been shaken by the tempest, and made to strike its roots deeper into the promises of God. Its love may be sincere, but it lacks that simple purity and all-embracing tenderness which comes of sanctified affliction. Its joys may be real and many, but they are superficial when compared with that bliss which he enjoys who, in the time of supreme need, has 1 W. Archer Butler. Sermons. 2 Mrs. Browning. 66 experienced the exceeding preciousness of the promises; who, through his tears, has beheld his Saviour nearer and dearer than ever, and heaven also nearer and more glorious. His smiles are glory-beaming," the revelation of a profound and satisfying consciousness of having passed beyond the "broken cisterns," and drank at the ever-flowing fountain of truth and gladness. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Trials may be attended with sad and startling revelations of self, with the blighting of hopes, the breaking of idols, the staining of pride, the bowing of the soul in the very dust; but the sense of want and helplessness may beget the cry for mercy, a cry never unheard in heaven, — and so out of weakness may come strength, and out of darkness light, out of dismay, the peace which floweth as a river;" and the heart become the richer in all the fruits of love, and life assume a new seriousness and grandeur. Thus the slave of passion may be transformed into an angel of mercy; and the Christian whose heart had been "divided," and his ways unstable, and his character sadly incomplete and unsymmetrical, into a pattern of humility and devotion. "One of the richest mines in the world was accidently discovered by a peasant, as he was slowly climbing up a difficult steep. He caught at a bush to save himself and steady his steps; the bush gave way, but disclosed at the same time the exhaustless treasure which lay concealed underneath." So, in the stern struggle of life, or toiling up some difficult ascent, amid trial and sorrow, we, almost in our desperation, grasp at many supports, only to have them fail us; yet then it is that the hitherto hidden power of faith in the unseen Redeemer is revealed, giving unwonted energy to the soul, and a new discovery of the unsearchable riches of his grace. Sometimes trials seem to hide us away, apart from men, in the "cleft of the rock," but it is that we may see the glory of Jehovah passing by. There, shut out from the world and up to ourselves and God, faith gains new clearness of vision, becomes far-sighted, or brings the distant near. "I have often," says Ruskin, "seen the summit of a snowy mountain look nearer than its base, owing to the perfect clearness of the upper sky." So, sometimes, in affliction's hour, when all around |