as his Father's glory when he enjoined devotional solitude upon his disciples. For, in the best frame of mind, a Christian requires to be alone at times. The privacy of the domestic altar is not sufficiently "apart," when the heart is full and overflowing with adoring and melting views of sovereign and free grace. The fullsouled exclamation, "Why, me Lord!" with its tones and tears, is fit only for the ear of God.· And when the witness of the Spirit is strong, and the seal of the Spirit bright; when the soul is borne away amongst "the deep things of God," and the dazzling scenes of eternitywe must be alone, or lose one half of the enjoyment. Even a family, however endeared, would be a check, at these sacred moments, on the full flow of devotional feeling, and on the flush of a hope full of immortality. Solitude is the real element of these raptures. But then--the Christian is not alone: the mount of communion is covered with "horses of fire, and chariots of fire." He is alone" with an innumerable company of angels, and with the spirits of just men made perfect.”

Solitude is also peculiarly suitable to the

worst frames of a Christian's mind. The tones and terms in which backsliding, or indeed any sin, can be deplored in the domestic or social circle, are both too general and tame for the emotions of a contrite spirit. David was alone when he said, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep." Asaph was alone when he said, "I was as a beast before thee." Ephraim

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was alone when he smote upon his thigh and acknowledged that he had been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke." And our secret sorrows and shame are not fit even for the ear of our families. They might be misunderstood and misinterpreted by others: whereas, He who heareth in secret can heal in secret. And what a sanctuary is solitude for the expression of all those feelings which, even at home, can only be breathed in general and gentle terms! It will not do to utter before our families all our fears of death, nor all our anxieties for them. It will not do to unburthen and unbosom all the heart to any one but God. God seeth and heareth in secret. What a mercy! What a wise and kind arrangement! good for me to draw nigh unto God," alone!

"It is

No. XI.

COMMUNION WITH GOD IN AFFLICTION.

WHILST it is still true that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God," it is, happily, our lot to live at a time, and in a place, free from the fiery trial of persecution and martyrdom. Neither bonds nor imprisonments await us in the service of God. Our property is safe and our good name hardly in danger. "Cruel mockings," for righteousness' sake do not come from the public voice now; and "scourgings," for the sake of Christ, would be denounced even by the enemies of the cross of Christ.

This happy change in the public mind and manners demands our grateful acknowledgment. For if we are at times staggered and almost overwhelmed by the ordinary

trials of life, what would be the effect of such fiery trials as the first christians had to endure? If we call, and feel our heaviest troubles to be, a furnace, what should we have thought of the Babylonian furnace and the flames of martyrdom? If we shrink from a sneer or sarcasm, now that it is no longer backed by the sword, how should we have acted when it was the signal for guards to arrest, or for the rabble to stone, Christians?

These are not the trials of our times. It was, however, to such trials, chiefly, that the greatest of the "great and precious promises refer. It is not exactly of chronic nor acute diseases of the body, that the Saviour and the apostles speak when they comfort the church under her manifold afflictions. It was not over sick-beds by name, nor over mere death-beds by name, that they opened the visions of all-sufficient grace, and of an eternal weight of glory; but over racks, and scaffolds, and dungeons.

These facts are startling at first sight! They are, however, facts; and, therefore, should neither be concealed nor overlooked.

We, indeed, have formed the habit of applying any promise of grace or strength to any trial whatever, We do not hesitate to draw as freely upon the "strong consolation" of the well-ordered covenant, when in sickness or pain, as the martyrs did when they were imprisoned and impaled. With not a tithe of their sufferings we lay claim to all their supports-so far as these were derived from the promises.

Now, it is not to dispute the propriety of this conduct that I place it in this light. It is highly proper that all suffering Christians, whatever be the kind or degree of their trials, should take to themselves all the consolation which is to be found in the word of God. It is, however, equally proper that they should clearly understand their warrant and welcome to do so. For, it is not right because they do so; but because God allows it to be done. It will, therefore, be best done by those who understand best the divine warrant for comforting themselves with the great and precious promises.

Look, then, at the facts of the case. These