In this way your afflictions will be productive of a two-fold advantage, and not only will you reap from them the peaceable fruits of righteousness, in the increase of your own personal piety, but they will promote your usefulness to others, and thus "the blessing of him that was ready to perish" shall come upon you.

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST IN

AFFLICTION.

Yes, thou art precious to my soul,
My transport and my trust;
Jewels, to thee, are gaudy toys,
And gold is sordid dust.

All my capacious powers can boast,
In thee most richly meet;
Nor to my eyes is light so dear,

Or friendship half so sweet.

66 HOW GREAT IS HIS GOODNESS, AND HOW GREAT IS HIS BEAUTY.

ZECHARIAH IX., XIX.

CONTEMPLATION of the Saviour's excellencies is a principal mean of invigorating the life of faith, and hope, and love, as well as of supporting the mind under the pressure of affliction. "Looking unto Jesus" is a direction of incalculable impor tance. On this subject an able writer remarks: " in this present 'beholding of the glory of Christ,' the life and power of faith are most eminently acted. And from the exercise of faith, love to Christ principally, if not solely, arises and springs. If, therefore, we desire to have faith in its vigour, or love in its power, giving rest, complacency, and satisfaction to our souls, we are to seek for them in the diligent discharge of

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHRIST IN AFFLICTION.

145

this duty; elsewhere they will not be found. Herein would I live; herein would I die; herein would I dwell in all my thoughts and affections; to the withering and consuming of all the painted beauties of this world, to the crucifying all things here below, until they become to me a dead and dedeformed thing, no way suitable for affectionate embraces." Next to prayer, nothing, perhaps, is so much adapted to promote the exercise of faith, and to kindle the affections into holy fervour, as frequent meditation on the person and offices, the love and sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Meditation is to all these truths what the opened eye is to the light; it admits them into the understanding as objects of knowledge, and it applies them to the soul for the promotion of its hope and joy. Where communion with Christ is not sought by frequent and devout meditation, faith will decline in its exercise, love will languish in the heart, joy in him will be almost a stranger to the soul, and if we are in circumstances of affliction, our strength will be small, and we shall faint in the day of adversity. Meditation gives life and vigour to faith, and it is faith which makes the Saviour precious, and inspires the soul with holy joy. "To them that believe," says an apostle, "he is precious." It is by faith we realise our interest in him as a Saviour, and when an assurance is possessed that we have a part in all the blessings of his love, and all the riches of his grace, this leads the believer to prize him, to rejoice in him. Is he my Saviour, my refuge, my guide, my protector; then all I have beside is mean compared with him. "None but Christ," said the martyr; 66 none but Christ," responds the christian.

"Jesus, my all in all thou art;

My rest in toil; my ease in pain;
The medicine of my broken heart;

In war my peace; in loss my gain;
In grief my joy unspeakable;
My life in death; my heaven in hell."

Christian sufferer, that feelings like these may inspire your heart, let your mind dwell with stedfast meditation on the excellencies of Jesus. Avail yourself of every appointed mean to aid you in holding communion with him. Implore the Spirit's help, that you may behold your Lord in all his glory, as it is displayed in his own word. Let the exercise of faith accompany all your efforts; then will its enlivening elevating power be felt; then will you rise above the depressing influence of your sorrows; your affections will be kindled into holy fervour, your heart will overflow with consolation, and you will learn to "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord." With the view of aiding your meditations, I would place before you some of the particulars which render him precious in christian estimation, and especially in time of affliction.

Contemplate the dignity of his person The proper divinity of the Saviour is a subject most luminously revealed in the word of God. It is written as with a sunbeam. Upon this doctrine the whole system of christianity is built. It is intimately connected with all that is cheering in the gospel. It constitutes the very foundation of the sinner's hope and joy. If the divinity of Christ be denied, no place remains for the doctrine of the atonement; and take away the doctrine of the atonement, and there remains no solid ground of encouragement for a guilty world; and the awakened sinner is left to encounter all the fearful consequences of his guilt, without one single ray of hope to beam on his benighted soul. How dangerous must every error be which is in the least connected with the person of the self-existent and eternal Word, seeing that there is none other name given among men whereby they can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ? The doctrine of the divinity of the Lord Jesus rests not merely on a single statement, or topic of argument; it is interwoven with the whole tissue of sacred truth. The properly and rightfully

divine is attributed to him in the most unqualified manner, and in the most substantial degree; and meets us in such a variety of forms, that if it be denied, we can no longer place dependence on the language of scripture, we must abandon all the ordinary and legitimate rules of criticism and of judgment, and despair of ascertaining its real meaning. Nothing can exceed its unequivocal averments. There is "line upon line." "He was God." He is "the great God." He is "the true God." He is "God, blessed for ever." He is "the only wise God." He is "the Lord (Jehovah) our righteousness." He is "the mighty God." It is difficult to conceive how words can be more potential and descriptive. If, as the Unitarians assert, Christ is no more than man, then must we regard the scriptures as so written, that the natural interpretation of them is a source of total and dreadful error, and, instead of being a sure guide, none would be more uncertain ;-then the sacred writers have deceived millions who wished to know the divine will, and have led them to pay divine honours to a man, or an angel, and thus drawn them into the erroneous crime of idolatry. Can a system be true which evidently leads to this conclusion? Conformable to these declarations of the Saviour's divinity, the scriptures ascribe to Christ all the peculiar attributes of Deity. Is God omnipotent?" I am Alpha and Omega,—the Almighty.” Is God omniscient? "all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the heart and the reins." Is God omnipresent?"where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Is God self-existent? "his goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Is God immutable? "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever.' All the peculiar claims of God are represented as belonging unto Christ. Is God to be loved? "if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha." Is God to be obeyed? "ye serve the Lord

G