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rious. When a few years are come, you will

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go the all flesh, and then, all that disquiets or distresses you, will be thrown amongst the old things that shall be passed away, to be no more seen. It may be much less. Perhaps a few months,-a few weeks,-a few days more, and all will be peace, quietness, and assurance for ever. Were you doomed for thousands, or even for hundreds of years, to dwell'in a body of death, and in a world of danger, the melancholy prospect might well inspire despondency; but, blessed be God! it is otherwise determined. The language of scripture on this subject is remarkable, and calculated to encourage us. It does not speak of the saint's sufferings by using the words ages, years, or even months, lest such terms should bring darkness upon our minds; we read of a day of adversity,—a night of affliction,-an hour of temptation,-a moment, a short moment of distress: be patient then till the hour of release shall arrive. Would it not be strange for a peasant to murmur at the inconveniences of his poor straw-thatched cottage, if to-morrow he were to exchange it for a mansion? What can be more certain than the speedy and blessed end of affliction to those that are in Christ Jesus? Therefore, the humble believer, while all things are withering around him, may sing in his pilgrimage,

"A little while, and then my race is run,
My toils are ended, and my conflicts done;
For, looking in the glass from day to day,
I seem to trace the progress of decay,
That slowly wears this mortal frame away.
And (though not unrefresh'd by sacred song,
Murmur'd by angel's hosts that round me throng)
Here on life's rugged path I creep along.
Feeble and faint,-alone and friendless too,
A weary traveller, but with home in view.
Then welcome trial, whatever may befall,
That home will more than make amends for all.

And with the sweet asurance it is mine,
Let but some glimmering of its glory shine
On my rough road, and I will not repine,
But with the everlasting arms beneath,
Still struggle forward to my latest breath;
When weak, then strong to conquer hell and death:
For he that hath redeem'd me with his blood,

Shall set me safe before the throne of God."

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Consider also the glorious termination of affliction. christian! fix your attention on the prospect before you. It is through "much tribulation you must enter the kingdom," but an entrance there will abundantly compensate for all; and what can prevent your entrance there, if you continue stedfast in your determination to glorify God? Fix your eye therefore, on the promised recompense of reward; contrast the present with the future-what you now endure, with what you shall hereafter enjoy; think how little the one, how great the other;-how short the one, how lasting the other. Endeavour to estimate the salvation that is to be revealed; take its dimensions; survey it in the length and breadth thereof;-employ the telescope of scripture, and the eye of faith. It stretches out beyond the most enlarged eonceptions. If the sum total of worldly bliss were to become the possession of one man, and were all concentrated in his experience, that man would be poor, abject, and miserable, in comparison of him who holds the lowest place in the kingdom of heaven. It is nothing less than “ a far more, exceeding, and eternal weight of glory." What a delightful termination of a few years of transitory suffering. "What thoughts," said one of the martyrs, "shall we have of the sufferings of this life, when we have reigned with Christ a thousand years in heavenly glory." It is easy to imagine what thoughts we shall then have, but ought not such thoughts to occupy our minds now? "I reckon," said the

apostle Paul," that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." And of the primitive christians it is said, that they had such joyous anticipations of paradise, and their minds were so intently fixed upon its glories, that they could scarcely think or speak of any thing else. The kingdom! the kingdom of heaven! was so much the subject of their converse, that it became the occasion of misrepresentation, suspicion, and accusation; and many of them were, in consequence, charged with treasonable designs against the government. They were accustomed to regard every day spent on earth as a day lost in heaven; and so eager were their desires of future glory, that many for its sake even coveted martyrdom itself. "Being inflamed," saith Justyn Martyr, "with the desire of a pure and celestial life, we breathe after an intimate converse with God, the great parent and creator of the world, and make haste to seal our confession with our blood." Reader, if the grace of God hath made thee a partaker of the hope of heaven, draw comfort from that hope; anticipate that heaven; daily cherish the thought of its felicities, and set them against the trials you are called to endure. They are real; they are near ;-they are your's. Let your souls

"Go out in strong desire,

The perfect bliss to prove."

Does the sailor, tossed by storms, long once more to reach his home? Does the sick man desire health, the prisoner liberty, the condemned criminal a pardon? and should you not desire heaven as the termination of a tedious voyage-as a deliverance from disease, and bondage, and suffering? Live therefore, with the prospect of heaven ever in your sight; endeavour to catch each day a nearer view of its glories, to form a clearer comprehension of its bliss, to acquire more and

more of an holy abstractedness from earthly entanglements and cares, and of preparation for celestial occupations and enjoyments; elevate the eye of your faith to the blessed and important hour when you shall enter triumphant into the realms of bliss, and shall receive the crown of glory from the hands of an applauding Saviour. So shall the prospect repress the sigh of sorrow, dry up the tear of grief, and cause you to rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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BE JOYOUS, BUT GRIEVOUS: NEVERTHELESS, AFTERWARD IT
YIELDETH THE PEACEABLE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
THEM WHICH ARE EXERCISED THEREBY.

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HEBREWS, XII., XI.

PHILOSOPHERS have frequently remarked what they have called the doctrine of compensation, by which they mean that tendency there is in nature to keep all things on a kind of equality, so that while on the one hand there are defects to counterbalance advantages, there are on the other advantages to counterbalance defects. The remark is applicable, not only

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