one! thy God will bless thee, Christ-loving one! afflicted thou mayst be, but thy God knoweth thy path," when He hath tried thee thou shalt come forth as gold." "He is leading thee forth by the right way, that thou mayst go to a city of habitation," Psa. cvii. 7. Thy road may be rough, but thy Home is Heaven. Brethren, let us cast away our disguises, we are even now on the threshold of discovery, and shall soon be called by our right names. It remains that we consider shortly, III. The Disconsolate Return. The remembrance of the past casts a dark shadow on each step of the way. She does not now feign herself to be another, she is the agonized mother hastening to the burial of her child. And what is it that increases to her at this time the bitterness of her path? The sad thoughts of her neglect of that God of whose Prophet she had inquired, the conviction that she was but reaping part of the wages of her sin in the expected death of her son. It is this that gives the poignancy to her grief, and makes affliction as a barbed arrow to the heart, "I am but suffering the just judgments of my God, He is bringing my sins to remembrance, it is in His indignation-His how many a disguise would be stripped off, how many a countenance gather blackness. Thou that hast a name to live and art dead, "why feignest thou thyself to be another?" God knoweth thee, readeth thee, tracketh thee in all thy windings. Put off thy disguise, stand forth as thou art, confess thy sin and forsake it...And thou slothful one who doest nothing for God's people, to whom Christ will one early day say, "I was hungry, and ye gave Mẹ no meat; thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink;" why feignest thou thyself to be another, as though thou hadst not the means, hadst not the time, whereas thou puttest God's service last and the world first; the hour is coming when "the vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful."..... Thou too who speakest the ministers of God fair, and the saints of God fair, but yet hast no real love for them in thy heart, once past the threshold of the grave, and thou art laid bare, thy disguise gone and thyself silenced for ever!.... Thou, too, poor trembling child of God! "faint, yet pursuing;" "why feignest thow thyself to be another?" standing without, fearing to come in for thy share of the children's bread, thy God seeth thee, contrite one! thy God heareth thee, prayerful one! thy God will bless thee, Christ-loving one! afflicted thou mayst be, but thy God knoweth thy path," when He hath tried thee thou shalt come forth as gold." "He is leading thee forth by the right way, that thou mayst go to a city of habitation," Psa. cvii. 7. Thy road may be rough, but thy Home is Heaven. The re Brethren, let us cast away our disguises, we are even now on the threshold of discovery, and shall soon be called by our right names. It remains that we consider shortly, III. The Disconsolate Return. membrance of the past casts a dark shadow on each step of the way. She does not now feign herself to be another, she is the agonized mother hastening to the burial of her child. And what is it that increases to her at this time the bitterness of her path? The sad thoughts of her neglect of that God of whose Prophet she had inquired, the conviction that she was but reaping part of the wages of her sin in the expected death of her son. It is this that gives the poignancy to her grief, and makes affliction as a barbed arrow to the heart, "I am but suffering the just judgments of my God, He is bringing my sins to remembrance, it is in His indignation-His wrath that He is slaying my child. See to it, my brethren, that it be not thus with you. Let not trial break in upon you, yet in your sins. That chamber of sorrow is dark indeed which God's presence lights not up, that journey lonesome which leads to the grave, unless God's comforts are our companions by the way. Were trouble now to come, how would it fall on us? Where would it find us walking? In God's paths, or on the world's broad way? The ploughing up the fallow ground prepares the earth to profit by the frost, which breaks the clods and makes fertile the ridges of the field. Is our fallow ground so broken up? are we so living the life of faith on the Son of God that the chastening of the Lord will not harden but soften our hearts, and prepare them for growth in grace, increased fruitfulness in His service? 2. Dread of the future would form another part in the cup of woe to the wife of Jeroboam. Too plainly had the hand of the Lord been seen in the Prophet's penetration of her disguise for any doubt to remain as to the fulfilment of his words. As she enters the city the child shall die. Lengthened would theway seem to her anxious heart, and yet well might |