upon him a burden heavier than he can bear; assured that in due time, when his gracious design shall have been accomplished, he will give him peace, and deliver him from every distress. These considerations will prove sufficient to excite him to assuage his grief. He. dares not murmur, or call in question the goodness or the justice of God; for he invites his children to pour out their requests unto him; and though in great mercy he sees fit frequently to deny them what they ask, yet he always giveth liberally, and gives exactly, not that which may be most pleasing, but which will be best for them in the present and a future world. 35 CHAPTER III. ON EXCESSIVE SORROW. Ir is not easy to define the precise limits where every kind and degree of sorrow becomes excessive; for a moment's reflection will convince, that expressions of grief, which nature and religion both demand and allow under the severe sufferings to which humanity is exposed, would be unjustifiable and sinful under the lighter cares and perplexities of daily life. There are many persons who view their own trials through a magnifying medium: they unjustly trace out aggravating circumstances, which a fond selfishness alone can discover, and thus endeavour to excuse their impatience, by the supposed weight of suffering under which they labour. They conceive their affliction to be more severe than ever was intended by its Author; and, unaccustomed to the yoke, they vainly imagine that no burden is equal to theirs, and believe that their complaints may lawfully exceed the bounds prescribed for others. Yet it is manifest, that the same indulgence of grief cannot be allowed to the sufferings of unsubdued passion, as to those real mourners who are borne down with the weight of their sorrows, and with a humbling sense of God's justice and mercy in their infliction to those whom God hath wounded in the tenderest relations, and who feel the full extent of human wretchedness. Some allowance must be made for natural disposition, and the peculiar texture of individual minds. Let not one pride himself on his submission to afflictive providence, when in truth his equanimity arises from the absence of those acute feelings which constitute the man of quick sensibility. Let not that be termed patience, which consists in indifference; nor suffer that to be extolled as a virtue, which is a mere gift of nature, or the offspring of a mind well trained and disciplined in the depths of abstract reasoning, and rendered less susceptible of the acute feelings a more lively imagination would experience. Nature has cast some minds in a sterner mould; their perceptions are correct-their associations few and accurate their judgment firm their sensibilities obtuse; while she has endowed others with a greater degree of vivacity, quick and inaccurate perception, lively and unlimited association, and a judgment too frequently influenced, and even carried away, by the acuteness of their feelings. In characters so unlike, the expression of sorrow will be different in degree, and dissimilar in kind. That sorrow which would be excessive, and therefore sinful, in the former character, may be safely allowed to the latter. In either case, the principal difference will consist in the external expression of grief; and there will still remain certain precepts, whereby the heart of each may alike be tried and regulated. These will apply to all; and each individual may thus form a judgment for himself, far more easily than those who frame their opinion from external appearances. What then is the tendency of your grief? Does it lead your heart to God, or alienate you from him? Does it engage your thoughts and affections principally on the circumstances of the affliction which has befallen you, or on the gracious design with which it has been commissioned? When the Almighty extends his chastening arm, it is to remind us that he is our chief good, to abstract our hearts from objects of inferior moment, or to purify and fit us for a closer walk with him here, and for more intimate communion with him hereafter. This design can alone be effected by our returning to him in sincerity, earnestly striving, that we may be more entirely devoted to his service, that our hearts may be more expanded by a Saviour's love, and that our affections may be animated with the desire of living to his glory. Are you anxious to view all your trials in this light, and to come to God, and to him alone, for comfort and support? Do you delight to have your thoughts much with him, pray to him, and diligently strive that the end for which affliction was designed, may be accomplished in you? Or do you rather fondly dwell on the value of the blessing you have lost, and still concentrate your affections on that gift which a merciful God has seen fit to remove? Do you rather excite the mind to the recollection of past scenes of happiness, so fondly and so properly endeared to memory-to your prospects of earthly pleasure, withered by the chilly gale of premature mortality, and to your present forlorn condition, while you lose sight of the hand of God? Then is your sorrow excessive, for it is opposed to the will of heaven, and you are suffering without the possibility of appropriating those cheering consolations which are provided for the humble mourner. But again, "There's mercy in every place; And reconciles man to his lot." Hence, sorrow becomes excessive, when we forget the goodness of God displayed in the |