soul is bewildered with darkness and sorrow. I go forward, says Job, but he is not there; and backwards, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand where he doth work, but I cunnot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. Here were strenuous exertions, but all to no purpose. He went backward and forward, looked this way and that, but all was darkness. God's face was hidden from him, his glory concealed, and gracious communications were withheld; duties and ordinances became unprofitable, his prospects gloomy, and of course his burdens were encreased. But all this was designed for his benefit, and he believed it; for when he hath tried me, says he, I shall come forth as gold, more solid and valuable, more pure and refined. The good man loses nothing in the furnace but the dross. God's rebukes are a sanctified ordinance for his people's recovery.

By the wilderness may also be understood a state of legal distress and terror. In this state many have wandered for a long time, before they have had a gleam of spiritual comfort. Here the sinner has a painful sense of all his former miscarriages, and dismal prospects with respect to futurity. He has at the same time clear views of the extent, purity, and spirituality of the divine law, so that all hope of relief from that quarter is entirely cut off. Justice, like the avenger of blood, pursues him, and he has no city of refuge to which he can flee. The clouds gather thick around him, and he has no ark to shelter him from the impending storm. Satan accuses, conscience reproaches, and he has no advocate to plead his cause. His corruptions seem to himself to grow stronger, and his heart still harder: he is bound in affliction and iron, and by seeking to disengage himself he only entangles himself the more. He would betake himself to his former refuges of lies and hiding places of deceit; but alas, he cannot find them.

Thus bewildered and confounded, he is constrained to give himself up into the hands of God, saying, If I perish, I perish!

Into a wilderness like this, dark and dreadful, does God often bring those whom he intends to lead to the heavenly Canaan, and that in the following manner.

1. God often brings his people into the wilderness gradually, by little and little. Sometimes indeed he runs upon the poor defenceless sinner like a giant, and breaks him with breach upon breach ; but more frequently he allures them, and brings them into the wilderness, as it is in Hos. ii. 14. The terrors and dangers of the wilderness are concealed; slight convictions are at first impressed which afterwards grow stronger; small rumblings preceed the loud claps of thunder; sometimes the clouds seem to break, and promise fair weather; then they grow thicker, and wear a more formidable aspect than ever. Sometimes there is great melting and brokenness of spirit, and Christ and comfort seem just at the door. Unspeakable horror then seizes afresh; and when the poor soul seemed almost escaped, he is plunged into the depths of the wilderness again.

2. The Lord brings them in with an high hand and an out-stretched arm, as he did the children of Israel of old. However gently he may act, yet he acts powerfully, and the greatest mildness is attended with an irresistable energy. We may be like bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke; but all our reluctance or resistance will be unavailing. We may be fretful and impatient, unruly and unmanageable; but he who has taken the work in hand will not leave it unfinished. We may stifle our convictions, but God will revive them; may lull conscience asleep, but he will waken it again. Sometimes indeed we may be ready to say as the Israelites, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries round about. We had none

of these fears, none of these distresses, when we were serving our lusts; and therefore we will return to our former state, and submissively wear the yoke again. But what says God? That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all. hand, and with a stretched-out poured out, will I rule over you. has taken hold of the sinner, and he will keep his hold. There is no shaking of his dominion: rule he must, either with a rod of iron or the sceptre of grace.

Surely with a mighty arm, and with fury (ver. 32, 33.) God

3. God brings into the wilderness with a design to bring out of it again. It shall at length be said, Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved? He keeps some longer in it than others, and some he leads out of one wilderness into another; but with respect to both it is his kind intention to do them good in the latter end. The controversy which God has with his people is not perpetual: though he cast down, yet he will not cast off. I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should faint before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners-Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of bis mercies-Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for be bath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and be will bind us up. After two days will he revive us ; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Isai. lvii. 16-18. Lam. iii. 32. Hos. vi. 1, 2.

11. Having brought his people into the wilderness, the Lord saith, And there will I plead with you face to face.

He does not say that he would plead against them, nor yet that he would plead for them; but he would plead with them, and that face to face, so that they should both see and hear him. And what would he plead with them about? Perhaps the sins they had committed, and the calamities thereby brought upon themselves. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way? He will also plead with them respecting the equity of his own proceedings, and the unreasonableness of their conduct. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness?—Are not my ways equal, and your ways unequal, saith the Lord? He also pleads with them on the futility of their attempts to help themselves, and the necessity of looking to another quarter for relief. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?-Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Jer. ii. 17, 31, 36. viii. 22.

We shall now notice a little more particularly the manner in which the Lord pleads with his people when he has brought them into the wilder

ness.

1. He pleads powerfully. How forcible are right words, says Job. And such are the words of God: they are founded upon truth, plain and direct, and carry with them an irresistable energy. Our pleadings often betray our ignorance; but God's pleadings discover his wisdom and knowledge: he can neither deceive nor be deceived. If the sinner deny or conceal his guiltt, God will find it out, and set it in order before him. Thou sayest, because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned-Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. Let us produce ever such strong arguments, yet God's arguments will be stronger than ours. Jer. ii. 35. Isai. xliii. 26.

2. He pleads convincingly. God will overcome when he judgeth. When he is opponent, no man can be respondent. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. He could plead against his friends, but not against God. He inadvertently went too far before; but now he had such a view of the equity of the divine conduct, of his own meanness and God's majesty, of his own sinfulness and God's holiness, that he would proceed no further. With this agrees the language of the prophet: Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for he is risen up out of his holy habitation. Zech. ii. 13. Job xl. 2, 3.

3. He pleads tenderly and in love his appeals are made to the understanding and the heart, and an ingenuous mind must feel their force. The Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. Oh my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have 1 wearied thee? This is the language of an offended father, or injured friend; not of an angry judge, or enraged enemy; nor of one who comes forth with fury, but with compassion to save. Hence also that gracious invitation: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. This is blessed reasoning indeed, upon the footing of pure and unmerited mercy, when, if he were to contend with guilty creatures at the bar of justice, they could not answer him one of a thousand. Mic. vi. 3. Isai. i. 18.

What has been said on this subject condemns three sorts of persons:-(1.) Those who have always been in the wilderness of sin, but not in that of sorrow; who are merry and jovial, saying, To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.-(2.) Those