rection of the physician for the subduing of this soul-consuming sickness? Some of his precepts will readily occur. "Be content with such things as ye have-covet not uncertain richesstudy to be quiet and do your own business-the servant of the Lord must not strive-seekest thou high things for thyself, seek them notmake not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof-ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it on your lusts." Are those whose spiritual growth is stayed by earthly care and their prayers for peace unanswered, not seeking more of earth than God has promised, more than is needful— not meddling more with earth than their lawful business requires, more than is wholesomenot mingling, more than duty and humanity require, in the great strife of this world's pride and policy? Alas! who can medicate for soul or body, if the patient will dwell in an unwholesome atmosphere, and eat pernicious food? Before we complain of want of enjoyment or want of efficacy in these sacred mysteries, we must examine ourselves what we do, or mean to do, to counteract their blessed influences.

Those likewise, who bring their sorrows to be healed and solaced at the altar; although in

some sense they are the most honest suppliants, for nature loves not sorrow; yet sorrow is a rebellious thing, and often wants the sanctity of submission; and then it is so hard for man to judge in this case between the complaint and the process of its cure. Some secret sin, some indulged corruption, or habit adverse to the mind of God, may have produced the painful dispensation. The physician may know the sorrow is the medicine, not the disease, nor to be intermitted on the first appearance of recovery: the patient knows nothing of all this, and like a sick child, resists the draught, mourns that he is not comforted in prayer, when, if he would only listen he would hear the tender father's most persuasive voice-" My Son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." Go and examine what it is delays your consolation, that as yet your prayers prevail not to remove his hand; perhaps it will be whispered to you in this study of yourself, Give up that questionable practice, resist that natural propensity, be humbled for that infirmity, or repair that wrong, then will it be safe to close the wound and remove this sorrow from you.

More than all these, perhaps, the wonder

seems that they who come to the altar for blessings purely spiritual, for the strengthening of their faith, the increase of their love, and the subjugation of their sins, do so often go away unsatisfied and unassured of benefits received. Most commonly, I believe, this case is one before alluded to; we really have received the things we sought, but have not faith at the time to realize the grant: the excited hope that cheered us to the effort went out, or was put out by the enemy at the altar, and we have come away in mournful unconsciousness of the blessing poured out upon us. If so, let us wait-" The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain ;-be ye also patient; stablish your hearts." At the beginning of Daniel's prayer the commandment came forth, though it was long before it reached the earth. Abraham did not receive the child of promise till it became in the natural course impossible. God does take time for every thing: He took time to make the world, and time to redeem it; and still he takes time to convert and sanctify every separate soul whom he designs for glory. It seems long"but he that believeth shall not make haste."

What is time to one who has all eternity to be blessed in, and only as it were a throb of pain, or breathing of desire, to fill up the brief interval? Hope against hope-believe against experience -believe that ye receive grace and strength, although your hand seems empty and your bosom void. In presence of the enemy, Israel sang the praises of the Lord; and when they began to sing and praise, the enemy was smitten.

But, there is a reverse of this conclusion; there is a possible and too probable forfeiture on our part of even the spiritual benefits intended for us in the Sacrament, by the means we use to counteract them. For why are God's promises of peace and joy so great, and the believer's realization of them so comparatively little; but because we do not act rationally in furtherance of our best desires? Perhaps while we are earnestly praying for the subjugation of some particular sin, we go needlessly to the scenes most likely to excite it-while we implore strength against the assaults of Satan, we go to meet him where we know his seat is. We ask more faith, and forthwith indulge in conversation or reading, calculated to obscure the little that we have. We desire earnestly to grow in grace and thence proceed to put our

selves under the most unfavourable influences, or deprive ourselves of the most ordinary means. We plant our vines on the cold side of the hill, and wonder that they yield us no rich juices we scatter our corn upon the common field, and wonder to find it trodden under foot

-we leave our fires unstirred and our lamps untrimmed, and complain that we sit in darkness and derive no warmth. This do we-not

perhaps in things sinful in themselves, and directly forbidden by the word of God, but in things inexpedient by reason of the influence they have upon our spiritual health, and the divine life within us; especially upon our present enjoyment of it.

Few of us know perhaps what exquisite delight we throw away by this idle tampering with our blessings, and it is the more difficult to know, because no common rules can be laid down that apply to every character alike. What is the harm of this? and what is the use of that? are every-day questions; and there is often no answer to be given but this—the harm is the harm it does us; the use is the good we get by it: either difficult to estimate for another, because the influences are so variable upon different minds. One need not take