witnessed could be but very partially
communicated. Language is weak; only faint hints and general
intimations could be given of the "glory which is to be revealed." But
the suffering apostle enjoyed it, and was supported, yea, enraptured
by it.

This life is filled with changes. Good and evil, hope and fear, light
and darkness, are set over against each other. The saints, while they
dwell in the dust, sometimes walk in darkness, and have their hours of
gloom and horror--"The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together
in pain until now--Even those who have the first fruits of the spirit,
groan within themselves, waiting for--the redemption of the body.
Those of whom the world is not worthy, are often in heaviness, through
manifold temptations."

We may wonder at these things: but when we consider them as ordered of
God, the consideration, should calm our minds, and bring us to say
with the astonished Shunamite of old, "It is well." *

* 2 Kings iv. 26.

God doth not order sorrows to his creatures here, because he delights
in their sufferings. "He grieves not willingly, neither afflicts the
children of men. He doth it for their profit, that they may be
partakers of his holiness." And which of the saints hath not received
benefit from it? Who among them hath not sometimes been ready to adopt
the language of the psalmist, "It is good for me, that I have been
afflicted."

"Born of the earth, we are earthly"--our afflictions naturally
descend. We are prone to set our affections on temporal things, and
set up our rest where there is no abiding. Therefore do we need
afflictions to keep us mindful of our situation. Such remains of
depravity are left in the renewed, that prosperity often corrupts
them. But for the sorrows and sufferings ordered out to them, they
would forget God and lose themselves among the deceitful cares, and
infatuating allurements of this strange land.

Intervals of comfort are also needful for them. Were these denied
them, "the spirits would fail before God, and the souls which he hath
made." And intervals of light and joy are given to refresh and cheer,
and animate them to the duties required in this land of darkness and
doubt. But they are not intended to satisfy. They answer like ends to
the Christian during his earthly pilgrimage, as the fruits of Canaan,
carried by the spies into the wilderness did to Israel while
journeying toward the land of promise--serve to give them a glance of
the