precious at all times, thou art never _so_ precious as
in "the dark and cloudy day!" The bitterness of sorrow is well worth
enduring to have thy promised consolations. How well qualified, thou Man
of Sorrows, to be my Comforter! How well fitted to dry my tears, Thou
who didst shed so many thyself! What are _my_ tears--my sorrows--my
crosses--my losses, compared with Thine, who didst shed first Thy tears,
and then Thy blood for _me_! Mine are all deserved, and infinitely more
than deserved. How different, O Spotless Lamb of God, those pangs which
rent Thy guiltless bosom! How sweet those comforts Thou hast promised to
the comfortless, when I think of them as flowing from an Almighty
_Fellow-Sufferer_,--"A brother born for adversity,"--the "Friend that
sticketh closer than any brother!"--one who can say, with all the
refined sympathies of a holy exalted human nature, "I know your
sorrows!" My soul! calm thy griefs! There is not a sorrow thou canst
experience, but Jesus, in the treasury of grace, has an exact
corresponding solace: "In the multitude of the _sorrows_ I have in my
heart, Thy _comforts_ delight my soul!"

"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"

5TH DAY.

"He is Faithful that Promised."

"Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as
wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not."--LUKE xxii. 31, 32.

Restraining Grace.

What a scene does this unfold! Satan tempting--Jesus praying! Satan
sifting--Jesus pleading! "The strong man assailing"--"the stronger than
the strong" beating him back! Believer? here is the past history and
present secret of thy safety in the midst of temptation. An interceding
Saviour was at thy side, saying to every threatening wave, "Thus far
shalt thou go, and no farther?" God often permits His people to be on
the very verge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness;
_but never farther than the verge!_ The restraining hand and grace of
Omnipotence is ready to rescue them. "Although he fall, yet shall he not
be cast down utterly; and why? for the Lord upholdeth him with His right
hand!" The wolf may be prowling for his prey; but what can he do when
the Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that
"neither slumbers nor sleeps?" Who cannot subscribe to the testimony,
"When my foot slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord! held me up?" Who can look back
on his past pil