How do you know? Maybe they have passed through the fire; or, perhaps their trial is yet to come. For ought you can perceive they may be enduring it now. "The rod is not always composed of the same twigs. There are griefs, relative as well as personal; mental as well as corporeal; imaginary as well as real; invisible as well as apparent. There are crosses which cannot be displayed." There are sighings of heart which breathe not upon the lips. The pet knew how general afflictions are:

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
No traveler e'er reached that blest abode,
Who found not thorns and briers in his road.
The world may dance along the flowery plain,
Cheered as they go by many a sprightly strain-
Where Nature has her mossy velvet spread,
With unshod feet they yet securely tread:
Admonished! scorn the caution and the friend;
Bent upon pleasure, heedless of its end.

But he who knew what human hearts would prove,
How slow to learn the dictates of his love;
That, hard by nature and of stubborn will,

A life of ease would make them harder still;

In pity to the sinners he designed

To rescue from the ruins of mankind,

Called for a cloud to darken all their years,

And said, 'Go, spend them in the vale of tears.""

Strength and efficiency come from severe afflictions. The body may, indeed, be wasted and worn by disease, or shattered and weakened by calamity, but the soul will be stronger. This the poet knew, when he wrote, "Learn to suffer and be strong." A person unacquainted with affliction is easily unnerved in its presence. Sudden illness in others terrifies him. He knows not how to turn or what to do. He has never been in the grasp of disease himself, and knows nothing of its pains or the means of relief. He sees the victim in agony, but can only wring his hands and walk the floor uttering ejaculations of sympathy. Let one be there, now, who has passed through the fires and hung in the border-land between two worlds. He is calm and collected. He takes the suf

ferer by the hand. He raises his fainting head and pillows it upon his breast. He speaks comforting words, encourages the stricken one to expect relief, cheers him by his ready wit and skillful aid, and administers such cordials and tonics as tend to his restoration. His own experience has given him strength and efficiency for this trying hour. In business affairs the same principle holds true. The merchant who has passed successfully through one panic, albeit it wrought up his nerves to their highest tension and kept him for weeks on the very verge of bankruptcy, is cool and thoughtful in the next ordeal. He says, "I have been there before." He is like a sailor who has passed through the severest storm, one that swept the decks and tore sails and masts away; in the next gale he is composed, for he says, "It is not as bad as the other."

So in religion. Luther's severe trials in the early part of the Reformation only strengthened him for the sterner storms that followed. He became so used to opposition and persecution that nothing daunted him. As iron tempered by heat becomes tougher and stronger, so a soul inured to affliction grows firmer and more capable of enduring.

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'He who hath never warred with misery,

Nor never tugged with fortune and distress,
Hath had n'occasion and no field to try

The strength and forces of his worthiness."

The practical knowledge which one gains in the school of affliction sinks deep in the mind, and is permanent. Luther said, "I never knew the meaning of the word till I was afflicted." "We fear," said Bishop Hall, "our best friends; for my part, I have learned more of God and myself in one week's extremity, than the prosperity of a whole life had taught me before." Such knowledge is usable. It is wit to the tongue when you must speak words of cheer to other weary ones. It is love in the heart when other sufferers approach with their tale of woe, crying: "Pity me, pity me, O ye, my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me."

"Nothing," says Wm. Jay, "strikes like a fact. The oak scathed with lightning attracts the notice of passengers, more than all the other trees of the forest. Trouble awakens attention, and

draws forth inquiry. The Christian is never so well circumstanced to glorify the Lord as in the fires. There he can display the tenderness of his care, the truth of his promise, the excellency of the gospel, the supports of divine grace. In the review of my own varied intercourse with society, I confess nothing so vividly and powerfully affects me as what I recollect to have met with from pious individuals exemplifying the Spirit and resources of Christianity under bodily disease, and the losses, bereavements and disappointments of life. Oh, when I have visited such a martyr-such a witness for God; when I have found him standing in the evil day, like a rock in the raging current, with sunshine on his brow; when I have observed him, full of tribulation in the world, and of peace in Christ, mourning more for his sins than his sorrows, afraid of dishonoring his profession by impatience and unbelief, more concerned to have his crosses sanctified than to have them removed, turning a tearful eye toward the Inflictor, and saying, I know, O Lord, that thy Judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me: Just and true are all thy ways, O thou king of saints; he hath done all things well-when I have witnessed religion —and I have witnessed it—accomplishing achievements like these, I have said to it as I withdrew, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.'" It is not for us to know all the reasons God has in sending afflictions upon his children. It is enough for us to know that he does not afflict willingly, and though "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

It is a beautiful thought, expressed by Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, that "our Heavenly Father often lays heavy burdens upon us, which he could easily spare us as far as his power is concerned; but these loads are required to give us spiritual sinew. He makes the back equal to the burden. God might keep us, if he would, out of many a heated furnace of affliction. But he is refiner; and hot furnaces often make bright Christians. They tell us that, when a silversmith is engaged in purifying his metal, he keeps a close eye on the molten silver. He is sure that the process is perfected when he can see his own face in the heated metal as in a

mirror. So when our heavenly Purifier can see his own image in the chastened soul he is satisfied. The trial has wrought its blessed purpose; the affliction which was not joyous but grievous is working out its exceeding weight of glory." So God disciplines us often for the good of others. Parents are subjected to a certain regimen for the benefit of their children. More than one pastor has been tried in the fire for the profit of his flock. "Six weeks of painful, dangerous sickness did more for me than six months in a theological seminary" said a sagacious minister. That model minister in Rome wrote to his son Timothy: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus."

Persons called upon to endure afflictions are best qualified to comfort others in similar straits. A fellow-feeling is thus begotten which tends to bind together the race in bonds of sympathy and kindness. It was for this reason that Paul was so thankful that he had borne chastisement, sustained by the divine hand: "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation."

Those who have been sick are apt to pity those most whom they see in the strong grasp of disease. Those who have been imprisoned are most likely to render practical aid to others in bonds. Taylor relates that Henry the VIII., wandering one night in the streets of London, in disguise, was met at the bridgefoot by some of the watch, and not giving a good account of himself was carried off to the Poultry Compter, and shut up for the night without fire or candle. On his liberation he made a grant of thirty chaldrons of coals and a quantity of bread for the solace of night prisoners in

the Compter. It would be a glorious thing for many an unsympathizing ruler, or leader, or pastor, if he could be thrown into the Compter of trouble for a season that he might be made zealous for the relief of those in a like condition.

Afflictions should certainly be borne with faith and firmness. However numerous and severe they may be, they will have an end. "What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up a second time." "Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more." Moreover, the afflictions which God sends or permits are not greater than we can bear. If our own strength is insufficient for the load, we may lean on the divine arm. Though the good man fall, "he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." Depend upon it, brother, that for every special ill there is special grace; for every darkened pathway there is light from heaven to break upon it, revealing to the trusting heart the power and glory and goodness of God. Long, indeed, may seem the delay while thy soul agonizes under its burden, but when the help at length cometh thou wilt appreciate it the more for having suffered so long. Weeping endureth for the night, but joy cometh with the morning. We are not exhorted in Scripture to rejoice only in happiness and prosperity. Even when suffering distress and persecution, rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven. When Wolfe lay dying at Quebec, he was told that the French were flying. He at once forgot his suffering, and exclaimed, "I die content!" So, however severe our tribulations may be in this world, in Christ we have peace. "Earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.” "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say Rejoice." "One hour of eternity," says Bonar, "one moment with the Lord will make us utterly forget a life-time's desolation."

One of the finest youthful examples of patient endurance under affliction which ever came to our notice was that of Miss Urania C. White, a teacher under the auspices of the Congregationalist Church, who died on missionary ground at La Pointe, Lake Superior, August 5th, 1839. By the testimony of all who knew her, she possessed pre-eminently the sweet, lovely, chastened spirit of one in whom Jesus dwells. After graduating from Oberlin College she betook