and endeared friends, those with whom he had often taken sweet counsel, and gone to the house of God in company. "Had it been an enemy I could have borne it, but it was thou, mine equal and my guide." When he had reason to hope he had surmounted his difficulties, and by great exertion and resolution weathered the storms of life, and was about to enter into a peaceful harbour, a sudden hurricance arose, which drove him back into the ocean, and threatened him with total destruction. Job, in like manner, was visited with stroke upon stroke: first his property was torn from him, then his children, then his health; lastly, the friends, from whom he expected support and consolation, turned his enemies and accusers. As he had great need of patience, so his exemplification of it, though far from being perfect, was such as to render his name illustrious through every succeeding age. 3. When heavy and complicated trials are of long continuance, when, after enduring them long, no prospect of deliverance appears, no mitigation is experienced,-when there is none who can venture to set a period to calamities, this is a circumstance that puts patience to the severest test. It is much easier to bear a very acute pain or affliction for a short time, than one much more moderate during a very protracted period. The duration of trials is a severer exercise of patience than their severity. For a certain time the soul collects itself, and summons up its resolution to bear; but when the suffering continues long, the mind becomes weary of exerting a continued effort, and is apt to yield to the force of impatience and inquietude. In these several situations, the christian has need of patience. II. Let us consider the nature and the excellence of true patience. It is a grace of the Spirit of God. God condescends to be called the " God of patience;" and [we read of] "the kingdom [and patience] of [Jesus] Christ," [of] "the word of his patience." By means of it, they who suffer possess their souls. Another intention of this passage it is not necessary to mention: the present [being] instructive, and sufficiently adapted to the apparent design of the writer. [There is] a great difference in the manner in which the same trials are borne by different persons:—some restless, complaining, dissatisfied with the conduct of Providence, and at all around them; others, though they feel, are yet composed, tranquil, self-possessed, capable of exercising their thoughts, and of exerting their reason, without disturbance - they possess their souls." The happy effects of this frame of spirit are the following: 1. He who in "patience possesses his soul," is able to trace his afflictions to the hand of God; looking through inferior instruments to the hand of the Supreme Director. 2. He is prevented from forming an erroneous and exaggerated estimate of his sufferings; from suspecting that they are singular and unparalleled ; and thus from sinking into despondency, and indulging a spirit of complaint; "knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." 3. He is at leisure to [attend] to the instructions which afflictions contain, to learn those important lessons which they are best adapted to teach. Affliction is a school where we cannot learn, unless we, in some degree, possess our souls in patience. "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years."* 4. He who possesses his soul in patience, is able to perform many important duties while in a state of suffering. It is not a barren season to him. "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.”† Much cultivation of the heart, much internal spiritual discipline, may then be exercised. 5. He who thus possesses patience is at liberty to reach the promises of God, to open his mind to * Deut. viii. 3, 4, 5. + Isaiah xxxii. 20. the consolations of the gospel. He can reason with his soul-" Why art thou so cast down, O my soul?" 6. While in patience we possess our souls, we can expatiate in the views of future blessedness. XXXII. ON CANDOUR AND LIBERALITY, AS EVINCED IN THE ERECTION OF PLACES OF PROMOTING WORSHIP. He loveth our nation, and he hath built us a Ir is pleasing and instructive to behold in the narratives of scripture, frequent instances of the triumphs of divine grace over obstacles utterly insurmountable to any inferior power, and even *The sermon, of which the brief notes are here presented, was the last, except one, that Mr. Hall preached; though the notes seem to have been prepared for a former occasion. It was delivered on the morning of February 27, 1831, the Sunday previous to the attack which terminated in death. The students in the Bristol Education Society (an institution devoted to the preparation of young men for the ministry in the Baptist persuasion) had long been in the habit of preaching in various very small places, in the more populous and wretched quarters of the city of Bristol; and, their labours being found productive of much good, it was judged expedient to erect a place of worship, which might not only contain the several small companies thus assembled, but accommodate others that might be induced to attend. A considerable sum of money was, accordingly, raised for this purpose: the building was commenced; and in order to contribute towards the remainder of the expense, it was proposed to make a collection in Broadmead chapel. Mr. Hall very striking examples of transcendent piety, where, considering the actual state of human nature, it was least to be expected. In these instances is verified the truth of our Lord's observation, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." We learn that no combination of external circumstances; no profession or situation in life, however beset with temptation; no education, however unfavourable to the production of piety, ought to make us despair of attaining salvation. Are the habits of military life peculiarly hostile to piety, and is it difficult, in connexion with these, to maintain that humility, sobriety, and heavenly mindedness, which are so essential to religion? Our text exhibits, notwithstanding, a most eminent saint in the person of a centurion. Is a neglected, or what is still worse, a perverted education, a great obstacle in the way of salvation; an education warmly seconded the project, and recommended it, with great earnestness, after his morning sermon. In the evening he preached a very impressive and splendid discourse on the text"Take heed, and beware of covetousness," of which he does not appear to have prepared any notes. This subject he meant to apply to the case of the new place of worship; but an exceedingly heavy rain occasioning a comparatively small congregation, he stated, towards the conclusion of the sermon, that it would not be doing justice to a cause in which he felt so lively an interest, to make the collection while so few persons were present; and proposed to defer it, therefore, to a future occasion. But, alas! this was the close of his public services and they, who had so often seen his countenance beaming with intellect, benevolence, and piety, and listened to his voice with inexpressible delight and many of them with permanent benefit, saw and heard him no more!-ED. |
