Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tions, and will render them not only tolerable, but joyous. By patience we possess ourselves; by hope we possess God; by prayer we are enabled unto both. Burkitt.

God has been depriving me of one blessing after another; but as every one was removed, he has come in and filled up its place; and now when I am crippled and not able to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or ever expected to be; and if I had believed this twenty years ago, I might have been spared much anxiety. Payson.

O Lord! let me have any thing but thy frown, and any thing with thy smiles. Cecil.

Take care, Christian! whatsoever you meet with in your way, that you forget not your Father! When the proud and wealthy rush by in tri

umph, while you are poor and in sorrow, hear the voice of your Father, saying, "My son! had I loved them, I should have corrected them too. I give them up to the ways of their own hearts; but to my children, if I give sorrow, it is that I may lead them to a crown of glory that fadeth not away." Cecil.

The most generous vine, if it be not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems, and grows at last weak and fruitless; so doth the best man, if he be not cut short of his desires, and pruned with afflictions. If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to wither. Let me be pruned, that I may grow, rather than be cut up to burn. Bishop Hall.

Extremity distinguisheth friends. Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give us over when we lie dying, and

yet the death-bed has most need of comforts. Christ Jesus standeth by his, in the pangs of death; and after death, at the bar of judgment; not leaving them either in their bed or grave. I will use them, therefore, to my best advantage, not trust them. But for thee, O my Lord, which in mercy and truth canst not fail me, whom I have found ever faithful and present in all extremities-kill me, yet will I trust in thee. Bishop Hall.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"I AM looking," said that eminent saint, John Howe, when dying, "for eternal life, not as a profitable servant, but as a pardoned sinner."

"Ah!" said Dr. Goodwin, "is this dying? How have I dreaded as an enemy, this smiling friend!"

The Rev. Richard Baxter, when near the close of his course, exclaimed, "I have pains; there is no arguing against sense; but I have peace, I have peace." When asked how he was, he replied, "Almost well."

The Rev. Dr. Bedell of Philadel

phia, a few hours before his death said to those about him, "Hear me! I acknowledge myself to have been a most unprofitable servant; unprofitable, not hypocritical. I find myself to have been full of sin, ignorance, weakness, unfaithfulness, and guilt. But Jesus is my hope. Washed in his blood, justified by his righteousness, sanctified by his grace, I have peace with God. This is my testimony."

That excellent and laborious servant of Christ, the Rev. John Willison, when drawing to the close of his life said, "Nothing but an interest in Christ can give peace in life or comfort in death. He is the chief among ten thousands, altogether lovely. My body is in part dead, but I know I cannot die eternally while Jesus lives. I must go down to the grave; but

« AnteriorContinuar »