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ADDRESS

1. To those who are yet in the sunshine of prosperity

[You, under your present circumstances, feel no need of God: and you can sing, as it were, all the day long. But will night never come? Will the period never arrive when you shall say, 'Oh that I had God for my Friend! Oh that I had God for my Portion!?' You cannot but know that that time must come; and that, if your day close before the Sun of Righteousness has arisen upon you, it were better for you never to have been born. Why, then, will you delay to seek the Lord? Why will you not turn, and inquire early after God? Why will you not be as wise for eternity as others are for the concerns of time? You see persons anxious enough to provide for their bodily wants: why will you not be careful for your souls? Were God held forth to you only as a Governor and a Judge, you should want no further inducement to seek his favour: for you cannot but know that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." But, when God is set forth to you under the endearing characters of a Father, a Saviour, a Comforter, how can you withstand his invitations to accept of mercy? Hear how he himself expostulates with you on your impiety and folly: "O generations, see ye the word of the Lord! Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? Wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?" Dear Brethren, delay not any longer to turn unto your God: provoke him not utterly to depart from you, and to swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his rest:" but "seek ye the Lord whilst he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near."]

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2. To those who are in the night-season of adversity

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[Tell me, Beloved, whether, on a supposition that you have truly sought the Lord, you have not found him a present, a very present help in the time of trouble?" Has he not been ready to hear your every prayer, and to supply your every want? and has not the light of his countenance been abundantly sufficient to turn all your sorrows into joy? Has he not enabled you even to "glory in tribulation," yea, and to "take pleasure" in the heaviest calamities, because of the augmented consolations and supports which they have been the means of bringing into your soul? Ye, then, are witnesses for God, that he "giveth songs in the night," and that he is

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worthy of all possible love and adoration and praise. This is the state in which the Lord's people should be. When When you can say, as his Church of old, " In the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee; with my soul have I desired thee in the night; and with my spirit within me will I seek thee early;" then it is well with your soul: whatever your outward circumstances may be, you are, and must be, happy: no increase of corn or wine or oil could put such gladness into your hearts as that which you experience in the light of your Redeemer's countenance. Go on, then, and 66 let your light shine more and more unto the perfect day." And may "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ your Saviour, and the love of God your Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost your Comforter," yea, may all the richest communications of our Triune God, be ever with you! Amen and Amen.]

CCCCLXXXVIII.

THE SOURCE AND REMEDY OF DESPONDING FEARS.

Job xxxv. 14. Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him: therefore trust thou in him.

IN controversy there is need of the utmost candour; nor without it can we ever hope for a favourable issue. The friends of Job were grievously defective in it; and therefore utterly failed, either to convince him, or to be convinced themselves. But Elihu, who was an attentive auditor of the dispute, and who, on account of his youth, judged it indecorous to offer his sentiments till he saw that his elders were silenced, took up the matter with incomparably better temper and judgment, and, instead of bringing railing and unfounded accusations as the others had done, called Job's attention to many expressions he had used, and endeavoured to convince him out of his own mouth. This was wise, and well adapted to the end proposed: and it is observable, that when God reproved the manner in which the other three had conducted the controversy, he said nothing to the disparagement of Elihu, nor required any sacrifice on his account.

It is certain that Job, though far from being a hypocrite, as his friends had represented him, had not always spoken quite advisedly with his lips. His self-justification had been occasionally too strong, and his complaints of God's conduct towards him somewhat irreverent: he had yielded also too much to despondency. He had complained that he could not understand God's dealings with him, and that he had no hope or prospect of deliverance from his troubles. This is noticed by Elihu in the words before us; and the proper remedy for such desponding fears is pointed out to him: "although thou sayest thou shalt not see God, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him;" that is, Place in God that confidence he deserves; and all will yet be well.

From the words thus explained we shall be led to consider,

I. The source of desponding fears

There is far more of despondency in men than is generally supposed: perhaps it is, as much as any other thing whatever, a ground of their continuing impenitent in their sins.

The ostensible ground of men's fears is usually a sense of the extreme difficulty of their case

[Thus it was with Israel at the Red Sea, at the waters of Marah, at the borders of Canaan also, when the spies represented the cities as impregnable, and the inhabitants as irresistible. Thus it was even with the pious Hezekiah, when his sickness appeared to be unto death: and thus it is with multitudes amongst ourselves, who imagine that their circumstances are so calamitous, as to be beyond the reach of any remedy. More particularly is this the case with persons under spiritual trouble: they are apt to imagine, that their sins are unpardonable, and that their corruptions are too inveterate ever to be subdued —

The real ground is a low apprehension of the perfections of their God

[This is the interpretation which God himself puts on the unbelieving fears of his people. When Sarah laughed at the

a Job xxiii. 8, 9.

b Isai. xxxviii. 10-13.

promise made to her, the answer was, "Is there any thing too hard for the Lord?" and the complaint of God against the unbelieving Israelites was, that "they limited the Holy One of Israel." In fact, a just view of God's perfections would silence all fears: for if his wisdom, his power, his love, his faithfulness be really infinite, we have nothing to do, but to repose our confidence in him, and we are safe- --]

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But it is a small thing to know the source of desponding fears, unless we apply,

II. The remedy

This is prescribed in the words of our text: 1. Contemplate God

[What we are to understand by that expression, "Judgment is before him," may be ascertained by consulting a similar passage in the prophet Isaiah. He will do nothing but what is right and good; nor will he omit any thing which it becomes him to do.

Consider what he has done in a way of power and graceand is he not the same God as ever?

Consider what he has engaged to do: is there any thing that we can need, which is not made over to us by an express promise? Has he not said, that "his grace shall be sufficient for us;" that "we shall have no temptation without a way to escape;" that "as our day is, so shall our strength be;" that "he will give grace and glory, and withhold no good thing" from his believing people? "Hath he then said these things, and will he not do them? hath he spoken, and will he not make them good?"

Consider, above all, the gift of his only dear Son! What else will he, or can he, withhold from us? Surely he will be " a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall."

Did we but duly consider his glorious perfections as already exercised for his people, and as specially pledged to be exercised for us, we should never entertain a doubt of his constant and effectual care. "His name would be to us as a strong tower, to which we should run and be safe."]

2. Trust in him

["They that know his name will trust in him:" and to trust in him is the certain way to dissipate all fear. See how a confidence in God operated in the case of David': and the

c Isai. xxx. 18.
d Rom. viii. 32.
f Ps. xlvi. 1-3. and xi. 1—4.

e Isai. xxv. 4.

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same effect will it produce in us: "if we commit our ways to him, our very thoughts" (which are by nature fluctuating as the wind)" shall be established." This, then, is what we must do: we must "cast all our care on Him who careth for us.' It is the very direction which God himself gives to "those who walk in darkness and have no light:" and if we follow this direction, "God will keep us in perfect peace";" and we shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but standeth fast for ever1."] ADDRESS

1. To those who overlook difficulties—

[This is the habit of men in general: and hence it is that they are so much at their ease. But it is no easy matter to turn to God aright. To repent and to believe in Christ are works far beyond the ability of man; nor can any man do either the one or the other, but by the influence of the Holy Ghost. O let this be duly weighed! Let us remember, that "we cannot even say that Jesus is the Lord," (we cannot feelingly and believingly say it) "but by the Holy Ghost':" and let us not delay one hour to seek his effectual aid.]

2. To those who unduly magnify them

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[We certainly magnify our difficulties too much, when we deem them insuperable: for "the things that are impossible with man are possible with God." See the state of Jonah in the whale's belly: could any condition be conceived more hopeless? Yet from thence did he cry; and his prayer entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts m. Thus let us never stagger at the promises of God through unbelief, but be strong in faith, giving glory to God"." The greater our difficulties, let our application to him be the more earnest, and our expectations of his gracious interposition be the more enlarged: “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord°."]

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Job xxxvi. 13. The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath. SUFFERINGS are to the soul what the furnace is to gold; they serve to ascertain the measure of

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