me? Am I fleeing from the presence of the Lord, as Jonah fled? What change would he have wrought in me? If any of you are thinking thus in your heart, pray over this word in Job. Remember the word in the xlvi. Psalm, "Be still, and know that I am God." God does many things to teach us that He is God, and to make us wait upon him. And, still farther, see in verse 10th what light breaks in upon our darkness- -"But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold."

Observe, first, "He knoweth the way that I take." What sweet comfort there is in these words-He that redeemed me -He that pities me as a father-He who is the only wise God-He whose name is love-" He knoweth the way that I take."

The ungodly world do not know it-the world knoweth us not, even as it knew him not. A stranger doth not intermeddle with the joys or sorrows of a child of God. When the world looks on your grief with unsympathizing eye, you feel very desolate. "Your soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those who are at ease." But why should you? He that is greater than all the world is looking with the intensest interest upon all your steps.

The most intimate friends do not know the way of an afflicted believer. Your spirit is lonely, even among God's children, for your way is hid, and the Lord hath hedged you in. Still, be of good cheer, the Father of all, the best of friends, knows all the way that you take.

You do not know your own way. God has called you to suffer, and you go like Abraham, not knowing whither you go.

Like Israel, going down into the Red Sea, every step is strange to you. Still, be of good cheer, sufferer with Christ! God marks your every step. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way." He that loves you with an infinite, unchanging love, is leading you by his Spirit and providence. He knows every stone, every thorn in your path. Jesus knows your way. Jesus is afflicted in your afflictions "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by my name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the water I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee

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Second, "When he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold." This also is precious comfort. There will be an end

of your affliction. Christians must have " great tribulation," but they come out of it. We must carry the cross, but only for a moment, then comes the crown. I remember one child of God's saying, that if it were God's will that she should remain in trials a thousand years, she could not but delight in his will. But this is not asked of us: we are only called " to suffer a while." There is a set time for putting into the furnace, and a set time for taking out of the furnace. There is a time for pruning the branches of the vine, and there is a time when the husbandman lays aside the pruning hook. Let us wait his time-" he that believeth shall not make haste." God's time is the best time. But shall we come out the same as we went in? Ah! no, "we shall come out like gold." It is this that sweetens the bitterest cup; this brings a rainbow of promise over the darkest cloud. Affliction will certainly purify a believer. How boldly he says it, "I shall come out like gold." Ah, how much dross there is in every one of you, dear believers, and in your pastor! "When I would do good evil is present with me." Oh, that all the dross may be left behind in the furnace! What imperfection, what sin, mingles with all we have ever done! But are we really fruit-bearing branches of the true vine? then it is certain that when we are pruned we shall bear more fruit. We shall come out like gold. We shall shine more purely as "a diadem in the hand of our God." We shall become purer vessels to hold the sweet smelling incense of praise and prayer. We shall become holy golden vessels for the Master's use in time and in eternity.

To the many among you who have no part nor lot in Christ, I would say, "See here the happiness of being a Christian in time of trouble." It is no small joy to be able to sing the xlvi. Psalm in the dark and cloudy day. I have often told you, and now tell you when I am far from you, we are journeying to the place of which the Lord hath said, 'I will give it you;' come then with us, and we will do thee good, for God hath spoken good concerning Israel."

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Finally, Pray that your pastor may come out of his trials like gold. All is not gold that glitters. Pray that every thing that is but glittering dross may be taken away, and that, if it be His will, I may come unto you like the fine gold of Ophir. "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving, withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ."

My chief comfort concerning you is, that " my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and of peace shall be with you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

FOURTH PASTORAL LETTER.

God the answerer of prayer.

EDINBURGH, February 20. 1839.

To all of you, my dear flock, who are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before him in love, your pastor again wishes grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many sweet providences happening to us every day, if we would but notice them. In the texts which ministers choose, what remarkable providences God often brings about! I have often felt this, and never more than now. Some of you may remember that the last chapter of the Bible which I read to you in the church was 1st Kings xix., where we are told of Elijah going away into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights to the mount of God, where he was taught that it is not by the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, that God converts souls, but by the still small voice of the gospel. May not this have been graciously intended to prepare us for what has happened! Another providence some of you may have noticed. For several

Thursday evenings before I left you I was engaged in explaining and enforcing the sweet duty of believing prayer. Has not God since taught us the use of these things?"Trials make the promise sweet”- "Trials give new life to prayer." Perhaps some of us were only receiving the information into the head; is not God now impressing it on our hearts, and driving us to practice the things which we learned? I do not now remember all the points I was led to speak upon to you, one, I think, was entirely omitted-I mean the subject of answers to prayer. God left it for us to meditate on now. Oh, there is nothing that I would have you to be more sure of than this, that "God hears and answers prayer." There never was, and never will be, a believing prayer left unanswered. Meditate on this, and you will say, "I love

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the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication." Psalm cxvi. 1.

First, God often gives the very thing his children ask at the very time they ask it. You remember Hannah, Samuel, i. 10, she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. "Give unto thine handmaid a man child." This was her request. And so she went in peace, and the God of Israel heard and granted her her petition that she had asked of him; and she called the child's name Samuel, that is, "Asked of God." Oh that you could write the same name upon all your gifts! you would have far more joy in them, and far larger blessings along with them. You remember David, in Psalm cxxxviii.—" In the day that I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." You remember Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. 21—“O Lord, my God! I pray thee let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived." You remember Daniel, ix. 20, 21-" While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Oh what encouragement is here for those among you who, like Daniel, are greatly beloved-who study much in the books of God's word, and who set your face unto the Lord to seek by prayer gifts for the Church of God! Expect answers while you are speaking in prayer. Sometimes the vapours that ascend in the morning come down in copious showers in the evening. So may it be with your prayers. Take up the words of David, Psalm v. 3, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." You remember, in Acts xii., Peter was cast into prison, "but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him." And, behold, the same night the answer surprised them at the door. Oh! what surprises of goodness and grace God has in store for you and me, if only we pray without ceasing. If you will pray in union to Jesus, having childlike confidence towards God-having the spirit of adoption, crying Abba within you -seeking the glory of God more than all personal benefits, I believe that in all such cases, you will get the very thing you ask, at the very time you ask it. Before you call God

will hear, and while you are speaking he will answer. Oh, if there were twenty among you who would pray thus, and persevere therein like wrestling Jacob, you would get whatever you ask! yea, the case of Daniel shews that the effectual fervent prayer of one such believer among you will avail much. "Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart." Psalm xxxvii. 4.

Second, God often delays the answer to prayer for wise reasons. The case of the Syrophenician woman will occur to you all, Matth. xv. 21-28. How anxiously she cried,

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Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. But Jesus answered her not a word." Again and again she prayed, and got no gracious answer. Her faith grows stronger by every refusal. She cried, she followed, she kneeled to him, till Jesus could refuse no longer. "O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Dear praying people, "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgivings." Do not be silenced by one refusal. invites importunity by delaying to answer. Ask, seek, knock, "The promise may be long delayed, but cannot come too late." You remember, in the parable of the importunate widow, it is said, "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." Luke xviii. 1-8. This shows how you, who are God's children, should pray. You should cry day and night unto God. This shews how God hears every one of your cries, in the busy hour of the day-time, and in the lonely watches of the night. He treasures them up from day to day: soon the full answer will come down. "He will answer speedily," The praying souls beneath the altar, in Rev. vi. 9-11, seem to shew the same truth, that the answer to a believer's prayers may, in the adorable wisdom of God, be delayed for a little season, and that many of them may not be fully answered till after he is dead. Again, read that wonderful passage, Rev. viii. 3, where it is said that the Lord Jesus, the great intercessor with the Father, offers to God the incense of his merits, with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne. Christ never loses one believing prayer. The prayers of every believer, from Abel to the present day, he heaps upon the altar, from which they are continually ascending before his Father and our Father; and when the altar can hold no more, the full, the eternal answer will come down. Do not be discouraged, dearly beloved, because God