but He knows it; He has trodden every step, and will surely lead you safely in the "right way to the city of habitation."a

V.

LESSONS WHICH VARIOUS ILLNESSES ARE MEANT TO TEACH.

IN the extreme of suffering from thirst which some have been called to pass through, when "the tongue cleaved to the roof of the mouth," and words failed; and "the throat was dry,"c and the spirit faint from the very suffering. In the peculiar distress of irritability and impatience which accompanies thirst; the restlessness, the fever, the feeling of intense misery: no one thinks it wrong to try and quench that thirst. But when all means fail, then how the spirit turns to God alone, and gives hearty thanks to Him who, when He was on the Cross, condescended to endure that suffering! Then those two words, "I thirst,"d have seemed inexpressibly gracious, and loving, and compassionate, and His power to sympathize has enabled the sufferer to lie still and bear his lesser woe. They, who when they say, "I am very thirsty," can allay that thirst, or even try the

• Ps. cvii. 7.

• Ps. lxix. 3.

b Ps. xxii. 15.

d John xix. 28.

means of doing so; they, who when they are very hungry have food to eat, and power to retain it, little know the exquisite tenderness of the loving-kindness of the Good Shepherd, who suffered hunger and thirst for them; and who, though He calls them to pass through these dry places, bears them in His arms, and carries them in His bosom, and makes them to see a fulness of meaning in the Gospels, which they could never have seen otherwise, especially in His feeding so many thousands with scarcely any bread. It is no light matter to them, that three times in the year the Church, in the Gospels appointed for the Sundays, calls them to consider this miracle of our Lord.

The various forms of illness seem meant each to teach us their own separate lesson. "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." All those diseases which deprive people of some sense or power, speak each with their own voice, that God gave sight and hearing, and the power of walking and acting.

"The Almighty death, and of all

Consumption seems to say, perhaps with a louder voice than all the rest, God is the Lord of life and things to them pertaining."

A Ps. cvii. 43.

Those diseases

which attack the digestive organs, and which either prevent the taking, or the retaining of food, say, that what we call common mercies are the good gifts of God, not once for all, but daily and hourly renewed; that we think it a common mercy (if we regard it as a mercy at all) to be able to take food, and having taken it, to be nourished by it, and suffer no inconvenience from it. We think it a strange thing if it be otherwise with us-an accident to be speedily got rid of. O! how many days, and months, and years, we have taken daily meals without looking at each one and all that belonged to it, as a present and daily-renewed mercy from our ever watchful Lord, who "knoweth whereof we are made."a

VI.

SICKNESS A VOCATION.

SICKNESS for the present is the "state of life into which it hath pleased God to call you." Your calling, your "vocation." As such you will feel it "very good." You will feel also that no state can be good excepting that to which He calls you; and you will desire to have no choice whether to live or die, to remain

* Ps. ciii. 14.

in your present state, or to recover your bodily health.

Whatever is clearly your work, your calling, that do; and be sure that we have no "hard Master, reaping where He has not sown, and gathering where He has not strawed."a

He will give you strength for each thing that He calls you to. But you must ever remember that it is what He calls you to, and not in any self-chosen path, that you can look for the power to perform. This is your work now. Do not think scorn of it. Do not lightly esteem it. The work requires great patience, great faith, great love, great submission. Say then, has He not honoured you by trusting it to you?

Do you ask how you can "show forth His praise," if you cannot stir hand or foot, and can scarcely think? The answer will give you work enough, for it will require a vigorous, earnest, daily, hourly conflict; "a sharp rule over yourself, your tempers," your most easily-besetting sins: truly a "fight of faith," which you cannot fight unless you "take unto yourself the whole armour of God."b

In some minds there is a great impatience of the bonds of sickness, and an inordinate desire for recovering, which must be brought into subjection, and be yielded wholly to the will of

Matt. xxv. 24.

b Eph. vi. 13.

God. There are such a variety of characters and dispositions, that each one needs a different discipline.

Some learn more quickly in the school of sickness than others. Some take great pains to learn-they are never content with present progress-they are ever seeking to know more, to practise more, to rise higher. This requires great self-discipline, constant watchfulness; for the birds of the air are constantly trying to get the good seed, and often the sun is very scorching, and if they do not seek for the only dew which can moisten the ground, it becomes very hard, or the seed withers away.

Beware how you ever look upon yourself as cut off from life and from enjoyment; you are not cut off, only taken apart, laid aside, it may be but for season, or it may be for life; but still you are part of the Body of which Christ is the Head.

Some must suffer and some must serve, but each one is necessary to the other, "the whole body is fitly framed together by that which every joint supplieth,"a "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.' Your feet may be set fast; they may have run with great activity, and you sorrow now, be