ROMANS xii. 12.

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.

THE early Church was a suffering Church. Affliction was her portion from the first. How should it have been otherwise? The Bridegroom had just been taken away from her. She was

a stranger in a strange land. Her face was set as though she were travelling to another countrya, and that too a country, with which those among whom she sojourned had no intercourse. She was encompassed on every side by foes. They had persecuted her Lord with unceasing hatred ; and now, the reproaches of them that reproached Him fell upon her. Nor were her sorrows only from external causes. Many a root of bitterness sprang up in her own enclosure. Without were fightings; within fears.

If affliction was the portion of the Church collectively, it was equally the portion of her individual members. Their very baptism, besides its reference to spiritual sufferings, was a figure of the lot they were to meet with. They were baptized into their Lord's death. St. Paul speaks of himself as" dying daily";" as always bearing about in

a Luke ix. 53.

b 1 Cor. xv. 31.

"We

the body the dying of the Lord Jesus"." sent," he writes to the Thessalonians, "to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto: for verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer persecution, even as it came to pass, and ye know." 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ," he says in another place, "we are of all men most miserable." And once more, after summing up, in his second Epistle to Timothy, the persecutions and afflictions he had endured in those places, with which his beloved convert was more immediately familiar, he adds, " Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution'."

The pro

But circumstances are changed now. fession of Christianity no longer exposes us to the perils of imprisonment and death. There are many countries-our own is one-in which, in a limited sense, the Church dwells" in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in a quiet resting place." She has indeed her foes, yet, in a measure, she possesses the gate of her enemies.

What then is the use we are to make of the many passages of Scripture, which bear upon the subject of Affliction; which speak of Suffering as the Christian's portion in this life; and which d 1 Thess. iii. 2, 3, 4. e 1 Cor. xv. 19.

f

c2 Cor. iv. 10.

2 Tim. iii. 12.

supply us with motives and encouragements for enduring Tribulation? Was it applicable only to the first ages of Christianity, and has it now ceased to be true, that "if any man will come after Christ, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow him?"

It shall be my endeavour, by God's help, to shew, that the same passages are still applicableapplicable to all Christians: that Christ's religion is essentially and of necessity a religion of suffering that it is as true now, as it was in the hottest days of persecution, that we must "through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." If this shall appear, it will be obvious how much need we have of the exhortation of the text "to be patient in tribulation ;" and, yet further, how merciful is the adaptation, so to speak, which God has made between the circumstances in which his people are placed in the world, and the internal principle with which he furnishes them, in that, while they are called upon to suffer, they are, at the same time, supplied with support and consolation abundantly sufficient to bear them up in their hour of trial; in that, it is not more their duty to be Patient under tribulation, than it is their privilege to Rejoice in hope.

I. SOME of the passages which have been already incidentally quoted, might seem, at first sight,

Matt. xvi. 24.

distinctly to prove the assertion, that Suffering, in one shape or other, is the necessary portion of every true member of Christ's Church, while here on earth. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." "We must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God." "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." These passages might seem sufficient. But, the doctrine they teach is an unwelcome doctrine. We observe, that, as far as regards persecution, in the literal sense of that word, they no longer hold. And hence, we are apt to evade their force, and the force of similar passages, by summarily referring them to former times. It may be well therefore to shew, by other considerations, that they are still applicable.

i. 1. And first, the very fact that the early Christians were called upon to suffer, affords a strong presumption, that those who shall from time to time succeed them, must suffer too. They entered not into their rest but through manifold perils ; shall we look for a smoother road? If circumstances are changed, if we are no longer exposed to the same trials, yet shall we hope to escape trials altogether? Nay rather, if we find our way beset by no difficulties, if that path, which to them was rugged and steep, is to us even and of gentle ascent, have not we reason to be apprehensive lest we should have mistaken the road; lest we should

be travelling to a different point from that to which they journeyed?

2. And what might well confirm the apprehension is this: that the saints of the Old Testament dispensation were, like the early Christians, perfected through sufferings. It would be difficult to find one-at least in the case of those of whom enough is recorded to enable us to judge-who was not acquainted with sorrows; sorrows, too, intimately connected with his religion. What is the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, but a catalogue of martyrs and confessors? And those who were the most eminent for their piety, were, for the most part, the most conspicuous for their trials. Take, for example, the cases of three, whom Scripture itself has singled out, as peculiarly beloved of God, Noah, Daniel, and Job. Job's sufferings have gone into a proverb. With Daniel's our earliest childhood was familiar. And as to Noah, if we regard him merely in connexion with this present life and apart from the consolations of religion, perhaps a more sorrowful, a more melancholy existence than his was never endured. Himself a servant of God; for 600 years he dwelt in a world "filled with violence";" during a period far exceeding the ordinary length of human life, he had constantly before his eyes the destruction that was coming upon every earthly object around him. Day after day, year after year, he went on making prepara

h Gen. vi. 11.