less in the church. It was the thorn, and nothing but the thorn, (he thought!) that was doing all the mischief. Although it was really doing more, at the moment, for his own good, and for the glory of God, than all his old grace and godliness put together, he rashly or weakly concluded, that it alone was spoiling his peace and weakening his hands. He therefore did nothing, at first, but pray that God would pluck it out. "Lord, what is man!" Well might Paul have adopted the language of Asaph, and said on reviewing this sad mistake, "So foolish and ignorant was I; I was a beast before thee." It was this, all this, he meant when he said, 88 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death!"

This is a very instructive and impressive lesson. You did not, perhaps, expect to find Paul so like yourself. Perhaps, you are hardly willing yet, to admit this humiliating view of his You thought more highly of him, and took for granted that he was quite above all such tempers. So did I, until I began to look into

case.

his spiritual history, and to take the facts of it from his own lips. Whilst I listened to the compliments which others pay him, instead of weighing the complaints and confessions which he himself makes, I never suspected him of any tendency to vanity or pride. I read the strong things he said about his indwelling sin, without ever dreaming that he had given outward proofs of its power, in his conduct or spirit. Not many proofs of it, certainly; but still some: and this is one of them; he was forgetting himself and some of his duty too; aud did not know that he had changed for the worse, even when a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him. like he then was to one of old, whom God smote for the iniquity of his covetousness! He did not understand the rebuke; but "went on frowardly in the way of his heart, although God hid His face from him. In both cases, God had to say, "I have seen his ways, and will heal him: T will lead him also, and restore comforts to him." Do you not see your own picture in Paul, so far as the thorn and the buffeting are concerned?

How

You want to get rid of them; and like him at first, you are doing nothing but beseeching the Lord that they may depart. You think all would be right with you, as in the days of old when the candle of the Lord shone upon you, if your great cross, your heavy burden, your darkest cloud, were only taken away. Ah " "you err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God," in this matter. The worst thing that could befall you, whilst you are so prone to forget yourself, would be the immediate removal of your worst affliction. It is a messenger of Satan, and the buffeting you endure is not joyous but grievous; but still, not so grievous as being given up by God is; not so dangerous as the disposition they are checking; not so ominous as a "seared conscience" or a heart "past feeling."

This deserves consideration. God is dealing with us as with children, whilst he chastises us. Were He to let us alone, our case would be hopeless. A messenger of Satan is, therefore, although Satan neither intend nor know it, an Angel of Mercy to you, even when his " fiery darts" are

fiercest. For, if you were really going wrong, and getting into a worldly or high spirit, the best thing that could have happened to you is, the fall of a cross on your shoulder, which you feel unequal to bear; or the settling of a cloud on your spirit, which embitters or makes insipid all your earthly comforts. You may call this desertion-abandonment-reprobation; but it is no such thing. It is just God's way of preventing apostacy, and curing backsliding.

It is, therefore, well that you are low; well that you can no longer enjoy the comforts, which exalted you above measure; well that the worldly lot you expected so much happiness from, leaves you quite miserable at times. I congratulate you, and thank God on your behalf, that you are thoroughly disappointed in the quarter you expected so much satisfaction from. It was

but a

"broken cistern," when you were hewing it out at a rate of thought and labour, which left neither sufficient time nor heart for eternal things and now, blessed be God! it is a broken-up cistern; and the fragments of it so

shattered and scattered, that they cannot be put together again. "It is," as Sheshbazzar said to Rachel, of her sanguine visions, and sentimental vagaries, "an EDEN, you cannot locate; a BABEL, you cannot complete; a ZOAR, yon cannot save; a GOSHEN, that will not be 'light' again; a PILLAR of cloud, which will never brighten into a Pillar of fire, in the wilderness."

ALLEGORY.

SLIPPERY PLACES.

RABBI ASAPH was of the sons of the Prophets, and had studied the law in the school at Carmel. At the hours of the morning and evening sacrifice, his uniform prayer was that of Agur, “Give me neither poverty nor riches." And the prayer of his youth became the song of his old age. ELZAPHAN, the scribe, had been his schoolfellow but although he had knelt at the same altar, he would never say Amen to the prayer against riches. He made haste to be rich, at

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