lix. 19. And what is the standard which the Spirit, the Comforter, lifts up to stem this flood? A dying, risen, ascended, exalted, and ever-living Saviour. This is the standard that strikes terror into the foe, this is the gate that shuts out the flood. So the disciples proved. This is their testimony. "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name," Luke x. 17. Immanuel is that name which puts to flight every spiritual foe. And the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, leads the tempted soul to this name, to shelter itself beneath it, to plead it with God,'' and to battle with it against the enemy. Dear reader, are you a mark against which the fiery darts of the devil are levelled? Are you sore tempted? Be not astonished as though some strange thing had happened unto you. The ho liest of God's saints have suffered as you are now suffering; yea, even your blessed Lord, your Master, your Pattern, your Example, and he in whose name you shall be more than conqueror, was once assailed as you are, and by the same enemy. And let the reflection console you, that temptations only leave the traces of guilt upon the conscience, and are only regarded as sins by God, as they are yielded to. The mere suggestion of the adversary, the mere presentation of a tempta

tion, is no sin, so long as, in the strength that is in Christ Jesus, the believer firmly and resolutely resists it. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." "Above all take the shield of faith, whereby ye may be able to quench the fiery darts of the devil." Jesus has already fought and conquered for you.

He knew well what the conflict with Satan was. And he remembers too what it is. Lift up your head, dear tempted soul! You shall obtain the victory. The seed of the woman has bruised the serpent's head, yea, has crushed him never to obtain his supremacy over you again. He may harass, annoy, and distress you, but pluck you from the hollow of the hand that was pierced for you, he never can.

But, in seasons of deep trial and affliction, the Spirit especially shows himself the Comforter of his people. It was under circumstances of peculiar and keen trial, that Jesus promised the Spirit as a Comforter. Nor is he confined to any peculiar trial. Whatever is a cause of depression to the believer, whatever grieves his heart, wounds his spirit, or casts him down, is a trial. If it is but a cold look from the eye that once beamed with love, it is yet a trial. If it is but an unkind word from the tongue that once flowed with affection, it is yet a trial; and, in proportion to the heart's tenderness, is the keenness of the trial felt.

3.There is a painful forgetfulness among many of the saints of God of the appointed path of believers through the world. It is forgotten that that path is to be one of tribulation; that, so far from being a smooth, a flowery, and an easy path, it is rough, thorny, and difficult. The believer expects all his heaven on earth. He forgets that, whatever spiritual enjoyment there may be here, kindred in its nature to the joys of the glorified, and too much of this he cannot expect,→yet the present is but the wilderness state of the church, and the life that now is but that of a pilgrimage and a sojourning. Kind was our Lord's admonition, “in the world ye shall have tribulation," and equally so that of the apostle, "through much tribulation you must enter into the kingdom." Affliction, in some of its many and varied forms, is the allotment of all the Lord's people. If we have it not, we lack the evidence of our true sonship, for the Father "scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.?? But, whatever the trial or affliction is, the Spirit is the Comforter. And how does he comfort the afflicted soul? In this way:

He unfolds the love of his God and Father in the trial. He shows the believer that his sorrow, so far from being the result of anger, is the fruit of love; that it comes from the heart of God, sent to draw the soul nearer to himself, and to unfold

the depths of his own grace and tenderness; that "whom he loveth he rebuketh." And O, how immense the comfort that flows into a wounded spirit, when love,-deep, unchangeable, covenant love, is seen in the hand that has stricken; when the affliction is traced to the covenant, and through the covenant, to the heart of a covenant God.

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He comforts by revealing the end wherefore the affliction is sent. He convinces the believer that the discipline, though painful, was yet needed; that the world was, perhaps, making inroads upon the soul, or creature love was shutting out Jesus, some indulged sin was, perhaps, crucifying him afresh, or some known spiritual duty was neglected. The Comforter opens his ears to hear the voice of the rod and him who had appointed it. He begins to see wherefore the Lord has smitten, why he has caused his rough wind and his east wind to blow, why he has blasted, why he has wounded. And now, the Achan is discovered, cast out, and stoned. The heart, disciplined, returns from its wanderings, and, wounded, bleeding, suffering, seeks more fondly than ever, a wounded, bleeding, suffering Saviour. Who can fully estimate the comfort that flows from the sanctified discipline of the covenant? When the end for which the trial was sent is accomplished, it may be in the discovery of some departure, in

the removal of an obstruction to the growth of grace, of some object that obscured the glory of Jesus, and that suspended his visits of love to the soul. "Blessed discipline," he may exclaim, "that has wrought so much good-gentle chastisement that has corrected so much evil-sweet medicine that has produced so much health.”

But, in unfolding the tenderness and sympathy of Jesus, the Spirit most effectually restores comfort to the tried, tempted, and afflicted soul. He testifies of Christ especially in the sympathy of his manhood. There can be no question that, in his assumption of our nature, Jesus had in view, as one important end, a closer affinity with the suffering state of his people, with a view to their more immediate comfort and support. The great end of his incarnation we are well assured, was, obedience to the law in its precept, and the suffering of its penalty. But, connected with, and resulting from, this is, the channel that thus is open for the outflowings of that tenderness and sympathy which the saints of God so constantly stand in need of, and as constantly receive. Jesus is the "brother born for adversity"-"it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest,"-" in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour