woe and care pressing upon my heart, like a dead unsupportable load-but there is not the burden of unpardoned sin, sinking down your soul to the bottomless pit. Here, say you, is now my gloomy housé -there is the house of your God, always inhabited by his gracious presence. Here, say you, I am a forlorn creature upon earth, having lost all that rendered the world delightful—there is heaven glowing like a brilliant firmament over your head, into which your departed husband has entered, and where you will soon join him in glory everlasting. Think how many widows there are, who have no covenant God to go to; no consolations of the Spirit to sustain them; no pleasure in the Bible or in prayer to soothe them. You, even you, ought to rejoice in a present Saviour and a future heaven. All the attributes of God, all the offices of Christ, all the consolations of the Spirit, all the promises of scripture, all the blessings of grace, all the prospects of glory remain to be set over against your loss: and is not this enough? CHAPTER III INSTRUCTION. GOD is the best and only infallible teacher. "None teacheth like him." He delivereth his lessons in various ways, and through different mediums. The Scriptures, of course, contain the fullest and clearest revelation of his will; but these are corroborated and illustrated by the works of nature, and the dispensations of Providence. Events are pregnant with instruction. "Hence," saith the prophet, "the Lord's voice cometh unto the city: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." Yes, every rod, as well as every word, has a voice; and it becomes us to listen to it. Afflicted woman, read the lessons which Providence has inscribed in dark characters on the tomb of your husband. It may be that God is saying to you, “I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst I will not hear; this hath been thy manner from youth that thou obeyedst not my voice." Jer. xxii. 21. Taken up with the enjoyment of the dear objects to be found in a quiet and comfortable home, you withheld your heart from God. You neither loved, served, enjoyed, nor glorified him as the end of your existence. Your husband was your idol, the stay and prop of your mind: and now God, who is a jealous God, and will not endure a rival, has removed the object of that supreme attachment, which ought to have been placed on him; and in language which derives additional weight and solemnity from being uttered over the sepulchre, saith "I am God, and there is none else. Thou shalt have none other God besides me; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, and heart, and soul, and strength." This is his demand now, and it always was. It is not only what he says, now in the wilderness into which he has driven you, but what he said when you walked in the Eden of your earthly delight, and felt that your husband was to you as the tree of life in the midst of the garden. Now then open your ear, and hear the voice of his Providence. Open your eye and read the lessons which, as I have said, are inscribed on that tomb, which contains all that was dearest to you on earth. Desire to learn; be willing to learn; and much is needed to be learnt from the sorrowful scenes through which you have been, and still are called to pass. When God takes such methods to teach, surely you should be willing to learn; and it may be that it is his intention to make up to you by spiritual instruction and consolation, if you will receive it, the loss he has called you to sustain of temporal comfort. 1. Are you not most impressively reminded of the evil of sin? What could more affectingly illustrate this, than the deep sorrow which has fallen upon you? If the magnitude of an evil may be ascertained by the inagnitude of its effects, what must sin be, which nas produced such consequences, as those you have witnessed. What agonies it has inflicted, what ties it has rent asunder, what desolation it has made, what scenes it has produced, that widowed mother, those helpless, perhaps portionless babes, that gloomy house, those flowing tears too well proclaim! And what is the cause? Sin. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin: so death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Yes; death with all its consequences, are the bitter fruits of sin. Had not man sinned he had been immortal. Every instance of death is the infliction of a penalty; for "the wages of sin is death." Think of what sin has robbed you. Calculate the mischief which it has wrought in your desolate abode. What has made you a widow? Sin. What has made your children fatherless? Sin. And think of the millions who are at this moment, in similar sad and melancholy circumstances. God is benevolent, and doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men; and yet he is perpetually multiplying widows and orphans by the ravages of death. How evil must sin be in his sight, when he takes this method of showing his abhorrence of it; when he has fixed this penalty to it. And then this is only the first death, a mere type and symbol of that more painful "second death," which. falleth upon the wicked in another world. Consider then the evil of sin. Take deep, large, views of it. Recollect you are a sinner: not vicious indeed, but virtuous; not profligate, but moral; but still a sinner in the sight of God. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Oh have you thought of this? Have you been convinced of sin by the Spirit of God? Have you seen your sinfulness, as well as heard of it? Felt it, as well as known it? Many have thought of their sins, for the first time in their life, with any seriousness, in their afflictions; and have said with the poet:— Father! I bless thy gentle hand; E're I had felt thy scourges, Lord; 'Tis good to me to wear the yoke, For pride is apt to rise and swell; 'Tis good to bear my Father's stroke, That I might learn his statutes well. If you have thought but little of sin till now, may you begin to think upon it in your affliction. You have lost your husband, but how much greater a calamity would be the loss of your soul; and lost it must be, if you have no just sense of sin. There car. be no salvation without pardon; and no pardon with |