ON THE

DVANTAGES OF THE CROSS, &c.

WE find it difficult to be convinced of the mercy of God oading those he loves with crosses. Why, say they, uld he delight in our sufferings? Cannot he make us od without making us miserable? Yes, without doubt, d could do so; for nothing is impossible to Him. He ds in His almighty hand, the hearts of the children of n, and turns them as He pleases. But God, who has wer to save us without the cross, has not willed it so in e manner as He has willed that men should arrive at maity by degrees, and first pass through all the distresses d weaknesses of childhood, rather than be born in the 1 strength of riper years. In this He is the master; our rt is to be silent, and adore His profound wisdom, alough we do not comprehend it. Thus much we clearly e, that we cannot become truly good, but in proportion as e become humble, and detached from self, so as to render I to God.

The operation of grace which detaches us from ourselves, d takes away self-love, must, without a miracle of grace, e painful. God does not in the operations of grace, any ore than in those of nature, daily work miracles.

It would be as great a miracle in grace to see a person all of himself, become in a moment dead to all self-interest, s to see the child that went to bed last night, rise this morng as tall and strong as a man of thirty. God conceals his

operations in the course of grace, as well a an insensible succession of events, and by us in the obscurity of faith. He not only work by degrees, but by means the most si for its success; that, the means appearing end, human wisdom may attribute the s causes, and so the finger of God be less wise, all that God-effects, would be evide miracle, which would destroy that faith in have us to live.

It is to preserve us in this obscurity of fa to the operation of grace, that God rende painful. He makes use of the inconstancy of the creatures, and of the disgusts and the we experience in prosperity, to detach us and that deceitful prosperity. He prevents of ourselves, by the experience of our we ruption, which are manifest by our number

We desire to be suddenly consumed by t love; but this would cost us scarcely any excess of our self-love, that makes us des thus perfect in a moment, and at so cheap a

Of what then can we complain? Our evi all attached to the creatures, and still mo God prepares a succession of events, which us from the creatures, and in the end from o operation is painful; but it is our corruption it necessary, and occasions all the pain that

He deprives us of things we love, that we with a pure, solid, and temperate love; a

, that numbers our days, and holds in His omnipotent ds the key of the grave, to open or to shut it.

What strikes us most, is as nothing in the sight of God; ittle more or a little less of life, is a difference which disbears in the presence of His eternity. Of what imporce is it, whether this weak vessel, this body of clay, should reduced to ashes a little sooner, or a little later?

O how contracted are our views of things! We are rmed to see a person die in the flower of his youth. We out, What a loss is this! But to whom is the loss? What s he lose that dies? A few years of vanity and illusion, be spent in danger of eternal death. God takes him ay from amidst of his iniquities, and hastens to snatch

from this corrupted world, and his own weakness. hat do they lose who most loved Him? They lose the son of a worldly felicity; they lose the forgetfulness of d and themselves into which they were plunged; or her, they gain, by the efficacy of the cross, the blessedEs which comes from detachment. The same stroke that es him who dies, prepares others (whom their sorrows ach from themselves) courageously to work out their salion.

What difference is there now between two persons who ed a hundred years ago? One of them survived the other enty years; but now they are both dead. Their separam, which at that time appeared so long, does not appear to us, and was in truth but a short separation. Some red themselves as if they were immortal, or at least as if

y had many years before them. O the folly of human

sdom! Those we see dying every day, follow close upon se who are already dead. The man who this day sets out a journey, would not think himself at a great distance from m who set off but two days before him. Life glides away e a torrent. The past is but a dream; the present, when

will be of the same

The days, the m

of the past; the future as rapidly pass by us. like the waves of the sea, flow one afte little while, a very little while, and all shal

It is true we suffer, but then it is by the order to purify us, and render us worthy of H smiled upon us, and this prosperity pois Would we spend all our days, even to the mor in that softness, that delicacy, that vain jo that triumph of pride, that relish for the wo enmity with Jesus Christ; and at a distanc which alone ought to sanctify us?

The world will frown upon us; it will u us; and cease to acknowledge us: it will the class of those things which no longer e are we to be surprised that the world contin self, unjust, deceitful, and perfidious? Yet it are not ashamed to love. It is from this would draw us, to deliver us from its slave enter into the liberty of detached souls.

O Thou who seest the foundation of our m alone that canst heal it. Haste then to best hope, love, and that Christian fortitude w Grant that we may incessantly look up to T Almighty, who givest nothing to Thy chil conducive to their salvation.

Lift up my heart, O my God! Give me o only to displease Thee, Thou seest the we creature, who has no resource in himself; e