For thee I thirsted in the daily drouth, For thee I trembled in the nightly frost : I bore thee on My shoulders and rejoiced; Thee did nails grave upon My hands, thy name I, God, Priest, Sacrifice. A thief upon My right hand and My left; At length, in death, one smote My heart, and cleft Nailed to the racking cross, than bed of down SKEFFINGTON. THE spectacle of a suffering Redeemer is more potent over the hearts of men than that of the greatest conqueror or the wisest philosopher. At the foot of the cross, and there alone, is the problem of life adequately solved. While the mightiest empires decay and perish, the kingdom of the suffering Jesus endures throughout all generations. In every age men and women bring to Him their load of sorrows, and are at peace. I. IF I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. St. John xii. 32. SEVENTH DAY. The Burthen of Scruples. NOW I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For, behold, this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! 2 Cor. vii. 9-11. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord: .. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. iii. 8-14 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phil. iv. 6, 7. ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. THE children of God, if they rightly take their Father's mind, are always disburdened of perplexing carefulness, but never exempted from diligent watchfulness. Thus we find here, they are allowed, yea, enjoined, to cast all their care upon their wise and loving Father, and are secured by His care. He takes it well that they lay all over on Him. provided a sweet quiet life for them, could they improve and use it; a calm and firm condition in all the storms and troubles that are about them; however things go, to find content and be careful for nothing. He hath Now, upon this, a carnal heart would imagine straight, according to its sense and inclination, -as it desires to have it, that then, a man devolving his care on God, may give up all watch and ward, and needs not apply himself to any kind of duty. But this is the ignorant and perverse mistake, the reasonless reasoning of the flesh. You see these are joined, not only as agreeable, but indeed inseparable : Cast all your care on Him, for He careth for you, and, withal, Be sober, be vigilant. Cast your care on Him, not that you may be the more free to take your own pleasure and slothful ease, but, on the contrary, that you may be the more active and apt to watch: being freed from the burden of vexing carefulness, which would press and encumber you, you are the more active, as one eased of a load, to walk, and work, and watch as becomes a Christian. And for this very purpose is that burden taken off from you, that you may be more able and disposed for every duty that is laid upon you. Observe these two as connected, and thence gather, First, There is no right believing without diligence and watchfulness joined with it. Secondly, There is no right diligence without believing. There is, as in other affairs, so even in spiritual things, an anxious perplexing care, which is a distemper and disturbance to the soul: it seems to have a heat of zeal and affection in it, but is, indeed, not the natural right heat that is healthful and enables for action, but a diseased, or feverish heat, that puts all out of frame, and unfits for duty. It seems to stir and further, but indeed it hinders, and does not hasten us, but so as to make us stumble; as if there was one behind a man, driving and thrusting him forward, and not suffering him to set and order his steps in his course; this were the ready way, instead of |