His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Was it not this which enabled Him to set a proper estimate upon the sufferings of the present time when He reckoned them "not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us?" Was it not this which dictated those noble words, "What, mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

From the beginning of the gospel this truth has been openly proclaimed. Christianity has not sought to gain disciples by any promised exemption from suffering; but, on the contrary, it has made a readiness to endure affliction for Christ's sake a necessary antecedent to its profession. "I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."

If in the early periods of the Christian Church many of its members exhibited perhaps too great a desire for the crown of martyrdom, and longed for this full conformity to Christ, it is to be feared that in our own time there is too great a tendency in the opposite direction-an unwillingness to suffer-an impatience under the discipline by which we may be made perfect. We complain of sufferings which, compared with those of former times, are not worthy to be mentioned. How different is the view we take of our trials, from that which the apostles took of them! "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Instead of considering our sufferings as indications of our sonship to our Heavenly Father, and as means he employs to prepare us for his kingdom and glory, we too often regard them as signs of his displeasure, and ask, What have we done that God should afflict us thus? "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" Rather let us "consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself."

The sufferings of Christ are represented as having been necessary to his qualification for the work he undertook. He was to be the ever-living High Priest of our guilty race. To fulfil the duties of this office. it was all-important that he should be able to enter into

the tenderest sympathy with all our temptations and sufferings. And that he might be able to feel this sympathy, it was indispensable that he should take our nature, and be " in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." It was only by becoming a link in the great chain of humanity that he could feel the electric influence of human sympathy. Very happily does St. Paul apply this same principle to the sufferings of the Apostles and all christian ministers. It is not for themselves alone that they sometimes suffer, but for the benefit of those to whom they minister. Their afflictions are often necessary that they may know how to enter with a genuine sympathy into the afflictions of others. "Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer."

And what hinders that the same principle should find its application also to all christians? The pre-eminent law of the gospel dispensation is the law of Charity or Love. For the fulfilment of this law, in its high and broad signification, it is essential that the ties of sympathy should bind us together. It is not enough that we are of the same race-it is not enough that we are of the same country or district or town-it is not enough that we are even of the same family -it is important that we are partakers of the same infirmities and sufferings. No one who has not himself suffered understands well how to enter into the feelings of a sufferer. The children of a family who have stood together around the grave of a parent feel that the sorrow of which they are sharers in common, constitutes an additional bond to their mutual affection. The husband and the wife whose lives may have before passed on in comfort, perhaps in affluence and luxury, when overtaken by adversity, realize more fully the sacredness and closeness of their relation; and find that the fiery trial is the means of welding together their hearts in perfect unity. In the prosperous seasons of a community, every one seems engrossed in his own pursuits, busy with his own schemes, intent upon his own aggrandizement. The sordid selfishness of our nature is in the ascendant, and no one has time to consider his neighbor's interest. But when the "pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noon-day" are abroad in the city, when the voices of lamentation are heard in every street, and sorrow sits brooding in every house; oh! then, how are the tears of sympathy poured out, and the hands of charity opened and the hearts that were hard are

softened, and the men who had been as strangers remember that they are neighbors and brethren. And all this is the effect of sufferings which they have shared in common. With what joy does an aged veteran meet his old companion in arms, and call to mind the privations and dangers they have experienced in a long campaign. Tho pauper has been known to divide the alms he had received with a co-partner in misery, and the lame have been seen tottering to the table of the Holy Supper leading the blind.

A mistake is sometimes made even by good and pious persons, in supposing that they are not submissive to the will of God because they feel their sufferings so acutely. Their tears will flow under a sense of pain or bereavement, and they think such tears are indications of a rebellious spirit. But such is not always a correct judgment. A stoical indifference is not christian resignation. If we did not feel, we would not suffer; and it is the suffering which is to teach us obedience. Nor is it the evidence of a want of submission to the Divine will when we ask relief from pain, or ease for a troubled mind, or deliverance from doubt and fear. The example of our Lord in the text is strikingly in proof of this. He, in the days of His flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death.

This subject suggests three reflections, each of which is very full of comfort.

1. Our sufferings here are not accidental, but are either appointed or permitted in the providence of God. "Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." How appropriately did the Psalmist rebuke the rising murmur, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." To see and recognise God's hand in our afflictions is the privilege of every christian. And how greatly is the pain assuaged when we view it as coming from our Heavenly Father. Our comfort, too, is still increased when we remember

2. That all our sufferings here are designed for our profit, and are working out our good. Infinite wisdom sees them necessary, and infinite goodness adapts them to our strength. Fathers of our flesh "for a few days chastened us after their pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." Precious thought!

The chastenings of his children are not in anger but in love; not destructive but corrective. And though "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

To these let one other reflection be added

3. In all our sufferings we have the tender sympathies of our Great High Priest and Redeemer. For it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren for this very purpose, that he might "be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." We are not left to bear our sorrows in solitude and desolation, without pity and without sympathy. If cut off from human relationships, and shut out from the communion of kindred hearts, there is ONE whose ubiquity assures us of his presence, whose love secures our hope, whose sufferings are our warrant of his sympathy.

To him, in the

honor and glory.

"In every pang that rends the heart,

The Man of Sorrows had a part

He sympathises in our grief,

And to the suff'rer sends relief.”

unity of the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all Amen.