not sit down under His shadow with great delight, and find His fruit sweet to your taste? Ca. ii. 3. Can you not repose on Jesus, as your consolation.

Christ is faithful, as our consolation. He says, "I, even I, am He that comforteth you." Isa. li. 12. He will not suffer any one else to be our consolation; this glory He will not give to another. In sending the Spirit to comfort us, Jesus resigns not His office-He gives not the consolation into other hands. The Spirit, and Jesus are One. The Spirit brings Jesus with Him; therefore He is the Comforter. Let us take care, then, that we repose upon Christ Himself, as our consolation. What are earthly comforts what are human comforters-compared with Jesus! It is written, "If there be, therefore, any consolation"-where ? "In Christ." Phil. ii. 1. This is the treasurehouse of comfort- on Jesus must we repose as our consolation. How boldly, then, ought believers to face the trials, the sorrows, the anxieties, the uncertainties of life, seeing that they are armed against all these beforehandthat they bear about with them the antidote to every thing that can befal them-that, whithersoever they go, to whatsoever they may be

called, they have within them the consolation! Reader, are you a believer in Jesus? How important, then, that you should know your acceptance in Jesus-that you should be in no doubt as to His having loved you, and washed you from your sins in His own blood. How else can you fully repose in Him, as your consolation ?

Can a believer lose his consolation? We may answer that by asking another question. Can a believer lose Christ Himself? Can any man pluck the sheep out of Jesus' hand? Believers may lose the sense of the consolation-they may have "to go about the city"-to seek Him whom their soul loveth-they may have to tarry long ere they find Him. Cant. iii. 2. But Christ has said, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you." Jo. xvi. 22; xiv. 18,-in other words, "I will present Myself for your consolation." Weeping Christian

anxious Christian-sin-sick Christian-deserted (apparently deserted) Christian-the Beloved sees you; cares for you; provides for youthough He seem far away. He will not, He cannot, be always absent from you. He will see you again; He will come to you. Grieve

Him not by doubting that He will come. Rest upon His promise-repose on Him, as your consolation. Doubts and fears will never bring Him back to you. "He shews Himself strong on behalf of those, whose heart is perfect towards Him;" i.e., of those who rely on Him-of those who repose on Him. 2 Chr. xvi. 9; comp. v. 8. Reader, "are the consolations of God small with thee? Is there any secret thing with thee?" Job. xv. 11. Search, and see if your want of comfort arise from unmortified sin, or bad habits not corrected. As Christ is strength to the watchful, or conflicting soul, so is He consolation to the consistent soul-to the heart kept with all diligence-to the affections set on things above, not on things on the earth. How often we have ourselves to thank for our want of consolation! Christ would not be true to Himself, if He comforted the careless soul, or the erring soul. This would not be true consolation-it would only encourage the soul in bad habits, and thus remove it further, from consolation in the end. Jesus is therefore as faithful in withholding comfort, as in affording it. He does, under all circumstances, what is best for the happiness and prosperity of His people. Thus, Christian Reader, Christ is all

the more your consolation, because He administers it wisely and considerately. He is all the more sweetly your consolation, because, when He does comfort you, you may be sure that the consolation is well timed, and duly bestowed. May your trust in Him be an enlightened trust, a well-considered repose, that you may be wise, not only to thank Him for consolation administered, but to bless Him also for consolation mercifully withheld. Thus may you at all times repose on Jesus, as your consolation.

G

REPOSING IN JESUS, AS THE

HOPE OF

GLORY.

CHRIST is said to be in His people, "the hope of glory." Col. i. 27. Now, hope means the expectation of something that we desire. Human hopes range very widely between a remote probability, and a confident assurance, of our expectation being fulfilled. They depend on contingencies more or less uncertain, and over which man has no control. Hence, in common language, hope means the wish, rather than the confident expectation, that our desires will be fulfilled.

But it is very different where the expectation is made to rest upon the promises of God-in other words, upon the settled purpose of the Most High. In this sense hope is only another word for certainty. It is a hope that "maketh not ashamed”—or a hope that cannot be disappointed. Rom. v. 5. It is a hope, which "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the vail." Heb. vi. 19. It is that "hope of eternal