The righteous are not free from suffering and pain, from trials and afflictions; but then they enjoy, under every visitation, a source of comfort and satisfaction, which the thoughtless votaries of this world cannot possibly experience. There dwelleth, in their hearts and minds, the peace of God; and that must ever be the gift of God, which He will never bestow upon His enemies; the peace of God, which fills them with a holy calm, and reconciles them to every thing. In seasons of trouble, the triumphs of the gospel are especially manifested; and the “secret of the Lord” especially revealed. The soul is in a more impressible condition; more ready to learn of Him, who “was meek and lowly of heart;” and therefore more capable of the enjoyment of His promised rest. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” { 342}
The sensual and the proud are disappointed and mortified and rebellious under the various troubles of life; the Christian receives them in a different spirit, as tokens of his heavenly Father’s love; and tokens of love he finds them to be. They, who “walk by sight,” are ever complaining of hardships and inequalities in the world; they who “walk by faith,” can perceive in them all the sovereign and gracious hand of the Almighty, who “doeth all things well.” They, who live upon the favour of the world, must always be rendered unhappy by its frowns; but the Christian lives above it, and cares little for any opposition or evil report: he is fortified and comforted by a secret power, and protected by an invisible arm: and this power shall continue with him, if he continue faithful, even unto the end. When his journey through the wilderness is about to terminate, when he has arrived at the borders of the flood, and is entering upon the shores of the heavenly Canaan, when nature sinks and the soul is departing, then does the Lord reveal himself, in a manner not to be seen and not to be told: there is a hidden energy, a light within, a sustaining spirit, a mysterious and merciful communion with the Lord of life and death. This indeed is an awful secret, and one which the guilty can never know; which none can know, who do not, with all their heart and soul, embrace the promises of salvation revealed to them in the gospel: the foretaste of heavenly rest, like the rest itself, remaineth only for the people of God. They who have so feared and loved the Lord, as to have served Him with a good conscience and with integrity; they who have so believed and trusted in their Saviour, as to have followed whithersoever He led, as to have sacrificed every unholy gratification and pursuit, for the love of His name and for the “one thing needful,” they shall find, in their latter moments, a peace known only to themselves, a joy with which no “stranger can intermeddle.” The Lord will effectually “shew them His covenant:” they were made by baptism “members of Christ and children of God,” and became thereby entitled, through the free mercy of God in Jesus Christ, to an “inheritance in the kingdom of heaven;” having abided in that covenant, and walked faithfully therein, they will never doubt, but God will assuredly perform His part; and He will give them a full insight into the blessings, which He has covenanted to bestow; they have all along entertained a lively apprehension of the nature and principles of this holy covenant, and of their own correspondent obligations; its holy promises and its gracious rewards have been through life the solace of their souls; and it continues, yea increases, to the last; not indeed enjoyed in perfection here below, but enjoyed as the earnest and pledge of the fulness of their eternal felicity.