Or, suppose the case of _deep adversity_--suppose the Christian stripped, like Job, of great honours and possessions at a single stroke; betrayed and sold like Joseph, even by brethren, into bondage and exile; or lying like Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, diseased in body, and suing for the crumbs from off his table; or suppose him, as St. Paul himself, in peril of foes, and even doubtful of friends; in weariness and painfulness oft, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness. These last were exactly the circumstances under which the very text was indited by the apostle himself: he saw, what you may see, that trials like these, when tempered by the presence of the God he loved, were good, not, I would say, in proportion to their weight, but according to the patience which they exercised, the faith they strengthened, the experience of divine support they afforded, the hope they brightened, the crown they were preparing; yea, the exceeding and eternal weight of glory which they must eventually be working out. The apostle had "heard of the patience of Job," and had "seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." The trials of Joseph had even led that servant of God, by degrees of painful progress, to the honour of a prince, and a chain of gold. The "evil things" of Lazarus--good they might have been called--had led him to still higher honours, and had prepared him to be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. Every individual circumstance of this nature, as it passed in review before the apostle in the text, had led irresistibly to the conclusion he so strongly expresses. Could he distrust the same arm, disbelieve the same promises; or rather saying with David--"Our fathers trusted in thee, and were delivered," would he not add--I will trust as they did; I will be "in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" Let me feel only the "profit, that I may be partaker of his holiness;" and then, "though no affliction for the present is joyous, but grievous," it shall surely hereafter yield the peaceable fruit of true righteousness; and "all things," adversity itself, "shall work together for _my_ good."