"When I sent you without scrip or staff," saith Christ to his apostles, "did you want any thing?" They answered, "No." Have we not suffered afflictions when as yet we had little or no confidence in God, and did we perish under these afflictions? No. How, then, can we entertain thoughts of despondency, or betray a want of courage in adversity? For if God hath hitherto protected us, notwithstanding the little or no reliance we had on his providence, can it be supposed that he will forsake us, when, placing our whole confidence in him, we put on the determined resolution of dedicating the remainder of our lives to his love and service? Ah! no, he assuredly will not. Why, then, should we perplex ourselves with apprehensions of future evils, which perhaps will never befall us? or on the supposition they did, will not God enable us by his grace to support them with Christian fortitude? He commanded St. Peter to walk to him on the water; Peter, terrified by the blustering of the wind and the turbulence of the waves, and under the dreadful apprehension of immediately sinking to the bottom, calls out to his divine Master for assistance. When God, in like manner, ordains that you should walk on the boisterous waves of adversity, take courage and fear not; for be assured, he is actually present, and will stretch forth his hand to your assistance, as he did to St. Peter. {160} Our condition in this short and fleeting life, is an object of little consequence, provided that in the end we are admitted to the eternal enjoyment of God and his glory. Do we not, at every step we tread, approach nearer and nearer to eternity? Nay, have we not our feet, for aught we know to the contrary, on the very brink of it this moment? What, therefore, doth it signify whether our pilgrimage through life be chequered with afflictions or not, provided it terminate in a happy eternity? Can we possibly repine under short-lived sufferings, whilst we await their recompence in never-ending consolations? Ah! whatever has not eternity for its object, is, in reality, nothing but fleeting vanity. Awake, therefore, O my soul! "Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light." Let us humbly beseech the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who consoleth us in all our afflictions, to inspire us with the same sentiments as the Apostle had when he exclaimed, "Far be it from me, that I should glory in any thing but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ah! were the cross of our crucified Saviour but deeply implanted in our hearts, the most bitter crosses of this world would then appear as sweet as roses. The heart that is impressed with a lively sense of the crown of thorns which pierced the tender head of our suffering Redeemer, will feel but little or no pain from the trifling scratches of worldly afflictions. Devotions