SÉrNi.'X4[XII.1 OR REMEDIES AGAINST FEAR. `,31 and God has sunk them at once into silence. Think how extreme your danger hasbeen, when you have been perplexed in a wilderness of thorns, and have seen no ways for your escape, but the eye of -God hath found a path ofsafety for you, a path which the eagle's eye bath not seen : He has led you as one that was.blind, by the way that you knew not, he has made darkness light be- fore you, and crooked things straight,. according to his promise, Is. xlii. 16. And remember also, that sometimes when the very evil which you feared has fallen upon you, it-has not been-half so heavy and painful as your fears have repre- sented it, and you have been enabled to bear that which you 'thought was intolerable. Remember the years of ancient time, and rejoice in that God who has often dis- appdinted your fears of destruction, and has out -done all your hopes in a wayof deliverance " I said, I am cut off from the earth; and shall go to the gates of the grave; I reckoned from night till the morning that he will cut me off with pining sickness; "from 'day even to night, he will make an end of me : But in love to my soul, O Lord, thouhast delivered it from the pit of cor- ruption, -for thou hast cast all "my sins behind thyback." Perhapsyour own experience may teach you: to sing this song!of. Hezekiah, as it is recorded, Is. xxxviii. or to join with holy David, and repeat his hymns of praise. And thus; beside your own experiences; you may review the happy experiences of the saints òf"old, or of christians in later times, and encourageyour faith in opposition to all your fears. VIII. Charge your conscience solemnlywith the-au= thority of the divine' command to suppress your fears. Remember that the exercises of faith, courage, Arid holy firmness of soul, are duties as well as blessings. Read how often the great God forbids his people to indulge their fears, Is. xl. 10, 13, 14. xliii. 1, 5. xliv. 2, 8. Fear not, is a command perpetually - repeated; because God well knew how prone our feeble - natures are to be affrighted at 'every appearance of danger:: And -even when he calls his people Jacob a wormim; and confesses the extreme weakness of their nature under that emblem, yet he insists ön the same precept still, "Fear not thou W"orrrt Jaebb," Is. xli. 14.
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