DISCOURSE Vit. 153 thoughts as these dwell upon our spirits with an awful solemnity, and be a perpetual guard against defiling our garments with any iniquity, lest our Lord should come and find us thus polluted. Let us walk onwards in the paths of light which are discovered to us in the word of God, and which are illustrated by his holy ordinances, to guide us through the clouds. and shades, which attend us in this wilderness, till our Lord Jesus shall come, with all his surrounding glories, and take us to the full possessiomcf the inheritance in light. IV. as Under our darkest nights, our most inactive and heavy hours, our most uncomfortable seasons here on earth, let us remember we are travelling to a world of light and joy." If we happen to lie awake, in midnight darkness, and count the tedious hours one after another in a mournful succession, under any of the maladies of nature, or the sorrows of this life, let us comfort ourselves, that we are not shut up in eternal night and darkness without hope, hut we are still making our way towards that country, where there is no night, where there is neither sin nor pain, malady nor sorrow. What if the blessed God is pleased to try us by the withhold- ing of light from our eyes for a season ? What if we are called to seek our duty in dark providences, or are perplexed in deep and difficult controversies, wherein we cannot find the light of truth ? What if we " sit in darkness and mourning, and see no light, and the beams of divine consolation are cut off, let us still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay ourselves upon our God,' especially as he manifests himself in the Lamb that was slain, the blessed medium of his mercy." Is. 1. 10. Let us learn to say with the prophet Micah, in the spirit of faith ; Micah vii. 8, 9. When I sit in darkness, thé Lord will be a light unto me; he will bring me forth to the light and 1 shall behold his righteousness. f0 Blessed be God, that the night of ignorance, grief or affliction which attends us in this world, is not everlasting night. Heaven and glory are at hand ; wait and watch for the morning star, for Jesus, and the resurrection. 'Roll on apace in your appointed course, ye suns and moons, and all ye twinkling en- lighteners of the sky, carry on the changing seasons of light and darkness in this lower world with your utmost speed, till you have finished all my appointed months of continuance here. The light of faith shews me the dawning of that glorious day, which shall finish all my nights and darknesses for ever. Make haste, O delightful morning, and delay not my hopes. Let me hasten, let me arrive at that blessed inheritance, those mansions of para- dise, where night is never known, but one .eternal day shall make our knowledge, our holiness, and our joy eternal." Amen.
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