Page:A Sermon Preached in Hawarden Church.djvu/12

 and suffer greatly—almost all of us more or less so—or we may be undone. I say almost all; for there are some, and your minds may suggest to you one, at least, who seems not to have needed this course of remedial sorrow, but to have "kept her garments" without it. But generally the power of that corrupt nature which we have derived, cannot be overcome without painful and continued struggles. And if at any time we forget or neglect this essential duty, then it is an act of mercy on the part of God to put that yoke upon us, which we do not willingly take ourselves; and by affliction, of one kind or other, force on us the remedy suited to our needs.

No doubt this rule of sorrow as the way of perfection has obtained from the beginning; from the time, that is, that man fell from the first law under which he was made. It was the burden of the old world; and they had none to go unto, who should refresh and give them rest when their souls were weary and heavy laden with it. But this is not the case with us. True we are under the same law of suffering as they. But Christ has "carried our sorrows," and He lays them upon us, in a manner, only as sanctified by and as the complement of His own. From the time He trod "the Dolorous Way," sorrow and death have both been blessed: yea, they are now twice blessed: gifted with a