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 more beneficial to man. Man, whether spoken of collectively or individually, is a type of the church; and whatever house he enters into to assume the government, for the purpose of reducing all things therein to a state of order, that house becomes also representative of a church; and in whatever position such a house with its inhabitants may be, it is more or less in a state of danger, because as yet,—it, with its inmates, is not reduced to that perfect obedience which alone brings order and consequent peace. Hence the means the church, in the midst of its spiritual dangers, the waters being significant of temptation. A storm at sea is the joint effect of wind and water, in which wind is the active, and water the passive element. The same is true of the storm of mind, where the natural affections and thoughts constitute the passive element, and the wind, or influx from the powers of darkness, the active: from this there is no relief but by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ; and those who look unto him, will still find him walking on the sea of every human trial, to succour and comfort his confiding disciples. Man must become regenerate; and he cannot become regenerate unless he is tried; and trials are temptations. Man is only safe when he places himself entirely under the Divine protection; in other words, when, like Noah, he enters the ark, and permits the Lord to shut him in. Then, though the waters of temptation may threaten to swallow him up, still, safe in the ark in which he is, he he rises above them all.