January 5

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. - Job 5:7.

THUS we see there is an inheritance of grief, and to this patrimony all of Adam’s kind are heirs. Its possession is as sure to all the seed, as the laws of nature are inviolable. Some portions of our appointed lot are less painful than others, but, under every aspect in which we may view our earthly condition, we find that every situation, more or less, exposes us to trouble and sorrow. Life is a warfare, and earth, at best, is a vale of tears. Solomon in all his glory was not exempt from its disappointments and griefs. He had sought pleasure in its most favoured spots and sunniest aspects. All that wealth could purchase, or that skill could devise, or power command, failed in procuring an immunity for him from trouble. After exhausting its envied resources, and studying its universal history, he thus records the result of his extended observation and personal experience:-“All is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

And who is there of the children of men that has purchased an exemption from trial and temptation, from danger and disease, from woe and want? On every hand we find foes that molest and oppose us; cares that corrode us; fears that dismay us; bereavements to grieve us; and disappointment to confound us. Yea, in our very comforts we find the elements of the bitterest grief; in our possessions the sources of greatest peril; in our successes the excitements of envy and detraction; in our affections the seeds of anxiety and anguish; and in our connections the pledges of apprehension and separation; and “every drop of honey hides a sting.” As this is the common lot of all men, the apostle enjoins upon all sufferers, “not to think it strange concerning the fiery trials, as though some strange thing had happened unto them; knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in our brethren which are in the world.” For “there hath no temptation,” saith he, “taken you, but such as is common to man.” Religion does not exempt us from suffering, but it prepares us for it, and shows itself most to advantage when all other resources fail us.

While David said, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” he also added, “but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” And our Saviour says to his disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation;” but he also says, “In me ye shall have peace.”