April 27

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. - James 5:13.

AFFLICTIONS of every kind are considered in the Scriptures as trials, and the reason is, because they serve to show our principles, our dispositions, and our resources. It is natural for men, when they are in difficulties and distresses, to repair to something that promises to afford them deliverance, or at least to temper and sweeten the bitter cup of sorrow; and as every individual is insufficient in himself to secure this, we make use of various and numerous expedients for the purpose, but they are all in vain, and therefore, at last, classing our comforts with our crosses, and the good with the evil, disappointed and confounded, we acknowledge with Solomon, “all is vanity and vexation of Spirit.”

The Christian has but one resource, but then it is an adequate and an infinite one, and is able to weigh down all that can be brought against him. Therefore, instead of walking up and down, saying, “Who will show me any good?” he says to his soul, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” Now this is the divinely-prescribed course-“Call upon me,” says God, “in the day of trouble.” “Is any afflicted? “says the Apostle, “let him pray.” We should regard prayer not only as a duty but as a privilege, as the cordial of human life, as the balm of affliction, as opening an asylum into which no evil shall enter, as affording a sanctuary where “the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.” Hence said the church, “Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us, he hath smitten and he will bind us up.”

Thus we may repair in all our distresses unto God, and if we cannot address him. in words, it is our mercy to know, that “all our desire is before him, and our groaning is not hid from him.”