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COME UNTO ME." 327 



tip and bore, was the cross of Christ, I can scarcely believe, 

 when I call to remembrance my anxious dissatisfied con- 

 dition, my unmanly depression and discontent, and my 

 entire want of anything that could be called Christian 

 cheerfulness, or actual heartfelt resignation to the will of 

 God. In fact, I brooded over my own sufferings and dis- 

 tresses, instead of rejoicing in that ' one offering by which 

 He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified — the 

 Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world/ 

 "What marvel, then, that I was so often disconsolate, that 

 I felt so seldom and so slightly the 'joy of believing?' I 

 laboured and was heavy laden and was sore oppressed, 

 with a painful constitution of body and a feeble constitu- 

 tion of mind ; I was hedged in by difficulties on every 

 side and surrounded by thick darkness ; and yet I refused 

 the call of the Divine Redeemer's love, — ' Come unto me, 

 and I will give you rest/ Had I accepted of that invita- 

 tion fully and without reserve, then assuredly I might have 

 been ' troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; perplexed, 

 but not in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast 

 down, but not destroyed.' 



" I therefore come to the conclusion that my sufferings 

 have been greatly imbittered by my sins, and chiefly by 

 my disobedience in not recognising, in almost any of my 

 misfortunes, the chastening hand of a loving Father. But 

 'if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto 



