132 THE hfart's-ease. 



them away and give entrance to the sunbeams. 

 Often, very often, has D. expatiated on llje same 

 sweet trntli, representing the many ways in which 

 my abounding l rials were working together for good, 

 already perce]:)libie. I remember the lesson, and 

 cherish it in my heart ; but sorely do I miss the 

 cheerful look, the encouraging smile, that were 

 wont •*o accompany it. D. wa^ utterly incapable 

 of that cheap generosity which bestows on the 

 sufferer a scrap of advice, perchance a text of 

 scripture, and lliinks it has done the part of a 

 Christian comforter. He first placed himself so 

 fullv in the situation of the person aflhcted, by the 

 exercise of that beautiful consideration wherewith 

 God had gifted him ; and made so many allowances 

 for the peculiarity of individual feeling and circum- 

 stances, that his language assumed rather the cha- 

 racter of consoling thoughts, inwardly suggested 

 to the mourner, tlnn of another man's ideas, ver- 

 bally communicated. Surely if there be one gift 

 more to be coveted than another, in the social in- 

 tercourse of poor pilgrims through a valley of Baca, 

 it is this. It is easy to lecture a complaining 

 brother : it is easy to shew him how lightly you 

 regard his present affliction ; and thus to silence 

 the rising murmer, bidding it retire and rankle in 

 the heart v»^hich knoweth its own bitterness ; but 

 oh, how wise, how tender, how Christ-like, is the 

 love that voluntarily places itself under his cross, 



