time softened and meliorated by affliction, and disposed to receive and encourage divine impressions, a gleam of sunshine makes it hard again; a smile from the world revives my thoughtless gaiety, and blasts the hopeful buddings of seriousness and devotion. Oh that God would take away this heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh! Then I might hope to see the fruit of my labours; then I might grow in grace; and, like other Christians, bring forth fruit to the praise and glory of God!'

2. The inclemency of the season.

"He that observeth the winds shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." If the husbandman were to keep the field only in fair weather if every shower drove him from his work; if he should let the proper seed time pass, because it rained, or threatened to rain; and were either to sow unseasonably, or neglect to sow at all; he must inevitably become a beggar; and a similar fate awaits the indolent, fair-weather Christian. We are not to suppose those passages antiquated: "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts xiv. 22:) Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. iii. 12.) I say, we are not to suppose that these, and many other texts of Scripture of the like import, were exclusively applicable to the Apostles' days. God loves to try his people: he takes "his fan in his hand, and thoroughly purges his floor." He puts them to the test (and sometimes it is a fiery trial,) to see of what kind are their faith, hope, love, and patience; and if genuine, to what degree they are improved. He lays the cross in their way, on purpose to see if they will cheerfully

take it up, and follow their divine Master; or whether they will cowardly turn back, and walk no more with Jesus. Alas! if every real or apprehended difficulty were to drive us from our work, we should lose some of the most precious opportunities for improvement; since experience will testify, that some of our best crops have been produced from seed sown in a storm, and some of our most valuable attainments and enjoyments have been the consequence of severe and sanctified afflictions. Now, as no affliction for the present is joyous, but grievous, we are not to wonder that the Christian sows in tears. We may suppose him saying, How shall I weather such a storm, and pursue my work to any purpose! Those blustering winds. will tear up by the roots my newly-planted graces. I have little encouragement to sow ;-but God's will be done; he hath set me to work, and he best knows whether sun-shine or rain, whether poverty or riches, health or sickness, would be most for my advantage.

3. The malice and opposition of enemies.

The husbandman goeth forth weeping; and how can he help it?-to see birds almost on every tree ready to devour the seed as soon as ever it is out of his hand-to see his inveterate enemy watching an opportunity of his absence or inattention, to sow tares among his wheat! No wonder if, thus circumstanced, he sow in tears! And, surely, in this he is a lively emblem of the humble Christian, who has reason enough to cry out, "Lord, how are they increased that trouble me!" How often is he hindered from duty, or discouraged in it, by the innumerable evils which encompass him about. And

when he has overcome the strong reluctance of his carnal heart, to find that he has new difficulties to encounter;-when he goes with the sons of God to present himself before the Lord, to find Satan come also among them; and when any good seed drops from the sower, when any suitable word has been spoken, straightway to have the wicked one come and take away that which was sown in his heart, and erase the very remembrance of what but just before had given him so much pleasure;-to go to the table of the Lord hungering and thirsting after Christ and his righteousness, and to receive out of his fulness even grace for grace; and yet, before he can bring his treasure home, to be set upon by a crowd of vain thoughts, and so lose the things which he had wrought, and go home, not merely robbed of his newly-gotten comfort, but oppressed with new guilt; to see love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, temperance, faith, and the other fruits and graces of the Spirit, just beginning to grow and flourish; and at the same time to observe the cares. of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and an untold multitude of weeds and corruptions, as it were striving to choak the good seed, and render it unfruitful!-Every Christian, that looks well to the state of his soul, and is at all concerned about growth in grace, must be deeply affected, and bitterly lament, that in the present state he is beset with so many and such inveterate enemies to his purity and peace.

4. Past disappointments.

The husbandman sows in tears, when he has sown the same spot many times over and no corn appears. He goes forth bearing his precious seed, and weeps

to think, that perhaps he may never gather it in again! And must it not be equally discouraging to the humble, waiting, laborious Christian, to see the barrenness of his heart, after all the care and cultivation bestowed upon it! To have been so many years in God's vineyard, and still to be little better than a cumberer of the ground!--to have sat so long under the sound of the Gospel, and to have imbibed no more of its spirit and temper!— to have met with so many humbling providences, and yet to be so vain, proud, and stubborn !-to have had so many proofs of God's power, grace, and faithfulness, and yet to be so fearful and unbelieving to have made so many resolutions, and yet to be unstable as water!-to have enjoyed so many opportunities of fellowship with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ, and yet to have no more love and bear no more likeness to either!-How exquisitely humbling and painful must such reflec. tions be to an aged Christian; and with what a heavy heart must he continue services which have been, to appearance, hitherto, so unsuccessful! Who can wonder if he go forth weeping? We may well imagine him thus complaining, O how many joyless Sabbaths have I known! how many joyless sacraments have I attended! how many joyless prayers have I put up!-and I am afraid that this, which I am now engaging in, may increase the number of them.-I dare not but go: sowing is my duty; the increase is God's gift. I will go to my closet; I will go to the sanctuary; I will go any where, that God and my duty call me to; but it is with an aching heart. I have been so often disappointed, that, though my distresses are

greater, my expectations seem less than ever. I am afraid that this duty, like all my former ones, will begin and end in tears; and that I shall but labour in vain, and spend my strength for nought.'

No, Christians; you shall not labour in vain: your fears are groundless; and, little as you may think, now is your salvation nearer than when you first believed. For so says our text: They that sow in tears-shall reap in joy." This puts us upon inquiring,

III. What connection there is between sowing in, tears and reaping in joy.

In common husbandry, many casualties may hinder the joy of harvest:-one soweth, and another reapeth or perhaps there is no crop worth any man's reaping. But "He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit" assuredly" reap life everlasting. No cold in winter, no drought in summer, can hinder these fruits from coming to perfection; and even death, the destroyer of every other joy, hastens and introduces the Christian's harvest. But you ask, 'How may we be sure of this?' I answer,

1. A joyful harvest, by God's blessing, is the natural consequence of a dropping seed-time.

The tears of godly sorrow water the ground, naturally hard and dry, and promote the springing of the spiritual seed. "Tribulation" (says the Apostle, and the Apostle had good reason to know), "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope." In dry weather, weeds are not so soon discovered, nor so easily rooted out, as they are after a shower: and in prosperity corrup tions lie more unobserved, and are with more difficulty subdued. "Fools make a mock at sin;'