soon as God began to exercise that power which she had so cordially acknowledged and rejoiced in, in a way which was painful to her, her heart rose against it in a moment, and would not submit. The trial brought out to her view her true feelings in regard to the absolute and unbounded authority of God. Now, there is a great deal of such acquiescence in God's dominion in the world, and a great deal of it is exposed by trial every day.

The case of the steam-engine, which I supposed at the commencement of this chapter, illustrates this part of my subject exactly. The engineer tried the boat for the purpose of proving fully the character and operation of her machinery. Though he had himself actually superintended the construction of every part of the work, he could not fully know the character and the power of the machine until he had tried it. While the experiment was in progress, he was watching every movement with a most scrutinizing eye; he discovered faults, or deficiencies, or imperfections, which nothing but actual trial could have revealed.

It is on exactly the same principle that discipline and trial is useful, to enable us fully to understand our characters; and in order to avail ourselves of this advantage, we should watch ourselves most carefully, when placed in any new or untried situation, to see how our moral powers are affected by it. We must notice every imperfection and every deficiency which the trial brings to our view.

2. Discipline and trial are the means of improvement. Besides giving us an insight into our characters, they will, if properly improved, enable us to advance in the attainment of every excellence. I ought however, perhaps, to say they may be made the means of improvement, rather than that they actually will be so. The steam-boat was in a better condition after the first day's trial than before; but it was because the engineer was attentive and watchful, doing his utmost to avail himself of every opportunity to increase the smoothness and the power of her motion. So with human trials.

See yonder child going to school. His slate is under his arm, and he is going this day to make an attempt to understand long division. He is young, and the lesson, though it may seem simple to us, is difficult to him. He knows what a difficult and perplexing task is before him, and he would, perhaps, under ordinary circumstances, shrink from it. But he is a Christian. He has asked forgiveness for his past sins in the name of Jesus Christ, and is endeavoring to live in such a manner as to please his Father above. He knows that God might easily have formed his mind so that mathematical truths and processes might be plain to him at once, and that he has not done so, for the very purpose of giving him a useful discipline by the trial which the effort to learn necessarily brings.

He says therefore to himself, as he walks alongs to his school-room, "My lesson to-day is not only to do this sum, but to learn to be patient and faithful in duty, and I must learn the arithmetical and the moral lesson together. I will try to do it. I will begin my work looking to God for help, and I will go on through it, if I can, with a calm and quiet spirit, so as to learn not only to divide a number, but to persevere in duty." With this spirit he sits down to his work, and watches himself narrowly, that he may check every rising of impatience, and obtain, by means of the very difficulties that now try him, a greater self-command than he ever before possessed. In fact he takes a strong interest in the very difficulty, because he is interested in the moral experiment which it enables him to make.

Now, when such a spirit as this is cherished, and the mind is under its influence in all the difficulties and trials of life, how rapidly must the heart advance in every excellence. There certainly can be no way by which a young person can so effectually acquire a patient and persevering spirit, as by meeting real difficulties with such a state of mind as I have described. They who have been trained in the hard school of difficulty and trial, almost always possess a firmness of character which it is vain to look for elsewhere. There must, however, be effort on the part of the individual to improve under the trial, or he will grow worse instead of better by it. Learning long division in schools is, perhaps, as often a means of promoting an impatient and fretful spirit as the contrary. It is the state of heart on the part of the individual that determines which effect is to be the result. Some men, by the misfortunes and crosses of life, are made misanthropes; others, through the same disappointments and sufferings, are, by the grace of God, made humble and happy Christians, with feelings kindly disposed towards their fellow-men, and calmly submissive towards God.

The object, then, which the Creator had in view in arranging the circumstances of probation and discipline in which we are placed, is two-fold: that we may understand, and that we may improve our characters. We are to learn different lessons from the different circumstances and situations in which we are placed, but we are to learn some lesson from all. God might easily have so formed the earth, and so arranged our connection with it, as to save us all the vicissitudes and trials and changes which we now experience. But he has made this world a state of discipline and trial for us, that we may have constant opportunities to call into active exercise every Christian grace. The future world is the home for which we are intended, and we are placed on trial here, that we may prepare for it; and the suffering and sorrow which we experience on the way are small evils, compared to the glorious results which we may hope for there. But I must come to the practical directions which I intended to present.

1. Consider every thing that befalls you as coming in the providence of God, and intended as a part of the system of discipline and trial through which you are to pass. This will help you to bear every thing patiently. An irreligious man is on a journey requiring special haste, and finds himself delayed by bad travelling or stormy weather, until a steam-boat, which he had intended to take, has sailed, and left him behind. He spends the twenty-four hours during which he has to wait for the next boat, in fretting and worrying over his disappointment-in useless complaints against the driver for not having brought him on more rapidly-in wishing that the weather or the travelling had been better, or in thinking how much his business must suffer by the delay. The Christian, on the other hand, hears the intelligence that the boat has left him, with a quiet spirit; and even if he was hastening to the bedside of a dying child, he would spend the intervening day in composure and peace, saying, "The Lord has ordered this. It is to try me. Heavenly Father, give me grace to stand the trial."

I say, the Christian would feel thus; I should, perhaps, have said, he ought to feel thus. Christians are very much accustomed to consider all the great trials and sufferings of life as coming from God, and as intended to try them, but they fret and vex themselves unceasingly, in regard to the little difficulties which, in the ordinary walks of life, they have to encounter-especially in what is connected with the misconduct of others. You lend a valuable book, and it is returned to you spoiled: the prints are soiled and worn; the leaves are turned down in some places, and loosened in others; the binding is defaced, and the back is broken. Now you ought not to stand looking at your spoiled volume, lamenting again and again the misfortune, and making yourself miserable for hours by your fretfulness and displeasure against the individual who was its cause. He was indeed to blame, but if you did your duty in lending the book, as without doubt you did, you are in no sense responsible, and you do wrong to make yourself miserable about it. The occurrence comes to you in the providence of God, and is intended as a trial. He watches you to see how you bear it. If you meet it with a proper spirit, and learn the lesson of patience and forbearance which it brings, that spoiled book will do you more good than any splendid volume crowded with prints, adorned with gilded binding, and preserved in a locked cabinet for you for twenty years.

So with loss of every kind, whether it comes in the form of a broken piece of china or a counterfeit ten-dollar bill, or the loss of your whole property by the misfortunes of a partner or the pressure of the times. No matter what is the magnitude or the smallness of the loss-no matter whether it comes from the culpable negligence or fraud of another, or more directly from God, through the medium of flood or fire, or the lightning of heaven; so far as it is a loss affecting you, it comes in the providence of God, and is intended as a trial. If you are really interested in what ought to be the great business of life, your growth in grace, you will find that such trials will help you to understand your own heart, and to train it up to a proper action under the government of God, more than any thing besides.

2. Make it your aim to be continually learning the lessons which God by these various trials is teaching you. Every day is a day of discipline and trial. Ask yourself every night, then, "What progress have I made to-day?" Suppose the engineer, in the case of the steam-boat on trial, to which I have several times alluded, had neglected altogether the operation of the machinery when his boat was first put to the test. Suppose that instead of examining minutely and carefully the structure and the action of the parts, with a view to removing difficulties, rectifying defects, and supplying deficiencies, he had been seated quietly upon the deck enjoying the sail. He might have been gazing at the scenery of the shore, or in vanity and self-complacency enjoying the admiration which he imagined those who stood upon the wharf were feeling for the degree of success which