Remarks on the Uses of Chastisement [pp. 342-357]

The Uses of Chastisement.
is now proceeding; and no man can be an idle spectator of its
progress without sin. The requirements of the Saviour are
too plain to be mistaken, and too solemn to be trifled with.
His eye is upon us; and his judgment is at the door. God
grant that you may be found faithful unto death; and that
when that great crisis shall arrive, you may be able to look
back with holy satisfaction, with heavenlyjoy, on much done
for Christ and your generation; not as the ground of your
confidence; not as your title to eternal life: No, the righteousness of Him who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, being the only foundation of a sinner's hope; but as means by which a Divine Saviour has
enabled us to glorify the riches of his grace; as the fruits of
his blessed Spirit; as evidences of vital union to his body;
and as pledges of admission to the joys and glories of his
presence!
MINIMUS.
ART. II.-REMARKS ON THE USES OF CHASTISEMENT.
THE intermingling of a few advices, particularly directed to
the case of ordinary Christians under affliction, with our usual
treatises and reviews, cannot, we are persuaded, be unwelcome. We therefore take our pen for the purpose of direct
address to sufferers, of whatever kind.
It is only in the Word of God that we learn to consider
affliction as a blessing The utmost which the most refined
philosophy can eflect is to remove from our sorrows that
which is imaginary, to divert the attention from the cause of
distress, or to produce a sullen and stoical resignation, more
like despair than hope. The religion of the Gospel grapples
with the evil itself, overcomes it, and transforms it into a
blessing. It is by no means included in the promises made
to true Christians that they shall be exempt from suffering.
On the contrary, chastisement forms a necessary part of that
paternal discipline, by which our heavenly Father fits his
children for their eternal rest in glory. The Psalmist asserts
the blessedness of the man who is chastened by the Lord,
with this qualification as necessary to constitute it a blessing,
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