CHAPTER XXVIII. 15.

GRATITUDE AND COURAGE; OR, PAST AND FUTURE.

"AND from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage."

It is easy to see the connexion of the words I have selected as the ground of a few reflections. The words were originally suggested by the apostle finding certain brethren at Appii Forum and at a place called "The Three Taverns ;" and when he saw them he was so encouraged by what he there found and had met that he thanked God; and from the past he cherished confidence for the future, and therefore took courage.

This passage is the combination of two precious graces, both linked together by the one Spirit that inspired Paul to give utterance to them-gratitude, not the least noble of graces, and courageous faith, not the least heroic, in the haman heart. These two, however, relate to separate cycles. Like the heathen deity Janus, there are two faces; one looks back into the past, that cannot be recalled; the other looks forward into the future, which we have not yet tasted. All that we can say of the past is, that there is much reason in it for thankfulness; if there be much for

humiliation, repentance, and grief; and that there is more in the future for confidence and heroic faith than at first we may seem disposed to allow. At all events, courage for the future will always be refreshed and strengthened by communion with thankfulness for the past and he has a miserable past who has nothing in it that he can thank God for, or he must have a very insensible heart; and he must be a stranger to the mother grace of Christianity-thorough faith-who cannot look into the untrodden and the unsounded future, leaning upon an unseen, but not an unknown Arm, trusting in the rod and staff of the Son of Jesse, and believing that He who has been with him in all the ups and downs of one year will not forsake him in the more chequered and, it may be, more disastrous ups and downs of its successor.

He

The first thought is Paul's review of the past. thanked God; all that he had met with up to that point inspired him with gratitude; and gratitude not to his good luck, not to his skilful management, not to his own first-rate tactics, not to his friends; but to God. A Christian thanks an instrument in its place for an instrument's help; but he looks always higher, and thanks the God that moved the instrument, and gives Him all the glory. The apostle, therefore, first of all thanked God for the past. Now, without showing what ground the apostle had for it, may it not be as instructive if I show you that we have some ground for it?

Look back, then, into your past, first, as individuals. What accidents have you escaped in your experience in the past? what diseases have you been raised from? what perplexities delivered from? Who hath kept

your eyes from tears, your feet from falling, your souls from death? Who has given you your bread, and made your water sure? If your life be a chequered one—if it has its shadows, has it no sunshine? As individuals, there is far, far more of gratitude that we owe to God for all his mercies in the past than the most eloquent words can express.

In the second place, as families, have you no reason to thank God for the past? None of the necessaries of life have been withdrawn. Bread may be dear, but it has not altogether failed us. Has not strength often been given equal to our duty, and grace that we did not expect proved sufficient for us? Has not the candle of the Lord shined upon our dwelling? in your home, your family, in its relations, in its connections? Trace them all, review them all, think and ponder over them all; and see if you cannot point out some bright and sparkling features that will make you as families thank God for the past, and take courage for the future.

In the next place, as a congregation. There have been in its history no splits, no dissensions, no quarrels -all has been peaceable, all has been apparently prosperous, no less in the highest sense of that word than in the low and grovelling sense in which it is sometimes used. And if as individuals we have reason for thanking God-if as families we have reason for thanking him, as congregations we cannot do better than sing that beautiful Psalm with our inmost hearts: "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me be stirred up to bless and magnify his holy name.".

Then, in the next place, as a nation we are not without grounds for thankfulness. It is true there are

many thick clouds upon our horizon; it is true that there are many ominous and awful intimations in the coming future; but still the scourge of war has not yet smitten our borders; there has not been a famine of the whole staff of bread and the whole stay of water in our land; plague and pestilence have not decimated us; there is peace-comparative peace-within our borders; there is no foe mighty enough to destroy a people whose trust is in the Lord, and whose sure hope is in the mighty God of Jacob. We are a loyal people; we are a people among whom, with all its terrible drawbacks, real religion is daily gaining ground. When we look back at how much God has done for us as a nation, how little we have done in the way of duty in his sight, there is much reason for being humbled by a sense of our neglect, but still more for being thankful by a sense of his unmerited goodness.

Thus, then, we thank God as individuals, as families, as congregations, as a nation; and, lastly, we may thank him as Christians, whatever denomination or branch of the Church of Christ we belong to. Never did the Gospel go out with so much support as at the present moment; never were the coffers of our Missionary and our Bible Societies better filled; never was more done for Jew and Gentile than now-it may be not enough is done, it may be not what we ought to do; but we must not fail to recognise the good that there is, in our sense of humility for the good that we have left undone. There never was such an effort made to send the Bible forth to distant lands as at the present moment. China sees its walls thrown down; and the very first sound of that catastrophe, if such it may be called, awoke friendly and cordial responses in our country;

and it is quite certain that at least two millions of New Testaments in Chinese will be put into their hands. All this is ground for gratitude. We should not do right if we did not notice the good that grace has enabled us to do, while we give the glory to Him who so enables us, any more than we should do right to neglect the opportunities of doing good that are constantly placed before us.

All these are grounds of gratitude to God, and that enable us to thank him here as we review the past. But some can say, "We have had many afflictions, painful losses and bereavements.” So you may; it would be strange if it were ceaseless sunshine. We could not bear ceaseless sunshine, there must be shadow; we could not drink the cup of prosperity every day, there must be some bitter elements in it, to make the contrast more pleasing, to keep us more humble, and to prevent us from being exalted above measure. And have not your very afflictions dimmed the glory of earth only to reveal the greater glory of the heavens— have they not weaned you from this world, and won your hearts more thoroughly to that world that is to be? Have they not been sanctified to you by making you more holy, more humble, more watchful-by inspiring you to feel more profoundly this is not my rest; "there remaineth a rest for the people of God?” And if your light afflictions, which are but for a moment, have been working out for you a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory, then you may joy in your afflictions; you may thank God for your shadows as well as for your sunshine, and see in the darkest nights some star not shrouded, in the bitterest cup some elements of sweetness. And if you are humbled