THROUGH TRIBULATION.

"These are they which came out of great tribulation," and "washed their robes [their spiritual powers and faculties] in the blood of the Lamb. " Rev. vii. 14. Here are two distinct statements, one referring to "tribulation," the other to the cleansing in Christ's blood, and yet the two facts are so conjoined as to show there is a moral link binding them together. We must emphasize the fact that tribulation, or suffering, does not in any degree save or sanctify the soul, for this would be taking the crown of salvation from the head of Jesus. Jesus is our only Savior, whether from actual or inherent sin; still God, in grappling with our fallen state, grappled also with the problem of tribulation, and incorporated it in His gracious plans.

Suffering often serves a providential use leading us to seek and receive Christ both for par don and entire holiness. The law — the moral law — never saved a soul, and yet no soul ever fled to Jesus to be freed from guilt and woe, without having the function of law acting on that soul and disclosing in some degree the guilt and death-penalty of sin. As the law is absolutely essential to drive sinners to Jesus for safety, so, after we become children of God, nearly all of us would linger in the "first vail," were it not for this schoolmaster of law, taking the shape of disappointment, severe temptation, poverty, suffering, heart-burdens, and a thousand painful things by which we are led in self abasement to seek complete purity from the vexations of our hearts. Not all are led into full sanctification along this painful route; a great many young converts, when they can get clear, specific instruction as to the nature and need of complete cleansing, will receive it readily; but with most Christians, tribulation in some form, discloses the deep needs of the heart and hastens it to the Almighty Cleanser and Comforter. The cold of winter does not warm our houses, but it was the winter cold that led men to find and utilize the coal mines for making warmth; thus the soul-searching blasts of manifold trials reveal to us our infinite needs, and lead us in a way we know not to the infinite supply.

After the soul has been thoroughly sanctified, the Lord still utilizes tribulation in testing His saints, and maturing and mellowing in them the graces of the Spirit. " Many shall be purified, made white and tried." Daniel xii. 10. These words describe the order and steps of saintly graduation.

I will note, in very few terms, some things concerning the tribulations of holy souls.

1. They are intensely peculiar to each individual, so much so that perhaps not one acquaintance in a thousand would conjecture what constitutes your greatest trial. That which is a sore trial to one, would be as nothing to another. We may tell to others a few surface trials, but that which forms the trial of our soul we very seldom tell to any but God.

2. Tribulation, in some form, will be adequate in kind and degree, to test the faith and loyalty of every saint according to his measure. There are as great varieties among the magnitudes of saints as among the stars. Every magnitude has its own degree of testing. Jer. xxx. n. Eph. iv. 7.

Some who aspire to be saints of the larger magnitudes, when the testing adequate to those magnitudes are brought to bear upon them, fail, and dwindle down to lesser ranks.

3. Every new step in faith and love will have its appropriate testing, and all the graces will be proved in their season; and none but God knows how and when to apply the proof.

4. Tribulation leads the sanctified soul to the most thorough searching; searching the heart, the mind, the will, the motives, the acts, to see if we are truly given to God; searching the Bible to see if its peculiar trials are depicted there, and this leads to great disclosures of light and truth. Thus trial conducts the holy soul to wider and keener spiritual vision.

5. While tribulation is not love, yet it shows the saint his need of greater sympathy, com passion, and tenderness for his fellows. Tribulation out of the Holy Spirit will sour and harden, but in the Spirit, it softens the speech, mellows the feelings, and sinks us

"Down, down in that beautiful valley,

Where love crowns the meek and the lowly." Heb. xii. 11.