Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: which attack the digestive organs, and which either prevent the taking, or the retaining of food, say, that what we call common mercies are the good gifts of God, not once for all, but daily and hourly renewed; that we think it a common mercy (if we regard it as a mercy at all) to be able to take food, and having taken it, to be nourished by it, and suffer no inconvenience from it. We think it a strange thing if it be otherwise with us—an accident to be speedily got rid of. O ! how many days, and months, and years, we have taken daily meals without looking at each one and all that belonged to it, as a present and daily-renewed mercy from our ever watchful Lord, who " knoweth whereof we are made."a SICKNESS A VOCATION. Sickness for the present is the " state of life into which it hath pleased God to call you." Your calling, your " vocation." As such you will feel it " very good." You will feel also that no state can be good excepting that to which He calls you; and you will desire to have no choice whether to liye or die, to remain "p. ciii. H in your present state, or to recover your bodily health. Whatever is clearly your work, your calling, that do; and be sure that we have no " hard Master, reaping where He has not sown, and gathering where He has not strawed."" He will give you strength for each thing that He calls you to. But you must ever remember that it is what He calls you to, and not in any self-chosen path, that you can look for the power to perform. This is your work now. Do not think scorn of it. Do not lightly esteem it. The work requires great patience, great faith, great love, great submission. Say then, has He not honoured you by trusting it to you ? Do you ask how you can " show forth His praise," if you cannot stir hand or foot, and can scar...