xii. 10)--the most blessed result to which discipline can lead

us.--_W. Manning._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is with the children of men as with the housewife, that having diligently swept the house, and cast the dust out of doors, can see nothing amiss, not so much as a speck of dust in it; whereas if the sun do but a little shine in, through some cranny in the wall or some broken quarry in the window, she may soon see the whole house swim and swarm with innumerable atoms of dust, floating to and fro in the air, which, for dimness of light or sight, she was not able to discern. Even so is it with many that were careful of their ways, so that little may be seen that is amiss; yet, when they shall come to look more attentively into God's law, a little beam of light, reflecting upon their souls for it, will discover unto them such an innumerable company, as well as corruptions in their heart as of error and oversight in their lives, that it shall make them, as men amazed, cry out, "Lord, what earthly man doth know the errors of his life?"--_Spencer,_ 1658.

[2] As the Lord led Ezekiel from one place to another, and the further he went the greater abominations he discerned (Ezek. viii.), from the door of the court to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, and from thence to the inner court; so the Spirit of the Lord leads the sinner from one part of his house to another, from one room--one faculty of his soul to another, and still discovers greater, more and more abominations,--leads from the profaneness of his ordinary conversation to the sins of his religious duties, from the sins of his life to the sins of his heart, from the streams of sin in his actions to the spring of sin which bubbles up continually in every part of his soul. He brings to mind the sins that he has forgotten, makes him "possess the sins of his youth;" and now the "bag" (Job.