1.  “Oh that I had wings like a dove for then would I fly away” Ps. lv. 6. to you, and satisfy my longing to meet you.  But now it is not only wings that I want, but a whole body, for mine has suffered from long sickness, and now is quite worn away with continuous affliction.  For no one can be so hard of heart, so wholly destitute of sympathy and kindness, as to hear the sigh that strikes my ear from every quarter, as though from some sad choir chanting a symphony of lamentation, without being grieved at heart, being bent to the ground, and wasting away with these irremediable troubles.  But the holy God is able to provide a remedy for the irremediable, and to grant you a respite from your long toils.  I should like you to feel this comfort and, rejoicing in the hope of consolation, to submit to the present pain of your afflictions.  Are we paying the penalty of our sins?  Then our plagues are such as to save us for the future from the wrath of God.  Are we called upon through these temptations to fight for the truth?  Then the righteous Giver of the prizes will not suffer us to be tried above that which we are able to bear, but, in return for our previous struggles, will give us the crown of patience and of hope in Him.  Let us, therefore, not flinch from fighting a good fight on behalf of the truth, nor, in despair, fling away the labours we have already achieved.  For the strength of the soul is not shewn by one brave deed, nor yet by effort only for a short time; but He Who tests our hearts wishes us to win crowns of righteousness after long and protracted trial.  Only let our spirit be kept unbroken, the firmness of our faith in Christ be maintained unshaken, and ere long our Champion will appear; He will come and will not tarry.  Expect tribulation after tribulation, hope upon hope; yet a little while; yet a little while.  Thus the Holy Ghost knows how to comfort His nurslings by a promise of the future.  After tribulations comes hope, and what we are hoping for is not far off, for let a man name the whole of human life, it is but a tiny interval compared with the endless age which is laid up in our hopes.