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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: GOD'S CONSTANT TRIAL OF MAN, Job vn: 17. 18. What is man, that thou ehouldst try Mm every moment. To try denotes, to put to the test; to place in such circumstances as will detect the character. The courage of a soldier is tried in the field of battle. The talents and industry of the student are put to the test by the daily recitation. The difficulties and temptations of public life try the firmness and integrity of men in power. The text instructs us, that God so orders the daily events of life as to render them a constant trial of every individual. He places him in circumstances which will inevitably detect his character, and bring the hidden man of the heart out into open, naked view. This truth, I know, is a painful one to many; it is frequently questioned and denied, and by those who admit it is too often forgotten. In considering it, I propose to show: How the various events and circumstances of life try every man's character: Why God so orders them, as to produce this result. This trial is represented as carried on every moment. Of course we are to regard it as commencing when the mind begins to act, as continued from day to day, and as terminating at death. Among these events and circumstances, I shall notice particularly, ? Afflictions. Men often speak of their afflictions as severe and distressing trials. By this language they intend a trial of their feelings, or of their fortitude. We ought, however, to regard them as a trial in a higher and . more important sense, because they are one of the most efficacious means of determining the moral dispositions of our hearts. Afflictions do not come forth from the dust, nor spring from the ground, but they are in every instance immediately appointed and sent upon us by God. His hand takes away our ...