An Offering of Sympathy to the Afflicted Author:Francis Parkman 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: SYMPATHY TO THE AFFLICTED. DUTY OF PREPARATION FOE ADVERSITY. Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. It i... more »s the province of religion to prepare us for the vicissitudes of life. It is the peculiar province of the religion of Jesus Christ to inculcate such truths, to suggest such motives, to inspire such hopes, as shall prepare us to meet all the appointments of God— both what he ordains, and what he permits — with a confiding temper. For this, as well as for other great purposes, it holds up to our view and imitation the example of Christ, in the faithfulness of his obedience, and the cheerfulness of his submission to the will of his Father. And one of his apostles, in anticipating the sufferings to which his first followers, and, we may add, his disciples in every age, were to be called, exhorts that they arm themselves with the same mind ; that they put on the same holy courage, with which their divine Master met the trials to which he was appointed. St. Paul also, with a fine allusion to theChristian state as a warfare, exhorts that they put on the whole armor of God ; that they place themselves, as it were, in the attitude of men, who expected and would prepare themselves to meet calamity; standing perfect and complete in all the will of God. These precepts, though addressed to Christians of an earlier age, lose nothing of their application to us, who, with them, are pilgrims in an uncertain world, and must expect vicissitude. And it is obviously the suggestion of wisdom and piety, to inquire, how we may prepare ourselves for such changes, and with what temper they should be sustained. 1. Preparation for sorrow implies, as we may first remark, a reasonable expectation of it; — an expectation founded on just views, suc...« less