SQLite format 3@  ii!%%atableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE Topics (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT)/~ytoje`[VQLGB=83.)$ui01. Divine Immutability{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 DIVINE IMMUTABILITY\par \par FDB@m?`=T<5;954321/w-h+P*B($' %#"! kRB3%  rUG8*), you have been our dwelling place (our home) throughout all generations." Psalm 90:1\par \par A glorious palm-shade with its evergreen fronds\emdash a noble key-note to a noble song, the oldest in the Psalter, whose authorship invests it with an interest all its own, for it bears as its inscription, "A prayer of Moses the Man of God." The entire psalm was evidently written by the great leader and lawgiver, not certainly when the Israelites were encamped in safety and peace at Elim, under nature's verdant awning, with the twelve springs at their side (a desert oasis). Rather does it breathe the plaintive tones of a dirge or lament, composed after some appalling judgment toward the close of the wanderings\emdash "days and years wherein they had seen evil" (ver. 15), when death had caused sudden havoc through the tents; compared to the rush of a resistless torrent (ver. 5), or the blighting and withering of the grass at sundown prostrate under the mower's scythe (Num. 14:5, 6). In the lesson thus read on human frailty and mortality, seeing perhaps, both prospectively and retrospectively, the wilderness strewn with the blanched bones of the Pilgrim host, the writer turns from the mutable to the Immutable\emdash from the finite to the Infinite\emdash from the desert's shifting sands to the stable Everlasting Rock\emdash from man to God\emdash "Lord, YOU have been our dwelling-place in all generations!"\par \par Beautiful and significant is the figure employed\emdash all the more impressive, by reason of very contrast, must it have been to the Hebrews, first after their long enslaved, and now entering their nomad, life. The permanent dwelling was to them not even a memory. If entertained at all, it could only be the dream and aspiration of some ideal future. It was the psalm of a homeless, expatriated race, who "wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle."\par \par Most of us know what HOME is. There is music in the name which no words can describe. It is not locality or scenery which makes home. A prison is not a home\emdash a castle or palace with gilded ceilings, if there be no living, loving voices, is not home. Home is wherever the affections gather round treasured objects. It is the center of love; the spot where the spirit, worn and jaded with life's bustle, harassed with its anxieties and disappointments, delights to fold its weary wing\emdash that blessed refuge where cherished tones chase sorrow from the heart, and tender hands smooth the wrinkles which care has been ploughing on the cheek.\par \par The believer has his Home too, the majestic sanctuary of Infinite love. And there is no true dwelling-place or resting-place for the immortal soul but this. Yes! surrounded though we be with lavish profusion of material comforts and blessings, still there is in every heart a restless, unsatisfied craving after a higher good. No finite portion can adequately meet these infinite longings. The homeless child strayed from his father' s house\emdash weeping for its lost residence\emdash is a picture of the soul astray from its home and happiness in the all-glorious God.\par \par But once we can take up the sublime utterance of the leader of the Hebrews, "Lord, You have been our dwelling-place," then what a home is ours, with its perfect repose and everlasting inviolable security! Not the desert tent, not the temporary shade and shelter and refreshment of the Elim palm-grove and its springs, but the chief Divine reality which these earthly images foreshadowed. In that enduring mansion all fears are lulled to rest, all misgivings dispelled.\par \par It is a garrisoned home with many rooms in it; each room an attribute of the Eternal. For "the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runs into it, and is safe" (Prov. 18:10). And though thousands upon thousands have rushed, in bypast ages, to these magnificent chambers, still there is room. Age cannot impair their safety, time cannot crumble down their walls. I t is delightful to think of the many, since the hour when Moses penned it, who have already sung this glorious anthem. The captive in his dungeon, the martyr at the stake, the orphan in his loneliness, the widow in her agony, the sick one on his couch, the dying one in his last moments. Yes, and those, too, out amid the battle of life, the daily fever and turmoil of existence, the fret and friction of busy tempted hours\emdash such heroes of God, as they breast "the loud stunning tide," include it among t he cherished "melodies of the everlasting chime!"\par \par As in the case of Pilgrim Israel, we have ever and anon imparted to us, in touching impressiveness, the same world-wide lesson\emdash that we can make no home or refuge of any creature or created good. "They shall perish" is written on the best of earthly palm-trees. It is engraved on many a tombstone\emdash carved on the shattered lintels of many a broken heart. Home!\emdash with not a few it is a ruin, the wreck and debris of a hallowed past, the grave of fond hopes and departed joys and blighted affections. Some who trace these lines may be able thus to sing this oldest strain of the Psalter only through their tears.\par \par God may have been proclaiming to you, through severe and varied discipline, that earth is not your home, that you are but sojourners here, that your dwellings are not freehold but leasehold. He would lead you not to mistake the shelter of the wayfarer for the permanent abiding Mansion; the perishable refuge for the magnificent clefts of the Rock of Ages. He would lead you, as "strangers on earth," to have your "citizenship in heaven." These trials may be only the tones of His own tender voice, issuing the invitation\emdash "Go, My people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by" (Isaiah 26:20). He may be putting a thorn in your earthly nest and earthly home, to drive you to the wing and teach you to warble as you soar up to heaven's gate\emdash "Lord, amid the frailty and failing of all created things, I turn to the One only unfailing, unvarying, unchanging portion! My dwelling place shall henceforth be in You. My flesh and my heart fails, but You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever!"\par \par In such a Home, when fully realized and tested as no phantasm and shadow\emdash but a sublime truth, who cannot enjoy, even with regard to earthly things, the feeling of satisfaction and of safety? "You will keep him in perfect peace (lit. 'peace, peace') whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." The child dreads no danger so long as the strong encompassing arm of his father is around him. The winter storm may revel at will outside, but in the paternal dwelling he is safe. There is a special promise given to all who thus confidingly resort to the Everlasting God as their home and portion. "Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation; there shall no evil (no real evil) befall you" (Ps. 91:9, 10). In the most adverse circumstances He will prove to His people their protector; so that, in the words put into the lips of Ezekiel, "They shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods" (Ezek. 34:25), in the unlikeliest places and seasons they may feel sweetly secure. It is in Himself that His own promise has its most glorious fulfillment\emdash "Your people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest" (Isa. 32:18).\par \par Nor can we omit a closing reference to the last clause of our motto-verse\emdash "in all generations." A noble thought\emdash Jehovah the unchanging dwelling-place of His Church and His people in every age! Even Moses, who had not the long centuries of holy tradition and divine and saintly memory we enjoy, loved to repose on the thought of God, not only as "the God of his fathers," but as the God of all the years, as well as of all the families of earth. Perhaps he penned the psalm some night in the desert\emdash night with its darkness, as in the shadow of the Almighty's wings. He may have delighted to think that the same silent stars which kept vigil over the tents of Mamre, Shechem, and Bethel in the generations of old, were stooping that hour over the sleeping earth.\par \par But more comforting still the reflection, that He who lighted up these altar-fires in the great nightly temple, was ever living and loving; the unchanging sanctuary of His people from age to age. The generations had passed away and perished\emdash He was still, and ever would be, the same. Let ours be the prayer, "Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go!"\par \par And, as in the picture of a blessed earthly home, there must be harmony of will and congeniality of taste and feeling among the occupants, let it be our constant and lofty aspiration that our human wills may gradually be made to agree with the Divine, our hearts filled with love to Him, and love for all on whom His own boundless love is lavished. Having this as the master passion\emdash the dominant principle in our regenerated nature, the motive principle of our spiritual life, we shall know that as children we are within the dwelling-place of our Father, "For he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him."\par \par "Let the beauty of the Lord," is the closing prayer of the psalm, "be upon us:" or as that is rendered in the Targum, "Let the sweetness of the garden of Eden be upon us;" that beauty and sweetness which is better than shade of palm-tree, or breath of flower, or music of fountain\emdash the habitual realization of God's gracious favor and paternal guardianship\emdash "They shall rest in His love" (Zeph. 3:17).\par \par "Plan not, nor scheme, but calmly wait,\par His choice is best.\par While blind and erring is thy sight;\par His wisdom sees and judges right,\par So trust and rest.\par \par "Strive not, nor struggle; thy poor might\par Can never wrest\par The meanest thing to serve thy will.\par All power is His alone: Be still,\par And trust and rest."\par \par "What dost thou fear? His wisdom reigns\par Supreme confessed;\par His power is infinite; His love\par Thy deepest, Fondest dreams above,\par So trust and rest."\par \par "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par }  \par This verse rises like a tapering palm-tree in the midst of its group. The precious chapter from which it is taken may itself be likened to a grove of these\emdash each separate frond whispering of refreshment and rest in Jesus!\par \par It has been thought by some, that this section of the Apostle's inspired letter was specially designed for the encouragement and consolation of the Christians who were then suffering under the inhuman persecution of the Emperor Nero. We can imagine, when these martyr-spirits were about to be cast to the lions, or when, covered with tar and pitch, they were led forth to the gardens of the Quirinal to have the torch applied to them in order to illuminate the city, how the solacing words of the Divine 'keepsake' would sustain their tortured frames, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (ver. 18). Nor would any word in all the Epistle be more comforting than our motto-verse\emdash "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him." It is placed, so to speak, in the center of the palm-grove\emdash in the center of this wonderful galaxy of Divine truth and consolation. It cheered the old Roman Christians under a great fight of afflictions. It has proved a balm-word of comfort to millions of wounded spirits ever since.\par \par The Apostle here makes the glorious assertion, that whatever befalls God's children, their joys, sorrows, comforts, crosses, losses, all are a part of a Divine plan and arrangement, whose issue and result is their good. There is nothing so incredible to unbelief as this. That bitter pang which tore up my hopes by the root! that unexpected poverty! that anguished sickbed! that crushing bereavement! how can I write 'good' upon these? How can this broken heart ever endorse such a statement as that of the sacred writer?\par \par Yes! but faith should do so; faith CAN do so. Paul would have uttered what no Roman Christian, or any other Christian, would have credited, had he said 'we see.' But observe, his language is the utterance of believing trust\emdash "the confidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). He says, "we know." Behind that dark cloud he speaks with assured conviction of a shining face. At that loom which the world calls 'fate,' with these tangled, confused, mazy threads, he could tell of a Divine Designer who holds the shuttle in His hand, and who understands (what the spectator often does not understand) that all is for good. He was himself a living testimony to the truth of his assertion. His bonds and imprisonment; how seemingly inappropriate! What a blow to the Church! How fatal to the progress of the truth! Can Paul's Lord be really supervising and controlling all? So may have reasoned some unfaithful hearts at the very time when in his dungeon he was writing this clause in one of his letters\emdash "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel" (Phil. 1:12).\par \par Are there not many who can tell the same? I believe few can fail to look back on some dark passages in their history\emdash dark at the time\emdash full of mystery\emdash that led even to gloomy and unworthy thoughts regarding God\emdash but who can see them now to be bright with mercy\emdash some wise reason for mysterious dealings come to light, which at the moment was indiscernible. And if such be, with any, a present experience\emdash the cloud, without apparently even the 'si lver lining'\emdash be it theirs to trust. 'The good' will yet be unfolded. Yes! take that short comforting parenthesis, and let it fling its ray of comfort against the gloom\emdash "Though now for a little while (IF NEED BE) you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." The rainbow will yet appear in the cloud. God will be His own Interpreter.\par \par Again. How wide is this assertion of the Apostle! He does not say, 'We know that some things,' or 'most things,' or 'joyous things.'! But "ALL things." From the minutest to the most momentous; from the humblest event in daily providence to the great crisis-hours in grace.\par \par And all things "WORK"\emdash they are working; not all things have worked, or shall work, but it is a present operation. At this very moment, when some voice may be saying, "Your judgments are a great mystery;" the angels above, who are watching the development of the great plan, are with folded wings exclaiming, "The Lord is righteous in all His wa"ys, and holy in all His works" (Ps. 145:17).\par \par And then all things "WORK TOGETHER." It is a beautiful blending. Many different colors, in themselves raw and unsightly, are required in order to weave the harmonious pattern. Many separate tones and notes of music, even discords and dissonances, are required to make up the harmonious anthem. Many separate wheels and joints are required to make the piece of machinery. Take a thread separately, or a note separately, or a wheel or a tooth of a #wheel separately, and there may be no discernible beauty or use. But complete the web, combine the notes, put together the separate parts of steel and iron, and you see how perfect and symmetrical is the result.\par \par Here is the lesson for faith\emdash "What I do," says God, "you know not now, but you shall know hereafter." We must, meanwhile, take the bitter with the sweet. The Great Physician knows that all the ingredients in His dealings are for our good. HE mixes them. The cup He gives u$s to drink; and "shall we not drink it?" God is said to make His chariot\emdash What? Is it the sunshine? Is it the clusters of gleaming stars or radiant planets? No, it is the CLOUDS. But that cloudy chariot has an axle of love. And though clouds and darkness are round about His throne, mercy and truth go continually before His face. Beautifully says our countryman, the distinguished missionary and traveler, Livingstone: "We who see such small segments of the mighty cycles of God's providence, often imag%ine some to be failures, which He does not. If we could see a larger arc of the great providential cycle, we might sometimes rejoice when we weep. But God gives no account of any of His matters. We must just trust to His wisdom."\par \par Let us be assured of this, He has our best interests at heart. He has what is here called our 'GOOD' in view. It may not be, it will not be, the world's definition of good\emdash riches, honors, glory, worldly prosperity. But it will be better. It is our soul's& good, ripening the immortal part of us for glory. He may cause His north wind and His south wind to blow: we may see nothing but the hurricane bending the palm branches and ruffling the tender flowers; but what is the result? "The spices flow out," the fragrance of the Christian graces are wafted around, and the Beloved comes into His garden. "Glory to God for ALL!" were Chrysostom's last words.\par \par "What seems so dark to thy dim sight\par May be a shadow, seen aright,\par ' Making some brightness doubly bright.\par \par "The flash that struck thy tree\emdash no more\par To shelter thee\emdash lets heaven's blue floor\par Shine where it never shone before.\par \par "The cry wrung from thy spirit's pain\par May echo on some far-off plain,\par And guide a wanderer home again."\par \par Oh, if not now, at least in the light of eternity, looking down from the everlasting hills on the long vista of the earthly val(ley, we shall be able joyfully to attest, "He has done all things well." "Men see not yet the bright light in the clouds," "But it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light!" We may have to wait until we obtain entrance within the Gates; but then, at least, the sentiment will be subscribed\emdash rather will the lips be attuned for the everlasting song\emdash "We have known and believed the love that God has to us!"\par \par "Still we study, always failing!\par God can read it, we must wait;\par Wait, until He teach the mystery,\par Then the wisdom-woven history\par Faith shall read and love translate.\par \par "Leaflets now unpaged and scattered\par Time's great library receives;\par When eternity shall bind them,\par Golden volumes we shall find them,\par God's light falling on the leaves."\par \par "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } //ui01. Divine Immutability{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 DIVINE IMMUTABILITY\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Lord CCqM%02. All for Good{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 ALL FOR GOOD\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" Romans 8:28.\par,help those who are being tempted." Hebrews 2:18\par \par There can be no more gracious whisper from the leaves of the Heavenly Palm than this. What a magnitude of comfort to every sorrowing one, the simple declaration, "He Himself suffered when He was tempted!" Jesus the Incarnate God, "the Living Kinsman" (Job 19:25), had a mysterious identity of experience with His suffering, and with His tempted people; so that nothing can happen to the members but what has happened to the Head. They can feel- that no sorrow shades their souls but the same darkened His. "As He is," so are they "in this world" (1 John 4:17). He Himself\emdash the thorn-crowned King\emdash knows every thorn which pierces them, every pang of spirit and pang of body. The loss of beloved friends, the treachery of false ones, temptation to distrust God's providence, to pervert and misapply His Word, to question the wisdom and reason of His dealings, the forecastings of a dark and troubled future; yes, the saddest and most intolerabl.e woe that can crush and overbear the soul\emdash the sense of Divine desertion\emdash the withdrawal of the countenance of His Heavenly Father. Oh, the unutterable solace in the darkest hour of earthly suffering, to look up to the Brother in our nature\emdash the "prevailing Prince" who has "power with God," and to say, "He Himself suffered when He was tempted!"\par \par When we first contemplate this amazing theme, the identity of experience seems to be partial and incomplete. Jesus, we are le/d to say, was never 'tempted' as we have been. Temptations might assail, but they could never overcome His sinless, spotless, uncontaminated humanity. He never could know, therefore, the sorest part of these our struggles, when through its own weakness the soul has at last to succumb to the hurricane, and is haunted with the terrors of remorse!\par \par Yes! but let us remember it was the very fact of the Infinite purity of the tempted One which imparted, in His case, the saddest element to temp0tation. How inconceivable the recoil of the refined and exquisite sensibilities of His holy nature from the presence of sin. And, with these unchanged human sensibilities in His glorified state, how deeply must He still sympathize with the case of His assaulted people! How tenderly must He feel for every wound of His soldiers, seeing that He, the Captain of their salvation, was Himself "made perfect through sufferings."\par \par Afflicted believer! rejoice that sorrow and suffering have (if the 1expression dare be used) assimilated Christ with you, and you with Christ, in this your trial-hour. With what a divine significance, augmented and intensified by subsequent experience, can He say, "I know your sorrows." If you are bleeding under some peculiarly heavy infliction of the rod, ready to say in the bitterness of your grief, "No one knows, no one can gauge the depth of my anguish," THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS can\emdash He does! "He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust." With reverence we sa2y it, God\emdash the Omnipotent, Omniscient God\emdash cannot, with all infinitude of His nature, sympathize. He can compassionate; but He cannot sympathize in the way of feeling with us. Sympathy requires, as its two conditions, identity of nature and identity of experience. "We have such an High Priest;" One who is said to be (not touched with our infirmities), but "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."\par \par Our beautiful motto-verse gives more comfort still. The words affirm not m3erely that Christ has identity of experience\emdash a passive sympathy with His tried people\emdash He is also the helper of the tempted, "He is able to support those who are tempted."\par \par If He is summoning any of us to difficult and perplexing duty, or exacting from us some heavy sacrifice, or even apparently placing us in the way of peril and temptation, He will not allow the burden to crush, or the temptation to overcome, or the fiery trial to consume. He will keep us in the crucible as4 long, but no longer than He sees to be absolutely needful to test our faith and purify Christian graces. All that concerns us and ours is in His hands.\par \par Oh, as we see the Angels of Tribulation with their sevenfold vials issuing forth from the gate of heaven (Rev. 15:7)\emdash how blessed to know that they are marshaled, commissioned by the great Lord of Angels, the once suffering but now exalted Redeemer! In Zechariah's vision (1:8) of "the man on the red horse"\emdash behind Him were a5ngels and providences\emdash the "black and speckled white horses." But He is between them, ordering, regulating, appointing, all that befalls His people, trusting their persons and fortunes not even to an angel's care, without His own guidance, sanction, and direction.\par \par And when the last hour arrives (which, however varied be our other experiences, we must all encounter), is it not here that His sympathy\emdash the sympathy of fellow-feeling\emdash is most of all valued? He can endorse 6even this closing experience with the words, "I know it." To the living Christian in his season of affliction, He can say, "I am He who lives." But to the dying Christian He can add, "I am He who was dead." "I know well, through the memories of My cross and passion, the conflict of that final struggle-hour! I know, what it is, O Believer, to die! And because I know this, I can make Palms of comfort to spring up and overshadow you on the brink of Jordan as well as in the wilderness! Fear not to pass what I7 have passed! Feel amid these buffeting billows that they have swept over Me. And with the thought of Me as your Precursor, and of My deathless exalted sympathy, sing, as you plunge into the stream, "Behold, the Ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth passes over before me into Jordan!" (Joshua 3:11).\par \par "As often, with worn and weary feet,\par We tread earth's rugged valley o'er,\par The thought, how comforting and sweet!\par Christ walked this toilsome path before!\par Our needs and weaknesses He knows,\par From life's first dawning to its close.\par \par "Just such as I, this earth He trod,\par With every human ill but sin;\par And though indeed the very God,\par As I am now, so He has been.\par My God, my Savior, look on me\par With pity, love, and sympathy!"\par \par "Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart."\par \par \par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } qE03. The Sympathy of Jesus{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to +: \par This is a sheltering verse to those who, in a figurative sense, are exposed to the swoop of the hot desert wind. Under one of God's own Palms we can sit and calmly meditate on the blessed promise, here given under expressive imagery, that He will never allow our trials or His discipline to go too far!\par \par "Man is born to trouble." Sorrow is the common heritage of a suffering world. And not only are the "rough wind" and the "east wind" ever and anon racing by, but He does not ;conceal that it is He who sends them. It is specially spoken of and designated here as "His rough wind." In the blighting of Jonah's gourd, we are told "The Lord prepared a vehement east wind:" and in the bold and sublime language of the Psalmist, He is similarly represented as "walking on the wings of the wind." So too in moral hurricanes. "Who knows not in all these things that the hand of the Lord has wrought this?"\par \par But (and this is the more special truth which claims our attention),< if that east wind blows, He will not allow it to sweep too vehemently; and when it receives its mission from Him, He will not allow "the rough wind" to be let loose at the same time from its chambers. He will moderate adversity! "He knows our frame." According to the common proverb, "He will temper the wind to the shorn lamb." He did not make Israel feel at one and the same time lack of bread and lack of water. The manna had been provided when they were suffering from the deprivation of the other pricele=ss boon, water. Look at the first clause of the somewhat enigmatical words which form our motto-verse\emdash "In measure you will contend with it." "In measure!" Or, as in another place, "I will correct you in measure" (Jer. 30:11).\par \par God has no capricious dealings! All will be scrupulously weighed out in the balances of His wisdom and faithfulness. He CONSIDERS the soul in adversity (Ps. 31:7). "When He winnows," as Matthew Henry says, "He sends a gentle gale to blow away the chaff, not >to blow away the corn." He will cause us to sing of mercy in the midst of judgment, and fulfill His own promise, "As your day is, so shall your strength be."\par \par Who has not sat under this gracious Elim palm and experienced the truth of the assertion? Is it the hour of bereavement?\emdash the time when, above all others, the east wind may be said to blow, nipping early spring buds, or blighting tender blossoms, or strewing autumn leaves. Who has not then to tell of amazing support?\emdash s?ome sweet solaces which have tended to moderate the sweep of the hurricane, break the cruel blow, and disarm trial of much of its severity. Glimpses appear in the midst of the darkness\emdash blue vistas are seen opening in the storm-wreathed sky!\par \par Is it the hour of sickness and protracted suffering? There truly is the east wind\emdash wearing torture, days of pain, nights of weariness, every nerve a chord of anguish. But here, too, it might have been worse. That sufferer (to take one ou@t of many suppositions,) might have been on a foreign shore\emdash away from friends and home and kindly sympathies, dying in unutterable loneliness, with no gentle hand to smooth his pillow. But when, in the midst of cruel bodily pangs, he looks around on faces beaming with kindness\emdash each member of the loving circle animated with one thought and desire\emdash to alleviate pain by offices of tender affection\emdash you can almost picture that ashen and wasted prisoner clasping his hands and mutterinAg in silent gratitude, 'My case might have been far sadder. Thanks be to that gracious and considerate God who restrains His rough wind in the day of His east wind!'\par \par We believe all can own and trace these tender moderations\emdash the prevention of the two winds from blowing simultaneously\emdash God not allowing the bruised reed to be broken, just because it was bruised\emdash laying on the trial with one hand, comforting and binding up with the other\emdash sending whatever harsh windB is needed to bring to the desired haven, not one blast permitted but what is required. "He will not allow us to be tempted above that we are able to bear, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13).\par \par "Blessed be God," says Chrysostom, "who permitted the tempest; and blessed be God, who has dispersed it and made it a calm." It was not from the lips of one of His own true people, but from a self-outcast and self-exile, that theC utterance proceeded, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." His loved and trusting children recognize in Him the Refiner of silver, who sits by the furnace regulating and tempering the fury of the flames. His fires are for purification, not for destruction.\par \par And at death\emdash seated for the last time under the Elim palms, when the tent is about to be struck for pursuing a more mysterious journey\emdash death, the hour that thousands on thousands have shrunk from and dreaded\emdasDh yes, the hour which none can contemplate without profound emotion; yet when it does come\emdash when the house of the earthly tabernacle rocks and trembles under the blasts of that inexorable 'east wind,'\emdash the 'rough wind' is restrained. The believer feels the rush of the final hurricane, but he rises above it with the glorious compensating supports and comforts then granted. If his eye is dimming to human smiles, there is a Mightier Presence at his side, which the gathering darkness only renders Emore visible. When those around him can think, perhaps, only of the terribleness of grappling with the tempest which in a few moments is to reduce all to a heap of ruins; with his last breath he rises above the storm, saying in trembling accents\emdash 'Hush your fears! I am walking through the dark valley, but HE is giving me dying grace for a dying hour.' "He restrains His rough wind in the day of the east wind!"\par \par We may appropriately conclude with the words of a sacred singer\emdash\pFar "Though the clouds are seen ascending,\par Soon the heavens are overcast,\par And the weary heart is bending\par 'Neath affliction's stormy blast.\par \par "Yet the Lord, on high presiding,\par Rules the storm with powerful hand;\par He the shower of grace is guiding\par To the dry and barren land.\par \par "See, at length the clouds are breaking\emdash\par Tempests have not passed in vain;\par For the soul, revived, awaking,\par Bears its fruits and flowers again.\par \par "Love divine has seen and counted\par Every tear it caused to fall;\par And the storm which love appointed\par Was its choicest gift of all."\par \par "You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in distress, a shelter in the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } %ay04. The Wind Tempered{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE WIND TEMPERED\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He stays (restrains) His rough wind in the day of the east wind." Isaiah 27:8\par 9I GOD\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14\par \par If the fronds of the palm, by a beautiful Eastern Christian myth to which we have already referred, were said to whisper the name of Jesus, it may surely be averred of the true Heavenly Palm, that the leaves were heard continually to whisper Ja name, well-nigh, if not altogether, new to God's spiritual Israel\emdash that of FATHER.\par \par And yet, may it not be truthfully asserted regarding many who live under the better dispensation, that there are often distorted views entertained of the nature of God, little in harmony with this Divine Fatherhood? Are there not many who think of Him only as a mighty Architect who has piled infinite space with His handiwork\emdash omnipotent, omniscient\emdash awe-inspiring in His holiness, unrelKenting in His justice, implacable in His vengeance. They have fully understood the partial revelation of Him as the punisher of sin, but they have failed to gaze on the glorious complement of His character, as the Gracious and Merciful, the Father and the Friend.\par \par This new paternal relation of Jehovah to His people is manifested in the Person of Him who came to our world the Incarnation of the Divine Spirituality\emdash the unveiler of the essential perfections of Deity. "In Him dwells aLll the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He is Himself the articulate answer to the query of His impatient disciple, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." "He that has seen Me," was the reply, "has seen the Father." As there had been a patriarchal, a legal, an angelic, a prophetic dispensation\emdash so now Christ came as the founder and exponent of a filial one. To take the significant opening words of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews (not as they are rendered in our versionM, but as they have been rendered in the full force of the original), "God, who at sundry times, and in diverse manners, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by a Son."\par \par Most delightful surely and comforting is this theme of contemplation\emdash Christ the Revealer of the Father! "The Word," says the beloved Apostle, "was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (and then follows our motto-verse), "We have seen His glory, the glory of the One andN Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Well may He be designated by this appropriate term. For just as 'words' are the outward audible expression of silent invisible thought, so Christ is the expression of the Invisible God, the utterance and embodiment, in human shape, of Him who revealed Himself in the dimness of an earlier dispensation as "Secret," "Wonderful," "Incomprehensible."\par \par "From henceforth," says Christ, pointing to Himself, "you know the Father, and have Oseen Him" (John 14:7). How He dwells upon the very name! How He delights to interweave it with parable and miracle, and intercessory prayer, and last agony, and first Resurrection-words! Well He knew the tender associations the image would call forth among the millions who pondered the story of His incarnation. He would have the sacred earthly relation transfused into the Heavenly. As He puts His people in the clefts of the Rock, and makes all the glory of His goodness to pass by, the proclamation is madeP, "My Father and your Father, My God and your God!"\par \par The opening invocation of His own Universal Prayer is "Our Father." He would have them to know and to feel, even in the house of their earthly tabernacle, that they are pacing a Father's halls\emdash a dwelling frescoed and decorated with a Father's love! In seeing Him they see the Father (John 14:7). In asking Him for some needed blessing, they ask the Father. The names are interchangeable. "The Father will give you whatever you ask iQn My name."\par \par Oh, how near does all this bring the great God Almighty! How it represents Him, as regarding with especial and individual love, each member of His redeemed family; caring for their needs, sympathizing with their sorrows, bearing with their infirmities; loving them\emdash we had almost said doting on them as a Father. How different from the heathen conception of their deities, living in the isolation of a voluptuous calm; far removed from the concerns of earth, devoid of all Rpersonal interest in those from whom, nevertheless, they demanded cruel offerings, and over whom they were often represented as reveling in bloodthirsty vengefulness.\par \par "God in Christ," "God with us"\emdash "with us," as truly as Jesus was with the anxious Nicodemus, or with the sisters of Bethany, or with the widow at Nain, or with the disciples tossed on their midnight sea, or with the downcast wayfarers on the road to Emmaus. "God with us"\emdash brought down from the regions of infiniSte abstraction; challenging our perfect confidence and trustful love. Even in our Gethsemanes of deepest sorrow, we can take the cup as He did in His midnight watch, and say, "O my Father! If it be possible!"\par \par Realizing this glorious truth, we can breathe the timeworn litany, with the consciousness of a new meaning and trust\emdash "O God, the Father of heaven, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!" O my gracious Father! I will measure You no longer by any low human standard. Let the geTntleness and kindness of Him who walked this earth as Your Image, teach me evermore to repose unhesitatingly in the everlasting kindness of Your Infinite heart. Under this glorious shelter\emdash the shade of this Palm of Elim, "I will lay me down in peace and sleep;" for God is my Father; and GOD is Love! Yes, and even though that love should at times be veiled, and the leaves of the earthly palm tree be saturated with "the dews of the night," I shall strive to remember the new sacred Covenant relation, and with a child's unwavering trust breathe the words the Divine Revealer Himself has taught me\emdash "Yes, FATHER, for this was Your good pleasure!"\par \par "O Father! not my will, but Thine be done,"\par So spoke the Son.\par Be this our charm, mellowing earth's ruder noise\par Of griefs and joys;\par That we may cling forever to Thy breast\par In perfect rest."\par \par "I delight to sit in His shade."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } J8J;i06. Transcendently Able{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 TRANSCENDENTLY ABLE\par \par V q905. The Fatherhood of God{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE FATHERHOOD OFHW "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." Ephesians 3:20\par \par Could the Israelites at Elim fail to recall their immediately preceding wilderness experience? It was the depressing and discouraging one at Marah, where their longings and hopes were mocked with the bitter pool. But the God of the cloudy pillar made it the occasion of manifesting HXis wondrous power and boundless resources, showing that "with Him all things are possible." A tree cast into the acrid waters transformed them into sweetness.\par \par In all the difficulties, perplexities, and emergencies of the spiritual life, we may well rest with the consolatory question, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"\emdash rejoicing in Him, who, as the true Healing Tree, changes\emdash often reverses\emdash the bitterest experiences. His hand is "never shortened that it cannot save.Y"\par \par Wondrous and beautiful is the expression of the Great Apostle which heads this meditation\emdash that verse with its grand repetition of words\emdash its significant and touching repetition. See how the gradation rises. See how he mounts, as by a golden ladder, to his magnificent climax! Christ is "able to do," Christ is "able to do abundantly," Christ is "able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think."\emdash And then, as if he had not unburdened his soul of the full truth, thZe "goodly matter" his heart was composing, he adds another stone to the pyramid\emdash "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."\par \par Let us rejoice in such a complete Savior as this, sufficient for all temporal and all spiritual necessities: who can bind up the broken body; who can bind up the broken soul; ease the aching head, and quiet the aching spirit; who can reclaim the wandering and save the lost. What earthly friend can help us so? Who else, but He, can fill with His pr[esence and love the gap in the sorrow-stricken heart? But He can; He does! Lover and friend may be put far from us; what we once most cherished and doted on may be stricken with inevitable change; the roof where childhood reveled may be a heap of ruins, or inhabited by strangers; the parents' arms that clasped us as we lisped our infant prayer, or which smoothed our pillows in sickness, may be decaying in the dust; voices that cheered us on the pilgrimage may be hushed in appalling silence.\par \par \ But here is One who is Father, Brother, Physician, Friend, Home, ALL! His power intervenes and upholds where other resources fail or reveal their inadequacy. No storm can overturn that Home of unblighted love! No envious whisper can estrange that true Friend! No King of terrors can paralyze the Everlasting arms! "The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my salvation exalted." Oh! blessed it is for the broken and downcast in the hour of crushing disappointment, or baffled plans, or d]efeated hope, or blighted affection: or, more than all, in that moment of greatest agony, when returning from the grave to the silent house of bereavement\emdash entering the lessened fold, and marking the empty place in the flock\emdash blessed it is to feel the Abiding Friend filling the empty place and the aching heart; challenging our trust and reliance in His ability thus to do for us "exceeding abundantly." Life's Elim-palms may be gone, but the Divine Pillar-cloud remains! "I will never leave you; ^I will (lit.) never, never, never forsake you."\par \par He gives too, not only above what we ask, but above what we think. Whatever our thoughts may be, His thoughts of love transcend them. Able to do for us, and willing to do for us, in a measure exceeding our highest conceptions. What a treasure-house of thoughts is every human bosom! What a strange history it would be (of hope, joy, fear, sadness, and brightness), were each heart unfolded! But it is, indeed, a precious assurance to every chi_ld of God, that for every thought of his (be they anxious, disquieting, misgiving), there is a counterpart comfort. For the multitude of thoughts there is a corresponding multitude of consolations! "Many, O Lord my God, are Your thoughts which are toward us. The things You planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." No, truly, God's comforting thoughts outweigh and outbalance all our experiences of sadness and sorrow. "For a small moment `I have forsaken you, but with great mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you!"\par \par "Great our need, but greater far\par Is our Father's loving power;\par He upholds each mighty star,\par He unfolds each tiny flower.\par Ask not how, but trust Him still;\par Ask not when, but wait His will;\par Simply on His word rely,\par God shall all your need supply.\par \par "Can we count redemption's treasure,\par Scan the glory of God's love?\par Such shall be the boundless measure\par Of His blessing from above.\par All we ask, or think, and more,\par He will give in bounteous store;\par No good thing will He deny,\par God shall all your need supply."\par \par "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } b "He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle." Psalm 107:7\par \par This is a stray note from one of the grandest Psalms, whether of the Exodus or the Captivity. Its refrain, four times repeated, is the Lord's 'goodness' and His 'wonderful works'\emdash and that, too, despite of all the 'solitariness' and 'hunger' and 'thirst,' the 'distress and labor,' the 'darkness and shadow of death,' which checkered the experience of the pilgrim tribes. The psalm ends, as does many a lcife-psalm still, with the declaration, "Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord" (v. 43).\par \par Observe, however, it was a retrospective song. In its primary application to the march through the Sinai wilderness it could have been sung but falteringly, when the God of the pillar-cloud often seemed to fail "satisfying the longing soul, and filling the hungry soul with goodness" (v. 9). Is it not often so with us? The pillar, alike of cloud and of fired, is there; but we cannot discern, or we hesitate to follow it. We are prone to harbor guilty conjectures as to the uprightness and wisdom and faithfulness of the divine procedure and plan. Confronted with baffling providences, the reason of which perplexes our best ingenuity, we are tempted at times to ask, 'Why these unanswered\emdash no, defeated prayers?\emdash the urgent plea not only left unheard, but responded to in the way we most dreaded and deprecated\emdash the circuitous route "by the way of tehe wilderness," instead of the short and apparently safe one direct to Canaan?'\par \par To take an illustration suitable to the words of our motto-verse, many a mother pleads in earnest supplication that God may overrule events and arrangements so as to prevent her son going to some place\emdash some "city of habitation" that might too surely prove a position of peril or temptation. How is her prayer at times answered? Her child is sent to the distant, dreaded city, instead of being continued ufnder the fostering influences and salutary restraints of home. In silence and seclusion, and under the bitter consciousness of frustrated wishes, she is driven to give way to the plaintive soliloquy, "Surely my way is hidden from the Lord, and my cause is disregarded by my God." So thought and reasoned an illustrious name in the roll of Christian parents\emdash Monica, the devout mother of Augustine. He tells us in his "Confessions" that she had besought earnestly\emdash pleaded night and day\emdash that gthe God she served would not permit her son to fulfill his own wish and intention of leaving his home and going to Italy. She too truly feared the vices and contaminations of the Roman capital. Yet her prayers were not heard. To Italy he went, and in Rome he sojourned; and the yearning heart he had left behind could only picture, in her hours of lone agony, the moral shipwreck of all that was dearest to her. But the journey, and the resort so dreaded, became to Augustine his spiritual birthplace. That cithy of moral darkness was made to him a Bethel for the visions of God, where he erected his life altar, and vowed his eternal vow.\par \par There is surely marvelous blessedness in the thought that the bounds of our habitation are divinely appointed! Our lots in life\emdash our occupations, our positions, our dwellings\emdash what the fatalist calls our destinies\emdash what heathen mythology attributed to the Fates\emdash all this is marked out by Him who "sees the end from the beginning." "The liot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." It is He who takes us to the distant dwelling\emdash it may be the distant land. It is He who takes us from solitude\emdash from grove and woodland and murmuring brook\emdash from the green fields of childhood and youth, and brings us among the swirlings and currents of some busy market. It is He who takes us to our sweet shelters of prosperity\emdash our Elim-groves with their sparkling springs of joy. It is He who, when He sees fit, condjucts us into the land of drought and among the tents of Kedar. He gives the gourd\emdash He sends the worm.\par \par Oh, it is our comfort to know, in this mysterious, complicated, varied, changeful life of ours, that there is One above and over all, evolving good out of evil and order out of confusion. He sent Onesimus, the runaway slave, to Rome\emdash and Lydia, the seller of purple, to Philippi\emdash and Zaccheus, the tax-gatherer, to Jericho\emdash and Paul, the bigot Pharisee, to Damascusk. But these, and other notable examples, were brought there for their souls' everlasting welfare; and the new song was put into their lips\emdash "Praise be to the Lord, for He showed His wonderful love to us when we were in a besieged city."\par \par How many still can tell the same? Their choice of residence seemed to them something purely arbitrary and capricious. A mere trifle seemed, as they thought, to have determined or altered their whole future. But the finger of God had, unknown, been lpointing. The inarticulate voice of God had been calling them forth "by the right way, that they might go to the city of habitation." Human,\emdash it may be base and unworthy purposes\emdash are often thwarted and counteracted by the higher purposes of the Supreme Disposer. How many can say, in the words of one (Joseph,) who, more than most, could, through a strange series of baffling providences, vindicate the ways of the Almighty to men\emdash "So then," said Egypt's princely ruler, as he confronted thme fratricides who stood embarrassed in his presence\emdash "so then, it was not you that brought me here, but God!"\par \par His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways. "A man devises his (own) ways; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." O that we could believe that at times the denial of our prayers may be the best, the kindest, the fatherly answer to them; that when crossed and defeated in our ambitions after what we think is for our good, we are tempted to prnonounce with the patriarch the hasty verdict, "All these things are against me!" we could trust the ALL-LOVING FATHER to guide our steps, not according to our finite and inaccurate wisdom, but according to the counsel of His sovereign but gracious will.\par \par Many of His own children have had to confront what was bitter and painful\emdash leaving the quiet nooks and valleys of life for the storm-clouds of the tempestuous mountain. Let them trust their sure, unfaltering Guide, that He will briong light out of darkness, and show that, often in an apparently adverse lot, there are undreamt-of blessings in reversals either for themselves or for others. "To think," says Lady Powerscourt, "that led by Him we are safe from everything. No evil shall ever touch us\emdash evil at the end, or evil on the way\emdash all is paved with love." There ought, indeed, to be no such thing as 'misfortune' or 'accident' in the vocabulary of the children of God. Theirs may not be the bright way, the pleasant way, thpe way of their own choosing. It may be the very reverse. It may be thorny and sunless and rugged. But it is His appointing, and therefore must be "the right way."\par \par Meanwhile be it ours to sit in calmness and confidence under the shadow of our wilderness palm, feeling assured that the day is coming when, with ingathered Israel, we shall be able\emdash no longer in the desert encampment, but within 'the gates of the city'\emdash to take up the noble strain of which our motto-verse forms a qpart\emdash\par \par "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,\par For His mercy endures forever.\par Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,\par Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.\par And gathered them out of the lands,\par From the east, and from the west,\par from the north, and from the south.\par They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way;\par They found no city to dwell in.\par Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.\par Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble,\par And He delivered them out of their distresses.\par And He led them forth by the right way,\par That they might go to a city of habitation.\par O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness,\par And for His wonderful works to the children of men!"\par \par "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } QQcU07. Right Guidance{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 RIGHT GUIDANCE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par at "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "The Lord needs them."\emdash Matthew 21:3\par \par Greatly would an Israelite, in the "Desert of the Wandering," have been startled and saddened, if, as he sat reclining under the shadow of one of these Elim palms, he had seen an axe suddenly placed at its root; and that which hour after hour had been gladdening him with its screening boughs, laid prostrate with the ground.\par \par u Similar, often, is it in the case of the bereaved; when loved ones, under whose shadow they have rested, have suddenly succumbed to the stroke of the Great Destroyer! In a moment, the joy and zest of life seems gone. Today, it was the gentle rustling of the green leaf overhead. Tomorrow, the place that once knew it knows it no more. "The shadow from the heat" is exchanged for the pitiless rays of the scorching sun and a dreary outlook of drifting sands. "How is the staff broken, and the beautiful vrod!"\par \par "What do you mean by this waste?" are the words which in such seasons and experiences ring their dreary echo in the ear. Why that life of consecrated activity so suddenly paralyzed? Why this Isaac laid on the altar of sacrifice? Why is yonder Lazarus laid low in the prime of youthful manhood? Why that loving and useful existence lost prematurely to the Church and the world? The seared and withered leaves of autumn drop in their season to the ground; but why this withering of the ewarly blossom\emdash this abnormal falling of the green and tender foliage? The blighted thorns of the wilderness may be swept away, but why make havoc among that Elim palm-grove?\par \par One reply we have placed at the head of this meditation. They are words once put by the Divine Savior Himself into the lips of His disciples. We need not stop to note upon what occasion. But like many of the gracious utterances which proceeded from His lips, they were intended and designed to be a quieting solaxce for His people in all time of their tribulation\emdash "The Lord needs them." There are flowers needed to waft their perfume and swing their censers in the gardens of immortality. There are "ministering ones" needed in the Sanctuary above. Yes, if there are no battles there to fight\emdash no armor to prove\emdash no harps "on the willows" forbidding to sing the Lord's song\emdash there are noble positions of active service in which the unresting energies of the glorified are engaged.\par \par y Christian mourners! who, it may be, are now lamenting over your withered flowers\emdash the empty places at your table\emdash the music of cherished voices hushed for the forever of time. They formed a part of yourselves; sharers of your thoughts and toils, identified with all your plans in life: soothers and strengtheners in your anxious hours\emdash ministering angels at your beds of pain. Their presence had become apparently indispensable: and now their absence or withdrawal is like the blotting out zof the sun from his place in the firmament.\par \par Too truly you may feel, day by day, in the depths of your lonely, aching hearts, how you could ill afford\emdash how much you had "need" of 'the loved and lost.' But take this as the explanation\emdash let all murmurs be stilled by the higher claim and Claimant. It is a beautiful thought in one of the finest of the sonnets of Dante, as he wails the absence of Beatrice, that "the angels had asked God for her." We do not have to imagine the inte{rvention of angels\emdash "The Lord has need" of the crowned and glorified. At such deathbeds we are too apt, like Jacob with the mysterious Wrestler at Jabbok, in the agony of nature's fond struggle, to say, "We will not let you go!"\emdash But hark! as the wing is pluming for its immortal flight, let the gentle whisper come to us, rebuking all tears, "Let me go, for the Day breaks!"\emdash let me go, for "the Lord needs me!"\emdash "If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto my Father!|" Glorify God by meek submission to His holy will.\par \par "You have done well to kneel and say,\par 'Since He who gave can take away,\par And bid me suffer, I obey.'"\par \par Rejoicing, that the loss you mourn is not that of a treasure hidden in the earth: no, rather, a golden coin stamped in the mint of heaven is withdrawn from its uses in the Church below, for the higher and holier purposes of the Great Master in the Church of the glorified. It is the infant life} of the present, passed, it may be at a bound, to its full development in the manhood of heaven. "The Master has come, and calls for you" (John 11:28); and the word accompanying the call is this: "Friend, come up higher!" If it was from strength to strength and from grace to grace on earth, it is now from glory to glory!\par \par "Up above, the tree with leaf unfading,\par By the everlasting river's brink,\par And the sea of glass, beyond whose margin\par Never yet the~ sun was known to sink.\par \par "Up above, the host no man can number,\par In white robes, a palm in every hand,\par Each some work sublime forever working\par In the spacious tracts of that great land.\par \par "Up above, the thoughts that know not anguish,\par Tender care, sweet love for us below;\par Noble pity, free from anxious terror,\par Larger love, without a touch of woe.\par \par "Up above, a music that entwines\par With eternal threads of golden sound,\par The great poem of this strange existence,\par All whose wondrous meaning hath been found.\par \par "O the rest forever, and the rapture!\par O the hand that wipes the tears away!\par O the golden homes beyond the sunset,\par And the hope that watches o'er the clay!"\par \par "At the Lord's command they encamped, and at the Lord's command they set out."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 8m a 10. A Reigning Savior{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.22y a!09. The Gracious Word{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\Ii08. Higher Uses{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 HIGHER USES\par \par sf0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE GRACIOUS WORD\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them." Psalm 119:140\par \par This is the precious dew of the Spirit dripping from the branches of the heavenly Palm. As Jonathan, when faint and downcast and weary, found strength and refreshment in partaking of the honey dropping from the trees in the tangled thicket (1 Sam. 14:27); so can every true believer\emdash every true Jonathan ("the beloved of God,") tell as their experience, "Your Word is sweet unto my taste." "Sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb" (Ps.19:10).\par \par In the midst of our duties and difficulties, our cares and perplexities, how many a pang and tear would it save us, if we went with chastened and inquiring hearts to these sacred pages! How many trials would be eased\emdash how many sorrows soothed, and temptations avoided, if we forestalled every step in existence with the inquiry, "What says the scripture?"\emdash if we preceded every desert encampment with the inquiry what the will of the Lord is? How few, it is to be feared, make (as they should do), the Bible a final court of appeal\emdash a judge for the settlement of all the vexed questions in the consistory of the soul; allaying all misgivings with the resolve, "I will hear what God the Lord will speak." May we be preserved from that saddest phase of modern infidelity, the Sacred Volume classed among the worn and barren books of the past, regarded only with that misnamed "veneration" which the collector bestows on some piece of mediaeval armor\emdash a relic and memorial of bygone days, but unsuitable for an age which has superseded the cruder views of these old "chroniclers," and inaugurated a new era of religious development. Vain dreamers! "Forever, O God, Your Word is settled in heaven." "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." "The Word of the Lord is tried."\par \par What a crowd of witnesses could be summoned to give personal evidence of its preciousness and value. How many aching heads would raise themselves from their pillows and tell of their obligations to its soothing messages of love and power! How many deathbeds could send their occupants with pallid lips to tell of the staff which upheld them in the dark valley. How many, in the hour of bereavement, could lay their finger on the promise that first dried the tear from their eye and brought back the smile to their saddened countenances! How many voyagers in life's tempestuous ocean, now landed on the heavenly shore, would be ready to hush their golden harps, and descend to earth with the testimony that this was the blessed beacon-light which enabled them to avoid the treacherous reefs\emdash perilous rocks of temptation\emdash and guided them to their desired haven!\par \par Reason, with your flickering torch, you have never yet guided to such sublime mysteries as these! Philosophy, you have never yet, as this Book has done, taught a man how to die! Science, you have penetrated the mysteries of nature, sunk your shafts into earth's recesses, unburied its stores, counted its strata, measured the height of its massive pillars down to the very pedestals of primeval granite; you have tracked the lightning, traced the path of the tornado, revealed the distant planet, foretold the coming of the comet and the return of the eclipse. But you have never been able to gauge the depths of the human soul, with its mighty cravings and yearnings, or to answer the question, "What must I do to be saved?"\par \par No; this antiquated Volume is still the "Book of books," the oracle of oracles, the beacon of beacons; the poor man's treasury, the sick man's health, the dying man's life. It has shallows for the child to walk in, depths for giant intellect to explore and adore! Philosophy, if she would admit it, is indebted here for the noblest of her maxims. Poetry, for the loftiest of her themes. Painting has gathered here her noblest inspiration. Music has ransacked these golden stores for the grandest of her strains. And if there be life in the Church of Christ\emdash if her ministers and missionaries are carrying the torch of salvation through the world, where is that torch lighted but at these same altar fires? When a philosophy, "falsely so called," shall become dominant, and seek, with its proud dogmas, to supersede this divine system; when the old Bible of Augustine and Luther, of Baxter and Bunyan, of Brainerd and Martyn, is clasped and closed\emdash the only code of morality worth speaking of will have perished from the earth. Dagon will have taken the place of God's ark; the world's funeral pile may be kindled.\par \par Let us value our Bibles, "dwelling," like Deborah, under these heavenly palm-trees. As they are the souvenirs of our earliest childhood, the gift of a mother's love, or the pledge of a father's affection, so let them be our fondest treasures\emdash the directory of daily life, the friend of prosperity, the solace in adversity, the soothing in suffering, the balm in bereavement; and in the prospect of our own departure let them be the keepsakes and heirlooms which we are most desirous to transmit to our children's children. As we sat under this Elim shade in life's earliest morning, let us be found under it at life's sunset hour; when, stirred by the breath of evening, the fronds whisper to the last, the name of Jesus!\par \par "We praise Thee for the radiance\par Which from the hallowed page,\par A lantern to our footsteps,\par Shines on from age to age.\par \par "It is the golden casket\par Where gems of truth are stored;\par The never-failing Treasure\par Of the Eternal Word.\par \par "It is the chart and compass\par That o'er life's surging sea,\par Mid mists and rocks and quicksands,\par Still guide, O Christ, to Thee.\par \par "Instruct Thy wandering pilgrims,\par By this their path to trace,\par Until, clouds and darkness ended,\par They see Thee face to face."\par \par "I wait on the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 10;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 A REIGNING SAVIOR\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns." Revelation 19:6\par \par No Palm in all the grove (specially for the woe-worn pilgrim) has a more gracious or inviting shadow than that whose leaves seem to whisper, "Your God reigns." To change the simile, it forms the foundation truth of all comfort. An old writer speaks of it as the first word spelled in the afflicted man's primer.\par \par Our motto-verse has an interest of its own, in connection with what precedes in the chapter of which it is a part. On the announcement of the destruction of the mystic Babylon in the immediate context, a voice emanates from the celestial throne, "Praise our God, all you His servants, and you who fear Him, both small and great;" and then is heard in response, as it were, "what sounded like a great multitude, and like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: 'Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.'"\par \par It is striking to note the contrast between the way in which the awful catastrophe, described in the previous chapter, is received on earth and in heaven. On earth there is heard nothing but "weeping and lamentation." The kings and the princes, the mighty men and the merchants, are depicted as robing themselves in sackcloth and casting dust upon their heads. In a bold figure of poetry, an ominous column of smoke is represented catching the eye of the mariners on the distant ocean, as they are speeding along in their vessels loaded with the produce and luxuries of the world. (v. 17)\emdash "Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off\'85and with weeping and mourning cry out: 'Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!'"\par \par Such is the case with an awestruck world; but how is it with the Church alike in heaven and upon earth? There the smoke of that tremendous inferno is the signal for a song of jubilee. No tongue is silent. It is taken up by small and great, redeemed and unredeemed; and the tide of triumph increases as it rolls. Every fresh view of this divine judgment affords matter for loftier exultation. At first, the rapt seer heard no more than "a roar of a great multitude in heaven." But the music of the celestial choirs is caught up by the dwellers in the lower sanctuary. It seems "like the voice of a great multitude." Louder still, it becomes "as the roar of rushing waters;" and then, with an ever augmenting volume, it is like "loud peals of thunder"\emdash "Hallelujah! for our Lord God Almighty reigns!"\par \par It is a typical representation of the unfolding of the wisdom and righteousness of all God's dispensations and purposes to His Church\emdash partly unfolded in this world, fully disclosed in the world to come. The song of His people, often raised on earth in feeble, trembling, faltering accents, will be an ever-deepening one, as the "why" and the "wherefore" of these dealings become gradually more manifest.\par \par It is hard and difficult often here, to recognize the divine love and wisdom, and to own the rectitude of the dark dispensation. But "what we know not now we shall know hereafter." In the great day of disclosures\emdash the cloudless, sinless, sorrowless morning of immortality\emdash the mysteries of Providence will be unraveled; every event will be seen reflected as in a glorious mirror; all the now veiled purposes will be fully revealed, perplexing dealings vindicated. "In Your light, O God, we shall see light." Each lip will then be brought to confess that this reigning Lord has been 'righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made.' Each fresh retrospect will cause the hearts of the Redeemed to bound with holier rapture, and their tongues to thrill with louder notes of exultation. The gradual revelation of God's earthly plan will afford new matter and new motive for praise. Not until the various component parts of the divine dealings are brought together\emdash not until we view them as a whole\emdash can we see their unity and admire their grandeur.\par \par The present life, in its conflicting relations, its discords and confusions, is the tuning of the musical instruments before the great hallelujah chorus\emdash the magnificent harmonies of Heaven. Then that chorus, like the song of adoration of the exulting multitudes in the seer's vision, will become a louder and yet louder ascription of praise, deepening until its streaming waves of sound become like the noise of mighty thunderings. And this verse at the head of our meditation will be the everlasting refrain!\par \par Nor can we omit to add further, that that Sovereign Ruler is the same "Lion of the tribe of Judah" into whose hands, in the beginning of the Apocalyptic visions, was put the sealed roll of Providence (Rev. 5:1-6). It is Christ, the exalted King and Head of His Church, His brows crowned with many crowns, who holds the reins of universal empire! We can claim Him as a Brother, we can love Him as a Friend, we can adore Him as a God! We repeat, that glorious Keystone which crowns the arch is hidden at times behind the clouds. We see it not! Often we lose the divine footsteps\emdash often we look with straining eye for one fringe of light in the darkened firmament. But He is there!\emdash "that same Jesus"\emdash the might of deity slumbering in His arm, the tenderness of humanity glowing at His heart. Jesus is "the Lord omnipotent," and He "reigns"! Jesus reigns!\par \par Then perish every desponding thought. Jesus reigns! Then, though heart and flesh faint and fail, He will be the strength of our heart, and our portion forever. Jesus reigns! He reigns to love, to pity, to plead, to sympathize, to bless; He reigns to sustain the needy, to comfort the brokenhearted, to reclaim the wandering, to save the lost; He reigns to justify, to sanctify, and finally to glorify; and He will live and reign over Zion triumphant as well as militant "through all generations!"\emdash the object of adoring praise and gratitude to His Church through all eternity\emdash their light, their life, their strength, their portion, their all in all! Oh, can we say, with lowly, joyful confidence, seated under the shelter of so glorious a palm\emdash "Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; the scepter of justice will be the scepter of Your kingdom?"\par \par "Hark! the song of jubilee,\par Loud as mighty thunder's roar,\par O'er the fullness of the sea\par When it breaks upon the shore.\par 'Hallelujah! for the Lord\par God omnipotent doth reign!\par Hallelujah! let the word\par Echo round the earth and main.\par \par "He shall reign from pole to pole\par With illimitable sway;\par He shall reign when, like a scroll,\par Yonder heavens have passed away.\par Then the end: beneath His rod\par Man's last enemy shall fall.\par Hallelujah! Christ in God,\par God in Christ, is all in all!"\par \par "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } is is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Psalm 23:3\par \par There is a world of comfort contained in the sublime simple words, "He leads me." It was the cloudy pillar of old which conducted the Hebrew host from encampment to encampment; which marked out for them their Elims and their Marahs. "That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord's command they encamped, and at the Lord's command they set out. They obeyed the Lord's order, in accordance with His command through Moses. Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, 'Rise up, O Lord! May Your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you.' Whenever it came to rest, he said, 'Return, O Lord, to the countless thousands of Israel.'"(Num. 9:16, 17, 23; also Num. 10:35, 36).\par \par The God of the pillar-cloud still directs the journeyings of His people. He still appoints the bounds of their habitation; and if His leadings do not be to the bitter pool, but often (most frequently) to some gracious palm-grove\emdash in the words of one of the saintliest spirits of the passing generation, in referring to the loveliness of his appointed earthly home, "Oh, for peace to feel that it is but a beautiful tent pitched in the wilderness; and by the exceeding mercy of my God in calling me from darkness to His marvelous light, I may add, pitched on the green margin of the well of living water." (Memorials of Dr. M'Leod Campbell, p. 60) Whether, however, bitter or sweet, joyful or sorrowful, how comforting the assurance that our lives are no accidental concurrence of events and circumstances; we are not like weeds thrown in the waters, to be tossed and whirled in the swirling pools of capricious accident, our future a self-appointed one.\par \par There is a Divine hand and purpose in all that befalls us. Every man's existence is a biography, written chapter by chapter, line by line, by God Himself. It is not the mere outline sketched by the Divine Being, which we are left to fill in; but all the minute and delicate shadings are inserted by Him. Looking no further than our relation to Him as creatures, it is impossible for a moment to entertain the thought of our being beyond the leadings of God, and to speak of a life of self-government and self dependence. The complex machinery of the outer world, dumb inanimate nature in all its integral parts, is upheld by Him. "He weighs the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance." "He counts the number of the stars." He guides Orion and Arcturus in their magnificent marchings. If one of these orbs were to be jostled from its place\emdash plucked from its silent throne in the heavens, it is well known that the equilibrium and perfect balancing of the material system would be fatally disturbed\emdash anarchy and revolution would reign triumphant.\par \par And shall we own Him as the leader of stars and planets, and ignore His sovereignty over the human spirit? Shall we acknowledge that He is Lord in the universe of matter, and not supreme in the empire of thought and human volition? No, "His kingdom rules over ALL." Angel, archangel, cherub, and seraph; man, beast, worm, "these all wait upon You!" He "leads in righteousness." He has an infinite reason for all He does. It is not for us to attempt to unravel the tangled thread of Providence. Israel cried for deliverance from Egypt. Their cry was answered. How? By leading them at once to Canaan? No, as we have seen, by a forty years' period of probation and discipline. God is often, like Jacob of old, blessing the sons of Joseph with crossed hands. We, in our half-blind, short-sighted faith, would presume to dictate to Him, and prejudge the wisdom and correctness of His procedure. We are tempted to say with Joseph, "Not so, my father." But like the old patriarch, "He guides His hands knowingly."\par \par As the sheep of His pasture, He may not be leading you along the bright meadow or sunny slope; He may be lingering amid stunted herbage; He may be turning down some bramble thicket\emdash plunging into gloomy forest glades, while acres of rich sunny pasture are close by. But He sees what you did not see; He sees an adder here; He sees a lion there; He sees pitfalls here; He sees a precipice there. He knows you better, He loves you better, than to set you in slippery places, and cast you down to destruction. He sees, if that fortune had been unbroken, that dream of ambition realized, that clay idol left on its throne\emdash the alienated heart would have gradually, but terribly, lapsed away from Him. Trust Him. "We expect," says Evans, "the blessing in our way, He chooses to bestow it in His." In the midst of perplexing dealings say, "I know." You cannot say, "I see," but let faith say, "I know, O God, that Your judgments are right, and that You in faithfulness have afflicted me."\par \par What a grandeur and dignity, what a safety and security it would give to life, if we sought ever to regard it as a leading of the Shepherd\emdash God shaping our purposes and destinies, that wherever we go, or wherever our friends go, He is with us! Even in earthly journeyings, if our pathway be the great and wide sea\emdash "He gives to the sea His decree"\emdash winds and waves and storms are His voice. If it be speeding along the highway, nothing but that tiny iron thread of the railway track between us and death\emdash He curbs the wild frenzy of the fiery charger; He puts the bit in his iron mouth; He gives His angels charge over us to bear us up and keep us in all our ways.\par \par If it be our position in the world; He measures out every drop in the cup, He assigns us our niche in His temple, fills or empties our treasuries, makes vacant the chairs of our homesteads. Let us seek to say, in the spirit of Galileo when he became blind, "Whatever is pleasing to God shall be pleasing to me." We can take no more than the near, the limited, the earthly view of His dealings: let us pause for the infinite disclosures of eternity. Look at the farmer laboring in his field. All this deep ploughing is for the insertion of the needful seed. In doing the work, he may appear to act roughly. Ten thousand insects nestling quietly in their homes in the ground are rudely unhoused. All at once their covered dwellings are pulled asunder. Many a happy commonwealth is scattered and overthrown in the upturned furrow\emdash little worlds of life and being demolished by the ruthless, remorseless ploughshare. So, some of our earthly schemes may be assailed\emdash our worldly treasures scattered by the iron teeth of misfortune. But all is preparatory to a higher good, a harvest of rich blessing crowning the soul, as He does the year with His goodness, and making its paths drop fatness!\par \par There is a beautiful saying in the 94th Psalm, "The Lord will not reject His people; He will never forsake His inheritance; Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all upright in heart will follow it" (14, 15). A healing word to all poor afflicted ones. Judgment often at times seems separated\emdash deflected from righteousness. We can discern no righteousness, no mercy, no good in His dispensations. Like the sun setting at night, all is darkness. But that sun will return. It will rise again tomorrow. Judgment shall return in righteousness. "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."\par \par "Hereafter you shall know where God doth lead thee,\par His darkest dealings trace;\par And by those fountains where His love will feed thee,\par Behold Him face to face.\par \par "Then bow thine head, and He shall give thee meekness,\par Bravely to do His will;\par So shall arise His glory in thy weakness,\par O struggling soul, be still.\par \par "Watch on the tower, and listen by the gateway,\par Nor weep to wait alone;\par Take thou thy spices, and some angel straightway\par Shall roll away the stone.\par \par "Thus wait, thus watch, until He the last link sever,\par And changeless rest be won;\par Then in His glory thou shall bask forever,\par Fear not the clouds\emdash PRESS ON."\par \par "The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, to find them a place to rest."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 55? a-12. The Farewell Gift{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fc} U511. Divine Leading{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 DIVINE LEADING\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and thharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE FAREWELL GIFT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives." John 14:27\par \par No shadow of the figurative grove of Elim is more grateful to the children of humanity than this. It is in Jesus alone, and in His finished work, that the beautiful words of the Evangelical Prophet are fulfilled in the case of every pilgrim to the true Canaan\emdash "My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest" (Is. 32:18).\par \par The circumstances in which the Savior uttered the words of our motto-verse were interesting and peculiar, and give an intense poignancy to His declaration. It was at a time, one would have thought, of the deepest unrest and anxiety to His own soul; a time when the saying, "My peace I give to you," would have seemed a strange and doubtful blessing: for the shadows of the cross were gathering around Him. Some consolation, higher than earth could afford, was needed, when the Shepherd was about to be smitten and the sheep to be scattered. In the clouds of that dark, troubled horizon, He set the bow of covenant Peace. His utterance was more than a promise\emdash it is expressed in the formula of a last Will\emdash a Testamentary deed. It is the dying legacy which the Prince of Peace bequeaths to His Church and people in every age. Let us note some of its characteristics.\par \par It is a purchased peace. That palm whispers pre-eminently "the name of Jesus"\emdash "Peace through the blood of His cross." In no other way could it have been procured. By no other could it be bestowed. No voice but the voice which exclaimed in dying accents, "It is finished," can say to the troubled tempest-tossed soul\emdash "Peace, be still!" In the familiar Bible narrative, we see the heathen sailors rowing hard to bring the vessel to land, in whose hold was the fugitive prophet. It was in vain. "The sea was getting rougher and rougher"\emdash wave after wave baffled strength of oar and muscle. What was their expedient? The sacrifice of the one life was demanded and surrendered for the sake of the others!\par \par So it was with the true Jonah. When He was taken and cast into the deep, that deep was hushed into a calm, its fury stilled, every tumultuous billow was rocked to rest\emdash "The raging sea grew calm." "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." He has done all, and suffered all, and procured all for us\emdash left nothing to be supplemented by human merit. In the words of an old theologian, "We who have believed do enter into rest, and that by ceasing from our own works, as God did from His."\par \par It is a perfect peace. It is no simulation\emdash no counterfeit. There is no flaw in these title-deeds. It is a peace founded on everlasting truth and everlasting righteousness, securing alike the vindication of the Divine law and the manifestation of the Divine glory. It is a peace with God above, and peace with conscience within\emdash peace secured by the Redeemer on the Cross, and ratified by the Kingly Intercessor on the Throne. Like the weary bird, after tracking its way across leagues of vast ocean, the believer can enter the opened window of the True Ark, and sing the song of an older heir of covenant blessings, "Be at rest (Peace), O my soul."\par \par It is a permanent peace. As such, it is "not as the world gives." Many of the world's best blessings, those which are considered to minister most effectually to outward happiness and inward peace, ours today, may be gone tomorrow\emdash we have no pledge or guarantee for their continuation. They are fed from the low marshy grounds of earth, dependent on fitful seasons and capricious showers. But the peace of Christ, being from heaven, is a perennial stream; it is fed from surer supply than glacier Alps, and it rolls on in undiminished fullness and volume, in summer's drought and in winter's cold. It is irrespective and independent of all outward accidents. It bears up and sustains in the midst of the harassments of business, the crushing of poverty, the weariness of sickness, the pangs of bereavement, the shadows of death. Well may the author of "The Pilgrim's Progress" give the name of PEACE to the chamber in which Christian lay, and whose window opened toward the sunrise!\par \par It is said of Goethe, the great German, that in one of those dark, unsatisfied hours in which his mighty intellect and soul groped after the true Rest, he thus recorded his undefined longings for that which he had failed to attain\emdash\par \par "Fairest among heaven's daughters,\par Thou who stillest pain and woe,\par Pourest Thy refreshing waters\par On the thirsty here below:\par Whither tends this restless striving?\par Faint and tired, I long for rest.\par Heaven-born peace,\par Come and dwell within my breast!"\par \par These words were found on a scrap of writing paper lying on his writing table. A devoted friend of similar intellectual pursuits, but one who had personally experienced the shade of the Elim grove and tasted its perennial springs, and who therefore knew what alone could quench these ungratified aspirations, wrote on the other side, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."\par \par PEACE\emdash true peace. Intellect cannot bestow it; wealth cannot purchase it. Men, in their quest of it, surround and fortify themselves with creature comforts, and away from corroding care; invite the angel of peace to come and over downy couches to sing the longed-for lullaby! The lullaby is sung, "Peace, peace," but often it is only to awaken the echo of dissatisfaction, "No peace."\par \par Speed your flight, O weary wanderer, under the shelter of this heavenly Palm. The bough on which your earthly nest was built may have been felled by the axe or broken by the storm; but "He is our peace." And as driven by the windy tempest your cry is, "O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant me Your peace!" may it be yours to listen to the glad response, "My peace I give unto you"\emdash "Even while you sleep among the campfires, the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold."\par \par "We ask for peace, O Lord!\par Thy children ask Thy peace:\par Not what the world calls rest\emdash\par That toil and care should cease;\par That through bright sunny hours\par Calm life should haste away,\par And tranquil night should fade\par In smiling day\emdash\par It is not for such peace that we would pray.\par \par "We ask Thy peace, O Lord!\par Through storm, and fear, and strife,\par To light and guide us on\par Through a long struggling life;\par To lean on Thee, entranced,\par In calm and perfect rest\emdash\par Give us that peace, O Lord!\par Divine and blest,\par Thou keepest for those hearts that love Thee best."\par \par "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, 'Don't cry.'" Luke 7:13\par \par The fronds of the desert palm-tree are never so beautiful, as when seen thickly gemmed with the dews of the Eastern night\emdash nature's teardrops.\par \par With reverence may we say the same of the Heavenly Palm. Jesus is never so gracious or attractive as when we are called, as here, to note His look of compassion\emdash His tears of sympathy\emdash denoting the tenderness of divine human affection. Observe, it was the sight of woe (the contemplation of human misery) which at Nain stirred to its depths that Heart of hearts.\par \par "Forth from the city gate,\par As evening shadows lengthen o'er the plain,\par And the hushed crowd in reverent silence wait,\par Passed out a funeral train.\par \par "Chief of the mourners there,\par Slow following, with feeble steps, the dead,\par In the sad travail of the soul's despair,\par Bowed down her stricken head.\par \par "For him she wept forlorn,\par Of care the solace, and of age the stay,\par Whose silver cord was broken, ere the morn\par Had brightened into day."\par \par It would seem as if the Lord of Love could not look upon grief, without that grief becoming His own. In the similar case of Lazarus, it was not the bitter thought of a lost and dead friend which opened the fountain of His own tears. This it could not be; because four days previously He had spoken in calm composure of his departure; and when He stood in the graveyard, He knew that in a few moments the victim of death would have his eyes rekindled with living luster. At Bethany (as here at Nain), it was simply the spectacle of human suffering that made its irresistible appeal to His emotional nature. The rod of human compassion touched the Rock of Ages, and the streams of tenderness gushed forth. "When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews weeping which came with her\'85Jesus wept." "When the Lord saw" this poor widow, "He had compassion on her." He hears her bitter, heart-rending weeping in the midst of the mourners, and it is worthy of observation\emdash utters the soothing, sympathetic word, before He utters the Godlike mandate.\par \par Nor should we overlook the fact that it was but a word He uttered. This reveals an exquisite and touching feature in the Savior's humanity. It attests how intensely delicate and sensitive, as well as true, that humanity was. When we meet a mourner after a severe trial, we shrink from the meeting; glad, perhaps, when a sad and dreaded call of courtesy is over. There is a studied reserve in making reference to the loss; or, if that reference is made, it is short, in a passing word. The press of the hand often expresses what the lips shrink from uttering.\par \par In that vivid picture we have of patriarchal grief, Job's friends and mourners sat for seven days at his side, and not a syllable was spoken. It was so here with Jesus. He (even He) does not intrude with a long utterance of sympathy. With a tear in His eye, and a suppressed sob, all He says is, "Weep not." It was the same afterwards with Mary at Bethany. There was not even the one word; nothing but the significant tears.\par \par Behold, then, the beautiful and heartfelt condolence of a Fellow-mourner\emdash "the Brother born for adversity." "When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her!" That weeping, forlorn woman had no lack of other sorrowing friends. Her case seemed to be matter of notoriety. Many went out to mingle their tears with hers; but the sympathy of all these could only go a certain way. They could not be expected to enter into the peculiarities of her woe. Human sympathy is, at best, imperfect; sometimes selfish, always finite and temporary.\par \par Not so the sympathy of Him who joined the funeral procession. He could say, as none else can, "I know your sorrows." The condolence of the kindest friend on earth knows a limit\emdash that of Jesus knows none. Who knows but in that gentle utterance of tender feeling, and in the deep compassion which dictated it, the Son of Man, the virgin-born, may have had in view another "Mother," whose hour of similar bereavement was now at hand; when His own death was to be "the sword" which was to "pierce her soul." The calming word, doubtless, further pointed onwards to a happier time, when in a sorrowless world, "God shall wipe away all tears from off all faces."\par \par Remember the Savior and sympathizer of Nain is now the same! He had compassion\emdash He has compassion still. He who stopped the funeral casket on that summer's night in the plains of Jezreel ever lives, and loves, and supports, and pities; and will continue to pity, until pity be no longer needed, in a world of light and purity and peace.\par \par "And thus He always stands,\par Friend of the mourner, wiping tears away;\par Wherever sorrow lifts her suppliant hands,\par And faith remains to pray.\par \par "Wherever the woe-worn flee\par From the rude conflict of this world distrest,\par Consoling words He whispers, 'Come to Me,\par And I will give you rest!'"\par \par "It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } TTsa15. Full Satisfaction{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.221)]14. The Lord Upright{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\fY yI13. The Compassion of Jesus{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE COMPASSION OF JESUS\par \par "This 0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE LORD UPRIGHT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him." Psalm 92:15\par \par The Psalm from which these words are taken is entitled "A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath Day." It is also supposed to have been a Temple song: that, from the reference to the instrumental music of the Temple\emdash "the instrument of ten strings, the psaltery, the harp"\emdash it may probably have been intended to be used for the public service of the sanctuary. Nor was this use to be on Sabbath only. From verse 2, it has been further surmised that the psalm may have been employed at the daily offering of the morning and evening sacrifice\emdash "To proclaim Your love in the morning and Your faithfulness at night." Remembering, moreover, in connection with the name of this Volume, how the Temple was decorated with palm as well as cedar (the palm, as previously noted, chiseled by the engravers are all round the sacred walls, interlaced with open flower-work and cherubic figures, while the doors and roof were from the forests of Lebanon), how natural that these two trees should be taken to symbolize the character of the acceptable and accepted worshiper (ver. 12).\par \par It may well be designated, from its whole scope, 'the Psalm of old age.' The writer seems to delight in rehearsing the experiences of a bygone happy, because holy life. He compares, as we have just said, the true Believer\emdash "the Righteous man"\emdash to the gracefulness and beauty of an Elim-palm, combined with the strength and indestructible vigor of a Lebanon cedar. Not like the trees of many an earthly forest, whose bared tops proclaim that they have outlived their best, and that they are only the ghostly memorials of what once they were; these spiritual trees of the Lord's planting are "full of sap." They know no infirmity, no decay\emdash "They still bring forth fruit in old age" (ver. 14).\par \par Old age without true religion is the saddest of experiences\emdash gathering up the faded flowers of pleasure; attempting to drain the exhausted bowl, or to extract honey from the empty comb. Nothing, on the other hand, is so attractive and lovely as the closing life of a true Christian\emdash an old veteran warrior about to sheathe his sword and pass to his crown. How calm, and tranquil, and subdued! Like wine mellowed by years; or like the decaying, ivy-encircled ruin\emdash grandest in its decay! His outward man may be perishing, but his inward man is renewed day by day. His life is hid with Christ in God\emdash his roots are moored in the Rock of Ages. Lessons of tribulation have wrought patience. Christ becomes more and more precious. Heaven has more of the aspect and association of home. Gleams of its glory come flashing on the aged countenance, as the rising sun tips the mountain-top before it has reached the horizon. Oh, the gray head is indeed "a crown of glory" when thus "found in the way of righteousness;" and when death does come\emdash the stern Reaper with his sickle\emdash it is only to fall like a shock of corn in its season, fully ripe!\par \par Beautiful, too (what our motto-verse may be regarded as embodying), is the dying testimony of such\emdash "The Lord is upright." This is the end of their 'planting' and 'growing' and 'flourishing' (verses 13, 14). The sweet singer, in this last note of praise, repeats the opening stanza, testifying, morning and evening, to Jehovah's faithfulness. The palm-tree waves its joyous tribute by the side of the Elim springs. The cedar, as it battles with the storm on high Lebanon, wafts it on the breath of the tempest. It is a testimony to God's unchanging faithfulness to His covenant promises, and that, too, amid all diversities of rank and age and circumstance. Palms of the lowly valley, cedars of the lofty mountain\emdash rich and poor, young and old, learned and unlearned\emdash are ready to witness that the Lord has proved Himself 'upright,' and that not one of His declarations have failed. He has made the shoes of His people "iron and brass," and to the very close of the wilderness journey "as their days, so shall their strength be" (Deut. 33:25).\par \par The writer finally adds his own subscription and personal experience to all he has just said. He has been painting no hypothetical picture\emdash describing no mere poetic dream. He is himself ready, with the closing harp-strain, to endorse all his utterances of sober prosaic truth\emdash that the righteous is the happy, joyous, God-protected man he has described him to be. "He is my rock," he adds, "and there is no wickedness in Him." I have tried Him, and He is all He said, and all He promised. "He is my rock." As a rock I have built on Him, as a rock I have stretched myself under His shadow\emdash "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him."\par \par It reminds us of the close of some of Paul's Epistles\emdash "The salutation of I, Paul, written in my own hand." That blind Apostle-prisoner seems to have employed a secretary to take down at his dictation the rest of his letter. But he cannot refrain tracing upon the parchment the closing salutation or postscript, in his own autograph, thus to seal and ratify all that had been written. So it is here. "He is my rock." Witness my signature. I have tested His faithfulness; I now firmly rely upon it. I warble this farewell attestation "on the harp with solemn sound"\emdash with earnest soul-musing, as it means\emdash not only, as has been said, "with harp-strings, but heart-strings." "I believe, therefore have I spoken."\par \par Delightful and precious are such old age and deathbed testimonies as these to the sustaining grace of God. The world of unrealities is at an end then. The gold is separated from the alloy. We see the real strength of the vessel when left to itself to grapple with the hurricane\emdash in other words, the power of Gospel truth and religious principle. The noblest and most convincing of all Christian evidences is to lead the skeptic to a dying couch, and there, amid weakness and depression (it may even be racking pain,) to let him hear prayer mingling with praise\emdash the alternate breathings of submission and thankfulness, arising from the consciousness of the presence of a gracious though unseen Savior, and the quickening anticipations of an opening heaven!\par \par Can that sustaining Gospel be a lie? Can that dying 'grace' be an illusion? Can that Redeemer\emdash that Being who seems to be clung to almost as a near and loving friend\emdash be nothing but a myth or phantom of the brain? When the feeble lips are proclaiming, "He is my rock," are they mistaking for a solid footing what is like the desert mirage or the shifting sand? No. The Rock of Ages is a sublime reality. That aged believer has clung to Jesus as an Almighty Savior on earth. He has loved Him, prayed to Him, praised Him, committed his eternal all to Him; and now the music of that same Name refreshes his soul in death. "He is my rock." Oh, that such may be our testimony! Sitting calmly under the Beloved's shadow, when the day is about to break, and all other shadows to flee forever away\emdash "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!"\par \par "When I draw this fleeting breath,\par When my eyelids close in death;\par When I soar to worlds unknown,\par See Thee on Thy judgment throne,\par Rock of Ages, cleft for me,\par Let me hide myself in Thee."\par \par "A Man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 0;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FULL SATISFACTION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." Galatians 3:13\par \par "CURSE!"\emdash "the curse of the law;" a curse resting on the soul of man, and on the fair earth which forms his dwelling!\par \par "Man's world is pain and terror,\par He found it pure and fair,\par And wove in nets of sorrow\par The golden summer air.\par Black, hideous, cold, and dreary,\par Man's curse, not God's, is there!\par \par "Man's world is bleak and bitter;\par Wherever he has trod\par He spoils the tender beauty\par That blossoms on the sod,\par And blasts the loving heaven\par Of the great, good world of God!"\par \par From that black, blighting, blasting curse, man and his world are redeemed.\par \par "REDEEMED!" In an earthly sense, none knew, or could appreciate so fully the significance of that word, as pilgrim Israel, when, after their wondrous Exodus, they sat under the shadow of these Elim-palms in the Sinai wilderness. The echoes of their great redemption song was still lingering in their hearts, "In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling." (Ex. 15:13).\par \par It was the type and foreshadow of a greater deliverance\emdash a deliverance which has given birth to a grander strain, "You have redeemed us unto God by Your blood!"\par \par And who was this Redeemer? We read in classic story that Pylades laid down his life for Orestes his friend. "But God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He, the true Aaron, with the burning coals in His censer of love, has come between the living and the dead, and the plague is halted! He, the true David, when the lion and the bear were rushing on his defenseless flock, encountered them single-handed and alone, and rescued them from "the mountains of prey!" He, the true antitypical scapegoat, has had the sins of His spiritual Israel laid upon Him, and has borne away the curse forever, into a land of forgetfulness!\par \par The arm of the law is powerless. "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!" To turn again to that 'birthday of freedom' so intimately associated with the encampment of the Hebrews at Elim, that must have indeed been a memorable morning when the victorious host stood on the other side of the Red Sea. Terrible, too, these trophies of Divine vengeance that strewed the beach; the bodies of Pharaoh's warriors, with the sword still fastened by their side or clutched with nerveless hands.\par \par Or, to take a similar incident in the future Jewish annals, dreadful must have been that spectacle\emdash the armored legions of Sennacherib\emdash who had, the night before, been gathering up their strength like a proud wave, to dash themselves against the towers of Zion. When the morning dawns, the 180,000 are still there, with sword and spear and helmet and streaming banner; but these banners wave over a silent camp. The trumpet lies beside silent lips; it is a camp of death. Sword and spear are still intact; but the arms that wielded them are impotent. The destroying angel has descended at midnight, and converted the Assyrian tent into a sepulcher!\par \par "The battlefield lies still and cold,\par While stars, that watch in silent night,\par Gleam here and there on weapons bright\par In the dead sleepers' slackened hold."\par \par So it is with the curses of the law. Like the weapons of Pharaoh or the Assyrians, they are still there; each demanding satisfaction, and declaring, "The soul that sins shall die." But the Great Angel has come down in the night of earth's moral and spiritual darkness and paralyzed them. He has, by His own doing and dying, rendered the law powerless to smite. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us!"\par \par Child of God, member of the ransomed family of the true Israel which He has purchased with His own blood, "as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed your transgressions from you." Amazing picture! You can take the wings of the morning, and make the sun your chariot\emdash traverse intervening oceans and continents until that sun dips his burning wheels in the western wave; and when you take a retrospective view of that magnificent circuit, think of it as God's own emblem of the distance to which He is willing to remove your transgressions from your sight and His own!\par \par Or take another scripture, depicting the same wondrous truth in equally impressive figure. It is the midst of a wide, vast wilderness of waters, the boundless horizon stretching on every side; and when the sounding line is let down, it cannot fathom the depth, it fails to reach the bottom. There, in the solitudes of that voiceless ocean, a plunge is heard. The surface is ruffled only for a moment; but the waves resume their usual play\emdash all is calm again. The load, whatever it be, is never more seen. It is buried somewhere in these dark caverns. No spirit of the deep can ever come up from the silent caves to tell its story. Ships cross and re-cross where it fell, but no milestone is left on the unstable highway, to mark the spot. The sea can be tempted by no bribe to give up the secret of its keeping; it is lost from sight, and trace, and memory, forever. That is a picture of what God is willing to do to you, and to me. "You will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea" (Micah 7:19).\par \par The one paramount reflection arising from these thoughts is surely this\emdash How wondrous the love of God in not sparing His own, His only Son, but freely giving Him up to be a curse for us! He, even HE\emdash could give no costlier proof of divine affection. Reader! having given you the greater pledge, you may take it as a guarantee for the bestowment of all lesser blessings. When His providential dispensations at times seem baffling; when there seems no bright light in the cloud, no mercy in His footstep; when you are apt to say with Gideon, "If the Lord be with us, why has all this happened to us?" return to that cross\emdash that mysterious smiting! Let it hush every rebellious surmise. Did He wear that crown of thorns for you? Did He pour out His life's blood for you? Did He become a CURSE for you? And will you murmur at anything proceeding from a Father's hands?\par \par "Yes! Mourning one\emdash a thought like this\par May well each faithless doubt remove;\par Take from all tears their bitterness,\par That God is LOVE!"\par \par "I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings until the disaster has passed."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } .40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE SECRET OF SUBMISSION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for You are the one who has done this." Psalm 39:9\par \par Never was there a more sorrow-stricken Pilgrim than he who uttered these words. He was "wandering in the wilderness in a solitary way"\emdash a dethroned king; a fugitive, clothed in sackcloth, with his head muffled, his feet without sandals, and more terrible memories and trials crushing his soul, which no Israelite at Elim could have shared.\par \par Yet he was not without his sheltering palm in this desert of tribulation. Under one of these he here reposes. When Shimei, the representative of the abandoned house of Saul, base of heart, and foul of tongue, came forth and cursed him, hurling stones and dust on the outcast sovereign\emdash the faithful followers of the King, stung to the quick with the reproaches of the vicious man, would willingly have crossed the gorge and silenced him with their swords.\par \par 'Hush,' says the humbled monarch, 'listen not to these taunts. Hear as if you heard them not. This expulsion from my throne and kingdom is not man's doing\emdash the result of uncontrolled human passion or wayward impulse. God has sent this "son of Belial" on his mission of insult. Let him curse on, for the Lord has bidden him.' And he weaves the reflections of this event into one of the most touching and plaintive of his psalms.\par \par Never, indeed, is David more worthy of admiration than in this time of adversity\emdash never truly greater is this Cedar of God than when wrestling with the storm! His keenness of temperament might have roused far other emotions. If he had been naturally reserved, stolid, apathetic, we would not have been surprised to see him submitting passively to his fate. But with feelings so finely set\emdash cut to the quick with the imputation of unmerited wrong (for "reproach," he tells us, had "broken his heart"), could we have wondered, if, stung to madness\emdash chafed like a lioness robbed of her cubs\emdash we had witnessed uncontrollable irritation, some outburst of vehement rage, some vow of fierce revenge? How different! "I said, 'I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence.' I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for You are the one who has done this."\par \par Nor let any say, the King of Israel was a veteran in trial, that his more sensitive feelings were now blunted, that he made a virtue of necessity, and submitted with cold stoical endurance to the stern fortunes of war. No; we see the saint of God, the resigned believer\emdash his soul even as a weaned child\emdash remaining calm and unmoved like a rock in the midst of the ocean surge, because cherishing the spirit of an older and kindred sufferer\emdash whose very words, indeed, he himself on this occasion repeats\emdash "It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him" (1 Sam. 3:18, and 2 Sam. 15:26).\par \par "YOU did it." Would that we were ever ready to endorse with these words all that happens to us! That prop removed\emdash "You did it;" that gourd withered\emdash "You did it;" that lily gathered\emdash "You did it;" that mysterious blight in my life-prospects\emdash "You did it!" Oh, to rise above the atheism of second causes\emdash the reflections which, if not spoken aloud, at least thought inwardly, are thus often formulated\emdash 'If such and such had been done, my child would have been spared; but for some untoward accident\emdash some cruel misfortune\emdash bright stars, now erased from my firmament, would still have been lighting me with their radiance!' Or these reflections may take the still sadder form of surmises on the Divine faithfulness; challenging the wisdom and righteousness of the Divine dealings. 'Where is the justice and judgment which are said to be the habitation of God's throne?\emdash where the mercy and truth which are said to go before His face?'\par \par In the case of David, some might be inclined to think there was room for such questionings and complaints. 'It is hard for me,' he himself might have felt and said, 'to encounter this sweeping blast in my old age. After a life of devotion to the God of Israel; after seeking to discharge, even though with mournful shortcomings, my duties as His anointed servant, the King of His covenant people, and the musician of His Church\emdash hard it is to have the harp snatched from my hand, or left hanging tuneless and mute in my Cedar-palace, and to be driven a wanderer on alien soil!' But no such reasoning escapes his lips. Of all the psalms he ever sung, this life-psalm was the grandest\emdash when he pursues his mournful way, so humble, unselfish, generous, submissive\emdash "not repaying evil for evil, or insult for insult."\par \par Let us seek to have such a heart in us in our afflictions. When the Almighty in a moment overturns our cherished plans, and sends us forth, 'barefoot and weeping,' across the mount of trial, let us feel that all is ordered; and say, looking high above human instruments\emdash O God! here am I, do to me as seems good to You: take me, use me for Your glory. I wish not to evade any cross. The lot may be a bitter one cast into the lap, "but its every decision is from the Lord!" If my cup be filled with unmerited blessings, "You did it;" if emptied and its fragments strewn on the ground, "You did it." Let the world speak of its accident or chance, but let mine be a nobler, truer philosophy\emdash "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken."\par \par Cherishing such a spirit, may we not add, that unlooked-for refreshments and solaces\emdash palm-groves of comfort\emdash will be given to us in the very season and desert of our trial? The aged King of Judah had such in his hour of adversity\emdash temporal refreshment (2 Sam. 16:14), and the better solace of generous and faithful friendships, destined long to survive the season of exile\emdash crowning all with a safe return from beyond Jordan, and a triumphant entrance within the walls of his beloved Zion.\par \par So in the case of His tried people. For them, too, does He spread a table in the wilderness. "The desert and the parched land shall be glad for them" (Isaiah 35:1). "I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs" (Isaiah 41:18). Thus does He cause them to sing of mercy in the midst of judgment; imparting, when they most need it, new and undreamt-of consolations\emdash strength in the hour of weakness, support in the hour of danger, friends in the hour of loneliness, sympathy, human and Divine, in the hour of sorrow. Above all, whatever be their wilderness experiences and wilderness trials, bringing them at last, in safety, across the border-river to the Heavenly Zion\emdash the New Jerusalem\emdash where the wail of sadness, the dirge of crushed hopes and blighted or buried affections, shall never more be heard.\par \par Oh! with this motto in all time of your tribulation, "YOU did it," trust a faithful, covenant-keeping God. Yes, trust Him\emdash even when, like David, you may have the sackcloth on your loins and the tear in your eye\emdash when you seem to be under the shadow, not of the green palm, but of the mournful cypress. "Commit your way unto the Lord: trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."\par \par "Go not far from me, O my Strength,\par Whom all my times obey;\par The strongest prop on earth may fail,\par But go not Thou away,\par And let the storm that does Thy work\par Deal with me as it may.\par \par "Thy love has many a lighted path\par No outward eye can trace;\par And Thee my heart sees in the deep,\par With darkness on its face,\par And communes with Thee 'mid the storm\par As in a secret place.\par \par "Safe in Thy sanctifying grace,\par Almighty to restore,\par Borne onward\emdash sin and death behind,\par And love and life before\emdash\par Oh, let my soul abound in hope,\par And trust Thee more and more!"\par \par "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } a}U16. The Secret of Submission{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5\par \par Here we have the true Palm (Phoenix) spoken of in the Preface, which, when burned down, springs fresh and beautiful from its ashes, with more vigorous stem and more glorious fronds. On the monuments of the early Roman Christians, in the city of their sufferings and triumphs, well may the fresh-plumaged bird of immortality be seen perched on Him, who, as the Divine Heavenly Palm, has purchased for His people the gift of eternal life.\par \par The Resurrection of Jesus is the pledge and guarantee of that of His people. Hence, the pre-eminent importance assigned by the inspired writers to this great anchor of the Church's faith. The glorious light indeed illuminating the tomb of the Savior throws its radiations on almost every other doctrine of the Christian system. The believer's justification, regeneration, sanctification, resurrection, glorification\emdash each has its halo of glory borrowed from that vacant sepulcher. "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Cor. 15:14). "With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 4:33). Paul, to his cultured audience on Mars' Hill, preached "Jesus and the Resurrection." "It is Christ," says he, "who died\emdash MORE THAN THAT, who was raised to life" (Rom. 8:34).\par \par In the concluding benediction of the priceless Epistle to the Hebrews, it is the Redeemer's Resurrection which is specially singled out as the mightiest of God's mighty acts, "the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep." It was that Resurrection-hour for which Jesus Himself is represented as longing from all eternity, when pillowed on the Father's bosom. Then He rejoiced "as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder" (Isa. 9:3). He seems to bound over intervening ages; and with His eye first on His own vacant tomb, and then on the myriads His Resurrection foreshadowed, He is represented as exclaiming\emdash "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!" (Hos. 13:14).\par \par No wonder then that the Resurrection of Christ has been for the last 1800 years a joyful day\emdash that our Sabbaths are its solemn commemorations. We repeat, it was the truth of all truths among the early believers. It was not the day of His death they made their Sabbath, but the first day of the week\emdash the day when the sadness of the weeping women at the sepulcher was turned into gladness: and their watchword at meeting (the word of joy and welcome) was not "The Lord has died," but "The Lord has risen." It was with them a day of praise, more than for confession; for psalms of thanksgiving, more than for penitential tears. Conscious that a new and nobler Genesis had dawned on a darkened world, they sung in responsive melody, "This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."\par \par The pledges of the outer material creation are welcome and joyful. If we welcome with grateful spirit the first budding of early spring in grove and field, because in these we see the promise and pledge that soon nature will be arrayed in her full robes of resurrection beauty\emdash with what feelings ought we to stand by the sepulcher of our Lord, and see the buried Conqueror rising triumphant over the last enemy! Do we not behold in Him the forerunner of an immortal springtime, or rather a glorious harvest, when the mounds of the earth, and the caves of the ocean, shall surrender what they have held for ages in sacred custody: "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision;" when "this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality," and the summons shall go forth, "You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy." "Christ the firstfruits; then when He comes, those who belong to Him!"\par \par You who have priceless treasures in the tomb, think of this! "God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." True, that "house of our earthly tabernacle" at death, is a "darksome ruin." That dust is resolved into its kindred dust. The constituent elements of the dismantled framework are incorporated with new forms of matter. Sad and terrible is dissolution in all its accompaniments. We do not wish to strew that dismal path with flowers. Death, from the earthly view of it, is not lit by one gleam of sunshine. The slow and gradual wasting and decay, the fading of the bloom from the cheek, the weakness of the eye, the wearisome days, the long night-vigils, the mind participating not infrequently with the wreck of the body, memory often a blank, the fondest look and the fondest name eliciting no response! Then the close of all\emdash the knocking at the mysterious gates of a mysterious future\emdash the empty chamber, where "echo slumbers;" the noiseless footfall, the mute crowd of mourners, the grave, the return to the silent dwelling, and the vacant seat\emdash O Death, truly here is your sting; O Grave, truly here is your victory!\par \par But the day is coming when all these memories of woe shall vanish, like the darkness before the morning sun\emdash when the spoil of plundering ages shall in a marvelous way be all restored\emdash when, as in the Prophet's Valley of Vision, bone shall come to bone, and sinew to sinew. The old loving smiles of earth will be seen again in the newly-glorified body, purged from all the dross and alloy of its old materialism\emdash the drooping withered flower reviving, beautiful and fragrant with the bloom of perennial summer.\par \par "Why are you crying?" was the question of the Risen Conqueror, as He gazed on a tearful eye at the Resurrection morn. The Christian's grave need be watered by no tears; for Jesus has converted it into the vestibule of heaven! How different from the mournful legends to be seen and read at this hour on heathen lands, as "to the final farewell" and "the eternal sleep!" How different from the inscriptions entombed in the latest Assyrian excavations in the mounds of Kalakh; of which we are told\emdash "In this temple were performed the mournings and lamentations for the yearly dying Tammuz the 'Son of Life,' whom Ishtar went annually to recover from the House of Death, the Palace of 'the Land of no return!"'\par \par The Christian searches, indeed, in vain, amid the ashes of Jerusalem's desolation, for any material tomb of his Divine Lord. But if the tomb is lost in the wreck of ages, the glorious, invisible inscription still remains\emdash "Fear not: I am He who lives and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." And "because I live, you shall live also!"\par \par "Our loved ones in the narrow home we lay.\par But while Death's sharp scythe is sweeping,\par We remember 'mid our weeping\par That a Father's hand is keeping\par Every vernal bloom that falls underneath its chilly sway.\par And though earthly flowers may perish,\par There are buds His hand will cherish,\par Throughout the years eternal\emdash these can never fade away."\par \par "My body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ``]Uu17. A Risen Christ{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 A RISEN CHRIST\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 15:20 HE CREATOR AND REDEEMER\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods\'85He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care." Psalm 95:3, 7\par \par The contemplation of God in all His varied attributes may well form a theme of refreshment to His people in every stage of the wilderness journey. Such a contemplation is presented in these combined verses\emdash the majesty and omnipotence of the Jehovah-Lord, in combination with the tenderness and grace of the Covenant-Shepherd.\par \par Although composed at a much later date, the greater portion of the psalm might have been sung by the pilgrim Hebrews as they were encamped under the grove of Elim. A glance over the contents will show how desert symbols and memories color and tinge its phraseology. But it is a song suited for God's spiritual Israel in all ages, both collec tively and individually.\par \par After a triumphal prelude or introduction, the psalm divides itself into two parts. The first is a summons by His people to join in this ascription of praise to "the Rock of Salvation;" the second is the utterance or response of God Himself\emdash an earnest and solemn appeal to hear His voice and accept His salvation. It is of the first of these alone we shall now speak.\par \par Two specific grounds or reasons are given for thus "coming before His pr esence with thanksgiving, and extolling Him with music and song."\par \par (1) Because He is CREATOR. (v. 3) "For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker!"\par \par The Psalmist here makes all material nature around him a temple resonant with praise to its Almighty Framer. And we may imagine what a gorgeous shrine the land of Palestine must have been: not as now, cursed and blighted with barrenness, but as it was, with its mountains and vineyards and olive-yards\emdash its gorges ("the deep places of the earth," perhaps referring to the singular depression in the course of its one illustrious river)\emdash the sea bordering its western frontier\emdash its happy villages, climbing to the very tops of the wooded hills\emdash the pastures clothed with flocks\emdash the valleys, also, covered over with corn! It is the God of this Temple whose glory he proclaims\emdash He who gave strength to these mountains, and grandeur to "the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number."\par \par Not only does he celebrate (v. 3) Jehovah as a great Lord, but as a great "King above all (the heathen) gods." In the mythologies of Greece and Rome, a god was assigned to every department of nature\emdash such as Neptune, Pluto, Aeolus, and others, gods of sea and fire and wind and mountain, rain and thunder and the forked lightning. This great King embraced in His one mighty and powerful hand all these diverse agencies and elements. He was not the God of "the deep places" only, but He was the God of the hills\emdash their strength was "His also." His hands not only fashioned the dry land, but these hands built the rocky caverns of old ocean\emdash "The sea is His;" He "covered it with the deep as with a garment." In the words of the challenge of another sacred singer of Israel\emdash "Who (like Him) has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?" (Is. 40:12).\par \par "God's world is bathed in beauty,\par God's world is steeped in light;\par It is the self-same glory\par That makes the day so bright,\par Which thrills the earth with music,\par Or hangs the stars in night."\par \par (2) The second ground or reason which the Psalmist gives for his appeal to worship God with thanksgiving and joyful melody is, because He is REDEEMER. This is contained in our second motto-verse (v. 7), where Jehovah is brought before us in His Shepherd character and relation to His people as THEIR God, their Covenant God\emdash "For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." If the old wilderness of Sinai, as seen from the Elim palms, with its masses and munitions of gigantic rock, furnished the future Hebrew musicians and chroniclers with the favorite and most expressive symbol of Divine power and unchangeableness; Palestine itself, in its grassy hills and sheep-walks, contributed the more endearing emblem for the covenant relation subsisting between God and His people\emdash "The Lord is my SHEPHERD, I shall not lack. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters;" or, as here, "We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture."\par \par If we are called on to praise and adore 'God our Rock' for His natural attributes of power, greatness, wisdom, immutability, how far louder and loftier ought the strains of that song to rise to Him who is "the Rock of our salvation"\emdash who tends the "Israel within Israel," the true people of His covenant fold, with all the watchful affection which the Hebrew shepherd is known to lavish on his fleecy charge\emdash protecting them amid summer's drought and winter's cold, from the lurking wild beast and the human plunderer, and risking his own life in their defense! He who, in the glorious concave of the nightly heavens, as the great Shepherd of the universe, is sublimely spoken of as keeping watch over fold on fold of stars\emdash "golden-fleeced sheep"\emdash "calling them all by their names," has the very same words applied by Divine lips to His spiritual Israel, the flock of His spiritual pasture: "He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out" (John 10:3).\par \par Can we take up the higher note of this anthem? The deist can sing the first\emdash adoring God as the Creator, who made sky, air, earth, and heaven; but can we stand under the shelter of the Heavenly Palm and raise the loftier ascription\emdash "He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hands"? The God of NATURE! Noble, indeed, are the themes and illustrations which that name suggests\emdash the manifested glory of "The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords!" The thunder is His voice; the clouds are the dust of His feet; He walks upon the wings of the wind; His pavilion round about Him are dark waters and thick clouds of the sky\emdash at one and the same moment tracing out the pathway for sun and star, and yet painting the green of moss and lichen, and imprinting the varied tints on the petals of every flower.\par \par But, God of GRACE! "The Mighty One of Jacob, the SHEPHERD, the Rock of Israel."\emdash this "new, best name"\emdash speaks of forgiveness. It unfolds to us not only the Rock in its giant majesty, defying the fury of the desert wind, but it discloses to us fissures in that Rock\emdash blessed crevices\emdash taking shelter in which, the breath of hot wind and storm pass by us unscathed! "We are the people of His pasture." It tells of shepherd love and shepherd tenderness. Every nook of the mountain, every grassy knoll\emdash yes, too, and every bleak corner of these pasture-grounds\emdash are known to Him! What more than this can we desire?\emdash pardon, peace, guidance, direction, support, grace, glory! As an old writer quaintly says, "He leads us in, He leads us through, He leads us on, He leads us up, He leads us home!"\par \par Let the sweet music of this psalm quicken our footsteps through every wilderness experience, until the same Divine Shepherd shall conduct us to the heavenly Elim, by the living fountains of waters, in the pastures of the Blessed!\par \par "Seek farther, farther yet, O dove!\par Beyond the land, beyond the sea,\par There shall be rest for you and me,\par For you and me and those I love.\par \par "I heard a promise gently fall,\par I heard a far-off Shepherd call\par The weary and the broken-hearted,\par Promising rest unto each and all."\par \par "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } QQc}Y18. The Creator and Redeemer{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 T elf for me." Galatians 2:20\par \par Travelers tell us that it is those palm trees whose stems have been broken by the sweep of the tempest which are generally seen to shoot forth the largest and most sheltering branches. The "corn of wheat" in the divine parable, by falling into the ground and dying, brought forth "much fruit." So is it from the death of Jesus that the new and glorious life of God's people is derived\emdash "I came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."\par \par Reader, are you able fully to accept and appropriate this sublime truth? to view it, not as a beautiful figure, a typical fiction, but as a sober reality. "He loved me, and gave Himself FOR me;" that He surrendered His life's blood, in order to have the right to say, as He beckons under the shelter of the Elim palm-grove, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest."\par \par In obeying the gracious invitation, rejoice, too, that the negotiation is completed, the Substitute has been provided, the ransom has been paid. It is not a matter which now remains in suspense and unaccomplished. Many on earth have noble and lofty intentions which have never been fulfilled. Many a high enterprise has been thought of; but the enthusiasm wears past, the opportunity is lost, or the resolve is strangled at the birth. Not so this Great Salvation. What Christ undertook He has performed. He does not utter the unavailing soliloquy and lament in His heavenly palace, over an apostate world, which David did on the occasion of the death of his ruined child, "Would God I had died for you." He has died; He has fulfilled His covenant-pledge as our Surety. Our mortgaged inheritance has been recovered. The prophetic words have become now the utterance of an historic fact\emdash He HAS seen of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied!\par \par Well do we know that this doctrine is in these modern times disliked by many; by not a few rejected. Many prefer coming with Cain's bloodless offer ings of thanksgiving (the deist sacrifice) rather than, like Abel, bringing the bleating victim from his fold. They are willing to behold Christ the Son; not Christ the "Lamb of God." They build the temple while they disown the altar. But it is not the philosophic divinity which consists in the glorification of mere virtue\emdash it is not eliminating these peculiar doctrines of the cross, and substituting cold negations\emdash that will pacify conscience. The most familiar of lines embody, in simple lang!uage, the only Scripture creed\emdash the only accepted and acceptable 'Song of the pardoned'\emdash\par \par "When from the dust of death I rise\par To take my mansion in the skies,\par This all my hope, this all my plea,\par That Jesus lived and died for me."\par \par Let that which will form your only stable and satisfying trust then, be the ground of your hope and confidence now. Accept Him, unhesitatingly, as your Surety-Savior, "the end of the law for r"ighteousness." "Jacob," says old Thomas Brooks, "got the blessing in the garment of his elder brother, so in the garment of Christ's righteousness, who is our Elder Brother, we obtain the blessing, yes, all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." See how He has "blotted out the handwriting that was against you, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to His cross!" See how God, the injured Creditor, has cancelled your obligations! Never again, in point of law, can your multitude of sins appe#ar\emdash they are obliterated forever. "I will forgive," says He (what man often does not), "your wickedness and will remember your sins no more" (Heb. 3:12). Let the mightiest angel in heaven be delegated to go in quest of these pardoned sins! Let him roam creation! Let him search every corner of the earth, and every cavern of the ocean. He will come back from the mission with the tidings\emdash "Search will be made for Israel's guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be $found." He is faithful who promised\emdash "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist" (Isa. 44:22).\par \par We may appropriately conclude with the simple words of an old hymn-writer of the Fatherland (Angelus, 1657)\emdash\par "Thou Holiest Love! whom most I prize,\par Who are my longed-for, only bliss,\par Who left the glory of the skies\par To tread earth's desert wilderness\emdash\par Who once did suffer in my stead,\par To cancel debt I could not pay:\par Whose blood upon the cross was shed\par To take the world's great guilt away\emdash\par I give Thee thanks that Thou didst die\par To win eternal life for me;\par Oh bring that great salvation nigh,\par And draw me up in love to Thee!"\par \par "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } dU19. Proof and Triumph of Love{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 PROOF AND TRIUMPH OF LOVE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He loved me and gave Hims'is is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." John 13:7\par \par A gracious 'whisper' into the ear of an ardent and loving but impetuous apostle, from Him who was Himself the Heavenly Palm. An assurance well calculated to relieve needless anxiety; and impart confidence, trust, and strength to His people, at all times, and under all circumstances.\par \par Here in this present world, we have only a partial v(iew of God's dealings, His half-completed, half-developed plan; but all will stand out in fair and graceful proportions in the great finished Temple of Eternity!\par \par Go, in the reign of Israel's greatest King, to the heights of Lebanon. See that noble Cedar, the pride of its peers, an old wrestler with northern blasts! Summer loves to smile upon it\emdash night spangles its feathery foliage with dewdrops\emdash the birds nestle on its branches, the weary pilgrim, or wandering shepherd rest )under its shadow from the midday heat or from the furious storm; but, all at once, it is marked out to fall! The aged inhabitant of the forest is doomed to succumb to the woodman's stroke! As we see the axe making its first gash on its gnarled trunk, then the noble limbs stripped of their branches, and at last the "Tree of God," as was its distinctive epithet, coming with a crash to the ground, we exclaim against the uncalled-for destruction, the demolition of this proud pillar in the temple of nature. We* are tempted to cry with the prophet, as if inviting the sympathy of every lowlier stem\emdash invoking inanimate things to resent the affront\emdash "Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar has fallen!"\par \par But wait a little. Follow that gigantic trunk as the workmen of Hiram launch it down the mountainside; thence conveyed in rafts along the blue waters of the Mediterranean; and last of all, behold it set a glorious polished beam in the Temple of God. As you see its destination, placed in the very +Holy of Holies, in the diadem of the Great King\emdash say, can you grudge that 'the crown of Lebanon' was ravaged, in order that this jewel might have so noble a setting? That cedar stood as a stately prop in Nature's sanctuary, but the glory of the latter house was greater than the glory of the former.\par \par How many of our souls are like these cedars of old! God's axes of trial have stripped and bared them. We see no reason for dealings so dark and mysterious. But He has a noble end and ob,ject in view; to set them as everlasting pillars and rafters in His Heavenly Zion; to make them "a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand, and a royal diadem in the hand of our God."\par \par Jehovah, had He seen fit, might, by miracle or otherwise, have studded the march of the Israelites all the way to Canaan with Elim groves. At each fresh encampment, as the guiding cloud gave the sign of rest, an improvised oasis, fringed with trees and musical with springs, might have risen in the midst of th-e barren sands. The beautiful promise of the evangelical prophet might have had a literal fulfillment\emdash "The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon" (Isa. 35:1, 2).\par \par We know how different was their experience! Take one of the many similar entries in the inspired record\emdash "The.n the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran" (Num. 10:12). Their route lay through barren wastes and waterless valleys and under brazen skies\emdash the way infested with serpents and scorpions, their steps tracked by predatory tribes. So also in the case of His people still. Had He seen fit He might have ordained that their pathway was to be without gloom or darkness, trial or tear; no cross, no "deep calling to de/ep," nothing but seas undisturbed by a ripple; sunny slopes and verdant valleys, and bright clusters of palm, with sunlit fronds of love and faithfulness!\par \par But to keep them humble, to teach them their dependence on Himself, to make their present existence a state of discipline and probation, He has ordered it otherwise. Their journey, as travelers, is at times through mist and cloudland. Their voyage, as seamen, through alternate calm and storm. They are like the vessel being built in th0e dockyard. The unskilled and uninitiated can hear nothing but clanging hammers; they can see nothing but unshapely timbers and glare of torches. It is a scene of din and noise, dust and confusion. But all will at last be acknowledged as needed portions in the spiritual workmanship, when the soul, released from its earthly fastenings, is launched on the summer seas of eternity.\par \par "Give to the winds your fears;\par Hope, and be undismayed;\par God hears your sighs and cou1nts your tears,\par God shall lift up your head.\par Through waves and clouds and storms\par He gently clears your way\par O wait His time\emdash so shall this night\par Soon end in joyous day!"\par \par "THEN shall we know," to use the words of an earnest thinker, "that the dark scenes were dark with light too bright for mortal eye; the sorrow turning into dearest joys when seen to be the filling up of Christ's; who withholds not from us His own crow2n, bidding us drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism; and saying to our reluctant hearts, 'What I do you know not now, but you shall know hereafter'" (Hinton).\par \par "I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be\par A pleasant road;\par I do not ask that Thou wouldst take from me\par Aught of its load.\par \par "I do not ask that flowers should always spring\par Beneath my feet;\par I know too well the poison and the sting\par Of things too sweet.\par \par "For one thing only, Lord, dear Lord, I plead,\par Lead me aright\emdash\par Though strength should falter, and though heart should bleed,\par Through peace to light.\par \par "I do not ask my cross to understand,\par My way to see\emdash\par Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand,\par And follow Thee."\par \par "When evening comes, there will be light."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } aa20. Future Unfoldings{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FUTURE UNFOLDINGS\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and th&5 of repose"\emdash\par \par "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:24\par \par "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Romans 1:16\par \par In the sense of a great national deliverance, the Israelites at Elim had lately, as we have seen, been the spectators of "the power of God unto salvation." By Him "both the Egyptian chariot and horse had been cast into the sea," and He had "made6 a way through its depths for His ransomed ones to pass over."\par \par Stupendous as that miracle was, there was one mightier far, of which the other was the emblem. Fifteen centuries after these liberated Hebrews were slumbering in their graves, the Gospel of Christ was made known as this supreme, incomparable spiritual 'power'\emdash "the power of God" (or, omitting the article, which is not in the original, "power of God"\emdash God's own instrumental means of saving men).\par \par 7 We have reason to be "ashamed" of what may be called the dominant world-power\emdash the power of brute force\emdash the monster-power of war\emdash the power associated with Paganism and the savage ages. Let us confront the demon-power with the angel power\emdash the power which has been earth's greatest curse, with the power which has proved earth's greatest blessing\emdash the power of guilty man to destruction, with the power of Almighty God "unto salvation." Without that Gospel of Christ, the world 8would have had not one ray of light on the subject of salvation\emdash either from the guilt or the dominion of sin.\par \par Oratory, poetry, philosophy, taste, intellect, reason, were all baffled and confounded. Professing themselves on this great mystery to be wise, they became fools. Mankind had tried for ages and generations to solve the problem; but every oracle was dumb (silent) on the great question, "What must I do to be saved?" The Greek might discourse on the loveliness of nature\emda9sh he might speak of the theology of mountains and groves and forests and rivers: and we have no wish to depreciate their testimony. Paul had none. He, surely, was feelingly alive to the glories of nature's scenery, who, on Mars Hill, could, to the Athenians, so sublimely discourse on "God who made the world and all things therein, who dwells not in temples" (such temples as these!\emdash pointing up to their adjoining Parthenon), "made with hands" (Acts17:24); or to the Lystrians, as he spoke of "the liv:ing God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and everything in them; who gives rain from heaven, and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy" (Acts 14:15, 17).\par \par But listen, you Greeks! Pile, if you will, mountain on mountain; ransack all the glories of material nature; bring every flower that blooms, and every torrent that sweeps in wild music to the sea; summon old ocean from his deep caverns, and the myriad stars that gem the firmam;ent! They may, and do, silently and eloquently, speak on the theme of God's "eternal power and Godhead." But there is one theme on which "they have no speech nor language\emdash their voice is not heard," and that is, How is God to deal with my sinful soul? With regard to this question, "You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep."\par \par Is there, then, no answer elsewhere? Yes, where the volume of Nature fails, the volume of Inspiration interposes. The question is answered. The Gospand the sinner, and eternity? A voice is heard saying of, and to, all human might\emdash "Thus far shall you go, and no further: here let your proud waves be stayed." The world, we, repeat, had given it long eras to work out, if it could, the problem of its own self-salvation. But after these centuries of failure; after God had given man his own time and means to exhaust every effort to solve himself, He says\emdash 'Now, listen to My own Divine expedient: By lifting up My beloved Son on the cross, I inte?nd to draw all men unto Me!' Verily here is a new power\emdash "a new thing" on the earth. The world is to be conquered; society is to be remolded; time-honored religions are to be overthrown; Pantheons are to be subverted\emdash yes, better than all, souls are to be saved, by the power of a silent transforming principle. "Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire."\par \par Ah! there is no power\emdash no influe@nce that can unloose the fetters of fallen humanity like this! We are reminded of the maniac of old who dwelt among the tombs. No man could bind him. They had tried it; but he had burst their bonds like thread, and roamed that dark graveyard. At last he spied, on the white strand of Gennesaret, ONE of whom he had heard. It was Jesus! See that maniac now\emdash sitting "clothed, and in his right mind." So with the soul still. There are many who, in the mad fever of their passions, have roamed for years amiAd the place of the dead, "crying and cutting themselves with stones." But the Divine Redeemer, in the glories of His person\emdash in the completeness of His work\emdash has stood before them. Unreclaimable, untamable, by all human means, they have taken a child's place at the foot of His cross; and there they now are sitting, with the peace of Heaven mirrored in their hearts\emdash "the joy of the Lord their strength."\par \par "See me, see me, once a rebel,\par Prostrate at His cross I lie\emdash\par Cross, to tame earth's proudest able,\par Who was e'er so proud as I?\par He convinced me, He subdued me,\par He chastised me, He renewed me;\par The nails that pierced, the spear that slew Him,\par Transfixed my heart, and bound me to Him.\par See me! see me! once a rebel,\par Prostrate at His cross I lie."\par \par "Let us therefore, make every effort to enter that rest."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 3a21. A Great Salvation{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 A GREAT SALVATION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place4D "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." Revelation 1:17, 18\par \par John's loving Lord had been lost from sight, ever since the hour when He was borne upwards to heaven from the heights of Olivet. How the orphaned Apostle must have mourned over the irreparable loEss! How often in thought would he re-travel these days of earth's holiest and most sacred friendship\emdash when he had walked by his Lord's side, or leaned on His bosom, or listened to His words of divinest comfort! How often may he not have breathed the fond wish, in words which have enshrined themselves in many a bereaved heart\emdash\par \par "Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand,\par And the sound of a voice that is still!"\par \par And yet he would remember, too, the ChrFist of Nazareth and Galilee is no longer the lowly Man of sorrows, the Pilgrim of pilgrims. He is exalted in heavenly state\emdash a name is given Him which is above every name! When, therefore, he had the first startling intimation of the Divine apparition in Patmos; when he heard the trumpet heralding his Lord's approach, saw the bright blaze of glory projected from His path, and listened to the announcement in whose presence he was\emdash "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last"\emdash he might hGave expected, on turning around, to gaze on some dazzling throne, gleaming with flashes of Truth, and Holiness, and Righteousness\emdash tiers of attendant angels and burning seraphim lining the celestial pathway!\par \par How different! He first sees a vision, and then hears a voice. Both are replete with comfort and consolation, and well fitted to dismiss and dispel all fear. The vision\emdash It is the Lord holding a cluster of stars in His hand, and encircled with seven golden candlesticks; Hin gracious love moving in the midst of the Church militant; feeding each candlestick with the oil of His grace, and keeping every star in its sphere in the firmament. The voice\emdash The vanished hand does touch, the stilled voice is once more heard: "He laid His right hand upon me, and said, Fear not."\par \par It would remind Him of that memorable morning descent, after the night of seraphic bliss on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the heavenly messengers had come and gone, and he and hisI companion-Apostles were returning back to the dull world again. "Alone!"\emdash "yet not alone!" "When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." Bereft they were of their celestial companions; but they had One compensating solace for all they had lost. The stars and satellites and moons had waxed and waned and departed\emdash the candle-lights had been extinguished; but the great Sun still remained to illuminate their path, and perpetuate the bliss of that glorious hour. It was enoughJ\emdash they asked no more. With His love and presence to cheer them, they pursued the path, ready for duty, for trial, for suffering\emdash animated by the sight of the crown, they descended more willing to bear the cross. So would it be now, in Patmos, as on Hermon.\par \par We have, in this exquisitely tender dealing with John, an assurance of what Jesus still is. First, to His Church universal\emdash "in the midst of it"\emdash keeping the oil from decaying, and the gold from tarnishing, andK the stars from abandoning their orbits. Then, also, what He is willing to be to every individual believer\emdash the poorest, the humblest, the lowest, the most obscure\emdash though his heart be a Patmos, lonely and desolate, and his home a desert rock, or a dungeon of captivity, or a hut of poverty, or a chamber of disease, or a bed of death\emdash there He is, to lay His right hand of love on the trembling one, and say, "FEAR NOT!"\par \par Fear not, poor sinner, trembling under the load of Lyour guilt\emdash 'I am He who was dead;' My death is your life, My blood your plea, My cross the passport to your crown. Fear not, weak and faint-hearted, borne down under your corruptions, the strength of your temptations, the weakness of your graces, the lukewarmness of your love\emdash "I am alive for evermore;" My grace will be sufficient for you.\par \par Fear not, suffering one\emdash you are contending with a great fight of afflictions; trial after trial, like wave after wave, has been rMolling in upon you; your house has been swept, ties have been broken, graves opened\emdash the tears scarcely dry when made to flow again. Fear not! I have "the keys of the grave and of death." Not one deathbed has been ordered, not one grave dug, not one tear permitted, without My bidding. Are you not satisfied when a Living Redeemer has the Keys of Death suspended from His belt? In whose keeping could they be better than in His? Are you afraid to die? Is the thought of death, of your coming dissolution,N fearful to you? "Fear not! I was dead!" I have sanctified that grave and that dark valley by crossing it all before you. I am the abolisher of death; and to all my people I have made the gate of Death and the gate of Heaven one!\par \par JESUS LIVES\emdash what a motto and watchword for us! Many of the most loving and beloved of human friends come only, like Moses and Elias on the mount of which we have spoken, upon angel visits\emdash illuminating the night of earth with a passing yet blessed Oradiance\emdash then leaving us, like the disciples, amid the chill, gray mists of solitude\emdash our path moist with dewy tears, as we hurry back once more to a cold, unsympathizing world. But blessed antidote to all cares! blessed balm for all wounds! blessed compensation for all losses! blessed solace in all sorrows!\emdash if we can descend from the mountain-heights of worldly bliss to the deepest valleys of humiliation and trial with Him still at our side. Jesus lives!\emdash the Living among the dePad\emdash Faithful among the faithless\emdash Changeless among the changeable\emdash the only unfailing, unvarying Friend in a failing, varying world. Jesus lives! Then when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall also appear with Him in glory! Like John, we will fall down at His feet and exclaim, "THIS GOD SHALL BE OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER!"\par \par "I love to hear that voice of old\par Which o'er Patmos' rocky shore\par Thus sweetly spoke, 'I live; behold,\par Q I am alive for evermore!'\par \par "My Savior lives!\emdash no mortal ears\par Can listen to more joyous strains;\par High above yonder rolling spheres\par My God, and yet my Brother, reigns.\par \par "My Savior lives! He intercedes\par Still as the Lamb\emdash the Crucified;\par 'Father, I WILL'\emdash 'tis thus He pleads\emdash\par Ne'er was the boon He asked denied.\par \par "My Savior lives!'\emdash and still His heart\par Responsive beats upon the throne\par To every pang from which I smart;\par He makes my tears and woes His own.\par \par "My Savior lives!'\emdash to see His face\par My endless happiness will be;\par Lord, independent of all place,\par Wherever Thou art, is Heaven to me!"\par \par "Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } Z6Z!Q23. The Way Known{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blueSQM22. Fears Quieted{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FEARS QUIETED\par \par CT0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE WAY KNOWN\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "But He knows the way that I take." Job 23:10\par \par The shadow of a palm of blessed consolation and comfort, under which sat blessed old Job.\par \par The Book of Job has been well defined to be "the record of an earnest soul's perplexities, where the doUuble difficulty of life is solved\emdash the existence of moral evil, and the question whether suffering is a mark of God's wrath or not. What falls from Job's lips is the musing of a man half-stunned, half-surprised, looking out upon the darkness of life, and asking sorrowfully, 'Why are these things so?'" In his checkered experience he loses at times the footsteps of a God of love. Through anguished tears he gives voice to his soul-trouble, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him." "If I go to the east,V He is not there; and if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him" (Job 23:8, 9).\par \par But though to sense and sight all is dark, faith rises to the ascendant, and, piercing the environing cloud, her voice is heard, "But He knows the way that I take." All that Providential drama is arranged by Him\emdash life, with all its lights and shadows, its joys and its sorrows. It is enough for the sufWferer to be assured that his path and lot are not the result of wayward and capricious accident. The furnace (to take the new figure employed in the same verse) is lighted by the God whose hand was for the moment hidden; and that same faith can add, "When He has tried me, I will come forth as gold."\par \par Believer! what a glorious assurance! This way of yours\emdash this, it may be crooked, mysterious, tangled way\emdash this way of trial and of tears, "the way of the wilderness"\emdash "He kXnows it." The furnace, seven times heated\emdash He lighted it. Oh! how would every sorrow and loss be aggravated and embittered if we had nothing to cling to but the theory of arbitrary appointment and dreary fatalism! But we may take courage. There is an Almighty Guide knowing and directing our footsteps, whether it be to the bitter pool of Marah, or to the joy and refreshment of Elim. That way, dark to the Egyptians, has its pillar of cloud and fire for His own Israel. The furnace is hot; but not only Ycan we trust the hand that kindles it, but we have the assurance that the fires are lit not to consume, but to refine; and that when the refining process is completed (no sooner\emdash no later), He brings His people forth as gold. When they think Him least near, He is often nearest. "When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who know my way."\par \par Can we realize these truths in our everyday experience? Can we think of God, not as some mysterious essence, who, by an Almighty fiat, imprZessed on matter certain general laws, and, retiring into the solitude of His being, left these to work out their own processes: but is there joy to us in the thought of His being always near; encircling our path and our lying down? Do we know of One brighter than the brightest radiance of the visible sun, visiting our room with the first waking beam of the morning: an eye of infinite tenderness and compassion following us throughout the day, "knowing the way that we take;" a hand of infinite love guiding [us, shielding us from danger, and guarding us from temptation\emdash "The keeper of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps?" Yes, too, and when the furnace is lit, seeing HIM not only kindling it, but seated by, as "the refiner of silver," tempering the fury of the flames?\par \par The world, in their cold vocabulary in the hour of adversity, speaks of "Providence"\emdash "the will of Providence"\emdash "the strokes of Providence." PROVIDENCE! what is that? Why dethrone a living, directing God f\rom the sovereignty of His own earth? Why substitute an inanimate, deathlike abstraction, in place of an acting, controlling, Personal Jehovah? Why forbid the Angel of bereavement to point his hand up the golden steps of "the misty stair," to "the God above the ladder," saying, "Our Father on high has done it!"?\par \par How it would take the sting from many a sharp trial, thus to see, what the same patriarch saw, (in his hour of aggravated woe, when every earthly Elim-palm lay prostrate at his ]feet with stripped and withered branches)\emdash no hand but the Divine. He saw that Divine hand behind the gleaming swords of the Sabeans\emdash he saw it behind the lightning-flash\emdash he saw it giving wings to the rushing tempest\emdash he saw it in the awful silence of his plundered home\emdash "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!" Thus seeing God in everything, his faith reached its climax when this once-powerful prince of the desert, seated on his ashes, c^ould say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!"\par \par We joyfully believe the day is coming when we shall write under every mysterious providence, "He has done all things well." Yes, bereaved ones, you shall no more weep over early graves, when you yourselves pass upwards to the realms of glory, and hear from the loved and glorified as they are waiting to greet you at the door of heaven, that by an early death they were "taken away from the evil to come." Meanwhile let us rejoice in t_he assurance, that "the Lord reigns!"\emdash that He knows and appoints "the way" both for ourselves and for others. Oh, comforting thought! enough to dry all tears and silence all murmurings\emdash "Is there evil in the city," in the cottage, in the palace\emdash is there evil which blights some unknown poor man's dwelling\emdash is there evil which clothes a nation in mourning, "and the Lord has not done it"?\par \par "If all things work together\par For ends so grand and blest,\par What need to wonder, whether\par Each in itself is blest?\par \par "If some things were omitted\par Or altered as we would,\par The whole might be unfitted\par To work for perfect good.\par \par "Our plans may be disjointed,\par But we may calmly rest;\par What God has once appointed,\par Is better than our best."\par \par "Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } a \par "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16\par \par "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11\par \par There is reposeful rest beyond all others, at the mercy-seat. When the hurricane of temptation and trial\emdash the hot wind of the wilderness is fiercest\emdash who has not felt the peaceful overshadowing of thbis Elim palm?\par \par Prayer for ourselves, the unburdening the heart of its sins and sorrows into the ear of our Heavenly Father; unbosoming our needs, our weaknesses, our frailties and backslidings; it may be the crimson and scarlet stains of which none but the Heart-searcher is aware. The cry for "more grace;" realizing our own weakness, yet realizing, too, the strong arm on which we are encouraged to lean, when our temporary Elims must be left, and the buffeting storm of the wilderness and cthe unknown perils of the renewed journey must be faced!\par \par Prayer for others. Delightful it is to feel that our intercessions fetch down blessings on those who are absent from us. Prayer annihilates space; it knows nothing of distance. That friend, that brother, the companion of your youth, is far separated from you\emdash out on the perilous ocean, or away in the distant colony. The sound of the Sabbath-bell no longer falls on his ear; you can go with him no longer to the house of God ind company; his place is vacant in the pew; his chair is empty at the table; his voice is missed at the home-hearth! But you can be present with him. Prayer can bring you to his side. Prayer can whisper a father's benediction over him. Prayer can sprinkle him with better than a mother's tears. Prayer can fetch the angels of God around him as a guard; his shield in danger, his defense in trouble. Far off in her cottage-home, a thousand miles away, a mother, all unconscious at the moment of the danger of her esailor-boy, is uttering her midnight pleadings for the wanderer. They have ascended at the very crisis of destruction. The cry of the trembling form kneeling by her lonely couch has rocked the waves to rest. It is a mother's "effectual fervent prayers" that have turned the storm into a calm!\par \par Prayer is still the golden key by which we can unlock, alike for ourselves and for others, the treasury of heaven, and "move the arm of Omnipotence." Yes, and what we owe, on the other hand, to the fprayers which have hovered over our cradles and our early years, followed us into the world, grappling for us in our strong temptations, and which, like Jacob wrestling with the angel, have prevailed, will never be known until that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed!\par \par Gracious indeed is this Palm-tree; to be under its shelter is to be beneath the shadow of God. As the devout Payson expresses it, using a different simile, "The best means of keeping near the Lord is the cgloset. Here the battle is lost or won."\par \par What an encouragement to prayer is the divine challenge given in the second of our motto-verses; the earthly father yielding to the requests and importunities of his children\emdash the pledge and guarantee of a still greater willingness on the part of the Heavenly Parent to respond, and that too with a royal abundance to our needs! "How much more?" Never let us suppose that God is unwilling to hear. There is no exhausting that infinite fullness threasured up in Him. It is one of Philip Henry's quaint sayings, "When Abraham interceded for Sodom, God granted as long as he asked; Abraham left off first." God is able to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."\par \par 'It is said,' observes the saintly Rutherford, '"He answered not a word." But it is not said, "He heard not a word." These two differ much. Christ often hears, when He does not answer. His not answering is an answer, and speaks thus, "Pray on, go on, and cry; for thei Lord holds His door fast bolted, not to keep you out, but that you may knock and knock."' Can we doubt either His willingness or ability to hear, when we think of Him who is our Advocate with the Father?\emdash the Angel Intercessor with His censer "full of much incense," sprinkling therewith the polluted and unworthy prayers of His people, and causing them to ascend with acceptance before God? "Ask in My name," says that Divine Intercessor Himself; adding, "And I say not unto you that I will ask the Fatjher for you." What does He mean by this asserted suspension or intermission of His pleadings? Simply, because the utterance of His name is sufficient. It is the passport to the Mercy-seat, the Key which unlocks the Treasury of heaven, and obtains the "how much more" from the Father's heart.\par \par "You have prayed for much\par In the time that's past,\par You must still pray on,\par For your needs come fast;\par Now ask what you will\par From His boundless store,\par The Father is able\par To give 'much more.'\par \par "Hold out the empty hand,\par And He will fill it;\par Tell Him your vexing fear,\par And He will still it.\par Now take what you will\par From His boundless store,\par The Father is willing\par To give 'much more.'"\par \par "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in My name."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par }   ]Yq25. Tender Dealings{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0l?5Y24. Prayer{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 PRAYER\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par`m\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 TENDER DEALINGS\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young." Isaiah 40:11\par \par "A bruised reed He will not break, and na smoldering wick he will not snuff out." Isaiah 42:3\par \par The thoughts most prominently brought before us in these two passages from the Evangelical Prophet, are, the vastness of the Divine condescension and the gentleness of the Divine dealings\emdash the timid, the weak, the bruised, the burdened, the fallen, nestling in peace and safety under the Heavenly Palm-shade!\par \par The great ones of the earth generally associate only with the great. They are like the eagle, which holods little converse with the low, misty valley, when it can get up amid the blue skies and granite peaks. It is the powerful\emdash the rich\emdash the strong\emdash the titled, who are the deified and worshiped. The weak, and poor, and powerless get but a small fraction of regard, and are too often left, unpitied and neglected, to endure the rough struggle of existence as best they may. And the world has accordingly shaped its gods after this its own ideal. We see the embodiment of that ideal chiseled in pthe old slabs of Assyrian marble, where the winged bull or lion is depicted trampling its enemies in the dust\emdash the strong trampling on the weak. But the early Christians had also their truer and nobler symbol, which they have left in crude designs in the Roman catacombs: it is the embodiment of the first words which head this meditation\emdash the often-recurring representation of a Shepherd\emdash the Great Shepherd of the Sheep\emdash the Mighty God\emdash carrying on His shoulder a feeble lamb.\pqar \par Or, to take the figure employed in the second verse\emdash what a word of encouragement to those who require tender dealing!\emdash who are liable, it may be from constitutional temperament, to become the prey of doubts and fears; sensitive in times of trial, irresolute in times of difficulty, unstable in times of temptation. The whole ministry and teaching of Christ is a significant comment on the prophetic utterance\emdash "A bruised reed He will not break." Simple but expressive emblerm! The most fragile object in nature is the shivering reed by the riverside. The Eastern shepherd, tending his flock by the streams where these reeds grow, used them for his rustic flute. When one of them was bruised or broken, he never made the attempt to mend it. Inserting it among the others would only have made his instrument discordant; accordingly, he threw it aside as worthless.\par \par Not so the Great Shepherd. When a human soul is bruised and mutilated by sin, He casts it not away. Hes repairs it for its place in the heavenly instrument, and makes it once more to show forth His praise. Look at David, the Psalmist of Israel. Who more a "bruised reed" than he? God had inspired his soul\emdash made it a many-stringed instrument in discoursing His praise; but now it lay a broken mutilated thing, with the stain of crimson guilt upon it, tuneless and mute. "I kept silence," says he; "my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me, my stretngth was sapped as in the heat of summer."\par \par Does Jehovah desert him?\emdash does He cast the reed away and seek to replace the void by another, worthier and better? Does He mock the cry of penitential sorrow as through anguished tears that stricken one thus implored forgiveness\emdash "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions''? No. Hear him detail his own experience\emdash "I acknowledged muy sin to You, and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord'\emdash and You forgave the guilt of my sin." And then he takes up the re-tuned instrument, and sings for the encouragement of others\emdash "Let everyone who is godly pray to You while You may be found." In the case of some aromatic plants, it is when bruised they give forth the sweetest fragrance; so it is often the soul crushed with a sense of guilt which sends forth the sweetest aroma of humility, gravtitude, and love. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."\par \par Go, bruised one, broken with convictions of sin, or wounded in conscience\emdash go, burdened one, weak and weary lamb of the flock, to this Shepherd of Souls; and as you lie in His bosom, hear His assurance of comfort and consolation\emdash "I will remove your shoulder from the burden"\emdash "O Ephraim, you have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your help." Think how He allowed the fallen to kiss His feet! Thwink how He touched the kneeling leper, and washed the traitor's feet! "I am the Lord who heals you"\emdash "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more!" How many in eternity will be able to testify, in the words of one of the psalms in which the minstrel King of Israel records his experience, as he takes a retrospect of his strangely checkered life\emdash "Your GENTLENESS HAS MADE ME GREAT!"\par \par "Hide and guard us in Your tender arms\par Until the wilderness of life be past;\par Save us from temptation's fatal charms,\par Seal us for Your own from first to last.\par \par "Let Your rod and staff in mercy lead us\par In the footsteps of Your flock below,\par Until 'mid heavenly pastures You shall feed us,\par Where the streams of life eternal flow."\par \par "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } yrepose"\emdash\par \par "She is not dead, but asleep." Luke 8:52\par \par "Your brother will rise again." John 11:23\par \par Let these words suggest thoughts of unutterable solace and refreshment to those who may now be seated in tears and sackcloth under the "Palms of the Valley."\par \par Death is but a quiet sleep. The 'Bible,' it has been said, 'with its finger of love, turns what we dread into gold.' Here the Bible, with its finger of life, turns dreaded deathz into a peaceful slumber. Soon the morning hour shall strike; the waking time of immortality arrive; and the voice of Jesus will be heard, saying, "I go that I may awake them out of sleep."\par \par It has been often noted that there is a beautiful and striking progression in our Lord's three miraculous raisings from the dead. The first in point of time was in the case of the daughter of Jairus, spoken of in our first motto-verse. She was raised immediately after death had taken place; when the {body was still laid on its death couch. Her soul had but taken its flight to the spirit-world, when the angels that bore it away were summoned to restore it. The second, in chronological order, was the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. Death had here achieved a longer triumph. The customary time for mourning had intervened; he was being borne to his last home when the voice of Deity sounded over his funeral casket. The third and last of this class of miracles, was the raising of Lazarus of Bethany.| Over him death had attained a still more significant mastery. The funeral rites were over; the tomb held in its embrace 'the loved and lost'\emdash four days had these lips been sealed before the life-giving and life-restoring word was uttered.\par \par There is one other gigantic step in this progression\emdash "The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth!"\par \par In the first case cited, the time elapsing betwee}n the dismissal of the spirit and its recall was measured by moments, the second by hours, the third by days; the fourth is measured by ages\emdash centuries\emdash a MILLENNIUM. But what of that? What though in conventional language we speak of the tomb as the "long home," and death as "the long sleep"? By Him (with whom a thousand years is as one day), that precious, because redeemed dust, shall be gathered together, particle by particle. "I will ransom them," He says, as He looks forward through the vi~sta of ages to this glorious consummation, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction." Blessed, thrice blessed assurance!\par \par As in the case of Jairus, it was his own loved daughter who, in form and feature, was again restored; as the widow of Nain gazed on the unaltered countenance of her own cherished boy; as the sisters of Lazarus saw in him who came forth from the grave, no alien form, strangely altered, but the brother of their hearts; so, we believe, on that wondrous morning of immortality, shall the loved on earth wear their old familiar smiles and loving looks. They shall retain their personal identity.\par \par No, further; as in the case of the ruler's daughter, her parents received her once more into their arms; as in the case of the widow's son, it is expressly said, "they delivered him to his MOTHER;" as in Bethany, we are allowed to look into the home circle again reunited\emdash Jesus, once more, loving "Martha and Mary and Lazarus," and they loving one another\emdash so may we believe that, on the Resurrection day, the affections which gladdened and hallowed homesteads here, shall not be dulled, quenched, annihilated; but rather ennobled and purified. Like the fabled Phoenix (the "Palm-bird") they shall rise from their ashes in forms of new and more glorious life. Brothers, sisters, parents, children, shall be linked in the fond ties and memories of earth, gathering in loving groups under the shade of immortal palms, by the living fountains of waters, and singing together the Song of Eternity.\par \par "We must not doubt, or fear, or dread,\par That love for life is only given,\par And that the calm and sainted dead\par Will meet estranged and cold in heaven.\par Oh, love were poor and vain indeed,\par Based on so harsh and stern a creed.\par But that which makes this life so sweet\par Shall render heaven's joy complete."\par \par "And the mother gave, in tears and pain,\par The flowers she most did love;\par She knew she should find them all again\par In the fields of light above.\par \par "Oh, not in cruelty, not in wrath\par The Reaper came that day,\par 'Twas an angel visited the green earth\par And took the flowers away."\par \par "He grants sleep to those He loves."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ~~SiM26. Sleeping and Waking{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 SLEEPING AND WAKING\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of x; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Isaiah 51:11\par \par These words had doubtless a primary reference to Israel, seated, not under the old palms of the Sinai wilderness, but rather, at a later age, under the willow-trees of the streams of Babylon; on whose branches a poet of the Captivity so touchingly describes the captives as hanging their muffled harps, and weeping as they remembered Zion.\par \par But they have a grander than local or temporary meaning. Every member of the true Israel of God, as he is seated under the figurative shadow, whether of palm or of willow, whether his experience be joyful or sorrowful, may take heart and courage from the description here given of travelers to a better than earthly Zion; Jehovah's own ransomed ones; whose captivity is turned "as streams in the south," and who are "more than conquerors through Him that loved them."\par \par Taking the passage thus, in its highest spiritual interpretation, these Zionward travelers are beautifully represented, even in the course of their journey, as filled with peace and joy in believing, abounding in hope. Many, while they picture a coming heaven as a place of unmingled happiness and bliss, are apt to picture the way there as one of gloom\emdash every pilgrim reaching it with the furrow on his brow and the tear in his eye; that if any chimes of gladness reach his ears, they come from bells inside the gates of the city, not outside. But these words tell differently and more truly. There are palm trees 'at Elim' as well as "beyond Jordan." The desert is resonant with song.\par \par Gladness and joy are here represented as two attendants\emdash sister spirits, accompanying all the way, hand in hand. Yes! the Christian is, or ought to be, a joyful man. Though it be a wilderness he treads, and though "sorrow and mourning" are also depicted as tracking his footsteps; yet he has elements of tranquil happiness within him, which make the smile, not the tear, the appropriate symbol of his thoughts and emotions. It would be strange, indeed, were it otherwise. At peace with God; sin forgiven; the heart changed; the affections elevated; grace molding, sustaining, quickening, sanctifying; and, rising above all, the assured hope of glory hereafter. He can say, "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound" (Ps. 4:7).\par \par The words, too, seem to tell of an ever-increasing joy. As the portals of glory draw nearer, the song deepens in melody and strength. They come to Zion "with singing;" then "everlasting joy is on their head." Then they obtain a new anointing of "gladness;" and finally "sorrow and mourning"\emdash these two companions of the wilderness, rise on their somber, gloomy wings, and speed away forever!\par \par Is that happiness in any feeble measure ours? Can we appropriate to ourselves, in lowly, humble confidence, that grandest of titles here given to the desert sojourners, "The Redeemed of the Lord"? Do we have on the pilgrim garb\emdash the Righteousness alike imputed and implanted\emdash the attire of the King's daughter, all-glorious without, "all-glorious within"? and is our chief element of joy in the prospect of the Heavenly Zion\emdash not the negative one, the absence of sorrow and mourning\emdash but that which consists in the vision and fruition of Zion's God, assimilation to His character, conformity to His will, active energy in His service, serving Him day and night in His Temple? With such a hope, we may well be patient under present trial; though 'sorrowful,' we may be 'always rejoicing.' "God our Maker gives songs in the night." Better the night, with songs in it, than no night and no song. Better the wilderness and its Elim-groves, than Egypt with its flesh-pots and its bondage. Better the thorn in the nest to tempt to magnificent flight, than to settle in the downy nest of false security and ease, selfishness and death.\par \par The world has its joys too; but, apart from God, they are a poor counterfeit of the true. They are often insecure, uncertain, fitful while they last; the grave will sooner or later close over them, when they will vanish like the transient flash of summer lightning, never to be recalled, or "as a dream when one wakes." But, Christians! "everlasting joy," like a festive wreath or crown, shall be upon your head! Yours are to be robes ever bright, palms ever green, crowns never fading. Elim with all its refreshment and rest, but none of its transience. "The Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended."\par \par "Here, the great unrest of ages;\par Here, the trouble, toil, and strife:\par There, the peaceful, quiet waters\par Of the crystal stream of life.\par \par "Here, the sighing of the branches;\par Here, the wave-beat on the shore:\par There, the ceaseless strain of angels\par Chanting praises evermore.\par \par "Here, the rocks and shoals and quicksands;\par Here, the home beneath the sod:\par There, the haven where we would be;\par There, the presence of our God."\par \par "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } @@=q28. The Great High Priest{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttei27. The Return to Zion{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE RETURN TO ZION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singingbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are\emdash yet was without sin." Hebrews 4:15\par \par  Amid the whisperings from the fronds of these desert Palms, we cannot be wrong in averring that there is one which has a music all its own\emdash pre-eminently valued and cherished.\par \par The consciousness even of human sympathy is most sacred, hallowed, and prized. In these dependent natures of ours, who, in the season of need has not longed for it: and when it comes, has not welcomed it like the presence of a ministering angel? Others working with us, feeling for us\emdash sharing our toils, helping us to carry our burdens; entering into our hopes, our joys, our sorrows; to see the responsive tear glistening in the eye\emdash all this is a mighty strengthener and sustainer amid the difficulties of checkered life. The martyr at the stake has been often nerved for endurance by the whisper of "Courage, brother!" from the fellow-victim at his side. How the Great Apostle in his Roman dungeon\emdash when he was "such an one as Paul the aged" was cheered by the visits of congenial friends, such as Timothy and Onesiphorus! How touchingly does the illustrious captive invoke God's richest benediction on the latter and on his household, for "often refreshing him and not being ashamed of his chain." On the other hand, how sad those circumstances when deprived of all such support\emdash when left to drift hopelessly away from human brotherhood, and to be like a stranded vessel on life's lonely, inhospitable shore!\par \par If human sympathy be thus gladdening and grateful, what must be the pure\emdash exalted\emdash sinless\emdash unselfish sympathy emanating from the Great Brother-Man\emdash the Heavenly Palm-Tree in the midst of the earthly encampment\emdash the sympathy of Jesus, the adorable High Priest of His Church?\par \par "He was in all points tempted." His is a deep, yearning, real sympathy, arising out of His true and real humanity. He came not with an Angel-nature or an Angel-life. He was not, as many falsely picture Him, half Angel, half God\emdash looking down on a fallen world from the far-distant heights of His heavenly throne. But He descended, and walked in the midst of it, pitching His tent among its families\emdash "He took not on Him the nature of Angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham."\par \par The Great Physician lived in the world's hospital. He did not write out His cures in His remote dwelling in the skies, refusing to come into personal contact with the patients. He walked its every ward. With His own hand He felt the fevered pulses; His own eyes gazed on the sufferer's tears. He stood not by the fiery furnace as a spectator, but there was One in it "like the Son of God." He thought our thoughts. He wept our tears.\par \par Yes, we repeat, that Great Being now in heaven, unseen, invisible to mortal eye, so entered when on earth into the subtlest and tenderest sensibilities of our emotional frames, that the heart of His glorified humanity still thrills responsive to every pang in the souls of the people. "In all their afflictions He was afflicted." "He knows their frame," for He had that frame Himself. Every throb they feel, evokes a kindred pulsation in the bosom of the Prince of Sufferers: "for He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one" (nature). Though changed in His outward estate from the Pilgrim Redeemer to that of the exalted Priest and King, His sympathetic feelings know no change, for He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever."\par \par "His," it has been well said by a thinker of modern days, who struggled manfully upwards from skeptic doubt to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus, "His is a sympathy like that of a parent for a child, which is surely the deeper and the tenderer for being above the sphere of its little passions and mistakes. Whose sympathy with a child is best and truest? that of another child who has all the same follies and errors and petty interests and cares, or that of a mother, who knows them all, but does not on her own behalf share in them; who lives in them, and feels for them only through her love?" Such is the sympathy of Jesus.\par \par There are times when the blessed shade of this Palm is specially needed. There are crisis-hours in our lives when we require, in no ordinary way, strong support: when, like Jacob at Bethel, or John at Patmos, we are all alone in a desolate place\emdash the sun of our earthly happiness set: beloved earthly friends vanished and gone. Then, when we may be giving vent to the vain, hopeless wail of our smitten hearts, "Joseph is not and Simeon is not," the despairing cry for support is answered, although not in the sense perhaps we desired or longed for. The Savior Himself delights to come, showing us the ladder which connects the pillow of stones and the weary sleeper, with the heights of heaven. Or, as in the case of the lonely exile of the Aegean sea, raising us from our prostrate condition, as He lays His right hand upon us, and whispers in our ears His own gentle accents of reassuring peace\emdash "Fear not! I AM" (in My unchanging human sympathy as the Elder Brother) "I am He who lives and was dead!"\par \par "Then One, more fair than all the rest to see,\par One to whom all the others bowed the knee,\par Came to me gently, as I trembling lay,\par And, 'Follow Me!' He said, 'This is the way.'\par \par "At length to Him I raised my saddened heart;\par He knew its sorrows, bid its doubts depart.\par 'Don't be afraid,' He said, 'but trust in Me,\par My perfect love shall now be shown to thee.'\par \par "And now henceforth my one desire shall be,\par That He who knows me best should choose for me;\par And so, whatever His love sees good to send,\par I'll trust it's best, because He knows the end."\par \par "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par }  "As a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." Deuteronomy 8:5\par \par Come, child of affliction, and seat yourself under the shadow of this precious verse\emdash this sheltering palm. God disciplines you as a parent. "Can anything," says Harrington Evans, in one of his many brief aphorisms, "dry up tears like this\emdash 'my Father'?"\par \par When an earthly parent uses the rod, he may, like Joseph to his brethren, speak and act with apparent roughness; but who can tell the pangs that all the while are rending his heart\emdash the yearning love with which he regards his prodigal at the very moment he is chastising him! The rod is in a Father's hands\emdash "If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons." An earthly father may act capriciously\emdash from impulse and passion. God never can, never does. An earthly father may misunderstand his child; he may deal with unnecessary severity; he may use words of harshness when more wholesome and considerate would have been words of kindness.\par \par Not so is it with Him who says, "I will discipline you, but only with justice." He measures out every drop in the cup. He wisely and lovingly adapts His dealings to the case, necessities, and emergencies of His people. "As a father"\emdash yes, we may truly say, more tenderly than a father\emdash "has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for He (unlike the kindest earthly parent) knows how we are formed\emdash He remembers that we are dust."\par \par Surely this is, after all, Christianity's noblest and most precious revelation of God. The revelation of Him as a Spirit\emdash the Great Unseen, Unknown, Untraceable, Intangible\emdash everywhere present, beneath, around, about me\emdash with the eye of unerring scrutiny searching the secret labyrinths of the heart\emdash how grand, solemn, awe-inspiring! "Where shall I go from Your Spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence?" But God the FATHER\emdash my Father\emdash the feeling of awe encompassing the Supreme, melts into affection. That All-Seeing One is the archetype of the dearest of human relations\emdash the earthly parent is the shadowy image of the Heavenly!\par \par Specially in the season of affliction, to which our motto-verse refers, is that name suggestive of tenderest consolation. Who, of all the family, does the parent on earth most love and anxiously care for? Is it not the sick and suffering child? The strong shrubs are left to grapple with the storm; it is the weak and fragile ones that are specially tended and sheltered from biting frost or scorching sun. The ninety-nine are left by the shepherd to roam at will, untended, on the mountainside; but the one, foot-sore, fleece-torn wanderer\emdash the one sick or wounded\emdash he grudges no length of journey to support, or to bear back on his shoulder, rejoicing, to the fold.\par \par Sorrowing one, it is on you this great God lavishes His deepest, profoundest sympathy. You are the battered flower He loves most to tend\emdash you are the drooping member of the flock whose wounds He loves most to bind up. As one whom his "father has compassion" (Ps. 103:13), "as one whom his mother comforts" (Isa. 66:13). Repose in quiet confidence under His Heavenly discipline. If even now He is disciplining you, do not seek to accuse or question the infinite love and wisdom of His dealings; but, remembering in whose hand is the rod, be it yours to say, with unmurmuring lips\emdash "YOUR WILL BE DONE."\par \par "The way is dark, my Father! Cloud on cloud\par Is gathering thickly o'er my head, and loud\par The thunders roar above me. See, I stand\par Like one bewildered! Father! take my hand.\par \par "The way is dark, my child! but leads to light;\par I would not always have you walk by sight.\par My dealings now you can not understand,\par I meant it so; but I will take your hand.\par \par  "The day goes fast, my Father! and the night\par Is drawing darkly down. My faithless sight\par Sees ghostly visions: fears, a spectral band,\par Encompass me. O Father! take my hand.\par \par "The day goes fast, my child! But is the night\par Darker to Me than day? In Me is light!\par Keep close to Me, and every spectral band\par Of fears shall vanish. I will take your hand.\par \par "The way is long, my Father! and my soul\par Longs for the rest and quiet of the goal.\par While yet I journey through this weary land,\par Keep me from wandering. Father! take my hand.\par \par "The way is long, my child! But it shall be\par Not one step longer than is best for thee;\par And you shall know, at last, when you shall stand\par Safe at the goal, how I did take your hand."\par \par "Yes, Father, for this was Your good pleasure."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } @@qA29. Fatherly Chastisement{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FATHERLY CHASTISEMENT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par GING\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "But You remain the same." Psalm 102:27\par \par This is an antithetical clause; a statement which is placed in contrast with something preceding, in order to bring the truth it contains more strongly and powerfully before us. The sacred writer deepens the shadows of his background, to give a more vivid prominence to a great Pillar of natural and revealed belief, the Immutability of God. The background! it is the dark, fitful, flitting shadows of time and sense. He thus chronicles their history\emdash "They will perish." His foreground! it is the changeless and unchanging Jehovah, "BUT You remain the same."\par \par The highest and most sublime truths in theology are often supported alike by reason and revelation. What says reason with regard to the Divine Immutability? That if God is a changeable Being He cannot be perfect, for mutability is the necessary attribute of imperfection. Again (if we dare to suppose for a moment), that if God were to undergo a change, it must be an Infinite change; moreover, it must be one of these three (I quote the words of an old divine)\emdash (1.) A change for the better. This would suppose present imperfection. Or (2.) a change for the worse; bold and blasphemous impiety, which would reduce the Holy One to a level with the creature. A third supposition\emdash most presumptuous of all\emdash is that of annihilation. This would leave the world without God, which would be a contradiction in terms.\par \par Turn we, now, to what is the testimony of revealed scripture. That testimony, though uttered in many ways, may be comprised in the one assertion, "I the Lord do not change" (Mal. 3:6). Glorious truth! To think, as imagination wings its flight from everlasting to everlasting, that in the existence of the Being whose lifetime is eternity, there has been no "variableness"\emdash that He was the same before the world was; that He is the same now; and will be the very same, ages and ages after the angel has stood on the wreck of matter and proclaimed "Time to be no longer"\emdash as perfect at the present moment as He can be when an "eternity of eternity" shall have rolled by.\par \par But in what ways may this unchangeableness of God be regarded as a 'Palm of Elim,' imparting a sense of rest and refreshment to those encamping under its shadow? Comforting doctrine, it undoubtedly is. It leads us, among other reflections, to feel assured of His certain foreknowledge of all events\emdash that whatever happens to us must be ordained by Him; and that the fitful changes in a changing world\emdash our relations to one another, our domestic and social ties, our joys and our sorrows, are ordained, watched, and controlled by Him, who sits enthroned alike amid the radiant sunshine and above and behind the cloud-lands of life; bringing good out of seeming evil, order out of apparent confusion; overruling all (ALL), for His own glory and for the best interests of His Church.\par \par He is spoken of as "the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17). "This," observes an eminent Christian of a former age, commenting on the words, "is His disposition. An act of love may be very kind, but there is no security for the future. But when the disposition is love\emdash unchanging love\emdash all must be loving because He is love\emdash all must be wise because He is wisdom." "Because God," says the inspired writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged" (Heb. 4:17, 18).\par \par There is a view of this peerless truth connected with our motto-verse, pre-eminently comforting, to which we have not yet turned our attention. The passage of which that verse forms a part, has, by Scriptural warrant (Heb. 1:10-12) a special application to the adorable Person in the sacred Trinity, who is pre-eminently the PALM under whose shadow His Pilgrim Israel repose. Christ, the God-man Mediator, may be supposed (in vers. 23-27) to address His Divine Father\emdash "In the course of My life He broke my strength; He cut short My days. So I said: 'Do not take Me away, O My God, in the midst of My days.'" Then follows the Father's answer\emdash "Your years go on through all generations. In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end" (vers. 24-2 7). Yes, of Jesus, wearing our glorified human nature\emdash the sympathies of a refined and exalted humanity, we can say, "You are the same."\par \par The absolute unchangeableness of God we could take little hold of \emdash it is high, we cannot attain to it. But "the Man Christ Jesus"\emdash the same as He lived and moved and suffered and died on earth; the same in His compassion, in His words of mercy, in His messages of love, in His tenderness to the penitent, the fearful, the doubting; in His sympathy with the bereaved and lonely; and who no longer with tears to shed, has still the heart to feel\emdash Oh, when the spirit is torn with sorrow, and wounded with thoughts into which the cold world cannot enter; when estrangement severs brother from brother and friend from friend; where can the eye peacefully repose but on this unchanging One? "BUT YOU are the same!" Truly this is "an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast," for it "enters within the veil!"\par \par Change is our portion here in this present world. The Psalmist in this passage points to the starry heavens above, and the apparently immovable, immutable foundations of the earth beneath, and inscribes on them the record, "They will perish. Like clothing You will change them and they will be discarded" (as a worn-out garment which the Almighty Maker lays aside, as for no more use). When everything within and around us may be echoing the same sad verdict, it is blessed to be able to turn from the unstable to the stable; from the reed which the blast may bend and the hurricane shiver, to the Great living ROCK which spurns the storm and defies all change! In a word, to lay firm grasp on the glorious antithesis of Israel's Kingly Minstrel. It is God in contrast with man; Immutability in contrast with mutability, the Infinite with the finite, the mortal with the Immortal, Eternity with time. "But You are the same!"\par \par "Our years are like the shadows\par On sunny hills that lie;\par Or flowers that deck the meadows\par That blossom but to die;\par A sleep, a dream, a story,\par By strangers quickly told,\par An evanescent glory\par Of things that soon are old.\par \par "O God! the Rock of Ages,\par Who evermore has been,\par What time the tempest rages\par Our dwelling-place serene.\par Before Your first creations\par You were the same as now,\par To endless generations\par The Everlasting Thou!"\par \par "Those who know Your name will trust in You."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } TTiU 30. God Unchanging{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 GOD UNCHANthew 12:15\par \par The last words which fell upon the ears of Israel before coming to Elim, and while they were yet encamped at Marah, were these\emdash "JEHOVAH ROPHI," "I am the Lord which heals you." Christ is this Great Physician\emdash the Universal Healer\emdash the Curer of every species and every case of spiritual paralysis. The appeal of the weeping prophet\emdash "Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?"\emdash is silenced in the presence of the Divine Restorer. Amid endless diversities of country, climate, language, manners, civilization\emdash in the polished age, the uncivilized age, the philosophic age, the war age, the utilitarian age, the human heart is found the same\emdash and the One Physician, the one medicine, "Christ crucified," is able to heal all diseases. "He is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes." To every one! We may follow the sun in his fiery course as he circles the globe, and in vain shall we search for the spot on which he shines, where this Gospel may not be freely proclaimed.\par \par Let none stand in doubt, owing to any peculiarity of circumstance, as to their warrant to appropriate the purchased blessings of Redemption. There is but one condition which, using another figure, the Divine Healer Himself employs, as He invites His Pilgrim people to the true 'Wells of Elim'\emdash "If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink." No other condition is there, in partaking of the living springs. The quality of water is not affected by the nature of the vessel which contains it; the water is the same, whether it be taken in a golden goblet or an earthen jar\emdash by the king holding it in his jeweled cup, or the beggar that has no cup but the palm of his hands.\par \par So is it with the water in the wells of Salvation. Around these, the rich and poor, naturally and spiritually, meet together; and whether it be with vessels of great, or vessels of small quantity\emdash "vessels of cups" or "vessels of flagons"\emdash the invitation is the same, "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "Whoever comes to Me" (irrespective of all sins, shortcomings, moral disabilities) "I will never drive away."\par \par Look at that scene in the early Church; Peter and John healing the impotent man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. It was an acted parable of the healing influence of the Gospel and the Gospel's Author. That helpless cripple, at the all-powerful name of "JESUS OF NAZARETH," cast aside his crutches, rose from his couch of miserable helplessness, with strength in his powerless limbs, and praise on his long-sealed lips. And next day, when the two apostles were summoned before the high priest, with the rulers, and elders, and scribes, and asked, "By what power, or by what name, have you done this?" Peter nobly replied (and it is a reply applicable to every diseased, helpless, sin-stricken sinner, who has risen from his couch of misery and entered the Temple of grace, walking, and leaping, and praising God), "If we are being asked to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, by whom God raised from the dead, that his man stands before you healed" (Acts 4:9, 10).\par \par That all-powerful name and that all-powerful theme has lost none of its efficacy. May its music gladden us through life! As we move from encampment to encampment in the pilgrim journey, may "peace through the blood of His cross" be the gracious words which fall on our ears as we strike the tent and prepare to follow the unknown way. May they be the last to cheer us when our footsteps are on the brink of Jordan! Let us listen, in closing, to words from one of the "Hymns of the Fatherland"\emdash\par \par "Weep not, Jesus hears thee,\par Hears your moanings broken,\par Hears when you right wearily\par All your grief have spoken.\par Raise your cry,\par He is nigh,\par Everything on earth be shaken,\par You will never be forsaken.\par "Weep not, Jesus hears thee;\par \par He shall come and surely save;\par And each sorrow you shall see\par Lie buried in your grave.\par Sin shall die,\par Grief shall fly.\par You have wept your latest tears\par When the Lord of life appears."\par \par "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."\par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 9Y)31. Healing for All{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 HEALING FOR ALL\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He healed all their sick." Mat "He rules forever by His power." Psalm 66:7\par \par The Psalm from which these words are taken is one of the many that were inspired by memories of the Sinai wilderness\emdash the great drama of the Exodus. The words of our motto-verse are ushered in by the proudest of these memories\emdash "Come and see what God has done,\'85He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot\emdash come, let us rejoice in Him.\'85He rules forever by His power." Varied are the figures employed by the sacred psalmist in describing the illustrious event. Jehovah had broken the meshes of the enclosing net (11). From the fire of Egypt's brick-kilns He had rescued them (12). Through the furnace they had emerged purified (10). He conducted them through the raging flood of the Red Sea (6). They had only to "stand still and see the salvation of God" (5 and 12). "For you, O God, tested us; You refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us to a place of abundance." (vers. 10-12).\par \par An emancipation effected from the territory of the greatest and proudest of the old world dynasties\emdash an enslaved people, in the might of their God, rising in a night, breaking their chains, leaving every memento of bondage and degradation behind them; and after a miraculous march of forty years, at last entering triumphantly the promised land. All this could not have been accomplished without the cognizance of the surrounding nations. Hence the Psalmist, remembering these glorious 'works of the Lord and His wonders of old,' breaks out into a lofty appeal to the kingdoms of his own age to recognize the hand of Israel's Jehovah. (ver. 1) "Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God, 'How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that your enemies cringe before You.'\'85He rules forever by His power."\par \par  What a glorious palm-shade to camp under! What an unspeakably comforting assurance, whether to nations or to individuals, that the same mighty hand which shattered the chains of the Hebrew bondsmen and smote the tongue of the Egyptian sea, may be recognized in every event which happens to His people\emdash every public calamity, every domestic heart-sorrow. Whether it be the bondage and deliverance of a nation, or the preparing and withering of a family gourd, we can write above all, "He rules forever by His power." Whether He smites or heals, darkens or gladdens, gives or takes away, it is ours to say, in the words of this inspiring hymn (vers. 8, 9), "Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard; He has preserved our lives." Life is His. He kindles the spark, and, when He sees fit, He quenches it. Death is but the revocation of His own grant, the lapsing of the lease into the hands of life's great Proprietor. "You turn men back to dust, saying, 'Return to dust, O sons of men.'"\par \par The psalm is thought by some to have been specially composed by David on the occasion of that great festival at the end of his reign, when, after having collected material for his projected Temple on Mount Moriah, 'all Israel' assembled, at the summons of their aged king, and in response to his appeal, "consecrated their service to the Lord." What could be more natural than for the minstrel monarch, at such a time, to return in the first instance to God's wondrous transactions with them as a nation, ever since the hour of the Exodus; and then to pass to a personal retrospect of God's dealings with himself throughout his varied history, from the morning of his life in the valleys of Bethlehem until now, when the sun was setting and the shadows were falling? He too had to tell of varied sorrows. He too had been tried as silver is tried. He too had been brought through fire and through water, and had affliction laid upon his loins, (affliction which few bereaved parents are called to endure). But even on the mingled retrospect, in which all these figures of speech met\emdash the furnace, the net, the fire, the flood, the sack-clothed loins\emdash he could see mercy\emdash rich, undeserved mercy, mingling with, and tempering judgment.\par \par The dark clouds of his stormy life were alternated with glorious sunshine; the dreary spots of the wilderness were far outnumbered by the green. Elim palms stood conspicuous amid stretches of barren sand. And remembering how graciously God had heard his prayers in the past, supported him in trouble, and made his earthly trials conspire for the good of his soul, we can understand how appropriately he records his votive resolve in ver. 13, "I will come to Your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to You\emdash vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble. I will sacrifice fat animals to You and an offering of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me." He gives to God all the glory of his past deliverances and triumphs. He takes none to himself. "Sing forth," he says, "the honor of His name\'85which kept our feet from slipping."\par \par The psalm and its many devout and instructive sentiments was designed for the Church of God and believers in every age. Its lessons are not local but universal. The safe and triumphant passage of Israel through the Red Sea, and the Jordan of old, are pledges of covenant mercy to His people in all times and in all seasons of affliction. Through every sea of sorrow and trouble He makes a passage for them, gives songs in the night, takes off their sackcloth, and girds them with gladness. It is a striking assertion, "through the flood" (the place where we might have expected nothing but trembling and terror, anguish and dismay)\emdash "there," says the Psalmist, "did we rejoice in Him!"\par \par How many there are who can endorse this as their experience: that "there," in their very seasons of distress and sadness, they have been enabled, as they never did before, to triumph and rejoice. How near their God in covenant is brought! how brightly shine His promises! In the day of our prosperity we cannot see the brilliancy of these. Like the sun at noon, hiding out the stars from sight, they are indiscernible; but when night overtakes, the deep dark night of sorrow, out come these clustering stars\emdash blessed constellations of Bible hope and promise and consolation. Like Jacob at Jabbok, it is when our earthly sun goes down that the Divine Angel comes forth, and we wrestle with Him and prevail.\par \par It was at night, "in the evening," Aaron lit the sanctuary lamps. It is in the night of trouble the brightest lamps of the believer are often kindled. It was in his loneliness and exile John had the glorious vision of his Redeemer. There is many a Patmos still in the world, whose brightest remembrances are those of God's presence and upholding grace and love in solitude and sadness. How many pilgrims, still passing through these Red Seas and Jordans of earthly affliction, will be enabled in the retrospect of eternity to say\emdash full of the memories of God's great goodness, "We went through the flood on foot, THERE"\emdash there, in those dark experiences, with the surging waves on every side, deep calling to deep, Jordan, as when Israel crossed, it in 'the time of overflowing,' (flood), yet "THERE did we rejoice in Him!" "Sing forth the honor of His name, and make His praise glorious."\par \par There are seasons, indeed, when we cannot tune the harp of broken strings, when the summons of the 5th verse is more appropriately ours, "Come, and see what God has done, how awesome His works in man's behalf!" When we have to say unto Him, "How awesome are Your deeds!" But while justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne, mercy and truth go continually before His face. While "One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and You, O Lord, are loving." "I will sing of Your love and justice; to You, O Lord, I will sing praise!" "We went through fire and water, but You brought us to a place of abundance!"\par \par Occupying now the glorious place of security, which can alone be found in Christ and His finished salvation, let us commit the keeping of our souls, and of all near and dear to us, to Him for the future in well doing; knowing that there will be no floods or fires sent but what He appoints; and, if sent, let us seek to be able to say, "may Your will be done!" That so we may come at last to stand without fault before the throne, with every flood passed, every fire quenched, every tear dried. With room found provided, for all whom death has severed from us, in that "place of abundance" above; and confident then, at least, that the Divine dispensations and dealings were for our good, we shall be able to utter the invitation, "Come, and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me."\par \par "Source of my life's refreshing springs,\par Whose presence in my heart sustains me,\par Your love appoints me pleasant things,\par Your mercy orders all that pains me.\par \par "Well may Your own beloved, who see\par In all their lot their Father's pleasure,\par Bear loss of all they love, save Thee,\par Their living, everlasting treasure."\par \par "I will take refuge in the shelter of Your wings."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } iiC MI32. Divine Power{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 DIVINE POWER\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose\emdash\par \par is is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."\par \par "The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord." Psalm 37:23, 39\par \par Here are two fronds of God's palm-grove bending over His true people.\par \par Comforting, as we have seen, is the great fundamental truth of theology\emdash "The Lord reigns"\emdash that all events are ordered and controlled by a supreme superintending Providence. But there is a special comfort to believers\emdash the spiritual Israel of every age\emdash that their 'steps,'\emdash their plans and purposes in life (in a better and nobler than the heathen sense\emdash their "destinies")\emdash are overruled by a gracious covenant-Jehovah.\par \par That is a beautiful picture given in Hosea (11:1-5) of God, as a Father, watching and guiding the steps of His own children. Israel is first spoken of as a child in its parent's arms. The Almighty, all-loving Parent is represented, next, as assisting the feeble little one in its first attempts to walk, supporting it in case of stumbling\emdash "I also taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms." Then, still farther, He is described as putting them in leading-strings, following them step by step\emdash "I led them with cords of human kindness." And now, in this psalm, when the child has advanced to years of spiritual maturity, the inspired writer asserts the continuance and permanency of this same gracious paternal care and supervision\emdash "A good man's steps are ordered by the Lord."\par \par The earthly parent, after a few brief years, leaves the child to its own resources, to walk alone, and care for itself. Not so our Heavenly Father. The man's footsteps, as well as the child's, are 'ordered.' In all the varied circumstances of existence, the Eternal God is still his refuge; and, with the eye of the watchful mother on tottering infancy, "underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. 33:27). "Though he stumbles, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand!" (Ps. 37:24). And as he pursues his onward way, at times ready to faint, ready to fall\emdash stumbling along the rough, stony path\emdash his cry is never unaided, his prayer never unanswered, "Uphold me, and I will be delivered"\emdash "Your right hand shall save me!" Oh blessed assurance, that every event, every so-called contingency\emdash every step from the infancy of grace, to the manhood of glory, every rugged ascent, every thorny thicket, every trial and every tear, is "ordered by the Lord."\par \par The sweet singer of Israel rises, before the psalm is closed, to a similar and yet loftier subject of gratitude and adoration. While he exults in a God of Providence, he keeps his last note for a God of GRACE\emdash "The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord" (ver. 39). It was the theme which cheered and supported himself in the ever-present consciousness of a guilty, though forgiven, past. It was the theme ("the everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part") which thrilled on his dying lips when the checkered glories of earthly sovereignty were passing away forever, and he was about to take up the nobler singing of the skies\emdash "This is all my salvation and all my desire!" He magnifies the name and doings and sovereign love of the same God whom He had trusted as his Shepherd (Ps. 23:1), who had nerved his arm for battle, and tuned his lips for praise, who had led him to the green pastures of grace, and at last brought him to the gates of glory.\par \par "Salvation comes from the Lord!" Let that, too, be the keynote of our life song. All is of grace. When the vessel of our eternal destinies was wrecked and stranded, it was a tide flowing from the sea of His own infinite love which set it once more floating on the waters. He might have left us to perish. He might have put a vial of judgment into every angel's hand to pour down vengeance on an apostate world; or, taking the figure suggested by this Volume, He might have left our earth the waste-howling wilderness sin had made it; morally and spiritually, without shade of palm, or music of fountain. How different! In the words of the Great Prophet, "The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness (not dirge or wailing) will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing." (Isa. 51:3). "God did not send His Son into the world to CONDEMN the world, but to SAVE the world through Him."\par \par And what is there to hinder any from making every blessing of that great salvation their own? Not God, for He "has justified!" Not Christ, for He "has died!" We cannot say with the king of Nineveh, "Who can tell if God will turn?" He will turn. He has turned. To each individual sinner He declares, "I take no pleasure in the death of anyone." To all who are willing to listen to His pleadings, He seems to say in the words He puts into the mouth of Isaiah: "I will make an everlasting covenant with You, My faithful love promised to David" (Isa. 55:3). The "faithful" love!\par \par What is sure or abiding under the sun? Our health? The strong frame may in a moment be bowed. Our wealth? By some sudden collapse it may take wings and fly away. Our friends? A word\emdash a look\emdash may estrange some; the grave, in the case of others, may have put its impressive mockery on the dream of earth's immortality. Our homes? The summons comes to strike our tent, and leave behind us the Elim-palms under which we long rested, or the smoldering hearths of a hallowed past, so that "the place that once knew us, knows us no more."\par \par But here is one sure thing. Here is a Covenant which has the pillars of immutability to rest upon. Casting our anchor within the veil, we can outride the storm; the golden chain of grace links us to the throne of God. And when the varied scenes and circumstances of the present are ended, and we are brought to take our stand with the multitude which no man can number\emdash "the harpists on the glassy sea"\emdash it will be to resume the twofold song and theme of earth\emdash the God who reigns, and the God who saves\emdash the anthem of Providence and the anthem of Grace; for there they sing "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Rev. 15:3).\par \par "'A little while' for patient vigil keeping,\par  To face the storm, to wrestle with the strong;\par 'A little while,' to sow the seed with weeping,\par Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest song.\par \par "'A little while,' 'mid shadow and illusion,\par To strive by faith Love's mysteries to spell;\par Then read each dark enigma's clear solution,\par And hail Light's verdict\emdash 'He does all things well.'\par \par "'A little while,' the earthly pitcher taking\par To wayside brooks from far-off fountains fed,\par Then the parched lip its thirst forever slaking\par Beside the fullness of the Fountain-head.\par \par "And He who is at once both Gift and Giver,\par The future glory and the present smile,\par With the bright promise of the glad 'forever,'\par Will light the shadows of 'the little while.'"\par \par "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 7!m33. Providence and Grace{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 PROVIDENCE AND GRACE\par \par "Thesting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "We will all be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:52\par \par Another glimpse, beneath the palm-trees of the distant horizon, bringing with it a restful and tranquilizing assurance.\par \par How many are led, from time to time, to anxiously ponder with all sincerity\emdash 'How can we, with all our wretched frailties and shortcomings, our memories of guilt and backsliding\emdash with some, it may be, the remembrance of scarlet and crimson stains\emdash dream of admission into the world of untarnished purity, undimmed and undefiled by the intrusion of one unhallowed thought? How can we, ragged, sin-stricken, woe-worn, desert travelers, be fitted for the angel-life and angel-service of the Heavenly Canaan?'\par \par I answer\emdash A glorious change will pass on your now partially renovated spirits, at death. "What we will be has not yet been made known. But when He appears, we know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." These, at present, drooping, lagging, "unfit" souls, will, by a transforming process which we cannot now begin to imagine or comprehend, be made fit for the holy presence and enjoyment of a holy God.\par \par Go to the garden, from which winter has just been removing its icy mantle\emdash and over which the first breath of genial spring has been passing. Watch on the gravel-walk or nestling on the rockery, that repulsive insect (a caterpilar)\emdash you half wonder how God, the infinite Architect, in the plenitude of His skill, could not have devised something more beautiful than this little mass of inert life! But bend your steps to that same sunny nook when the balmy breezes of a July morning are wafting by. What do you see now? That forbidding chrysalis has unlocked its secret\emdash that tiny prison-house has sent forth a joyous captive, radiant with beauty. See it with spangled body and golden wings, reveling amid the luscious sweets and the play of sunshine\emdash each flower opening its cup and making it welcome to its daintiest treasures.\par \par What a feeble image of the transformed, metamorphosed spirit, in that hour when, life's winter's storms all past, it bursts its prison-bars\emdash "leaves its encumbering clay;" and, gifted with angel-wings, soars aloft to summer in the bliss of the beatific presence! "O you of little faith, why do you doubt?" "God will fulfill His purpose for you." In that last solemn moment\emdash "in the twinkling of an eye"\emdash He will fit you, by "the working of His mighty power," for taking your place among the spirits of the just made perfect, and for being one of the rejoicing multitude who are "without fault before the throne."\par \par Bunyan represents Mr. Feeble-mind and Mr. Ready-to-halt, after all their fearful thoughts, as safe at last. He describes the post as sounding his horn at their chamber doors. "I have come to you," says the postman, addressing the latter\emdash "I have come to you from Christ, whom you have followed on crutches. He expects you at His table to dine with Him in His kingdom;" and then he pictures him, on reaching the brink of the river, as throwing away his crutches. So will it be with many of God's true people, who are indulging needless apprehensions, "because of the oppression of the enemy." If fearful now, the day is coming, the day of the great gathering of souls, when, like the pilgrim Hebrews of old, you will stand triumphant on yonder shore, exulting in the truth of your Heavenly Father's assurance, which you may at present be so slow to credit\emdash "The enemies you see today you will never see again." You may now be wailing, in notes of sadness, your weakness and feebleness. Like some captive bird, you may think that your wings are disabled, your energies paralyzed, your song silenced. But not so. In God's own time the cage will be opened, and on newborn wings of faith and love, you will go singing to the gate of Paradise, and catch up the melody of kindred song wafted from its groves of bliss!\par \par Paul's spiritual experience, as that of many, was reflected figuratively in one of the most memorable incidents of his human life. For successive days and nights he was buffeted with winds and waves and darkness on the Adriatic Sea, "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved" (Acts 27:20). But what is his closing entry in that record of imminent peril? "Everyone reached land in safety" (ver. 44).\par \par "O wretched man that I am!"\emdash breathes out in another place "that strong swimmer in his agony," as he is breasting the moral and spiritual current which threatens to bear him down\emdash "who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But knowing that his, at last, will be sure deliverance and triumph, the accents of faith are heard loud above surge and flood\emdash "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 8:24, 25). As if he said, 'He will deliver me; He will save me. He will "transform this lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body." He will change this vile soul and transform it into His own image from glory to glory. The storm of the stormiest life will then be changed into a calm!'\par \par "After tired tossing,\par Fighting with foam;\par After waves dashing,\par Haven and home.\par \par "After wound-fever,\par Healing and balm;\par After winds warring,\par Quiet and calm.\par \par "After hard rowing,\par Resting the hand;\par After long sowing,\par Reaping the land.\par \par "After dark dungeon,\par The hill-top free;\par After earth, heaven\emdash\par What will it be?\par \par "When the shaded pilgrim land\par Fades before my closing eye,\par Then revealed on either hand\par Heaven's own scenery shall lie.\par Then the veil of flesh shall fall,\par Now concealing, darkening all.\par \par "When upon my wearied ear\par Earth's last echoes faintly die;\par Then shall angel harps draw near\par All the chorus of the sky.\par Long-hushed voices blend again,\par Sweetly in that welcome strain.\par \par "Here were sweet and varied tones,\par Bird, and breeze, and fountain's fall,\par Yet creations travail-groans\par Ever sadly sighed through all;\par There no discord jars the air,\par Harmony is perfect there.\par \par "Here devotion's healing balm\par Often came to soothe my breast,\par Hours of deep and holy calm,\par Pledges of eternal rest.\par But the bliss was here unknown\par Which shall there be all my own."\par \par "Then they were glad when it grew calm, and He guided them to their desired haven."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ]"yQ34. Transformation at Death{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 TRANSFORMATION AT DEATH\par \par "This is the rPhilippians 2:7\par \par "The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling (lit. tented) among us." Yes, He, the true Heavenly Palm (if it be allowable for a moment to mix the metaphor) Himself came down amid the wilderness grove; He, the Pilgrim of pilgrims, in infinite condescension and love, pitched His tent in the midst of the human encampment! How comforting and consoling, our Divine Redeemer thus identifying Himself with our tried, tempted, woe-worn humanity! Moreover, that in stooping to assume our nature, He selected not the exalted condition, but linked Himself rather with poverty and distress and dependence, in order that the poorest and the humblest, the most wretched and forlorn, might catch balm-words of comfort from His lips\emdash the lips of Him who often had nowhere to lay His head.\par \par Let us think of that lowly nature of His, thus embracing in its scope every class and every phase of being, even those who had until now been neglected and disowned. Rome was accustomed to deify the manly virtues exclusively\emdash strength, courage, heroic endurance. Greece wreathed her crowns around the brows of her intellectual heroes\emdash her poets and philosophers, her sculptors and painters. But the weak, the ignorant, the oppressed, had none to vindicate their cause until He came, who pronounced "Blessed"\emdash not the great, or rich, or powerful, or learned\emdash but the meek, the mourner, the poor in spirit, the persecuted, him who had no helper! Hence, groups composed of every diversity of character tracked His footsteps and hailed in Him a friend.\par \par Stern, strong men like Peter; intellectual, thoughtful men like Thomas; loving and meditative men like John. Penitence crept unabashed to His feet, and bathed them confidingly with tears. Sorrow came with sobbing heart and speechless emotion to be comforted. The poor came with their tale of long-endured misery. Infancy came stretching out its tiny arm, and smiled delighted in His embrace. While He rejoiced with those who rejoiced, He wept with those who wept. The fainting multitudes moved Him to compassion; the one petitioner in the crowd who touched His garment-hem, arrested His steps and drew forth His mercy. Every weary, wandering bird, with drooping wing, seemed to come and perch on the thick branches of this gracious Palm of Elim\emdash this mighty Cedar of God. Beautifully has it been said: "In His heart Mercy may be said to have held her court: Holiness could dispense with an Ark and Tables to hold her laws; for in His life its enshrined glory was made so transparent, that even demons confessed Him to be the Holy One of God."\par \par Believer, you who perhaps may be fainting under life's burden and heat, come and once again take refuge in the contemplation of the perfect Manhood of the adorable Son of God! Delight often to think of Him as a partaker of your nature. Though He has been well described, "as the One only true and perfect flower which has ever unfolded itself out of the root and stalk of humanity," yet it was a real\emdash a true humanity. It is because they come welling from the depths of a human heart\emdash because their music vibrates on a human lip\emdash that the words are so unspeakably tender, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."\par \par Those who are thus buffeting the storm, exposed to the windy blast of the desert, battling with care, harassed with anxiety, prostrated with bereavement, stricken with conscious guilt, longing for safe rest and deliverance from earth's sins and sorrows\emdash can understand the deep meaning of the central words in the importunate prayer of blind Bartimeus at the gate of Jericho\emdash "Jesus, Son of David (Elder Brother), have mercy on me!" It will be from glorified human lips, too, the welcome will at last be given\emdash "Come, you who are blessed by My Father, take your inheritance, the Kingdom!"\par \par "His the descent from everlasting bliss,\par In manger born, to raise us up on high;\par A woe-worn Pilgrim in earth's wilderness,\par Wedding our finite dust with Deity.\par \par "Around His path no blazoned banners wave,\par No jeweled diadem His brows adorned,\par His cradle borrowed, and a borrowed grave,\par Servant of servants, poor, despised, and scorned.\par \par "Thus was He more than Brother unto all,\par The poor, the lost, the burdened, the oppressed;\par Not one excluded from the gracious call,\par 'Come unto Me, ye weary, and have rest!'\par \par "Peace for the guilty, stung with conscious sin,\par Peace for bereaved ones, wailing for their dead,\par Peace amid waves without and storms within,\par The troubled soothed, the mourner comforted."\par \par "For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } i#mu35. The Incarnate Savior{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE INCARNATE SAVIOR\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Taking the very nature of a servant." "\emdash\par \par "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline." Revelation 3:19\par \par What! speak of rest and refreshment when, it may be, the ringing sound of the axe is heard amid cherished earthly palm-groves all around, and the sands are strewn with lopped branches and scattered leaves! Yes. It is even so. "The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more! But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear Him" (Ps. 103:16, 17).\par \par The words of our motto-verse, too, observe, were spoken, not by the lips of Christ the Sufferer on earth, but by the glorified lips of Christ the Exalted King. They are whisperings of the Heavenly Palm, which come wafted to us from the groves of Paradise.\par \par "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful!" The divine dispensations are often incomprehensible. Jehovah's name to His people is at times that which He gave to Manoah\emdash "Wonderful," "Secret," "Mysterious." That corroding sickness, that wasting heritage of pain, these long tossings on a fevered, sleepless pillow; where can there be love or mercy there? But the silence and loneliness of the sickbed is the figurative "wilderness," where He "allures" that He may "speak tenderly to them, and give them back their vineyards" (Hosea 2:14, 15); rousing them from the low dream of earth, from the base and the worldly, from busy care and debasing concern, to the divine and the heavenly.\par \par Or, that unexpected heritage of poverty\emdash the crash of earthly fortune, the forfeiture of earthly gain, the stripping the walls of cherished and familiar treasure, and sending those nursed in the lap of luxury, penniless on the world\emdash where is there mercy or love here? But it is through this beneficial, though rough discipline, that He weans from the debilitating influence of prosperity, leading them to exchange the pot of earthly stew, for the bread of life\emdash perishable substance for the fine gold of heavenly gain and durable riches.\par \par Or, that cruel blighting of young hope and pure affection\emdash the withering of some cherished Elim-palm; the opening of early graves for the loving and beloved; holiest ties formed, but the memory of which is all that remains; where is there kindness and mercy in creating bonds only to sever them, raising up friends only to bury them? The plaintive experience and utterance of the lone mother in Israel is that of many\emdash "Don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter" (Ruth 1:20).\par \par But the streamlets are dried by Him, in order to lead to the great Fountain-head; the links of earthly affection are broken, in order that stronger and more enduring ones may be formed above; the cracks have been made in the house of clay, only to render more inviting "the building of God\emdash the house not made with hands;" stimulating to live more for that world where all is perfection, where we shall stand "without fault before the throne."\par \par A writer notes, that migratory birds are carried high by contrary winds, and that, by being so carried, their flight is assisted. So is it with trial. "The wind is contrary," but it impels to an upward and a God-ward flight. As it is often in the cloudy and rainy day that the mountains look near us, so often in the soul's gloomiest seasons the hills of God are brought nearest. Tribulation is the first link in the Apostle's golden chain. Dr. Trench, in his "Study of Words," tells us that "tribulation" is derived from the Latin tribulum, which was the machine by which the grain was sifted. Tribulation is the process of sifting, by which God clears away the chaff and the golden grain is retained. See, too, the gracious result of this sifting process. 'Tribulation,' to use the comment of an earnest speaker in applying the reference, 'works, what? We might have expected the natural result, 'impatience.' It is the reverse; by the imparted grace of Him in whose hands the tribulum is, "tribulation works patience"' (Rom.5:3).\par \par Suffering Christian, you may well trust Him who uttered the surprising saying which heads this meditation\emdash who gave the mightiest pledge of love He could give, by giving His own life\emdash that there is some all-wise "needs be" in the trials He has laid upon you. They are designed to bring you nearer to Himself. They are His own appointed gateways, opening up and admitting to great spiritual blessings. Be assu red the day will come, when these mysteries in your present lot will extract nothing from your lips but grateful praise; when you shall joyfully testify\emdash 'Had it not been for these wilderness experiences; that lengthy illness, that loss of worldly position, the death of that dear relative or friend, I would still have been clinging to earth as my portion, content with the polluted stream and the broken cistern, instead of drawing water out of the wells of salvation.'\par \par An earthly fa ther often demonstrates a false leniency by never giving the needful rebuke which, timely given, might have averted many a bitter life-sorrow. God rebukes and disciplines just because He loves; and never is His love more tender than when the rod is in His hand and the rebuke on His lips. The rebukes of an earthly father are often poorly timed\emdash the result, it may be, of passion or impulse. "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that w e may share in His holiness" (Heb. 12:10). These withered branches, stripped from some favorite grove in the valley, may yet, afflicted one, form, in your case, the imagery of that sublime picture of the future, where the sainted multitude in the upper sanctuary are seen "clothed with white robes and palms in their hands."\par \par God our Maker, God the Almighty Chastener, is said to give "songs in the night." The birds of earth which "sing among the branches" are silent except in the daytime;  but the boughs of these Elim-palms seem most alive with melody in hours of darkness. In the gloom of sorrow, their fronds may appear only to be dripping with rain, when they are in truth laden with the night-distilled dews of heaven!\par \par "How could a moment's pang destroy\par My heart's confirmed repose in Thee?\par Your presence is sufficient joy\par To one reclaimed and spared like me.\par It is enough that I am Thine,\par Almighty to redeem from sin;\par You shall subdue, correct, refine\par The soul which You have died to win.\par I see the desolated ground\par With dews of heavenly kindness fed,\par And fruits of joy and love surround\par The heart which You have comforted."\par \par "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } rrrQ%mE37. The Unspeakable Gift{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\geO$iE36. The Rebukes of Love{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE REBUKES OF LOVE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of reposenerator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16\par \par There is nothing in this world which is not a gift of God. Every palm-tree in the grove of created comforts and blessings\emdash every morsel of the bread which perishes; the sunlight which gladdens us; the atmospheric air which sustains us; the fuel garnered deep down in earth's storehouses to warm us; the succession of seasons; the living streams which fertilize our fields; the waving harvests which crown the year with their plenty; the thousand tints of loveliness and beauty in garden, and dell, and forest; far more, the blessings which rejoice and consecrate social life\emdash the Elim-palms and Elim-springs of gladness in our domestic circles; these are severally and collectively "gifts of God." "Every good and perfect gift is from above." And they are gifts and pledges, too, of love.\par \par "God's world has one great echo;\par \par Whether calm blue mists are curled,\par Or lingering dewdrops quiver,\par Or red storms are unfurled;\par The same deep love is throbbing\par Through the great heart of God's world."\par \par But what are these to the blessing here pre-eminently spoken of\emdash the Gift of gifts, "the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden"? a blessing whose magnitude transcends all thought and illustration\emdash the Son of the Highest to become 'of human virgin born,' the Babe of Bethlehem's lowly cradle; the God of Eternity condescending to be a pilgrim on life's highway\emdash the great Leader of His spiritual Israel, with the rod of grace and power in His hand, with which to open living streams for the lost and perishing? "God so loved the world (and who can fathom or exhaust the meaning of that 'so'?) that He gave His one and only Son." God's "Gift"\emdash it was, unpurchasable by money\emdash the unmerited benefaction of Heaven\emdash free as the desert palm to the fainting pilgrim, who has only to repair under it for shade\emdash free as the desert pool to the thirsty wayfarer, who has only to stoop at its brim and drink!\par \par And this greatest and mightiest Gift, moreover, consecrates and sanctifies each minor one. As the sun glorifies with his radiance the tamest landscape, and transforms the barren rock into a pyramid of gold; so are all earthly blessings glorified, beautified, sublimated, by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Christ has been aptly compared to the numeral, which, put before the unmeaning ciphers, gives them peerless and untold preciousness.\par \par The very outer world of nature wears a new aspect when seen through eyes spiritually enlightened. Earthly discipline has a new meaning; and when subordinate comforts are blighted, or diminished, or withdrawn, there is ever the imperishable Gift remaining, beyond the reach of change; so that we can say, "Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior."\par \par While feelingly alive to God's goodness in His various other mercies, can we heartily join in the transcendent estimate of the Apostle\emdash "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!" Truly, with this Gift, "having nothing," we "possess all things." In Christ's glorified person, as the God-Man Mediator, "all fullness dwells." No other earthly blessing, no other trees in the palm-grove, can compensate for the lack of this. But under the shade of these sheltering fronds, whatever else may be denied us, we can say in the words of the Sacred Minstrel, "Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You!"\par \par "Bounteous Giver! to befriend me\par None I have compared with Thee,\par None so able to defend me;\par You are all in all to me.\par \par "What is life? a scene of troubles,\par Following swiftly, one by one;\par Phantom visions\emdash airy bubbles,\par Which appear, and then are gone.\par \par "What at best the world's vain fashion?\par Quickly it must pass away,\par Vexing care and whirlwind passion\par Surging like the angry spray.\par \par "Friends may fail, and bonds may sever,\par Cherished refuges may fall,\par But Thy friendship is for ever\emdash\par It survives the wreck of all."\par \par "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all\emdash how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 JEHOVAH JIREH\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "The Lord will provide." Genesis 22:14\par \par The Elim-palms only environed Israel's temporary resting-place\emdash marked one of the many wilderness camping-grounds on the way to Canaan. In the very next words after the recorded tent-pitching by the twelve wells, we read, "Then they left Elim" (Ex. 16:1).\par \par If "Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place," be the watchword for all God's pilgrims still, what, it may be asked, of the untrodden journey? What of tomorrow's march? What of the unknown future?\par \par "The Lord will provide!" That future is in the keeping of the God of the pillar-cloud, and we may well leave it there. These refreshing palm-groves at one encampment may well be taken as pledges of His faithfulness and loving care, until the last stage of the wilderness journey be reached, and 'the fields of living green' appear in view.\par \par How beautiful the impress of the Divine hand in the works of outer nature. Every blade of grass, every forest leaf, how perfect, in symmetry of form, and in tenderness of color! With what exquisite elegance He has pencilled every flower, delicately poised it on its stalk, or spread a pillow for its head on the tender sod! The God who has "so clothed the grass of the field," will not be forgetful of the lowliest of His covenant family.\par \par It is for us to say, as we lie passive in His hands, "O Lord, come to my aid!" He, portioning out for us as He sees fit, and having His own infinite reasons for what may appear perplexing to us\emdash we, with an unquestioning and unreasoning faith, fully trusting His power, tenderness, vigilance, love. He does not consult our short-sighted wisdom in what He does. The clouds do not consult the earth as to when they shall visit its fruits and flowers\emdash its cornfields and forests, with their watery treasures. The pining plant does not dictate to the cloud-reservoirs as to when they shall unseal their hidden stores. These give a kindly and needful supply "in due season," and the earth has never yet (for six thousand years) had to complain of them as miserly distributors of their Creator's bounty.\par \par So it is with the soul. He who makes the clouds His chariot\emdash who opens and shuts at will the windows of heaven\emdash locking and unlocking the springs of the great deep\emdash says to all His people, 'Trust Me; I will give you all needed present blessings; I will come to you like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. I do not pledge myself as to how or when the rain shall fall\emdash but I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.'\par \par Happy for us, if we are able to respond with a declaration of entire confidence in a present, personal God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being! Behold the sun of the natural heavens, the great central luminary\emdash a dumb unfeeling mass of matter\emdash holding its dependent planets in their orbits, controlling their unerring movements; they, in calm, silent submission, yielding obedience to the will of this sovereign lord! How much more may we hold on our way in the orbit of undeviating obedience, exulting in Jehovah's ever-present power and love; so that in the most remote solitude, as well as the most dense crowd, we can say, 'Alone, yet not alone, for my Father is with me!'\par \par And if we thus confide in God, He will confide in us. Beautiful are the words of the prophet, "You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness; those that remember You in Your ways." Those that remember You and confide in You, "You meet them!" The Lord comes out halfway to meet the confiding heart.\par \par Let us listen to the words of Him who spoke as never man spoke, "Take no thought" (that is to say, Do not be o!ver-anxious or over-careful) "for tomorrow." That 'tomorrow' is in the hands of One boundless in His resources, infinite in His compassion. He not only distributes the destiny of His people, but He molds and adapts them for their lots and positions in life. Just as in outer nature He adapts the varied classes in the vegetable world for different climates. As the palm was the tree of the desert, the olive that of Palestine, the cedar, of Lebanon\emdash so is it with every tree of righteousness. They too ar"e "the planting of the Lord;" and wherever planted, there, in their varied ways, they may 'glorify' Him.\par \par Do not charge God with insincerity, when He declares, through His inspired Apostle, that all things work together for good to those who love Him. "No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly." If He leads you along a rough and thorny road, hear His loving voice thus reassuring your faith and lulling your misgivings, 'Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of a#ll these things.' He foresees and anticipates every emergency that can overtake you. He can ward off every danger, and disarm every foe. As you may be now surveying the yet-untrodden road, leading 'uphill and downhill, to the city of habitation,' remember the words of Him who has said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."\par \par "Leave, oh leave your fond aspirings,\par Bid your restless heart be still;\par Cease, oh cease your vain desirings,\par Only seek your Father's will.\par Leave behind your faithless sorrow,\par And your every anxious care;\par He who only knows the morrow\par Can for you its burden bear.\par Leave the darkness gathering o'er thee,\par Leave the shadow land behind;\par Realms of glory lie before thee,\par Enter in, and welcome find."\par \par "Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ~~D' 39. Glorious Attributes and Ways{\rtf1\ansi\deff0%]&Qy38. Jehovah Jireh{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 &{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 GLORIOUS ATTRIBUTES AND WAYS\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the great deep. How priceless is Your unfailing l'ove! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light." Psalm 36:5, 6, 7, 9)\par \par These verses sound like the rustling of many palm-leaves around the wells of the desert.\par \par The King of Israel, himself a prince among pilgrims, when he wrote this psalm, was probably in the wilderness, not of Sinai, but of Judah\emdash near the Dead Sea, from the margin of whose waters wild cliffs rose to the h(eight of 1500 feet. As he gazes up to the heavens, he sees written on their blue vault, "God is mercy," "God is love." He looks to the clouds as they gather, gradually dimming and darkening the azure; but he sees them spanned with the rainbow of "faithfulness." He looks to the mountains, their tops resting amid these clouds and rainbow-tints; and beholds them radiant with "justice"\emdash stable, immutable uprightness. He gazes down into the depths of the lake, sleeping at their base, and reflecting their) forms in its calm mirror. He sinks his plummet-line, but in vain! It is too deep to be measured. "Your judgments (Your providential dealings) are "a great mystery." Jehovah's righteousness, like the great mountains, is visible; plain to see. But His judgments are often like the lake beneath. Their unsounded mysteries lie beyond mortal understanding, far down below!\par \par Next (ver. 7), as a saint of God, he flees for refuge "under the shadow of the Almighty's wings"\emdash a beautiful emblem* of security; one used by the Savior Himself, many centuries later, on the occasion of His weeping over Jerusalem\emdash "How excellent is Your loving-kindness, O God, therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings."\par \par Then, he adds, "You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures; For with You is the fountain of life." Another figure still, perhaps, also suggested by a well-known spring which survives to this day in that desolate waste, amid the ro+cks of the wild goats, bursting from a shelf or cleft in the mountain\emdash "For with You," as it has been rendered, is the "spring of immortality"\emdash "in Your light we shall see light." He here speaks not of his present blessings, but of his future prospects. He looks forward, anticipating the time when all the past irregularities in God's moral government shall be explained. "We shall see light!" we shall behold Him, not in a glass, darkly; not as now, "through the lattice;" but "face to face"\emda,sh knowing experimentally the reality of His own divine beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."\par \par The psalm begins with a minor note\emdash "The sinfulness of the wicked" (ver. 1). It describes the pang with which the upright believer witnesses the unblushing sin and godlessness around him\emdash speculative infidelity, practical atheism\emdash the iniquity, the deceit, the "devising of evil"\emdash hatching schemes of ambition and sin in their very beds\emdash- the world's crooked policy, tortuous ways, and unprincipled ends. All this may well fill the righteous with painful care and sadness. But he looks from man, to God. He looks from this surging sea, troubled and restless by waves of human passion and discord, to the giant mountains of the Divine faithfulness towering grandly overhead. Dominating all, he sees the Divine mercy "in the heavens." Jehovah's mercy in Christ, as a Covenant God, is high above the great flood, and the great mountains and the great .clouds.\par \par In this sublime contemplation he rests. He knows\emdash though at times "deep may call to deep;" though these hilltops be muffled in angry tempests, those heavens darkened with murky vapors\emdash yet the day is coming\emdash "the morning without clouds," when all shall be made bright like "the clear shining after the rain." "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne."\par \par The impersonation of justice, in the Greek and Roman mythology, with bandag/ed eyes and equally-balanced scales, was the faint image of a grander truth. "He judges righteous judgment." "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun!" "By faith," says one who is now experiencing the sublime reality, "you are enabled to say 'All is well!' and if a voice could reach you from the Everlasting, would it not re-echo back, 'All is well'?"\par \par May this 0lofty psalm, of which these are the keynotes, be sung by us, not in the Church of earth alone, but in the Church of the firstborn: when its beautiful and magnificent imagery will come to be truly fulfilled\emdash resting under the shadow of the Heavenly Palm, the shelter and sanctuary of Jehovah's wings; 'feasting on the abundance of His house,' and 'drinking of the river of His pleasures;' taking up, through all eternity, the joyous strain these opening words suggest\emdash "O give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His Mercy endures forever!"\par \par "Blessed day, which hastens fast,\par End of conflict and of sin;\par Death itself shall die at last,\par Heaven's eternal joys begin.\par Then eternity shall prove,\par God is Light, and God is Love!"\par \par "Continue Your love to those who know You, Your righteousness to the upright in heart."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 2 very little while, 'He who is coming will come and will not delay.'" Hebrews 10:37\par \par "Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him." Revelation 16:15\par \par The Redeemer's Advent! a scriptural assurance full of rest and peace, but which can be felt and realized only by those who are conscious of sitting now under His shadow as the true Heavenly Palm. In other words\emdash the elevating prospect of the Savior's second coming in glory can be enjoyed only by thos3e who know, in their individual experience, the blessedness connected with a genuine and unswerving reliance on the first coming in humiliation. When the latter truth is fully appropriated and exulted in, no theme can prove more tranquillizing or refreshing. "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning" (Ps. 130:5, 6).\par \par The reference in the second of these mo4tto-verses may be the simple and ordinary one, of a man, unmindful of all danger, lying down to sleep with his garments carelessly cast aside; the thief suddenly enters his chamber, takes forcible possession of his clothing, and leaves him naked and defenseless. Or more likely, according to the commentator Lightfoot, the allusion may be to a Jewish custom in the service of the Temple of Jerusalem. Twenty-four wards, or companies, were appointed night by night to guard the various entrances to the sacred c5ourts. One individual was appointed as captain or 'marshal' over the others, called the "Man of the Mountain of the House of God." His duty was to go round the various gates during the night to see that his subordinates were faithful at their posts. Preceded himself by men bearing torches, it was expected that each wakeful sentinel should hail his appearance with the password, "You man of the mountain of the house, peace be unto you!" If through unwatchfulness and slumber this were neglected, the offender6 was beaten, and his garments were burned\emdash he was branded with shame for failure of duty.\par \par It was in contrast with these slumbering Levites, that the Lord of the Temple may be supposed to pronounce a blessing on His true people, who keep their garments, and are saved from reproach. Their attitude is that of wakeful sentinels, ever standing on their watchtower, pacing their rounds; having on the whole armor of God, "the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left," so t7hat "being clothed, they may not be found naked" or "ashamed before Him at His coming."\par \par We repeat, that Second Advent of Christ ought, at least in the case of all His true people, to be regarded by its apostolic name as "The Blessed Hope," the polar star in the sky of the future. It is true, indeed, that in one sense, to the believer, death is equivalent to the coming of his Lord, as being the hour which will usher him into His immediate presence. But death is never spoken of in Scriptu8re as a 'blessed hope.' Even the Christian holds his breath as the King of terrors passes by. He may be ready to 'depart' whenever his Lord gives the word; he may be ready to enter the dark valley, and under the guidance and grace of the Shepherd-Leader, he may fear no evil; but it is a dark valley notwithstanding. The gloomy cypress, not the verdant palm\emdash the tear and the sable mourning, have ever formed the associations and accompaniments of the final hour and scene. It is altogether different, ho9wever, with Christ's Advent. That is a joyous anticipation. The believer can long for it\emdash can pray for it. "Make no tarrying, O my God." "Make haste, my Beloved," is his cry underneath this gracious palm-shadow\emdash "be like a gazelle, or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains!"\par \par Nor let us suppose that this watching is some fantastic, transcendental frame of mind, which divorces the Christian from daily work and duty. These vigils may be best kept, not in confined seclus:ion. He watches most nobly and truly, who does so, not by removing himself from life's rough drudgery and needful calls; but who, in the midst of the ordinary vocations of the world, among the fever and turmoil of busy existence, can catch up the joyous chimes wafted to the ear of faith from the bells of glory.\par \par Let these inspired utterances be ever ringing their varying magnificent melodies in our ears\emdash "In just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay." ;"I will come back, and take you to be with Me." "A little while, and you shall not see Me, and again a little while and you shall see Me." "The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." If we expected a long absent brother or friend from a distant land, how careful should we be in our preparations to give him welcome! How house and hall would be cleaned and adorned! How would creativity be taxed to decorate his room with every tribute which fond affecttain that the first gleam of daybreak would discover land under their bows." Is this true in a nobler sense of "the Better Country"? Are we thus on the outlook to "see the King in His beauty, and the land that is very far off"?\par \par Let each new month, new week, new day, each recurring providential dispensation add new power to the summons\emdash "Awake, awake! put on your beautiful garments!"\emdash "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel." So that when the hour of the Second Advent shall strik?e, when "the Lord shall come, and all His saints with Him," we may be able to exclaim with rejoicing\emdash "Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him and He saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, WHEN HE COMES, shall find watching."\par \par "It may be in the evening,\par When the work of the day is done,\par And you have time to sit in the twilight\par And watch the sinki@ng sun,\par While the long bright day dies slowly\par O'er the sea,\par And the hour grows quiet and holy\par With thoughts of ME!\par \par "It may be when the midnight\par Is heavy upon the land,\par And the black waves lying dumbly\par Along the sand;\par It may be at the cock-crow;\par When the valley-mists are shading\par The river's chill,\par When the morning star is fading,\par FadiAng over the hill.\par Let the door be on the latch\par In your home;\par In the chill before the dawning,\par Between the night and morning,\par I may come!\par \par "It may be in the morning\par When the sun is bright and strong,\par And the dew is gleaming beauteous,\par The meadow slopes among,\par When the waves are laughing loudly\par By the shore;\par And the birds are singing sweetly\par By your door.\par It may be in the morning I will come!\par \par "A gentle shadow fell across\par The window of my room;\par While working my appointed task,\par I calmly turned me round to ask,\par 'Is He come?'\par An angel whispered sweetly\par In my ear:\par 'Lift up your head rejoicing\emdash\par HE IS HERE!'"\par \par "Even so! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } %%(aM40. The Second Coming{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE SECOND COMING\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "For in just a1Det the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:8\par \par The "loss of all things" bringing with it rest\emdash tranquility! This seems a contradiction in terms. Worldly loss generally, and as an almost necessary consequence, leads to unrest, unquiet, Etrouble. Yet in Paul's case it was sublimely true\emdash the surrender of former grounds and subjects for exultation and boasting led him to the truest, to the only stable rest. We are reminded of another of his seeming paradoxes: "Having nothing, yet possessing all things."\par \par We may readily believe, indeed, that it would be no small effort for him to discard what he once so fondly loved and prized, and to which he so proudly clung. Sad to go to that gallery of pleasant pictures which he Fhimself had hung in the chambers of his soul, and with his own hand to wrench one by one from its place\emdash to tear sculpture by sculpture from niche and pedestal, and to write upon these walls, so lately gleaming with fancied righteousness, "All loss for Christ!"\par \par In the words of the entire passage, he has undoubtedly reference to that wild night in the Adriatic Sea, to which in former pages we have incidentally referred, when pursuing his voyage to Rome in the Alexandrian ship. The Gtempest was threatening; the safety of the ship seemed to demand a lightening of the cargo. But that precious corn! must it be sacrificed for the safety of the vessel? It was "gain;" but must it come to be counted as "loss," and tossed overboard? Yes, the tempest decides the question. It must be consigned to the waves, otherwise the vessel will sink. There is no room for debate; the crew make up their minds to "suffer the loss of all." No, more, when the tempest howls with greater fury, and danger and deaHth stare them full in the face, they go a step further. The "loss" is never thought of. They do not now pause in uncertainty and indecision, saying, 'Cannot we save these precious barrels of merchandise?' Imminent danger makes them glad to plunge them into the roaring sea. When the question is between the loss of the wheat, and the loss of the ship, there can be no hesitation. They account them as absolutely worthless\emdash of no value. They are glad to see them pitching against one another in the dark aIbyss. They look upon them now, not as gain or treasure, but as having proved an absolute hindrance, endangering their safety.\par \par And this was the process in Paul's mind. First, there was a clinging to all these birthright gains and self-righteous confidences. He was unwilling to part with them. Secondly, he underwent the "loss," but it was accompanied with "suffering." It was an intense effort for him to renounce that which he had once so fondly treasured and trusted in. But the third stagJe of feeling was when he was brought to say, 'I hate them all! they are as rubbish\emdash they are worthless: they are endangering the vessel's safety; they are endangering my soul's interest; let them go, every one of them! They were once "gain to me;" once I endured "suffering" at the thought of losing them; but now, heave them into the raging sea. I count them as refuse, sweepings, husks, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him.'\par \par Is this our case? Can we, as voyagers on the sea ofK life, make such a declaration, that all in which we once trusted and gloried, as a ground of justification in the sight of God, we toss overboard, in order that the giant deed of Christ's doing and dying may stand out alone in solitary grandeur? "Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."\par \par "Accepted in the Beloved," says Hedley Vicars, "What a healing balm is there here, for a weary, hLeavy-laden sinner!"\par \par And if being clothed in the imputed righteousness of Immanuel is a blessed truth to live on, what a blessed truth to die on! What a joyous garment this, with which to wrap around us when the billows are high, and we are plunging into Jordan! We can imagine, when that solemn hour arrives; when, perhaps suddenly, we are laid on the pillow from which we are to rise no more; and when, despite our well-grounded confidence in the Gospel, gloomy visions and memories of formMer guilt will gather around, filling us with trembling and dismay\emdash oh! in the midst of the thick darkness, to feel clothed with a garment, which the rush of waters cannot penetrate, and of which the King of terrors cannot rob us\emdash the robe which we received at the cross, and which we are to wear before the throne!\par \par Yes, children of God, of every age and rank and experience, tune your hearts and lips for the joyous strain. Aged believers, sing it! you whose earthly pilgrim-garmNents are soiled and travel-worn, but whose robe of righteousness is fresh as in the day of your betrothals with the Heavenly Bridegroom. Young believers, sing it! you who may have but recently stood at the marriage-altar with your Lord, and received at His hands the glistering apparel; who may have a long journey, it may be, still to travel, before you reach the King's Palace. Sorrowing believers, sing it! take down your harps from the willows of sadness. You are in mourning attire; but through your garmeOnts there shines this "clothing of wrought gold," which the shadows of death and the grave cannot dim or alloy. Let the whole Church of the living God, divided on other themes\emdash mute with other songs\emdash kindle into holy rapture with this\emdash\par \par "Jesus, Your blood and righteousness\par My beauty are, my glorious dress;\par 'Mid flaming worlds, in these array'd,\par With joy I shall lift up my head.\par \par "This spotless robe the same appears\par When ruined nature sinks in years;\par No age can change its glorious hue\emdash\par The robe of Christ is ever new.\par \par "And when the dead shall hear Your voice,\par And all Your banish'd ones rejoice,\par Their beauty this, their glorious dress\emdash\par JESUS THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!"\par \par "To the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } *mM42. Christ Ever the Same{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;Qw)q 41. Imputed Righteousness{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS\par \par "This is the resting place, lCR\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 CHRIST EVER THE SAME\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8\par \par We may well sit under this shadow of the Beloved with great delight.\par \par Human life, outwardly, inwardly, is a "shifting spectacle;" so says the aSpostle of it. He compares it to the moving scenes or characters in the old Grecian theater\emdash "the fashion" (or the drama) "of this world passes away." Over the "yesterday" of the past, and the "today" of the present, the clouds of heaven are chasing one another. The waves of its seething, restless sea, are tossing and tumbling in fretful disquietude. And whether these changes have been from prosperity to adversity, or adversity to prosperity; converting life, with some, into a golden bridge, with othTers, into "a bridge of sighs," they both lead to the one final goal. The path of sorrow as well as the path of glory "leads but to the grave."\par \par Believer, amid the fitfulness and uncertainty of earth and earthly things, come and seat yourself under this verdant Palm of a Savior's unchanging faithfulness. "Trust not in man, who cannot save." It may be, that some who read these pages may have had, or may be even now having, painful personal proof of that change and uncertainty, that fading Uand fleeting. You may have felt by experience, how often those joys, which like the bright berries in the summer woods are beautiful to the eye, prove bitter to the taste; how often the loveliest cloud in the life-sky condenses at last into a shower and then falls; how the loveliest rainbow-hue dissolves; how riches take to themselves wings and fly away; capricious fortune forsaking, often just when the golden dream seems most surely realized!\par \par But "HE has said, I will never leave you noVr forsake you." Have you never observed, that while, in the course of a long succession of years, the scenery on a river's bank may be changed, the river itself remains the same? Formerly it was accustomed, it may be, to flow through secluded woods\emdash its waters, murmuring by forest glades, where the wild deer stole down in the silent eve undisturbed by human step. Now hives of industry are lining its course. Ponderous wheels are revolving and the clang of hammers are resounding, where the woodman's aWxe alone was heard a short while ago. But the river itself, unchanged and unchangeable, carries its unfailing tributary-torrent to the main.\par \par So it is with Him who, as "the River of God which is full of water," rolls its own glorious volume of everlasting love. "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall!" "Behold," says the same Immutable One, in another metaphor, "I have engraved you on the pXalms of My hands." Not on the mountains, colossal as they are, for they shall depart; on no leaf of Nature's vast volume, for the last fires shall scorch them; not on blazing sun, for he shall grow dim with age; or on glorious heavens, for they shall be folded together as a scroll. But on the hand which made the worlds, the hand which was transfixed on Calvary, the hand of might and love\emdash I have engraved you there. No corroding power can erase the writing, obliterate the name\emdash you are Mine nowY, and Mine forever!\par \par The travelers come and go in the desert\emdash the canvas tent erected today, is down tomorrow, but the sheltering palms remain. The great Apostle speaks of 'tribulation'\emdash 'distress'\emdash 'persecution'\emdash 'famine,' and other adverse forces as so many waves dashing against The Rock\emdash trying to "separate"\emdash gathering their united strength to sweep from the secure shelter. But in vain. They are beaten back in succession with Faith's challenge\emdasZh the reproof, not of bold arrogant presumption, but of lowly believing confidence and heavenly trust\emdash "In the name of a Mightier, we bid defiance to your might!" 'Who shall separate us?' "I stand upon a Rock," says Chrysostom, "let the sea rage, the Rock cannot be disturbed."\par \par Bereaved Christian, you who have been called more specially to experience the sorrows of life; how comforting to know that there is One Prop that cannot give way, One Friend beyond the reach of change, who i[s working out your soul's everlasting well-being in His own calm world, far above and beyond the heavings and convulsions of ours. One who is the same in storm and sunshine, births and deaths, marriage bells and funeral knells: of whom you can say, amid the wreck of all human confidences, "They shall perish, but You shall endure!"\par \par "This same Jesus!" Oh how sweetly\par Fall those words upon the ear,\par Like a swell of far-off music\par In a night-watch still and drear.\par \par "He who spoke as none had spoken,\par Angel wisdom far above,\par All forgiving, ne'er upbraiding,\par Full of tenderness and love.\par \par "For this word, O Lord, we bless Thee,\par Bless our Master's changeless name;\par 'Yesterday, today, forever,\par Jesus Christ is still the same.'"\par \par "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ]ult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE SOUL'S PORTION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose" Isaiah 28:12\par \par "You are my portion, O Lord." Psalm 119:57\par \par God is the only true and satisfying portion of the spirit\emdash the realized happiness, for which earthly schools and systems of philosophy hopelessly searched. The soul, endowed with immortality, altogether fails to have its longings and aspirations satisfied with the seen^ and the temporal; as little as the Israelite, in the desert of the wandering, would have been satisfied with burning patches of unsheltered sand for his camping ground, as compared with the twelve refreshing springs of Elim with their seventy encircling palms. Too truthful and suggestive is the symbolic truth conveyed by a painter in an allegorical picture of human life\emdash children in a churchyard, sporting with soap-bubbles by the side of an opened grave! The bubbles are beautiful\emdash lustrous wi_th rainbow tints; but, one by one, they burst, some in the air, others as they touch the fringing grass; the misty moisture of all falling into that dark hollow at their feet. The world's skeptic poet thus warbles in plaintive monotone\emdash\par "I fly like a bird of the air,\par In search of a home to rest;\par A balm for the sickness of care,\par A bliss for a bosom unblest."\par \par We repeat, the only rest of the soul is in God. You cannot detain the eag`le in the forest. You may gather around him a chorus of choicest birds\emdash you may give him a perch on the finest pine\emdash you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties\emdash but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lordly wings, and, with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls among the munitions of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall! The heart of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock of Ages. Its aancestral halls are the halls of Heaven. Its munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep of its majestic flight is Eternity! "Lord, YOU have been our dwelling-place in all generations!"\par \par "Once," says a gifted American writer, "I looked across a landscape in a season of great drought, and all the elms looked sickly and yellow, as if verging to decay. But one elm was fresh and green, as if spring showers were hourly falling upon it. Coming nearer to observe, behold! a silent rivber flowed at the foot of the tree; and its roots stretched far out into its living waters. So is he, in the drought and heat of this earth, whose soul is rooted in God."\par \par The world has its joys and its portions too, and we do not affirm that they are devoid of attractiveness. Had this been the case, they would not be so fondly and eagerly clung to as they are. But this we can affirm, that while they are certain, sooner or later to perish, they are fitful and inconstant even while they lacst. They are sand-built, not rock-built. They are, at best, but the passing gleam of the meteor; not like the Christian's happiness, the steady luster of the true constellation. On a deathbed, one memory of triumph over sin and of successfully-resisted temptation will outbid and outmatch them all. Yes, the joys of the true believer survive all others.\par \par True Religion is like a castle on a mountain summit, catching the earliest sunbeam, and gilded by the last evening ray. When low down in dthe world's valleys, the shadows are falling and the lights are already in the windows, the radiance still tarries on these lofty peaks of gladness. That castle, moreover, is full of all kinds of furnishings. God has furnished it with every attractive blessing that can invite the weary wanderer in. He has crowded it with love-tokens, with which He may welcome back His long-absent children\emdash just as a mother (to use again a recent illustration) decorates her room for the welcome of her absent boy. As eevery available nook is crowded with tokens of affection, so God has filled that castle with love-pledges. Its walls are tapestried with proofs and promises of His grace and love in Jesus.\par \par And having found God in Christ, and Christ in God as our soul's all-sufficient portion, let us dread everything that would lead us away from Him, and forfeit the possession of the Divine favor and regard. It is the short but touching epitaph seen in the catacombs at Rome, and we can annex to it anothefr meaning besides its reference to death\emdash "In Christ, in peace". With Him as our covenant-possession we are independent of all others. "If He gives quietness (rest), who can make trouble?" It is a peace which the world, with all its riches, cannot give; and which the world, with all its sorrows and its trials, cannot take away. "In the world," says Jesus, "you shall have tribulation, but in Me you shall have peace."\par \par Blessed Savior, to whom can I go but unto You? The wandering sheegp may turn scornfully from its restoring shepherd; the eagle may cling to its ignoble cage, and despise its rocky fastnesses; the prodigal may mock a parent's pleas and recklessly cling to his foreign home and beggar's fare; the thirsty pilgrim may turn with averted head from the gushing stream; but You alone the unfailing Portion, You alone the unchanging Friend, let me never be guilty of the ingratitude of forgetting or forsaking You! "Many are asking, 'Who can show us any good?' Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord."\par \par "Let me Your power, Your beauty see,\par So shall my vain aspirings cease,\par And my free heart shall follow Thee\par Through paths of everlasting peace.\par My strength, Your gift, my life, Your care,\par I shall forget to seek elsewhere\par The joy to which my soul is heir."\par \par "Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } =+e%43. The Soul's Portion{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slm\j, put your hope in the Lord." Psalm 130:7\par \par Hope opens its bright vista-view through the Elim palms\emdash the morning dewdrops drenching their fronds and sparkling with diamond luster in the rising sun!\par \par "Hope!" Who is insensible to the music of that word? What bosom has not kindled under its utterance? Poetry has sung of it, music has warbled it, oratory has lavished on it its enchanting strains. Pagan mythology, in her vain but beautiful dreams, said that when all othker divinities fled from the world, Hope, with her elastic step and radiant countenance and lustrous attire, lingered behind. The weeping Hebrews, in the day of their exile, did not unstring the harps of Zion or break them to pieces. No; they hung them, tuneless indeed and mute, but still undamaged, on the willowed banks of the streams of Babylon. Why? because Hope cheered them with the thought that these silent melodies would once more awake, when God, in His own good time, would "turn again their captivilty as streams in the south."\par \par "Hope!" well may we personify you lighting up your altar-fires in this dark world, and dropping a live coal into many a desolate heart; gladdening the sick room with visions of returning health; illuminating with rays brighter than the sunbeam the captive's cell; crowding the broken slumbers of the soldier, by his campfire, with pictures of his sunny home and his own joyous return.\par \par "Hope!" drying the tear on the cheek of woe; as the black mclouds of sorrow break and fall to the earth, arching the descending drops with your own beautiful rainbow! Yes, more, standing with your lamp in hand by the gloomy realms of Hades, kindling your torch at Nature's funeral pile, and opening views through the gates of glory! Beautifully says a gifted writer of the sister country\emdash\par \par "Where'er my paths\par On earth shall lead,\par I'll keep a nesting bough\par For Hope\emdash the song-bird, and, with cheerful nstep,\par Hold on my pilgrimage, remembering where\par Flowers have no autumn-languor, Eden's gate\par No flaming sword to guard the tree of life."\par \par Yes, if hope, even with reference to present and finite things, is an emotion so joyous; if uninspired poetry can sing so sweetly of its delights, what must be the believer's hope, the hope which has God for its object and heaven for its consummation? "I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I HOoPE." "Let Israel HOPE in the Lord."\par \par This lofty grace, indeed, at times, requires stern discipline to develop its noble proportions. It is often the child of tribulation. The apostle traces its pedigree, "Tribulation works patience; and patience experience; and experience HOPE" (Rom. 5:3, 4). It would appear as if (recurring to the figure already employed), like the rainbow in the natural heavens, Hope specially loves to span the moral firmament with its triumphal arch, in the cloud of tpribulation.\par \par But, heaven-born, it is heavenward, too, in its aspiration. It is generally represented by the sculptor's chisel as a beautiful female form, with wings ready to be extended in flight. The safety of the timid bird is to be on the wing. If its haunt is near the ground\emdash if it flies low\emdash it exposes itself to the fowler's net or snare. If we remain groveling on the low ground of feeling and emotion, we shall find ourselves entangled in a thousand meshes of doubt and dqespondency, temptation and unbelief. "How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds!" (Prov. 1:17; marginal reading). "Those who wait (or hope) in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles" (Isa. 40:31). "I will hope continually," says David, "and will yet praise You more and more" (Ps. 71:14).\par \par Again using a similar emblem\emdash the bird in the tempest rushing for shelter under the mother's wing\emdash "You have been my help, therefore unrder the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice" (Ps. 63:7). The Believer is a "prisoner," but a "prisoner of hope." The gospel is a "gospel of hope." Its message is called "the good hope through grace." The "helmet of salvation" is the helmet of hope. The "anchor of the soul" is the anchor of hope. The believer "rejoices in hope." Christ is in him "the hope of glory." Hope peoples to him the battlements of heaven with sainted ones in the spirit-land. He "sorrows not as others, who have no hope."\par \par s When death comes, Hope cheers the final hour\emdash "Now, Lord, what do I wait for? my hope is in You." Hope stands with her torch over his grave, and in the prospect of the dust returning to its dust, he says, "My flesh shall rest in hope." Hope is one of the three guardian graces that conduct him to the heavenly gate. Now abides these three, "Faith, Hope, and Love;" and if it be added, "the greatest of these is Love," it is because Hope and her companion finish their mission at the heavenly door!t They proceed no further; they go back to the world, to the wrestlers in the earthly conflict. Faith returns to her drooping hearts, to undo heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free. Hope goes to her dungeon vaults, her beds of sickness, her chambers of bereavement and sorrow. To take Faith or Hope to heaven, would be to take the physician to the well man, or to offer crutches to the strong, or to help to light the meridian sun with a tiny candle. Faith is then changed to sight, and Hope to full fruuition. Love alone holds onto her infinite mission. Faith and Hope are her two soaring wings. She drops them as she enters the gates of glory. The watchman puts out his beacon when the sun floods the ocean; the miner puts out his lamp when he ascends to the earth. Hope's candle-light is unneeded in that world where "the sun will never set again, and the moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end."\par \par "I dwell here in content,\par v Thankful for tranquil days;\par And yet my eyes grow dim,\par As still I gaze and gaze\par Upon a mountain pass\par That leads\emdash or so it seems\emdash\par To some far happier land\par Beyond the world of dreams."\par \par "On we haste, to home invited,\par There with friends to be united\par In a surer bond than here:\par Meeting soon, and met forever!\par Glorious HOPE! forsake us never,\par For your glimmering light is dear.\par \par "All the way is shining clearer,\par As we journey ever nearer\par To the everlasting Home.\par Friends who there await our landing,\par Comrades, round the throne now standing,\par We salute you, and we come!"\par \par "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } J-uI46. The Perpetual Presence{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fontxw,-Q44. Hope{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22\par HOPE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "O Israeliytbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE PERPETUAL PRESENCE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20\par \par What can give rest, if the presence of an Almighty Savior cannot\emdash the habitually felt shade of the Heazvenly Palm? Israel had but one Elim. Christ's people have the Divine Reality at each resting place of the journey, until the last stage of all be reached; and then, only to be ushered, from the partial glimpses of faith, into the full vision and fruition of glory!\par \par When Jesus spoke the words of our motto-verse, sorrow was filling the hearts of His disciples at the thought of His departure, when the most sacred of friendships seemed about to be ended forever. But by one glorious promise H{e turns their sadness into joy. 'I go,' He seems to say, 'and yet I will never leave you. These heavens are about to receive Me: but though My personal presence be withdrawn; though this Risen body is soon to be screened from view behind the veiled glories of the Holiest of all, do not think in reality I am gone\emdash "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age!"'\par \par That farewell saying has lost none of its comfort. How delightful the contemplation! the assurance of the upho|lding arm of a personal, living, loving Savior; susceptible of every human sympathy; bending over us with His pitying eye; entering with infinite tenderness into every earthly need and woe; drawing near in all the dark experiences of life, as He did to the disciples on their midnight sea, and whispering the calming words, "It is I" (or rather, "I AM"), "do not be afraid." 'I am the Living One; I am the Controlling One (yes, and to "as many as I love"); I am the Rebuking One, and the Chastening One!' Let u}s think of this, not as a cold abstraction, or beautiful fantasy, but as a glorious truth, a sublime and comforting verity. He is ever with us!\par \par In the midst of sacred musings over departed friends, when visions of the loved and lost come flitting before us like shadows on the wall, how often do we indulge the pleasing imagination of their still mingling with us in mysterious communion, their wings of light and smiles of gladness hovering over us: delighting to frequent with us hallowed ~visits and participate again in hallowed joys. This may perhaps be a fond illusion regarding others, but it is sublimely true regarding Jesus. When the gates of the morning are opened; swifter than the speeding light, His footstep of love is at our threshold. When the gates of the evening revolve on their silent hinges, and day merges and melts into twilight, He is there! Amid the bustle of life, in "the loud stunning tide of human care," He is there! By the lonely sickbed, when the glow of health has left our cheek, and the dim night-lamp casts its flickering gleam on our pillow, He is there! When the King of terrors has entered our dwellings\emdash when we are seated amid the awful stillness of the death-chamber, listening in vain for the music of cherished voices, hushed for the forever of time, He is there!\par \par In all these diverse experiences, He draws near in touching tenderness, saying, "Surely I am with you always. I will come in the place of your loved ones. I will be near to cheer and comfort, to support and sustain you. I who once wept at a grave am here to weep with you. I will be at your side in all that trying future. I will make My grace sufficient for you, and My promises precious to you, and My love better than all earthly affection. The one is changeable; I am unchangeable\emdash the one must perish; I am the strength of your heart and your portion forever!"\par \par In the original, the word ALWAYS, in the parting promise, is expressive. It means "all THE days" (all the appointed days). Our times are in the hands of Jesus, He counts not our years but our days; He promises to be with us every day, to the last day of all. And when that last day comes, He withdraws not His Presence, but changes the scene of it, and says, "TODAY shall you be with Me in PARADISE."\par \par "Oh, there is nothing in the world\par To weigh against Your will;\par Even the dark times I dread the most,\par Your covenant fulfill:\par And when the pleasant morning dawns\par I find You with me still.\par \par "There in the secret of my soul,\par Though hosts my peace invade,\par Though through a waste and dreary land\par My lonely way be made,\par You, even You, will comfort me,\par I need not be afraid."\par \par "The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them during those three days to find them a place to rest."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } S DEITY\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1\par \par This is what gives to the palm-grove of heavenly promise all its glory. Let us seek to grasp and realize the full grandeur of the Truth of truths; to have it more frequently before us as a subject of devout contemplation\emdash that the Christ of Nazareth, the Savior of Calvary\emdash He who bled for us as Man upon the cross, and pleads for us on the throne, is the Mighty Jehovah; that He was before all things; that He reared every arch and pillar in the Universe Temple. "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number; He calls them all by their names." Before these stars were made; before these altar-fires were lighted in immensity; before man or angel or seraph, throne or dominion or principality or power existed, this all-glorious Being lived\emdash one in essence and substance with the Eternal Father!\par \par The supreme divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Key-stone of the arch. Remove it, and the whole superstructure collapses. More than Luther ever said regarding justification, it is the doctrine of a standing or a falling Church. To eliminate it from the creed of Christendom would be like blotting out the sun from the visible heavens. Oh, if Jesus is but a creature, though the highest in rank in the heavenly peerage, I cannot confide to Him my eternal destinies. If He who bowed His head on that cross is a mere man and no more, I cannot look to Him as the Rock of Ages. A creature! as well pillow my head on the unstable wave. But blessed be God, I can plant my foot upon the living Rock of His deity. I can trust in Him, not as a prince, or as a mere man, in whom there would be no support: but invoking Him as JEHOVAH, I can, with devout confidence of a gracious answer, join in the prayer, "O GOD the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!"\par \par Great indeed is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh: the Divine Being who created by His word\emdash who sustains by His providence. Let the Unitarian take His Gospel without Godhead in it\emdash let Infidelity attempt to reduce the Person and mission of the all-glorious Immanuel to that of the mere Founder of a new system of divine philosophy, a new Head of a religious school\emdash it is ours to pay a nobler and truer homage to Him who is unveiled to us in sacred story as "the Word," "the Life," "the Light," "the Truth," "the Omnipresent," "the Heart-searcher," the "Beginning and the Ending," the Creator of worlds\emdash the Ransomer of souls\emdash the Wonderful\emdash the Adored of angels\emdash the appointed Judge\emdash the enthroned King\emdash the I AM of eternal ages!\par \par Be it ours to testify that the struggles and toils of 1800 years have not been made to defend and vindicate a monstrous delusion\emdash that thousands of crowned martyrs now in heaven have not shed their blood to uphold a lie. Be it ours to see in Him the glory of illimitable Godhead enshrined in a human tabernacle\emdash yes, and better still, be it ours to say, in reverential faith, as we fall at His feet, "This God shall be our God forever and ever!"\par \par In the highest interpretation of the Psalmist's language, well may we call upon all creation to rise and do homage to this its Incarnate Lord. Praise Him in the heavens! Praise Him in the heights! 'O Sun of this great world, both eye and soul,' reflect His glory! Moon! take your silver lyre\emdash strike its chords in the praise of your Maker! Stars, gather your brilliant gems as a crown for His brow! Floods, rise and thunder forth His praise! Every flower that blooms, come and waft your fragrance around the Rose of Sharon! Lisping infancy, come with your Hosannahs! Penitence, come bathed in tears! Sorrow, come in the extremity of anguish to this living God, yet your Brother! Youth, come with your green ears of consecration! Manhood, come in your strength! Old age, come leaning on your staff. Come, saints and prophets of old! Come, noble army of martyrs! Come, you heavenly hosts! cherubim and seraphim, gather in to the universal homage! Let the Church triumphant echo back the strains of "the Church throughout all the world"\emdash "YOU ARE THE KING OF GLORY, O CHRIST! YOU ARE THE EVERLASTING SON OF THE FATHER!"\par \par "Strong Rock of Ages, swathed in clouds of light,\par Whose heights unclimbed, never foot of angel trod:\par Ancient of Days, Almighty\emdash Infinite,\par Older than Nature's eldest born\emdash Great God!\par We praise, we bless, we magnify Your name!\par Through everlasting eras You are still the same."\par \par "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.'"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ,Z,/q48. The Imperishable Gift{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE IMPERISHABLE GIFT\par \par "This is the resting place,w.U)47. Christ's Deity{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 CHRIST' let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand." John 10:28\par \par So speaks the Divine Shepherd to the "sheep in the wilderness," as they rest under the shade of the Palm-trees, and by the Wells of living water.\par \par It is a FREE gift. "I give." Believers have themselves no share in the purchase. Man, in bestowing his gifts, has generally reference to some loving or lovable qualities in the objects of his beneficence. But it was from no attractiveness on their part\emdash no foreseen good works or virtues, that God was induced to procure and bequeath the priceless heritage. It is a generous bestowment of sovereign grace and redeeming love.\par \par "I give"\emdash it is theirs in unqualified, inalienable possession\emdash a glorious freehold. The ransomed in the heavenly paradise are spoken of as having "a right to the tree of life." It is the right of the slave who has had his freedom purchased. It is the right of the son who has been left his patrimonial inheritance. It is the right of the conqueror dividing among his soldiers the honors and trophies of victory which his own valor has won.\par \par And as it was the free sovereign love of the Great and Good Shepherd, the Son of the Highest, which led Him to pay the ransom-price; so it is His sovereign, irresistible grace which preserves His flock every hour from destruction, and will present each member of it at last faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Let us not lapse into a loose and indefinite theology, by speaking of the "inherent power of the new nature." That is nothing. It is a shadow\emdash a name\emdash apart from the power of Christ and the indwelling, upholding energy of the Spirit of God.\par \par Why was Paul enabled to stand firm when the messenger from Satan was sent to buffet him? Why did not the thorn in the flesh get the better of his nobler self? It was because that free grace which had "predestinated" and "called" and "justified," was, in the hour of trial and temptation, made "sufficient for him"\emdash God's strength "perfected in weakness," yes, overcoming weakness. Let us ever admire, with adoring wonder, this unmerited, undeserved, sovereign freeness, from first to last, of the great salvation.\par \par Jesus is the true Zerubbabel, who has laid the foundation, and who also will finish it. Seek to trace His hand in each part of the spiritual building; beginning, carrying on, completing\emdash the Alpha, the Omega; the Justifier, the Sanctifier, the Glorifier. "Thanks be to God," says the Apostle, "who always causes us to triumph in Christ." The pearl would remain forever in the depths of the ocean unless the diver descended for it; so, unless He who purchased us as gems and jewels for His crown had taken us from 'the depths,' there we would have remained forever. And as He rescues the pearl, so does He 'keep' it in safety, until He finally inserts it in His mediatorial crown.\par \par As His is the glory of the commencing work and the sustaining work, so His is the glory of the crowning and consummating work. The branch cannot live severed from the vine. The limb cannot live severed from the body. The Christian lives only by virtue of "Christ his life." It is not our repentance or our prayers, or our habits of grace, or our long standing in grace, which either save or protect us\emdash but the arm of an omnipotent Redeemer. "The Lord is your Keeper." "He that keeps Israel does not slumber." "Well might we sit down in despair," says a gifted believer, "and say, who is sufficient for these things? had we not the strength of Omnipotence on our side; had we not everlasting arms underneath us, and sandals proven against the roughest path."\par \par Yes, and if, at times, we may be conscious of forfeiting the joys of salvation; it may even be undergoing spiritual darkness; we may feel assured that that darkness generally arises from failing to look above to Jesus and to the grace of Jesus; just as one, turning their back to the sun, sees a shadow projected and that shadow is their own. The remedy for getting rid of the shadow is to turn round to the all-glorious Light of life, with the cry, "More grace! more grace!"\par \par "All is dark on the horizon,\par Clouds returning after rain;\par Faith is languid, Hope is weary,\par And the questions rise again\emdash\par 'Does the promise fail forever?\par Have You made all men in vain?'\par \par "O Redeemer! shall one perish\par Who has looked to You for aid?\par Let me see You, let me hear Thee,\par Through the gloomy midnight shade\par Utter You Your voice of comfort;\par 'It is I, be not afraid.'"\par \par "Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 58\f0\fs22 THE RECOMPENSE OF TRUST\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "No one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him." Psalm 34:22\par \par "Judaea Capta," are the words engraved on the well-known Roman coin, upon which impersonated captive Judah is sitting under the fronds of a desolate palm-tree.\par \par Beneath the shadow of the Divine Heavenly Palm, the afflicted Christian can mingle his pensive sadness with the joyous strain, "He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust" (Ps. 91:1, 2).\par \par "Trust God." It is easy for us to do so in sunshine. It is easy to follow our Leader, as Israel did the pillar-cloud, when a glorious pathway was opened up for them through the midst of the Red Sea; or when at Elim they pitched under tapering palm and by gushing spring; or when heaven rained down bread on the hungry camp. But it is not so easy to follow when earthly palms wither and fountains fail, and the pillar ceases to guide, and all outward and visible supports are withdrawn. Then, however, is the time for faith to soar! When the world is loud with its atheist sneer\emdash What of religious supports now? THEN is the time to manifest a simple childlike confidence; and, amid baffling dispensations and frowning providences to exclaim, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."\par \par Child of Sickness! bound down for years on a lonely pillow\emdash the night-lamp your companion\emdash disease wasting your cheeks and furrowing your brow, weary days and nights appointed you; tell me, where is the God in whom you trust? He is here, is the reply. His presence takes loneliness from my chamber, and sadness from my countenance. His promises are a pillow for my aching head, they point me onwards to that better land where the inhabitant shall no more say, "I am sick!"\par \par Child of Poverty! where is the God whom you trust? Can He visit this crude dwelling? Can His promises be hung on these broken rafters? Can the light of His Word illumine that cheerless hearth and sustain that bent figure, shivering over the smouldering ashes? Yes! He is here. The lips of truth that uttered the beatitude, "Blessed are the poor," have not spoken in vain. Bound down by chill poverty, forsaken and forgotten in old age, no footstep of mercy heard on my threshold, no lip of man to drop the kindly word, no hand of support to replenish the empty cupboard; that God above has not deserted me. He has led me to seek and lay up my treasure in a home where poverty cannot enter, and where the beggar's hovel is transformed into the kingly mansion!\par \par Bereaved One! where is the God whom you trust? Where is the Arm of Omnipotence you used to lean upon? Has He forgotten to be gracious? Has He mocked your prayers by trampling in the dust your dearest and best, and left you to pine and agonize in the bitterness of your desolate heart and home? No, He is here! He has swept down my fond idols, but it was in order that He Himself might occupy the vacant place. I know Him too well to question the faithfulness of His word and the fidelity of His dealings. I have never known what a God He was, until this hour of bitter trial overtook me! There was a "need be" in every tear, every deathbed, every grave!\par \par Dying One! the closing moments are at hand; the world is receding, the dreaded symptoms of the approaching end are gathering fast round your pillow, the soul is pluming its wings for the immortal flight! Before memory begins to fade and the mind becomes a waste; before the names of friends when mentioned will only be answered by a dull vacant look, and then the hush of awful silence; tell me, before the last lingering ray of consciousness and thought has vanished, where is the God whom you trust? He is here! I feel the everlasting arms underneath and round about me. Heart and flesh are failing. The mists of death are dimming my eyes to the things below, but they are opening on the magnificent vistas of eternity. He who has for long been the object of faith's reliance, will soon be revealed in full vision and fruition. "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid."\par \par "Still let me be with Thee, Father,\par and ever be Thou with me:\par When the clouds and tempests gather,\par oh, then, let me trust in Thee:\par Let me hide in Thy quiet shadow,\par let me dwell in Thy secret shrine,\par The home of the souls that love Thee,\par the souls that Thou callest Thine!"\par \par And if any who trace these pages feel themselves still strangers to such simple confiding trust; their inward disquieting thought, 'How can we possibly live out these desert privations: that hot desert wind by day, these drenching dews by night? Where can we get food in these dreary leagues of dry sand, or find palm-shade and brook among these barren rocks and waterless channels?' The message to all such is that addressed of old to the desponding Prophet, who had deserted the palm-tree of Israel and Israel's God for the juniper tree of the desert, "Arise!" God will provide strength for the journey.\par \par "Why are you crying out to Me?" said the Divine voice to Moses, when he crouched a skeptic at God's feet, pointing to the barrier mountains behind and the raging sea in front\emdash "Tell the Israelites to move on!"\emdash 'Up, do My bidding; and you shall see how I can make My way in the sea, and My path in the mighty waters.' "Forward!" said the rebuked hero, clasping the rod of faith which had been lying forgotten at his side, and rising in the might of Jehovah. Forward they did go; and what was their confession and anthem on the opposite shore?\emdash "Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power; Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy." "At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still." "O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong God like You? You rule over the surging sea: when its waves mount up, You still them!"\par \par "If you could trust, poor soul,\par In Him who rules the whole,\par You would find peace and rest;\par Wisdom and sight are well, but trust is best."\par \par "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } l\1E50. The Riches of God's Mercy{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharsetY0yI49. The Recompense of Trust{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang200 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE RICHES OF GOD'S MERCY\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions\emdash it is by grace you have been saved. Not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2: 4, 5, 9\par \par This is a fitting song to sing, as the fronds of the Elim-palms are bending over us\emdash the breath of God turning them into Aeolian harps, musical with "the name which is above every name!"\par \par Salvation is here traced up to the riches of God's mercy. It is the offended Sovereign proclaiming amnesty to rebels, lifting the beggar from the ash-heap and setting him among princes. The mercy of God! It is a brief sentence. It can be lisped by a child; but what seraph can fathom the depths of its meaning? The inspired Apostle, baffled in the attempt, seems here only able to shadow forth its wonders by heaping together superlatives: "Because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions" (Eph. 2:4, 5). Amazing thought! God's mercy stooping over us, and His love loving us, when we were morally and spiritually dead. Did you ever hear of one loving the dead? 'Yes!' a hundred lips reply; 'we have loved the dead! We have wept and sobbed over the cold marble\emdash we have loved to gaze on those rayless eyes, although the light of life has faded from them forever here\emdash with an unutterably sacred affection have we loved the broken, mutilated casket, even when the bright jewel had departed.'\par \par But this is not the case in point, in estimating the marvels of the mercy of God. Let us ask rather\emdash Did you ever love the dead outcast on the street? Did you ever love the beggar, found, wrapped in rags for his shroud, lying on the open highway? No! though you may have pitied him, compassionated him; though you may have shuddered at the spectacle\emdash no tear of love could moisten your cheek. But if human compassion is unable to tell so wondrous a tale, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed out of the hand of the enemy." God has done this\emdash God's mercy has reached the point of loving the dead outcast\emdash Yes! more\emdash loving the dead enemy: "Even when we were dead in sins!"\par \par That mercy of God in Christ embraces, too, the vilest and most miserable. None stand beyond its pale. No gate\emdash no veil\emdash no flaming sword of cherubim bar the way to the mercy-seat. Our sins may have reached up to the clouds, but the heights of the Divine mercy are loftier still: "As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy towards those who fear Him." In writing to Timothy from Rome, the most joyful word Paul can utter when he thinks of himself, as "before, a blasphemer and persecutor and injurious," is this\emdash "But I obtained MERCY."\par \par Yes! come and learn from this giant in grace, when standing on the borders of the grave, the only foundation of a sinner's, or rather a believer's, hope. With all the memories of his apostleship behind him, a thousand battles of the faith, in which, as a spiritual champion, he had fought and bled and conquered: with the remembrance of Jewish hate and Gentile scorn; the stocks and stripes of Philippi; the buffeting of winter tempests he had braved by land and sea; the moral intrepidity that made him stand amid Athenian philosophers, in the streets of Imperial Rome, and amid the merchant princes of Corinth, pleading the injured cause of his Great Master; the sacrifice of home, country, friends, religion\emdash for a life of untiring and perpetual exile from most of the world's amenities and joys, like a weary bird having no rest for the sole of his foot, and seeking none; and now with the flash of the executioner's sword before him to close the mighty drama of a consecrated existence: yet hear his final plea\emdash "I obtained MERCY." Could we follow him now, among the bright martyr-multitude before the throne, doubtless we would find the dungeon-prayer caught up in Paradise, and become the song of Eternity\emdash "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever!"\par \par He would remind us, in all this, of the one only ground of hope and confidence and trust we have in the sight of a holy God. He was indeed the last to undervalue the precious fruits of the Spirit, as manifested in the heart and the life of the true believer. In the soul that has been divinely sanctified and purified, there is much to love and admire\emdash those Christian graces\emdash holy affections and holy deeds\emdash flowers in the Beloved's garden, which, like so many incense-censers, are sending up their fragrant perfume to heaven. Such, doubtless, are regarded with divine contentment now; and at the Great Day, they will draw from the lips of the Righteous Judge the divine approval and tribute\emdash "Well done, good and faithful servant!"\par \par But what would all these (the best of them) avail, when we come to regard them as forming our plea at that bar of unspotted rectitude and equity? A poor installment, truly, in the discharge of an infinite debt. If the Apostle himself once indulged some such dreams of personal merit and sufficiency, the further he advanced in the divine life, the more maturely he grew in grace and holiness and purity; in a word, the nearer he approached to God, the more deeply did he feel his need of mercy. His estimate of himself in his closing and riper years is this\emdash "Less than the least of all saints"\emdash "Sinners, of whom I am the chief!"\par \par Be it ours ever to take the publican's place; saying as we look to the true Altar of Sacrifice\emdash "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" We believe there is no limit or hindrance to that ocean of mercy in Christ, except for what is erected by the pride, or indifference, or unbelief of man. It laves and washes the rockiest shores of the rockiest heart. Paul tells us for our encouragement, why Divine compassion was exercised towards him. "For that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." "I look," said Simeon of Cambridge on his deathbed, "as the chief of sinners, for the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, to life eternal. And I lie adoring the sovereignty of God in choosing such a one, and the mercy of God in pardoning such a one, and the patience of God in bearing with such a one, and the faithfulness of God in perfecting His work and performing all His promises to such a one."\par \par How many can add, from deeper and darker and sadder experiences, "Great is Your mercy toward me, and You have delivered my soul out of the lowest hell!"\par \par "Let Your mercy's wings be spread\par O'er me, keep me close to Thee;\par In the peace Your love does shed\par Let me dwell eternally.\par Be my all; in all I do\par Let me only seek Your will;\par Where the heart to You is true,\par All is peaceful, calm, and still."\par \par "How great is Your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear You."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } uld." Mark 14:8\par \par "Faithful with a few things." Matthew 25:21\par \par "Each with his assigned task." Mark 13:34\par \par How many earnest souls there are who give themselves unrest\emdash render themselves unhappy, with the reflection how little they have done\emdash how little\emdash with limited means and resources, material and intellectual\emdash they can do, in the shape of substantial service for the cause of God and His Christ. They have all the desire to do. Their very rest\emdash constrained and unwilling inaction\emdash gives them weariness. They feel like log-bound vessels lazily sleeping on their shadows in the harbor, when others are out nobly wrestling with the storm, conveying priceless stores to needy hearts.\par \par There is an Elim-Palm for such. Both the measure of your ability, and your place and position in life are appointed by God. The Christian poet represents those angels in heaven who "only stand and wait" as "serving"\emdash doing their Lord's will\emdash as truly as the swift-winged messengers who carry to and fro the biddings of His pleasure: and of the Church militant on earth, "Thus says Jehovah," by the mouth of His prophet, "In returning and rest shall you be saved: in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength."\par \par We can serve God, 'in rest and in quietness'\emdash in the noiseless tenor of a lowly lot, an uneventful existence\emdash as well as in the feverish bustle or prominent position of an active one; drawing water from the wells under Elim-palm trees, as well as in grappling with the hosts of Pharaoh or Amalek. No, we believe we have abundant warrant for the assertion, that those most glorify God who, without the often false stimulus of outward or secondary motives, perform gladly that class of humble, unpretentious deeds, which, requiring no intellectual effort, no brilliant gifts, are unacknowledged by the world's approval\emdash unapplauded by the world's hosannahs. Such assuredly will not be unowned or rejected by the Great Recompenser, because they have nothing better or costlier to offer. While it is said of "the mountains" (the Church's great ones), that they shall "bring peace to the people;" the "little hills" (the Church's humble, unknown, obscure ones), are to do so also "by righteousness" (Ps. 72:3).\par \par Let none, then, be coveting opportunity for the execution of burdensome labors, or for occupying noticeable positions, as if these enjoyed a monopoly in the divine favor and approval. We repeat, the hewer of wood, or trimmer of lamps in the Temple\emdash if (what might be deemed) his drudgery, were performed from a principle of obedience and lowly faithfulness\emdash served the God of Israel as much as the High Priest with his breastplate gleaming with the Urim and Thummin.\par \par MOTIVE is everything with the Omniscient Heart Searcher; and He is satisfied, if we fulfill, with a good conscience, our appointed place and destiny, whatever that may be. The little fire-fly illuminating the darkness in the balmy plains of the South, is one of the tiniest lamps in God's magnificent Temple of night\emdash a mere glimmering spark compared with other and nobler altar-fires of sun and stars in the same great sanctuary. But that insect does not refuse to rise on its wings of flame, because unable to emit a greater amount of light; it is content to shine with the luster assigned to it in its humble place in the material economy, and the Creator is glorified thereby.\par \par The insignificant "nameless rill" does not refuse to sing its way to the ocean, because, on the opposite side of the mountain or valley, a mightier torrent is thundering along, and bearing in its course a larger and wealthier volume. It carries its appointed tribute to the sea; and He who "sends forth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills" expects from it no more. "She has done what she could," is the Divine payment of commendation. The one lowly talent, conscientiously traded on, will receive its own with interest. The widow's mite and the cup of cold water are accepted, and the intention and desire would be accepted, if there were no mite and no cup to give. See how graciously God owned the unfulfilled purpose of His servant David regarding the erection of the Temple on Zion!\emdash "Because it was in your heart to build a temple for my Name, you did well to have this in your heart" (1 Kings 8:18).\par \par "Some eager hearts\emdash some souls of fire,\par  Who pant to toil for God and man,\par View, with a look of keen desire,\par The upland way of toil and pain:\par Almost with scorn, they think of rest,\par Of holy calm, of tranquil breast.\par On others, lowlier tasks are laid,\par With love to make the labor light;\par And all their efforts may be shed\par On quiet homes and lost to sight."\par \par Wordsworth, in one of his minor poems, speaks beautifully of "That best portion of a good man's life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."\par \par In our Lord's parable of the Talents just referred to, the varied trusts are proportioned to our varied capabilities. The master gave his servants "each according to his ability." God, in the dispensing of these sacred trusts, does not act without reason; He distributes the talents according to the known powers and capacities of His servants. He gives equitably, and He expects a corresponding repayment. Some, from peculiar outward circumstances\emdash from their position in the Church and the world\emdash will be able to invest a large capital, and draw in a large return: these are the five talented servants. Others move in a humbler and less influential sphere: they have only two talents, and from them, as the result of trading, their Lord expects no more. In either case, they have done their duty up to the measure of their responsibility; the amount entrusted to them has been doubled; and their fidelity being thus tested and proved, their Master is satisfied.\par \par The Church of Christ is made up of "vessels of large and small quantity;" but the Lord does not unreasonably expect the smaller vessel to hold the contents of the large one. The Church is a garden adorned with trees and plants and flowers; but He does not expect the hyssop to assume the dimensions of the cedar, nor the olive tree to attain the height of the palm tree, nor the myrtle to be laden with the fruit of the vine, nor the lily to waft the perfume of the rose. He does not expect the lowly unlettered Christian to fight like the champion of the faith. He does not expect from poverty the alms it has not to bestow, nor from the sick-bed sufferer the active energies which bodily prostration forbids.\par \par Let none needlessly mourn that they cannot glorify God by talents He never gave them, and for which, therefore, they are not accountable. Let none say, 'Had I been in another position in life, I might have invested a larger capital for my Lord.' Though you are narrowed and restricted where you are, to the one talent, use it well, and God will accept "according to what a man has, not according to what he has not."\par \par What a noble program and directory of duty is that given by the great Apostle in his great Epistle: "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." (Rom. 12:6-8).\par \par "Last of the laborers, Your feet I gain.\par Lord of the harvest! And my spirit grieves\par That I am burdened, not so much with grain\par As with a heaviness of heart and brain!\par Master, behold my sheaves!\par \par "Few, light, and worthless\emdash yet their trifling weight\par Through all my frame a weary aching leaves;\par For long I struggled with my hapless fate,\par And staid and toiled until it was dark and late,\par Yet these are all my sheaves!\par \par "Full well I know I have more tares than wheat.\par Brambles and flowers, dry stalks, and withered leaves,\par Why I blush and weep, as at Your feet\par I kneel down reverently, and repeat,\par 'Master, behold my sheaves!'\par \par "But I shall gather strength and hope anew,\par For well I know Your patient love perceives\par Not what I did, but what I strove to do,\par And though the full ripe ears be sadly few,\par You will accept my sheaves!"\par \par "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one the of least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 32}y51. Acceptance of the Little{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 ACCEPTANCE OF THE LITTLE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "She did what she co058\f0\fs22 NONE CAST OUT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away." John 6:37\par \par An invitation to every burdened Israelite\emdash every way-worn pilgrim of the wilderness, to come for shelter under the branches of the Heavenly Palm!\par \par How these and such like gracious words which proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus, must have told on the wondering multitudes He addressed, those who never heard kind sayings before\emdash who were led to imagine that it was learned scribes, or devout Pharisees, or austere Sadducees, or elaborate-robed priests, who alone had any hope of salvation! Can we marvel that "the common people heard Him gladly," when He lifted them up from the dust of degradation; when He proclaimed boldly\emdash "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." I came not to call you rich\emdash you learned\emdash you who pride yourselves on your religious formalism and self-righteous austerities\emdash but you broken-hearted penitents, weeping prodigals, despairing Magdalenes\emdash you the most erring wanderers from the fold, who are really and earnestly seeking to return. "If ANY man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink." "If ANY man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture."\par \par Reader! say not, 'This invitation cannot be for me. I cannot take my place under the gracious palm-shade, just as I am, with the memory of countless transgressions.' Yes! it is just because you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, that He invites you to come. Come, just as you are. Christ does not require any previous qualifications. It is because you are weary He asks you to partake of the shelter. It is because of your poverty that He so importunately exclaims\emdash "Behold, I have set before you an open door."\par \par When, in a season of scarcity and poverty, thousands thrown out of employment are forced to avail themselves of bread doled out to stop the rage of hunger, they are not heard to say, 'We must have proper clothing first. We must first cover these children's bleeding, frost-bitten feet, before we can venture to appear before the distributors of a city's or a nation's bounty.' No; if they did so, it would invalidate their plea\emdash it would send them home again to a cupboard, and hearth, and wardrobe, as empty as they left it. It is because they appear in tattered rags, and because hunger has written its appeal on their emaciated faces and in the hollow eyes of the hapless children at their side, that the door opens for relief.\par \par There is no desert wanderer, haggard and footsore, who may not come to that grove of "exceeding great and precious promises." God has made provision not for the strong only, but for the weak, the tempted, the sorrowful, the suffering. The feeblest bird may make a perch of these branches. The anointing oil of blessing poured on the head of the true Aaron, flows down to the very skirts of His garments, so that the least and lowliest are made partakers of His covenant grace.\par \par It is well for us, however, to remember that there is but one Redeemer; and "neither is there salvation in any other." A few days previous to the Elim encampment, there was but one way for the Hebrew host through the Red Sea from the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh. There was but one way for evading the destroying angel\emdash by the sprinkling of blood on the doorposts of their dwellings. There was but one way, in a subsequent age, for Rahab escaping the general destruction of Jericho\emdash by hanging out from her window the scarlet thread. There was but one way\emdash by washing in the river of Jordan\emdash that the proud Syrian captain of a yet later day, could have his leprosy healed.\par \par The Hebrews, on that memorable night of the death of the firstborn, might have built up Egyptian pyramid on pyramid to keep out the messenger of wrath. It would have been of no avail. Or the army of a million, passing through the sea, might have piled its coral rocks to make an avenue through the waters. The wild waves would have laughed them to scorn and made them the plaything of its tide! Naaman might have made a toilsome pilgrimage to every river of Asia\emdash from Abana and Pharpar, to the Euphrates and the Indus\emdash but all would have been to no purpose. Nothing but 'the waters of Israel' would prove efficacious in curing his malady.\par \par Let us make sure of a personal interest in the one great Salvation. That Almighty Redeemer remains, to this hour, immutable\emdash all-sufficient\emdash faithful among the faithless\emdash changeless among the changeable. Bernard beautifully sang in the words of his familiar hymn\emdash\par \par "Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts!\par Thou Fount of life, Thou Light of men!\par From the best bliss that earth imparts,\par We turn unfilled to Thee again."\par \par Yes! you who are weary, sick at heart it may be of the world which has deceived you\emdash bubble after bubble bursting in your hands; that gracious Savior, with outstretched arms, is waiting to welcome you back. With the hoarded love of eternity in His heart, He is ever repeating the "faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance" which heads this meditation\emdash "whoever comes to me I will never drive away!"\par \par "With a heart full of anxious request,\par Which my Father in heaven bestowed,\par I wandered, alone and distressed,\par In search of a quiet abode.\par Astray and distracted, I cried\par Lord, where would You have me to be?\par And the voice of the Lamb that had died\par Said, 'Come, My beloved, to ME!'\par \par "I went\emdash for He mightily wins\par Weary souls to His peaceful retreat,\par And He gave me forgiveness of sins,\par And songs that I love to repeat;\par Made pure by the blood that He shed,\par My heart in His presence was free,\par I was hungry and thirsty\emdash He fed;\par I was sick, and He comforted me.\par \par "He gave me the blessing complete,\par The hope that is with me today;\par And a quiet abode at His feet,\par That shall not be taken away."\par \par "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } C3QE52. None Cast out{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2t God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." Titus 2:13\par \par This is rest under God's Palm-trees of promise, with a glorious vista seen through their branches. Their fronds form, so to speak, a framework for the believer's distant but "blessed hope" (as Middleton translates our motto-verse)\emdash "The glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior."\par \par That 'second coming' was to the early Christians the theme of habitual contemplation\emdash their cherished harbor of refuge in the midst of environing storms: "And to wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thess. 1:10); "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ" (2 Thess.3:5); "Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws near" (Jas. 5:8). Moreover, it is well worth noting, that, in the inspired Epistles, it is not the day of death which is spoken of or looked forward to by the Church with jubilant expectation, but the day of Christ's appearing. Need we wonder at this? Death is no pleasing theme: though the Christian's last enemy, it is an enemy still\emdash the 'King of terrors.' But the "Parousia"\emdash the Advent of the Divine Savior\emdash is identified with final triumph over death; when "the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'" (1 Cor. 15:54). Not only so, but that "vile body" (itself a part of the redemption-purchase) will come forth from the dishonors of the grave, fashioned like the glorious body of its glorified Redeemer.\par \par How many anguished, bereaved mourners have had their grief calmed and their tears dried by this sublime antidote of the great Apostle, as he points them on to the second coming of their Lord, and associates that coming with the restoration of their beloved dead! "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him" (1 Thess. 4:13, 14). At that blessed season when "the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people; and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God;" amid these revived friendships and indissoluble reunions, "God"\emdash the God on the throne\emdash the Brother-man\emdash "shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. 7:17).\par \par Nor is the anticipated joy of that Day altogether a personal and selfish one. No small element of it is the believer's joy at the glory which will then encircle the brow of his adorable Lord. It will be the public enthronement of Jesus of Nazareth. He will come "to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed" (2 Thess. 1:10). All the humiliations of His first coming\emdash the manger\emdash the carpenter's home\emdash the unsheltered head\emdash the nights of wakeful anguish\emdash the scorn, and taunt, and jeer\emdash the piercing thorns\emdash the bitter cross\emdash the ignominious sepulcher\emdash all, all now exchanged for the shout of welcome\emdash "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him!" (Isa. 25:9). How often among His own people on earth is He dishonored; wounded in the house of His friends\emdash the unstained beauty of the Master tarnished with the blemishes and inconsistencies of the disciples. But not so on that Day. Even these marred, blotted, imperfect images and reflections shall then, at least, become perfect copies and transcripts of their glorious Divine Original: "We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). "I saw," says John, "the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 21:2).\par \par "Let every man that has this hope in him purify himself even as He is pure" (1 John 3:3); amid the rough wear and tear of a workday world, keeping a conscience void of offence; "having the loins girded, and the lamps burning; and being like those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord" (Luke12:35, 36). "Blessed is he who watches" (Rev. 16:15). Blessed is he, who, in whatever calling he be called, therein abides with God. Thus remaining expectant under the shadow of the desert palms, we can mark the rainbow-arch which spans the sky of the future, connecting the cross with the crown; and say, in lowly believing confidence, with one of the Church's noblest watchers, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day!" (2 Tim.4:8).\par \par Yes, "He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him." The assembled Jewish worshipers looked for the reappearance of their High Priest, when He was ministering in the Holy of Holies. They waited anxiously in the outer porch to see the veil withdrawn, and the Intercessor of the nation come forth, to pour upon the multitude, with outstretched hands, the old benediction, "May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace." (Num. 6:24-26). Not until then were the imposing services of that high day of Hebrew festival completed.\par \par Do we know and love the significance of the type? Are we on the outlook for our Priest and King returning from the heavenly Presence, to say to the waiting myriads of His redeemed Church, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"? It was a gladdening sound to the Jewish multitudes in their Temple area, when they heard the music of the silver bells on the hem of the High Priest's garment, giving intimation of his approach, "Blessed are they who know the joyful sound." "Blessed are those servants who, when their Lord comes, shall be found watching!"\par \par "The watchers on the mountain\par \par Proclaim the Bridegroom near,\par \par Go, meet Him as He comes,\par \par With Hallelujahs clear!\par \par The marriage feast is waiting,\par \par The gates wide open stand\par \par Up, up! ye heirs of glory,\par \par The Bridegroom is at hand!"\par \par "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } s4]53. The Blessed Hope{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE BLESSED HOPE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "That blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the greaany, when the Elim-palms seem to have yielded to the tempest; when, amid adverse and baffling providences, "the foundations of the world are out of course," and all things appear to be rushing into wreck and darkness. The Divine, everlasting vigil seems to have ceased; and echo only answers to the wild cry of despair\emdash "Where is now my God?" Why these worldly losses, these cruel disappointments, these beds of sickness, these gaps in the loved circle? God creating affections only to wither them; severing us, in the twinkling of an eye, from those He had sent to be helpers of our faith, interpreters of His own goodness and wisdom and love\emdash High priests in the domestic temple, whose removal leaves a silent, desolated altar, with incense unkindled and lamps put out, cherished memories alone surviving to read and reveal the loss! Can there be love or wisdom or faithfulness here?\par \par Hush these and such like atheistic doubts; repress these and such like unworthy surmises. "As for God, His way is perfect." This was a lesson impressively taught to Israel as they had now pitched their tents under the desert palms. They, like many of God's Israel still, might have been tempted at first to misinterpret the Divine dealings. At the very outset from Egypt the cloudy pillar appeared to mislead them. Instead of taking them the near and direct route to Canaan, it conducted them round 'by the way of the wilderness.' They had the Red Sea in front, and their pursuers behind. The shout goes up from the Egyptian host\emdash "They are entangled, the wilderness has shut them in!" Even Moses yields to the panic and despondency of the hour. "Why," says the Jehovah he doubted\emdash "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move on." Forward they did go, under the guidance of the symbol of the Divine Presence; and what was the song with which they made the opposite shores resound? It was the adoration of the all-perfect ways of God, vindicating the rectitude of His procedure; "You in Your mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed: You have guided them in Your strength unto Your holy habitation."\par \par This loving and gracious Guide still "leads Joseph like a flock;" even although often, in a spiritual sense, He makes 'the depths of the sea' a way for His ransomed to pass over. We, too, may have our winding routes through the desert, our Red Seas of trouble, our Marahs of bitterness, our varied seasons of misgiving and despondency and trial. There may seem to be no wisdom in the dealing to which He is subjecting us. His way may truly seem to be "in the sea, and His path in the deep waters, and His judgments unsearchable." But it is for us to listen in submissive faith to His sovereign mandate, "Go forward." Thus following the guidance of the pillar-cloud we cannot go wrong.\par \par It is not for us to judge of the reasons for apparently harsh measures, hidden from our gaze, and known only to the Infinitely Gracious One. Even regarding temporal things, we are constantly taught never to judge prematurely of an incomplete plan. Why disturb those lovely fields, and make crude gashes in those smiling valleys? Wait with your verdict until Science finishes her work, and thousands are seen to speed along the iron highway! Why disturb the virgin marble slumbering in earth's bosom, leaving unsightly seams and scars in its native quarry? Wait until you see that unwieldy block fashioned into a graceful pillar, or into a piece of breathing sculpture! "What I do," says He, "you know not now, but you shall know hereafter."\par \par The dropping or withdrawal of the fronds of some cherished earthly Elim-palm may be to allow heaven's better sunshine, hitherto impeded, to fall full upon you. "Why," says one of the saintliest men of the past generation, "Why are we not amply satisfied and accepting in the wise management of the Great Counselor, who puts clouds and darkness round about Him, bidding us follow at His beck through the cloud, promising an eternal and uninterrupted sunshine on the other side?" "Commit, then, your way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass." "Although you say you can not see Him, yet judgment is before Him, therefore trust in Him." "So long," says an old writer (Bridge), "as one who is learning to swim can touch earth with his feet, he does not commit himself to the stream. So long as the soul can stand on second causes, it does not commit itself to the stream of God's mercy." Let us trust His heart, when we fail to trace His hand.\par \par "Into the future,\par That unknown land,\par Fearless we venture,\par Holding His hand.\par Trusting His promise,\par Waiting His will,\par Kept by His power\par Peaceful and still."\par \par You, O God, led Your people of old, by the right hand of Moses, with Your glorious arm, "dividing the water before them to make Yourself an everlasting name" (Isa. 63:12). "Awake, awake," on our behalf, still, "O Arm of the Lord!" Finite wisdom has no place in your dealings. Let us seek no other way, let us surrender ourselves to no other guidance but His; remembering that "all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies."\par \par We may now be, like the panic-stricken Hebrews, confronting the barrier waves; the unsparing foe behind, the desolate wilderness around. But fear not! that sea will, in some gracious way, recede to make a dry-shod pathway; that wilderness on the other side, with dreary sand and jutting cliff, will provide Elim resting-places with overshadowing palms and refreshing springs. At all events, the day is coming, when, if not under the palms of the wilderness\emdash at least in the true Resting-places of the Heavenly Elim\emdash we shall join in the triumphant ascription, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works."\par \par "Soon," says an eminent Christian now experiencing the reality of her own words, "Soon our tale shall be finished; the history of our lives will be put by in the library of God as a volume of His faithfulness;" and heaven will resound with this song, which on earth is often warbled with trembling lips, "As for God, His way is perfect!"\par \par "Times are changing, days are flying,\par Years are quickly past and gone;\par While the wildly mingled murmur\par Of life's busy hum goes on.\par Sounds of tumult, sounds of triumph,\par  Marriage chimes and death-knoll bell;\par Yet, through all, one keynote sounding\par Angels' watchword\emdash 'It is well!'\par \par "We may hear it through the rushing\par Of the midnight tempest's wave;\par We may hear it through the weeping\par Round the newly-covered grave;\par In the dreary house of mourning,\par In the darkened room of pain,\par If we listen meekly, rightly,\par We may catch that soothing strain.\par \par "And thus, while the years are fleeting,\par Though our joys are with them gone,\par In Your changeless love rejoicing,\par We shall journey calmly on.\par Until at last, all sorrow over,\par Each our tale of grace shall tell,\par In the heavenly chorus joining\emdash\par Lord, You have done all things well!"\par \par "Is it well with you?\'85and she answered, it is well!"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } BB{5u54. The Divine Way Perfect{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\cf1\lang2058\f0\fs23 v\cf0\fs22 THE DIVINE WAY PERFECT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "As for God, His way is perfect." Psalm 18:30\par \par There are times in the experience of mlue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 PERSEVERANCE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6\par \par "We will not die." Habakkuk 1:12\par \par In looking from underneath the shade of the palm-trees, on the long untrodden journey before the true Canaan can be reached, the thought cannot fail at times to intrude itself \emdash Can we trust to be safeguarded through this great and terrible wilderness? Can we rely on the God of the Pillar-cloud conducting us to the brink of Jordan and thence to "the shining fields" beyond? Rather, is there no danger of spiritual drought and famine, or spiritual death, overtaking us? May it not be sadly fulfilled, with us, in a spiritual sense, as it was with the Pilgrim Hebrews in a literal, that through apostasy, unbelief, and backsliding, "we shall never enter into His rest"?\par \par No! We have the sure word of promise of "a God who cannot lie," "You shall go over and possess that good land" (Deut. 4:22). "But now, O Israel, the Lord who created you says: 'Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior!'" Isaiah 43:1-3. All is guaranteed to us in what the old writers call "the charter-deed of the Everlasting Covenant." The immutability of the Divine counsel has been confirmed to us by oath.\par \par In the first of our motto-verses the great Apostle speaks with unhesitating assurance\emdash "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." He does not, indeed, declare, that "good work" is never to be impeded. God has never given promise in Scripture, with regard to spiritual experience, of an unclouded day\emdash uninterrupted sunshine. "The morning without clouds" is a heavenly emblem. The earthly one is "a day in which the light shall neither be clear nor dark" (Zech. 14:6).\par \par The analogy of the outer world of nature, at least under these our checkered and ever-varying skies, teaches us this. Spring comes smiling, and pours her blossoms into the lap of Summer. But the skies lower, the rain and battering hail descend, the virgin blossoms droop their heads and almost die. Summer again smiles, and the meadows look gay; the flowers ring merry chimes with their leaves and petals and swing their fragrant censers. But all at once drought comes with her fiery, merciless footsteps. Every blade and bud, gasping for breath, lift their blanched eyelids to the brazen sky; or the night winds rock the laden branches and strew the ground. Thus, we see, it is not one unvarying, unchecked progression, from the opening bud to the matured fruit.\par \par But every succeeding month is more or less scarred by drought and moisture, wind and rain and storm. Yet, never once has Autumn failed to gather up her golden sheaves; yes, and if you ask her testimony, she will tell that the very storm, and blackened skies, and descending torrents you dreaded as foes, were the best helpers in filling her garners.\par \par Do not be desponding now, because of present passing shadows, but "thank God, and take courage." "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with His hand" (Ps. 37:24). It is written, that "at evening time it shall be light" (Zech. 14:7). The sun may wade all day through murky clouds, but he will pillow his head at night on a couch of amber. "Even though you sleep among the campfires, the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold" (Ps. 68:13).\par \par The second of our motto-verses forms part of an impassioned appeal of the Prophet Habakkuk in the prospect of impending national calamity. The great military power of that era of the world was menacing the cities and homes of Palestine. "Terrible and dreadful"\emdash their horses "swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves" (1:7, 8). Overwhelmed at the thought of imminent judgment and desolation, the prophet can discern no silver lining in the earthly cloud. He turns from man to God. He takes refuge in that sublime truth\emdash the Immutability of a covenant Jehovah; and breaks out in these beautiful words of calm confidence, "O Lord, are You not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die!" No! though the hosts of the Chaldeans should sweep the battle-plains; though they should leave behind them a track of blood and ashes and smoke; though the cry of suffering thousands should ascend apparently unsupported to heaven, "We will not die." The God of our Fathers will not be untrue to His oath, or unmindful of His covenant. He will not cast off forever, or root out our name and remembrance from the earth.\par \par "I give them," is His own blessed word and guarantee to His true Israel still, "eternal life, and they shall never perish." "What God has spoken, He is able also to perform." The good work begun, He will also finish. Let this ever be our rallying call when wounded in the fight, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High!"\par \par "He will never fail us,\par He will not forsake;\par His eternal covenant,\par He will never break.\par \par "Onward, then, and fear not,\par Children of the Day!\par For His Word shall never,\par Never pass away!"\par \par "It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ,1_c9Y}58. Fullness of Joy{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fc#8y]57. Christ the Propitiation{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\r37m 56. Delight in God's Law{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*6M}55. Perseverance{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\b\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 DELIGHT IN GOD'S LAW\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:2\par \par These form the opening note of the Psalter: the motto and superscription which first strike the eye, just as we are entering this glorious Temple of Praise. The verse following is a description of the true believer. But it would almost seem, with equal beauty, to describe the Elim-palm we are now to speak of, and under which spiritual Israel ever love to encamp\emdash the precious, life-giving Word\emdash "A tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in his season, and whose leaf does not wither" (ver. 3).\par \par That Palm-tree was planted by God. The whispers of its fronds, if we may so speak, form the declaration of His own sacred, unchanging mind to His Church. Though this revelation of His will finds its way through human instrumentality, the voice is from heaven; the river, 'clear as crystal,' is from before the throne. There may be diversities of gifts and temperaments in the inspired authors of the Holy Book\emdash there may be apparent discrepancies in the tints of the divine picture; but each historian and prophet, psalmist and evangelist, can say, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer"\emdash that ready Writer being the Spirit of God.\par \par "Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." We have "not the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches." That Bible would be incomprehensible on the theory of mere human authorship. Many of the compositors of this great repertory of life and love and consolation, were illiterate, uneducated men\emdash strangers to all the learning and culture of the schools. They were separated from one another by hundreds, indeed, thousands of years. And yet what a unity in their writings! what concord, agreement of thought and doctrine! and that too without the possibility of conspiracy, or preconcerted plan. The Temple with one altar and one God, yet with a thousand windows all shedding the same mellowed divine light. They have woven one beautiful, consistent pattern, one harmonious whole. They point to one and the same glorious method of salvation, and one too, beyond the understanding of reason. "Built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets," we have here a building "fitly framed together." The Bible is more than man's work. It points to its own high original. It bears the seal and signature of heaven.\par \par Let us look to this blessed Bible as a supreme personal blessing. It is the very message we need. How it speaks to the conscience! What a discerner of the moral being! Like the wheels of Ezekiel's vision, it is "full of eyes before and behind." How it ransacks the halls of memory; penetrates the labyrinths of the soul\emdash a faithful mirror reflecting and exposing the chambers of imagery. It meets the longing necessities of our natures. It offers us a complete salvation; a salvation not only from the guilt, but from the power of sin. It comes to us, independent of all churches and conventional distinctions. It meets us on the common ground of humanity\emdash as sinners carrying the same burdens, subject to the same weaknesses, grappling with the same temptations, bowed with the same sorrows, traveling to the same goal of death, having the same possession of an eternal destiny.\par \par Never any book spoke like this Book. We can say of it, as David, of Goliath's sword, "There is none like it." It is a Volume suited for all, designed for all\emdash young and old, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. In the well-known words of Tertullian, "It is like a vast lake, in which some places are so deep that an elephant may swim in them, and other parts so shallow that a child can wade through them."\par \par  And, finally, it opens, as no other Revelation ever did, or ever can, the gates into the Celestial City. It is a glorious fiery pillar, illuminating the company of the true Israel of God through every stage of the journey, until it brings them to the heavenly Canaan. And is not this an object worthy of the Great Father of all?\emdash to prepare this message of love for His sin-stricken, diseased, captive, dying children; that with it in their hands as an infallible directory and guide, they may go up and on through the wilderness, to the Eternal Home, gladdened with hopes which are full of immortality!\par \par "How miserable it would make me now," says a philosophic writer and thinker once borne along the current of skepticism, "to give up the Bible! How I cling to its assurances of pardon and free acceptance, and undeserved love and favor, as my chief and only hope!"\par \par Go, gather all the philosophers of antiquity\emdash Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. Bring together the wise men  of Greece, the philosophers of Alexandria, the sages of Rome. Ask if their combined and collected wisdom ever solved the doubts of one awakened soul, as have done these leaves of this hallowed Book! Which of them ever dried the tear of widowhood as these? Which of them ever smoothed the pillow of the fatherless as these? Which of them ever lit the torch of hope and peace at the dying bed as these, and flashed upon the departing soul visions of unearthly joy?\par \par O Pagan darkness! where was  your song in the night? In the region and shadow of death where did your light arise? But "we have a more sure word of prophecy to which we do well to take heed." Let us know it, in our personal and individual experience, as "the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls" (James 1:21). "Engrafted"\emdash the figure is significant and expressive. The graft in outer nature converts the weak tree, or bush, or stem, into a strong one. It transforms deformity into beauty. It puts, in the place of commonp lace blossoms, tints of varied loveliness. The dog-rose of the hedge side, from the pauper of his race, becomes the stock and shoot of a royal line; the unfragrant plant of the thicket is made to swing, from his grafted stalks, new censers of sweetest incense on the passing breeze.\par \par Similar, but infinitely more glorious, is the spiritual transformation effected on the soul by the engrafting of God's holy Word. The influence of its precepts, its promises, its motives, its encouragements, renews and revolutionizes the whole moral being. That soul becomes "a new creation," a "tree of righteousness." In the hands of the Divine Spirit, operating through the Scriptures, the beautiful figurative language of the prophet is illustrated and fulfilled\emdash "Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This miracle will bring great honor to the Lord's name; it will be an everlasting sign of His power and love." Isaiah 55:13\par \par May it be ours, while knowing experimentally this grafting process with its transforming results in "the salvation of our souls"\emdash to value with an ever-increasing estimate the instrumentality by which the new life is generated, and by which it is promoted and sustained. May it be ours to love our Bible through life's morning and midday, so that at the sunset-hour its glorious truths may, like the Alpine summits, be illuminated to our spiritual vision when the valleys are in shadow. Our prop and support amid the checkered scenes of the pilgrimage, may it form our staff in the swellings of Jordan.\par \par "It is so blest to trust Your Word alone;\par I do not ask to see\par The unveiling of Your purpose, or the shining\par Of future light on mysteries untwining,\par Your promise-roll is all my own,\par Your Word is enough for me."\par \par "Remember Your word to Your servant, for You have given me hope."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ed0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 CHRIST THE PROPITIATION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood." Romans 3:25\par \par Here is rest under the true Mercy-seat; the antitype of that which, in the earlier dispensation, was surrounded with palm-wreathed carvings on "the Holy Oracle."\par \par The great redemption is finished. The blood of the Divine Surety has been shed. The Lamb for the burnt offering has been sacrificed; access has been provided into "the Holiest of all." Through the rent veil of the Redeemer's flesh, the approach is available to every true, believing Israelite, by "faith in His blood." How many among the worshipers of a false and spurious Christianity, are looking to Christ through material relics\emdash pieces of the so-called real cross, fragments of the spear or thorn-crown, or seamless robe! We are called to look "through faith." How many more are groping their way to Him through propitiations of their own: penances, and prayers, and fastings, and flagellations. The Propitiation is completed "Whom God has set forth." If the Jewish High-priest, as he stood at the mercy-seat, instead of sprinkling the blood, had stripped the jewels from breastplate and mitre, and flung them on the sacred chest, what would all have availed? Nothing. There was but one offering efficacious there: an offering not composed of 'pearls from the ocean, or gold from the mine'\emdash "When I see THE BLOOD I will pass over you."\par \par The efficacy of the blood of the Great Sacrifice is inexhaustible. Revelation unfolds "an hundred and forty and four thousand" with lustrous robes, washed and made white in it; and still the Propitiation is "set forth;" still the way into the Holiest and to acceptance is open. Countless pilgrims, weary and heavy-laden, have encamped by the antitypical Wells and Palms of Elim. Still is the shade-giving shelter ample as ever. Still is the invitation unlimited as ever\emdash "Whoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."\par \par The word "Propitiation" in our motto-verse, as is well known, refers to the lid or covering of the Ark of the Covenant, above which were the overshadowing wings of the cherubim. Within the Ark were deposited the two tables of stone, on which were engraved the ten commandments, the words of the Eternal decalogue. Impressive and significant, surely, was that old symbolism! The sinner or worshiper (through his representative in the person of the Jewish High-priest) draws near with blood in his hand\emdash this he sprinkles above the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat; the purple stream falls on the floor at his feet. The law of God is still there with all its demands intact and inviolate; unabrogated, unrepealed. It utters the condemning word, "The soul that sins it shall die."\par \par But between the law and the trembling worshiper there is this propitiation covering; the glorious type of Him, who, to all His true people, is a shelter from the curses of the law\emdash "a refuge and a hiding place from the storm." Thus do we see the old, but ever-binding and obligatory Tables of Sinai's covenant, screened out of sight by the intervening barrier\emdash hidden, as a covenant of works, by the better work of Jesus. We can take up with joyful confidence the prayer of the publican in the parable (Luke 18:10), in which prayer, it is well worthy of note, the very word which here occurs, propitiation, though differently rendered, is also employed\emdash "God be MERCIFUL to me a sinner!" 'Be merciful'\emdash but let mercy reach me by the alone channel through which it can flow\emdash mercy by sacrifice\emdash mercy through the atoning blood of the Immaculate Surety.\par \par Believer! come, seat yourself under the shadow of this heavenly Palm, and exult in your indestructible safety and security! God has set Him forth as a Propitiation (an atoning sacrifice for sin). He (the true 'shield, and lifter-up of your head'), "stands between the living and the dead, and the plague is stopped!"\par \par "Trembling with guilt, oppressed with fear,\par Unfailing shelter I have here.\par Long have I roamed in need and pain,\par Long have I sought for rest in vain;\par Bewildered in doubt, in darkness lost,\par My soul fierce driven and tempest-tos't.\par But forth from dark and stormy sky\par Beneath the mercy-seat I fly.\par There I repose with fears all fled,\par Pardoned, accepted, comforted.\par The present, peace\emdash the past, forgiven,\par The future, vista-views of heaven.\par Jesus! my soul alone relies\par On Thine accepted Sacrifice."\par \par "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } harset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 FULLNESS OF JOY\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound." Psalm 4:7\par \par "The glorious freedom of the children of God." Romans 8:21\par \par These are two gracious Palm-trees interweaving their fronds over the heads of the spiritual Pilgrim, and whispering of rest and freedom, security and peace.\par \par How the captive who, through the grated window of his cell, only sees the light\emdash envies the feeblest songsters of the grove which make a perch on the iron bars! Why? Because they are free. They are living in the element for which God designed them. They can mount in the wide sky, poise themselves on wing, and make treetop, or rock, their home, as they please. But how can he, imprisoned within these damp dungeon walls, be happy\emdash severed from all that makes life a blessing? As from his bed of straw he notes their plumage, like a lightning-flash, glancing in the bright rays of a sun he cannot enjoy, how sadly and truthfully does he wail out the aspiration, "Oh, that I had wings, for then would I fly away, and be at rest!"\par \par There is a deeper, sadder truth in all this, regarding the nobler spiritual aspirations of the soul. That soul cannot be satisfied with its exile from true home and liberty and rest. Worldly pleasures, riches, honors, are poor inadequate substitutes for what is higher and more enduring. You may as well dream of filling up a gulf with a few pebbles or grains of sand, as fill the capacities of immortal natures with anything finite. Men may do what they can to quench the spark of immortality within them. In the pursuit of earthly happiness and gain and renown, they may throw baits to the soul, and cheat it into a belief that they are giving it a satisfying portion. Just as the eagle may be satisfied for the moment with the carrion thrown into his cage; or the lion may be appeased for the moment with the food thrown into his den.\par \par But the spiritual nature, rational, immortal, fashioned originally after the image of God, will (with the instinct of these kingly inhabitants of the lower creation) always give evidence of felt conscious degradation, if its aspirations be left limited and fettered with the thin gs of sense and time. There are many men and women caressed in the lap of fortune\emdash pillowed and cushioned and charioted in luxury\emdash with their eye resting on gilded magnificence\emdash their ears regaled with luscious music\emdash their tables abundant with splendor\emdash the world gazing upon them with envious eye as "prosperous and happy"\emdash yet, follow them to their secret rooms, where the false appearance of elation is laid aside, and where the silence and solitude shut out the pomp an!d pageantry of life\emdash how solemn, how humbling, to know, were that closed door and that lonely heart unlocked, that it would be to hear the child of fortune (a captive prisoner in a gilded cell) wailing out the confession, "I have no gladness with it all. I am not satisfied with it all. There is an aching void in this heart the world can never fill!"\par \par Yes! and nothing earthly can fill it, or impart to it the longed-for "gladness." Not change of scene or circumstance\emdash though ma"ny seem to think so\emdash like the wounded bird, making its perch on one bough after another, but the wound no easier: or like the suffering invalid, turning from side to side on his weary pillow, thinking every change will be less irksome, while the gnawing pain remains the same. No! One portion alone can satisfy; One escape, One refuge alone is there from "the windy storm and tempest."\par \par An Oriental writer mentions, regarding the turtle-dove, that it never pauses in its flight; that wh#en its wings are weary, it poises itself on one, while the other droops for a little by its side, and when rested, the interrupted flight proceeds. Beautiful emblem of what, at least, we should seek to be and to do. Resting not\emdash making no perch of the world: but, in the pure cloudless ethereal regions of faith and love and holiness, soaring ever higher to our home in the hills of God!\par \par "Oh, had I, my Savior, the wings of a dove,\par How soon would I soar to Your presence a$bove,\par How soon would I fly where the weary have rest,\par And hide all my care, in Your sheltering breast.\par \par "I flutter, I struggle, I pant to get free,\par I feel me a captive while banished from Thee!\par A pilgrim and stranger the desert I roam,\par And look on to Heaven and long to be home!"\par \par "Ah! there the wild tempest forever shall cease;\par No billows shall ruffle that haven of peace,\par Temptation and trouble alike shall depart,\par All tears from the eye, and all sin from the heart!\par \par "Soon\emdash soon may this Eden of promise be mine,\par Rise, bright sun of glory, no more to decline!\par Your light, yet unrisen, the wilderness cheers;\par Oh, what will it be\emdash when the fullness appears!"\par \par "In the Lord I take my refuge. How then can you say to me: 'Flee like a bird to your mountain?'"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } &ere in the world, He loved them until the end." John 13:1\par \par "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand." John 10:28\par \par "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away." John 6:37\par \par These three verses bring before us the indissoluble union between the believer and his Lord. That union, once completed, is indestructible. It is hedged round and buttressed with im'mutable guarantees. "Our lives are hidden with Christ in God." "If we perish," says Luther, "Christ perishes with us." Identifying Himself with His people, He may be supposed to say, as David said to Abiathar, "Abide with me, for he that seeks your life seeks my life, but with me you shall be in safeguard." And what is this safeguard? It is the Deity of the Redeemer. He who gives me life, and who promises that that life is imperishable, is "the Mighty God." The hope of eternal life, promised before the wo(rld began, stands on the Rock of Ages. Divinity gives it strength. He who is able to keep me from falling, is the "only wise GOD our Savior."\par \par It is true, indeed, the life of the most devoted believer has its ebbs and flows, by reason of his own backslidings, corruptions, and unwatchfulness. "Young sailors," says Rutherford, "think the shore and land are moving, while it is they themselves all the while. So we often think God is changing, while the change is all in ourselves." The sheep )of Christ may, in some moment of temptation, be found, and are found, wandering along the dark glen, entangled in brier-thickets, or carried down the swollen stream. But as the shepherd among ourselves puts a mark on the various members of his flock, that he may know his own, so the sheep of Christ bear upon them what the old writers call "the blood-mark of the covenant"\emdash and of these, the Great Shepherd (when they may be themselves uttering the cry of despair), says, in one of our motto-texts, "All* that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away." Their soul safety may seem to be imperilled, but it is only as the flow of the majestic river is apparently impeded by the mass of opposing rock in its channel. It is fretted for the moment; but, after clearing the temporary barrier, it dashes onwards, with grander impetuosity, in its way to the ocean.\par \par So with the Christian. Temptations may obstruct and arrest the smooth current of his spiritual+ and eternal life; but it is only for the moment\emdash He that has begun the good work\emdash He that has begun the new being\emdash will carry it on until the day of the Lord Jesus. You may as soon dream of stopping a river\emdash damming up the mountain torrent as it plunges over rock and cataract in its way to the shoreless sea\emdash as arrest the flow of that God-given life. Remember the Apostle's golden chain\emdash "Whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called, them He also jus,tified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified!" We may lose sight of the links of the chain, but it never can be broken.\par \par We love this doctrine of the preservation of the saints. We cannot believe in the possibility of a man being regenerated today and unregenerated tomorrow. As Christ's blood has purchased, so will His grace sanctify and His power save. "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end." If we are ever tempted to doubt or despond\emdash if -ever led to fear that, as wandering sheep, we may be fatally swept down the rapids, or fall a prey to the evening wolves\emdash let us think of a living, life-giving, life-sustaining Intercessor on the throne of Heaven\emdash the Shepherd's eye watching us from the mountains of myrrh, and the hills of frankincense!\par \par Israel could never have coped with the war-disciplined chieftains of Amalek, but for the uplifted hands of their interceding head on the mount at Rephidim. They would have be.en scattered as chaff, and their bones left to bleach in the wilderness. Joshua, with all his fiery courage, as column after column swept along the valley beneath, would have been nothing, had not Moses been pleading on the hill. Blessed be God, we have One on the heavenly mount, whose arms never faint\emdash whose hands never grow weary. His words have a perpetual meaning\emdash a perpetual music\emdash "I have prayed for you\emdash I am praying for you\emdash that your faith fail not."\par \par / You who are Christ's own, see the secret of your preservation\emdash your perseverance\emdash see the secret of this marvelous triumph of your weakness over Satan's strength\emdash the "worm Jacob" in the strength of his Savior-God "thrashing the mountains, and beating them small, and making the hills like chaff"\emdash the spiritual David, with a few brook-pebbles laying low the giants of sin and unbelief! Yes, indeed, it is a mighty marvel, the security of every member of God's family. This poor delic0ate plant\emdash beaten with wind and hail, outliving all, and destined to flourish in eternal luxuriance and beauty. This fragile vessel\emdash the sport of ten thousand adverse influences\emdash buffeted by the waves\emdash left for nights on the starless ocean\emdash grazing with its keel the rocks of temptation\emdash yet outriding the storm, and entering peacefully the haven. This vile heart with its legion-foes confederate with Satan\emdash Pleasure in its Proteus shapes\emdash Worldliness with its 1hydra-headed power\emdash the archers of Mammon with their golden arrows\emdash our own sins\emdash each individual sin we commit, a foul attempt on our part to pluck us out of the Savior's hand\emdash yet the battle is certain to end in triumph.\par \par In earthly battles, victory trembles in the scale often for long hours of bloodied fight; neither side can predict the results. By some apparent accident\emdash some trifle\emdash the fortunes of the day may be decided\emdash the destiny of a c2ountry altered, the liberty of a people lost or won. But no such uncertainty hovers over this spiritual conflict\emdash success is sure\emdash no trophy will be lost\emdash no straggler will be left to perish\emdash as with Israel in leaving Egypt, "not a hoof will be left behind." You will not only be conquerors, but "more than conquerors, through Him who loved you!" "I give unto you," says He, "eternal life." Your names are imperishably engraved on this Heart of love\emdash on this priestly Breastplate\3emdash and they never can be erased!\par \par He even tells the measure of that love. It is gauged by no human plumb-line. "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you!" We must first attempt to understand the intensity of the love subsisting between the Son and the adorable Father, before we can rightly estimate the depth of affection between Christ and those whom He has from all eternity redeemed with His precious blood. "Nothing would surprise me very much," said a dying believer, "after 4having found out God loved me. The breadth of that love indicates that it is for the whole world; the length, from eternity to eternity; the depth, to the vilest of sinners; and the height, to raise us to heaven" (Victory Won).\par \par "Everlasting arms of love\par Are beneath, around, above;\par He who left His throne of light\par And unnumbered angels bright,\par He who faced the fiery flood,\par Braved the baptism of blood,\par Who upon the accursed tree\par Gave His precious life for me.\par \par "He who marks each falling tear\par Of His burdened pilgrims here,\par Never slumbering, never sleeping,\par Vigils ever wakeful keeping;\par Faithful He, whatever betide,\par Is my everlasting Guide.\par Safe, howe'er the sky o'ercast,\par He will bring me home at last!"\par \par "He guides them to their desired haven."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } u;]60. The Safe Deposit{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f65:i59. Inviolable Security{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 INVIOLABLE SECURITY\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Having loved His own who w%70\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE SAFE DEPOSIT\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day." 2 Timothy 1:12\par \par We have here what formed, in the hour of waning existence, the res8t of a weary spirit\emdash the pillow on which a dying spiritual hero reposed his aching head. This noblest champion of the faith had reached the Border river. But he finds the God of the Elim-palms has not left him at that supreme moment without a shelter. The same Jesus who had whispered in his ear accents of peace and hope and joy, ever since the memorable occasion when "he journeyed towards Damascus," mingles the most divine music of His name with the swellings of Jordan!\par \par Paul, when9 he uttered these words, was left well-nigh alone; condemned to mourn in secret and solitude over the forsaking of former associates and friends. They had lost courage before the coming tempest, and abandoned the noble vessel to wrestle, as best it could, among the breakers. Cowardly themselves, they had apparently tried to appeal to the old prisoner's fears. 'Why persist in the hopeless cause, and prolong the hopeless conflict? Why maintain an unequal struggle for that which, being in antagonism to the E:mpire's belief, and to the will of the Caesars, must, sooner or later, fall to the ground? Why perish in the flames or by the sword, for what is doomed to perish with you?' 'No,' was his reply; 'disturb me not. Clinging to that faith in which I have lived, and for which I am now ready to die, is no act of willful, blind fanaticism\emdash the reckless devotion of a visionary dreamer to a doomed and desperate cause. I have nobler and loftier anticipations regarding that for which I suffer. I have a grander ;confidence in the majesty of truth, than to suppose that it can eventually be crushed and overthrown by the base tyranny and hostility of man. I have appealed to a more righteous bar. That God, who sent His angel to me in the midst of the storm, will not leave me now. He has delivered me, and He will yet deliver me from the lions' mouth. My enemies may do their worst. They may insult my grey hairs; they may load me with chains; they may doom me to the public exposure of the amphitheater; they may burn my and sorrow when that sun is away.\par \par Belief, too, was with him, not a mere mental act\emdash the cold calculating subscription of reason. It was the cleaving, trustful homage of a devoted heart; a loyal allegiance of the intellect, the thoughts, the motives, the will, the affections, to the Redeemer, as absolute Lord and ever-present King. Neither parent, nor sister, nor associate in his old Tarsus home, did he ever love like this Jesus of Nazareth. He had tried Him, and he had never found? Him to fail. He therefore rejects with scorn the appeals of his timid and treacherous advisers, to purchase immunity from suffering by a base denial of his Lord. That trust of his was no enthusiastic dream. He had not abandoned home or kindred; he had not forfeited all he loved and valued on earth for the bauble of an hour. He had counted the cost; he had tested this "Stone laid in Zion;" he had found Him "a tried stone, a sure foundation." The heights above might combine with the depths beneath; fiendis@h men might be confederate with fiendish devils, in trying to shatter his confidence and blight his hope; but none would be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord!\par \par "Alone! yet not alone"\emdash "The Captain of the Lord's host" was with him\emdash "The Lord," he says, "stood with me and strengthened me." It was not in vain that he was then consummating the life-long act of 'pouring out' his consecrated existence as a libation on God's altar. The GreatA Angel of the Covenant was there, to accept the offerer and the sacrifice. Perfumed with other merits than his, the incense-cloud went up with acceptance before God.\par \par Yes, with other merits than his. For this; after all, is what mainly arrests us in his dying utterance. Surely, if ever the child of Adam could enter heaven on the ground of his own doings, it was he who penned that brief farewell saying\emdash he whose life-motto was, "always abounding in the work of the Lord." Think of hiBs graces as a Christian, his success as a minister, his labors as an apostle! Who, more than he, had earned his crown? who, more than he, could take his stand at the bar of God loaded with merit? How different! All his own once-boasted righteousness is like the yielding ice beneath his feet. It melted before the blaze of God's throne of purity. In the present hour of approaching dissolution, just when this mighty inhabitant in God's forest seemed (like some trees in their golden autumn tints) grandest in Cdecay; just as his soul is about to wing its eagle-flight to the spirit-land, a crucified Redeemer is clung to with an ever fonder, holier trust. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners!"\par \par "Thus holy Paul" (says Thomas Case), "in his own name, and in the name of other of his brethren and companions in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, marched out of the field of this world with colors flyinDg and drums beating, and thus exulting over death as a conqueror\emdash O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?"\par \par A farewell\emdash a dying hour\emdash must, sooner or later, be our experience also; that solemn moment\emdash when, in the words of an old writer, "the silver cord by which life is suspended is worn out at last, and the lamp of life falls to the ground; the lights are extinguished, and the golden bowl which fed them is broken" (Noyes). Amid this wreck oEf the earthly, are we prepared for our entrance on the heavenly? to leave the Elim encampment and enter the true "City of Palm-trees" (2 Chron. 28:15).\par \par Have we committed our souls and their everlasting interests in safe deposit into the hands of our divine Redeemer? If so, the last enemy is robbed of its triumph. "Death to the believer," said Hedley Vicars, "is, after all, but an incident in immortality." Equally beautiful and characteristic was the devoted M'Cheyne's definition of the Fsame\emdash "a leap into the arms of Infinite Love." A well-known Christian of an older age (Ambrose) speaks of it as "the wind which blows the bud of grace into the flower of glory." Whether still called to tread the wilderness, or when summoned to the brink of Jordan, may it be ours to take up the simple strains of one of Luther's saintly followers\emdash\par \par "God, my Father, to Your hand\par This spirit I bequeath;\par Guide it through this desert land,\par And through the gates of death.\par \par "By Your gift, this soul was mine;\par Take it to Yourself again;\par So shall it forever Thine\par In life and death remain.\par \par "Resting on my Lord in faith\par I pass securely on;\par Through Him alone I conquer death,\par Through Him my crown is won!"\par \par "Shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } His is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "All power in heaven and earth has been given to Me." Matthew 28:18\par \par Such was among the last whispers of the Heavenly Palm\emdash while still rooted in the midst of the earthly encampments, and when about to be transplanted\emdash the all-glorious 'Tree of Life'\emdash into the midst of the Paradise of God!\par \par What more precious farewell truth, what more blessed KeepsakIe could the Savior have confided to His people than this; that to Him has been committed the Scepter of universal Empire! Many, among the multitude He was then addressing on one of the mountains of Galilee, had witnessed His poverty, His humiliation, His cruel buffetings, His bitter death. But now these were all past. His head was about to be "crowned with many crowns." As King of His Church, "all things had been delivered to Him by His Father" (Matt. 11:27). He knew that "the Father had given all things Jinto His hands" (John 13:3). He would impart the comfort of this ennobling truth to the orphaned Church He was to leave behind Him. When the chariots of God had borne Him away from their sight, they could still think of Him as boundless in His resources; that He who so often had spoken to them "in righteousness" was still "mighty to save." To these very hands that were pierced on Calvary's Cross had been entrusted the sovereignty of the universe!\par \par John, in his exile, sixty years later, bKeheld in striking vision a Book or roll "sealed with seven seals." Tears came to the aged eyes of the Evangelist, because no one in heaven or in earth was found "worthy to take the book" and decipher its mysteries. All at once, one of the redeemed from the earth conveys to him the joyous assurance that he need no longer "weep" for "the Lion of the tribe of Judah had prevailed to open the book," and unveil its contents (Rev. 5:7). What was this but the announcement, in significant figure, of the Savior's oLwn last utterance, that He had committed to His keeping the roll of Providence; that roll in which is inscribed not only the fate of kingdoms, the destinies of nations\emdash but whatever concerns the humblest and lowliest member of His Church on earth; with Him rests the unfolding of the roll\emdash the breaking of the seals\emdash the pouring out of the vials\emdash the bursting of the thunders.\par \par Need we wonder that, in taking "the Book" into His hands, the ransomed myriads in the ApocMalyptic vision should be seen falling down at the feet of the Lamb, with their "harps and golden vials full of incense;" and exulting in the thought that the Great Ruler of all was a Brother of the human race; that they should attune their lips to the lofty ascription, "You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."\par \par Yes, who will not exult in the thoNught that this vast world of ours is committed to the rule of JESUS\emdash that it was created "for Him"\emdash that "by Him all things are held together." I look up to the spangled dome of heaven with its myriad constellations. I am told these lamps, hung in the sky, are burning incense-fires to His glory; that they march at His word, and their eternal music is an anthem to His praise. I look at the landscape below; that vast furniture in the Palace of Nature is His providing. It is He who covers it in iOts robe of light, who wreathes the brow of Spring in living green, and decks the valleys in Summer glory. Not a breeze murmurs through the forests, nor a dewdrop sparkles on its leaves\emdash the sun shoots not one golden arrow through its glades, but by His permission. It is He who pencils the flowers, and intones the thunder, and gives voice to the tempest, and wings to the lightning.\par \par But these manifestations of His power in nature, are subordinate to a nobler sovereignty with which HPe is invested in the moral and spiritual world. There, too, nothing can happen but by His direction, nothing can befall us but what is the dictate and result of His loving wisdom. Often, indeed, as we have frequently said, that wisdom and love are veiled behind gigantic clouds of permitted evil. But, when we remember the pledge, in His own life's-blood, which He has given of His love to His people, dare we challenge the rectitude of His dealings or arraign the wisdom of His ways?\par \par No! thQis Savior-God "reigns, let the earth be glad." From the heart stripped of its beloved gourd by the gentle hand of death, to the more terrible cry of perishing thousands by famine, or pestilence, or "the grievousness of war," what truth more sublime, what syllables fall with more soothing music on the soul than these, HE (the Savior, who died for me, who now lives for me), "does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth!"\par \par "Life's mystery\emdash deep, restless aRs the ocean,\par Has surged and wailed for ages to and fro;\par Earth's generations watch its ceaseless motion\par As in and out its hollow moanings flow.\par Shivering and yearning by that unknown sea,\par Let my soul calm itself, O Christ, in Thee!\par \par "Between perplexities of death and life,\par You stand, loving, guiding, not explaining:\par We ask, and You are silent; yet we gaze,\par And our charmed hearts forget Stheir drear complaining.\par No crushing fate, no stony destiny,\par O 'Lamb that has been slain!' we rest in Thee.\par \par "The many waves of thought, the mighty tides,\par The ground-swell that rolls up from other lands,\par From far-off worlds, from dim, eternal shores,\par Whose echo dashes over life's wave-worn strands;\par This vague, dark tumult of the inner sea\par Grows calm, grows bright, O Savior-God, in Thee.\par \par "Your pierced hands guide the mysterious wheels,\par Your thorn-crowned brow now wears the Crown of pow'r,\par And when the dark enigma presses sore,\par Your voice has said, 'Keep watch with Me one hour'\par As sinks the moaning river in the sea,\par In silent peace, so sinks my soul in Thee."\par \par "Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of Your kingdom."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } 7<e61. All Power of Jesus{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 ALL POWER OF JESUS\par \par "ThGV"The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them." Isaiah 41:17\par \par Has not this been God's way and method of dealing with His people in every age!\emdash in the hour of desert privation, when the heavens above them were as brass and the earth as iron, to bring them the shade of palm-grove and the refreshment of fountain?\par \par It was when the disciples weWre in their hour of extremity, during the storm on Gennesaret, giving themselves up to the hopelessness of despair, that, "in the fourth watch of the night," when darkness was deepest and danger greatest, the great Deliverer appeared on the crested wave\emdash "Jesus went out to them walking on the lake!"\par \par It was when the bereaved of Bethany had, as they imagined, consigned the fond treasure of their affections to everlasting silence; and, as they were sitting in the pillaged home, wondeXring at the mysterious delay on the part of the one Being who could alone have arrested that winged arrow which had laid low the delight of their hearts; at that crisis-hour, the great Conqueror of death appears, to revive the smouldering ashes of their faith, and reanimate the joy and prop of their existence! Yes, how often still, does God thus delay His comforting mercy to the very last\emdash "the tongue failing for thirst"\emdash that they may see His hand, and His hand alone, in the gracious intervenYtion or deliverance, and be brought to say, with grateful adoring thankfulness, "Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death!"\par \par Even when He does not appear visibly to support; when some treasured comfort is withdrawn; or when deliverance from some threatened earthly trial or threatened evil is not given\emdash it is in order that we may, the more significantly and submissively, cast ourselves on Him. The shelter of the canvas tent is removed. But iZt only the more endears to us the shadow of the Elim-Palm. Observe the difference between the failing of the world's consolations and refuges and joys; and those of the true Christian. When the worldly man mourns his dried-up brooks or his stripped and dismantled tents, he has lost his all\emdash he has nowhere else to turn; there is nothing left him but the waterless channel\emdash the dreary stretches of blinding sand\emdash the tear of despair\emdash the broken heart\emdash the grave!\par \par [ But, in the case of the believer, when one comfort is withdrawn, his God has other spiritual comforts for him in store. Miserable, indeed, are those who have nothing but the poor earthly streamlet of this world to look to! Sooner or later this must be their history (as multitudes can bear testimony), "And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up" (1 Kings 17:7), Or the earthly tent!\emdash "In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment." (Jer. 4:20).\par \par But, \"happy is the man who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God"\emdash who can say, in the words of a faithful and venerated member of the Church of Christ recently entered on his rest and reward\emdash 'In the crowded city, "You are about my path." In the secret chamber, "You are about my bed." In the trackless desert, "You, God, see me." In the lonely journey, "Surely the Lord is in this place, though I knew it not." In the assembled congregation, "Wherever I cause my Name to] be honored, I will come to you and bless you." In the little company at home, "Where two or three come together in My Name, there am I with them." In distant cities and foreign lands, "I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone." In looking back on all the places of residence, "Lord, You have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations." And humbly depending on the promise for the great future, "Where I am, there shall also My servants be."'\par \par Beautiful^ly have the two greatest religious poets of Germany (Gerhard and Lange) thus sung\emdash\par "You were not born that earth should be\par A portion fondly sought;\par Look up to heaven, and, smiling, see\par Your shining, golden lot!\par Honors and joys which you shall share,\par Unending and unenvied there!\par \par "Then journey on to life and bliss,\par God will protect to heaven;\par And every good that meets you is\par _ A blessing wisely given.\par If losses come\emdash so let it be,\par The God of heaven remains with thee!\par \par "Yes, the light of comfort shall return,\par Joy's sweet sun shall shine again at last,\par I shall sing the gladsome song of morning,\par When the watches of the night are past.\par \par "I shall find again the hopes long vanished,\par Like the swallows when the storms are\par Fountains shall be opened in the deserts,\par Streams by the wayside, while journeying on.\par \par "Flowers of love and promise shall be springing,\par Where the cruel thorn and wormwood sprung,\par And the homeward path lie bright in sunshine,\par Where my sad harp upon the willows hung!"\par \par "O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } BB =aE62. Help in Extremity{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 HELP IN EXTREMITY\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par Ubough the heavens." Hebrews 4:14\par \par We never can recline too often or too devoutly under this Palm-shade of most divine comfort. The great Apostle felt the special delight of reposing under its fronds. He speaks of other favorite trees in the sacred grove under which he loved to repose; but he would seem to reserve this for the last in the enumeration; singling it out with peculiar emphasis amid its peers\emdash "Christ Jesus, who died\emdash more than that, who was raised to life\emdash isc at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us" (Rom. 8:34). Elevating and delightful, truly, is the contemplation of Jesus seated "at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man" (Heb. 8:2); pleading the merits of His obedience and death on behalf of His Church and people!\par \par The Temple-service of old was the shadow of these sublime heavenly things. The Jewish High Priest, having offerded on the great day of Atonement the sacrificial offering on the altar of burned-offering, attired himself in a dress of pure white linen\emdash linen robes, and linen girdle, and linen mitre, white from head to foot. Thus arrayed, he carried the blood in one hand, and the censer of live coals in the other, into the Most Holy place. Beating small some fragrant incense, he mixed it with the burning coals. A grateful cloud arose; the whole Temple-court was fragrant with the perfume, and enveloped in smoke.\epar \par Significant type, surely, of Him who has entered, through the rent veil of His own crucified body, into the Holiest of all; carrying with Him the memorials of His precious blood-shedding and the fragrant incense of His adorable merits! As the Jewish High Priest sprinkled the blood on the pavement before the mercy-seat, as well as on the mercy-seat; so, our Divine Intercessor sprinkled His blood first on the floor of earth where He shed it, and now He sprinkles it on the throne of heavenf. There, with the true incense and fire, He pleads. Attired in the white linen vesture of His perfect obedience and righteousness, He confesses His people's sins\emdash He stands between the congregation in the outer court of earth and the Divine Shekinah glory. He waves the fragrant censer\emdash and the whole heavenly house is filled with the odor of the incense. Him "the Father always hears" (John 11:42). They are His own remarkable words, "In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. I tell you theg truth, My Father will give you whatever you ask in My Name" (John 16:23). How prevailing that 'Name' and that plea must be, when we look to the host of petitioners who are warranted to use it!\par \par It is a beautiful part of the vision of the Covenant-angel in Revelation, with "the censer full of much incense" in His hand, that they are "the prayers of ALL saints," which, perfumed with His spotless merits, ascend before God's throne and are accepted! (Rev. 8:3.) It is not merely the pleadinghs of patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs\emdash men strong in faith giving glory to God; but the groan, the glance, the tear, the tremulous aspiration of smitten penitents, the very lisping of infant tongues; the unlettered morning and evening petitions of the cottage home, where the earthen floor is knelt upon\emdash where the only altar is the altar of the lowly heart, and the sacrifice that of a broken and contrite spirit.\par \par It may be affirmed of the Father, regarding one andi all of these pleas of the Divine Intercessor, in the prophetic words of the Psalmist\emdash "You have given Him His heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of His lips" (Ps. 21:2). Yes, He has a loving regard for each separate child of His redeemed family; He carries the case of each before God. The one hundred and forty-four thousand harpers on the sea of glass\emdash the representatives of the Church of the glorified\emdash do not exclude His tender concern in those who are still suppliants ijn the outer courts. He has the name of each separate believer imperishably engraved on His heart. He, the Gracious Shepherd, seated on the Everlasting Hills, and looking down on the earthly pastures, "calls His own sheep by name and leads them out." And that personal intercession will never cease, from the hour when the believer is first brought a lowly suppliant to the foot of the cross, until the final petition (unheard by weeping relatives in the death-chamber on earth) ascends from the lips of the Grekat Intercessor in heaven\emdash "Father, I want those You have given Me, to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory."\par \par The Jewish High Priest acted as the nation's Intercessor for one day only\emdash once every year\emdash and for only a part of that one day. But, day and night is our Intercessor pleading. He never ceases His intercessions; His love never cools; His ardor never decays! The true Moses on the Heavenly Rephidim, His hands never grow heavy; for of Him it is sublimely saidl, "He faints not, neither is weary."\par \par Even on earth, what a joy and comfort it is, in seasons of difficulty, to turn to a tried and loving friend, in whose tenderness and affection we can place unhesitating reliance! What an ease to unbosom in a brother's ear the difficulty that is harassing us, and solicit his wise and faithful counsel! Jesus is this blessed resort\emdash "the Wonderful Counselor" (Isa. 9:6 marg.).\par \par "O gracious Lord, ascended up on high!\par You Great High Priest within the Temple veil;\par To all that call upon You ever nigh,\par 'Prince who has power with God, and must prevail.'\par \par "Let down Your golden censer from above;\par And let our waiting souls the blessings share,\par Which You have promised to all those, who love\par To gather round the hallowed gates of prayer!"\par \par "What is it? What is your request? It will be given you."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } LLQ?YY64. A Pardoning God{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharny>y 63. Prevailing Intercession{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 PREVAILING INTERCESSION\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "We have a great high priest who has gone thraoset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 A PARDONING GOD\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "You forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:5\par \par What an oasis in the bleakest of moral deserts is this! God the Forgiver\emdash Yes, the Forgiver of great sins!\par \par The psalm from which our motto-vperse is taken, and the fifty-first, are the two liturgies of a penitent backslider, the loud and agonizing cries of a disinherited son longing for a father's forgiveness. The Father heard them; and made good in his experience, as in the experience of all wanderers, His own promise, "Return unto Me, and I will return unto you." If David had been influenced by a consideration of the enormity of his sin, before coming in broken-hearted penitence and conviction to make confession, he might well have seen in iqt a wall of separation\emdash an unbridged chasm, proclaiming eternal severance from his God.\par \par Listen to his plea. Listen to the backslider's suit. It is a strange and remarkable one, "Pardon my iniquity, FOR IT IS GREAT." Most transgressors would think the greatness of their iniquity the very reason for the Divine Being withholding pardon. We might have expected to hear this presumptuous transgressor wailing out, through tears of despair, 'Lord, if my sin had been less heinous and aggrarvated, then I might have dreamt of forgiveness. If I had been untaught from my youth\emdash untutored and undisciplined in Your ways, there might have been excuse or palliation for my offences, and room to hope on Your part for compassion. But I, guilty abuser of privileges, quencher of heavenly light, faithless requiter of abounding mercy, cannot expect, cannot ask You, to forgive these crimson iniquities. I must be content to be an outcast from Your presence and love forever.'\par \par No! He smakes the very greatness of his sin his plea for the extension of God's mercy! With man it would have been different. The enormity of the crime would have closed the door of human sympathy and human hope. But God's ways are not our ways, nor God's thoughts our thoughts. "Let me fall into the hands of GOD, for great are His mercies, but let me not fall into the hands of man." "After Your loving-kindness, have mercy upon me. According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." "Gotd, be merciful to me, a sinner." "For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, FOR it is great!" "From that hour," in the words of an old writer, "God kept David in the hollow of His hand, the very hand that was once so heavy upon him."\par \par Reader, are you conscious that your iniquities have thus separated between you and your Heavenly Father? Are you conscious that you are not now as once you were? that you enjoy no longer, as you once did, sensible nearness to the mercy-seat? that youu are restraining prayer before God? that the fine edge of conscience is blunted? that, in one word, you have lost ground in the Christian life? Arise, confess your sin, mourn your backsliding, and cry for pardon. Making a full and unreserved confession, He will not spurn you away. He is waiting to be gracious. In the words of the women of Tekoah, "He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him." The Father devises means for the reclamation of His erring prodigal. He pities thve backslider; just as the general on the field of battle pities the wounded who are carried bleeding by their comrades to the rear. "Go, proclaim this message toward the north: 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the Lord, 'I will not be angry forever.'"\par \par How many lapsed and fallen ones\emdash driven by some sudden hurricane\emdash some sudden assault of temptation well-nigh to despair, have experienced the blessednewss of this true repentance! Yes, strange as the expression may seem, the "blessedness of repentance." You have seen, when the rain and the storm had spent their fury on some landscape; when the thunder-cloud had passed, and blue vistas had again opened in the sky, and the sun had shone forth, silvering the dripping branches\emdash how the woodland grove rang with the song of birds\emdash all the sweeter and more gladsome seemed the notes of music, succeeding the gloom which had so long repressed them. Sucxh is the image of the happiness and joy of the soul in the hour of its restoration; on being brought up from the miry clay, and again set on the Rock of Ages. "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise!"\par \par "Oh, when Angel trumpet is pealing,\par Can the record be effaced?\par How evade the dread revealing\par Which the pen of Heaven has traced?\par \par "Go, in penitence bewailing,\par Go, and now bemoan your guilt,\par Trust the promise, never failing,\par 'I will save you, if you wilt.'\par \par "Hasten, every soul despairing,\par At the cross of Jesus fall;\par Though with legion sins repairing,\par He will freely pardon all."\par \par "You Have turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give You thanks forever."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } zrest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.'" Revelation 22:20\par \par No one had so enjoyed the privilege of sitting under the shade of the Divine Heavenly Palm as the writer of this Book of Revelation, the apostle John. No wonder that he should sigh and long for a renewal of the personal presence and fellowship of his ascended Lord \emdash and that the well-known keynote of his last writing\emdash the farewel{l inspired legacy to believers of the future, should be, "The Lord is coming!" Again, and again and again (four times in the one chapter from which our motto-verse is taken) do these notes sound in the ears of a waiting, expectant Church. First, in verse 7, "Behold, I come quickly." Second, in verse 12, "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me." Third, in verse 17, where 'the Coming One' had beautifully announced Himself as "The Bright and Morning Star;" the response\emdash the longing prayer ris|es in blended harmony from the Church on earth and the Church in heaven: "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come." Once more, in verse 20, the last audible voice of the Great Redeemer, until that voice be heard on the Throne\emdash gives, too, the assurance of His speedy coming. We close the Divine record with this "blessed hope," like a rainbow of promise spanning the sky of the future, "He which testifies these things says, 'SURELY I COME QUICKLY.'"\par \par We may appropriately compare these }repeated references in the last Book of the Bible, to the ringing of the chimes with quickening peal, as the worshipers are gathering to take their places in the Heavenly Temple.\par \par The prospect of that promised Advent put music of old into the lips of Patriarchs and Psalmists, Apostles and Prophets. "Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad\'85before the Lord: for He comes, He comes to judge the earth." "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with you." The Apostle Peter, li~ke a watcher on cliff or tower, eager to catch the earliest beam of sunrise, speaks of "looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of God." "Looking for that blessed hope," says Paul, "even the glorious appearing of the Great God our Savior." "I am persuaded," says the same in one of his dying utterances, "that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." By the Great Lord Himself, believers are represented as servants, cheerfully working on, during their Master's absence; but all alert for the sound of His footsteps, that, "when He comes and knocks, they may be ready to open unto Him immediately."\par \par As we now listen in the message at the head of this meditation to the last voice of the Great 'Testifier'\emdash the last toll of the Advent bell, let it sound to us like strains of seraphic music floating on a midnight sea. Let it proclaim in our ears blended comfort and warning; tempering prosperity, mitigating adversity, moderating the world's ambitions, stimulating to holiness, preparing for heaven.\par \par Whatever may be the antecedent or intervening events described in the other parts of the Apocalypse\emdash events in which, whether as regards the Church or individuals, we are, doubtless, deeply interested\emdash let "the Second Coming" tower above them all, like some colossal Alp, with plain and valley and lowlier mountain between, but rising peerless in the blue horizon, its top golden with heavenly sunlight; and from its eternal snows and hidden springs, sending forth ten thousand streams of hope and joy.\par \par Bright and Morning Star! Harbinger of eternal day! Who will not bid You welcome? Who will not help, in the noblest sense, to "Ring in the Christ that is to be"?\par \par "The Spirit says, COME!" The Divine Agent, whose own "coming" as the Paraclete or Comforter, was declared by the departing Savior to more than compensate the Church for her Redeemer's absence, hails the advent which is to crown and consummate His own work as "the Glorifier of Christ."\par \par "The Bride says, COME," the ransomed Church on earth, longing for the bridal day of perfected bliss\emdash the ransomed Church in heaven, saints, martyrs, departed friends, who have fallen asleep in Jesus\emdash take up the antiphonal strain, and cry "COME!"\emdash A groaning creation, weary of the bondage of sin and sorrow, and longing for liberty, cries "COME!" Can we take up one of the multiplying echoes, and, uniting our prayer with the sons of God, give willing response to the Apostle's closing invocation: "And let him who hears say COME?" Can we include ourselves in the words of another 'Watcher' for this Day-spring. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord!" "Therefore," he adds, Waiting Pilgrims! seat yourselves in calm expectancy under the shade of this choice Elim-Palm\emdash let the glorious outlook cheer, refresh, and solace you\emdash "Therefore, encourage each another with these words!"\par \par "His voice on earth we did not hear;\par His steps below we could not trace;\par But when His glory shall appear,\par We too shall meet Him face to face.\par \par "So surely as the leaves and flowers\par In summer time come back again\emdash\par So surely as in sultry hours\par The dark clouds bring the pleasant rain.\par \par "Shall He, who, in His lowly love,\par Came down that we might be forgiven,\par Break, glorious, through the clouds above,\par And take His children home to heaven."\par \par "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par }  @e=65. A Gracious Message{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 A GRACIOUS MESSAGE\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary y \par "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10\par \par "I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous." Psalm 119:75\par \par As we are seated, it may be, in loneliness and sadness, with, perhaps, a dreary sense of mystery, under one of the wilderness palms, God thus addresses us in the first of these motto-verses. Happy for us, if we can respond to the whispering fronds above us, in the words of the second.\par \par Not such, however, is generally (or, at all events, in the first moments of trial), the utterance of cheerful consent on the part of the smitten, or wounded, or broken spirit. On the contrary, in the midst of dark dispensations, how apt are we to impugn the Almighty's faithfulness, question the wisdom of His procedure, and set up our wills in opposition to the Divine. Nor are these misgivings confined to the case of personal and domestic afflictions. To take no infrequent illustration, in which not individual interests, but the welfare of the Church seems involved. Here is an honored Ambassador of Christ; a faithful witness of the truth, unwearied in his endeavors to awaken the careless, comfort the mourner, soothe the suffering, and befriend the dying. Though others might be arrested in the midst of health and laid on beds of languishing, I thought that, for the world's good, and the glory of the Master he serves, a rampart of defense would have been thrown around a life of earnest love, and zeal, and unselfishness.\par \par Yet, while other weaklings and "Ready-to-halts" are spared, this standard-bearer, this Asahel, swift of foot and daring in deed\emdash has fallen in the field\emdash just when his courage, and heroism, and example, were most needed, to nerve his comrades and turn the tide of battle. Many decayed and gnarled trunks are left, to occupy their place in the forest, while the strong of stem, and green of leaf, and majestic in shadow, are rooted up. Old crumbling pillars are allowed to remain, while polished shafts, fresh from the quarry, have been struck and shivered with lightning! Where is He who guides with unerring rectitude the destinies of the universe? "Has God forgotten to be gracious?" "Surely the Lord does not see, neither does the God of Jacob regard!"\par \par Or, to take the case which comes most deeply home to the individual heart. Where is the mercy or tenderness in that sudden banishing of life's summer dream\emdash that demolition of the most cherished vision of earthly bliss? I was taught to imagine that His dealings to His own were those of a Father, not retributive or judicial, but paternal: that I could see no hand, and hear no lullaby but love. Why has the promised parental solicitude been superseded by the harsh voice and the rebuking rod? Why has the All-loving belied His own saying, "As one whom his mother comforts"? "You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer; from of old is Your name. Where is Your zeal and Your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us" (Isaiah 63:15, 16).\par \par What is the answer to these and suchlike unworthy conjectures? "Be still and know that I am God." To the eye of sense, however baffling and mysterious be the ways of the Supreme\emdash it is not for us to judge, and surmise, and conjecture, but to believe; not to question, but, like Job, to kneel and to adore. If we allowed our own short-sighted wisdom to sit in judgment on the Divine procedure, each one of us would at times be tempted to turn away in sullen discontent from many a providential message.\par \par The disciples on their way to Emmaus were cherishing such a spirit. With their back to their Lord's cross, and their faces bent on the ground, they muttered in despair, "We had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel." Little did they dream, amid these pensive musings and carnal reasonings, that the Messiah of their nation and of the world was walking by their side!\par \par Martha and Mary were cherishing such a spirit, when they rushed to the uplands of Bethany and gazed with wistful eye across to the Moab mountains, "as to a world beyond the grave," for a tarrying Lord. If their inmost souls had been disclosed\emdash if we could have listened to their words, we would have heard them thus pouring out their disconsolate soliloquy\emdash 'We thought He would not so have lingered; that His omniscient eye and omnipotent love would have discerned and pitied our tempest-tossed bark in its sea of sorrows. It is unlike His kind heart thus to mock our grief. It is unlike His righteous wisdom thus to single out His and our loved brother for a premature grave. We had felt fondly convinced that darkened and desolate as other homes in Judea might be, the last light He would have extinguished would be that in the Bethany dwelling\emdash the last star expunged from the firmament\emdash one so bright with promise!' No! hush, unbelieving one: "Did I not tell you, that if you would BELIEVE, you would see the glory of God?"\par \par Oh, for an unquestioning faith! We often reason, and conjecture, and 'think,' when, in the circumstances, it is alike our duty and our privilege to listen simply to the voice of Jehovah; not venturing to arraign the faithfulness and love of even the most inscrutable dispensations; but rather, in reverent submission to say, amid crossed wills and frowning providences\emdash "I will hear what God the Lord will speak, He will speak peace to His people and to His saints."\par \par "I think if you could know,\par Oh soul, that will complain,\par What lies concealed below\par Our burden and our pain.\par \par "I think if you could see\par With your dim mortal sight,\par How meanings dark to thee\par Are shadows hiding light.\par \par "Truth's efforts crossed and vexed,\par Life's purpose all perplexed\emdash\par If you could see them right,\par I think that they would seem,\par all clear, and wise, and bright.\par \par "Well may Your happy children cease\par From restless wishes prone to sin,\par And, in Your own exceeding peace,\par Yield to Your daily discipline.\par \par "We need as much the cross we bear\par As air we breathe\emdash as light we see,\par It draws us to Your side in prayer,\par It binds us to our strength in Thee."\par \par "Those who know Your name will trust in you."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } rsBe67. God All Satisfying{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} SAQe66. Perfect Trust{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 PERFECT TRUST\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 GOD ALL SATISFYING\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26\par \par Every theory of human happiness, as we have more than once noted in the preceding pages, is defective and incomplete, which falls short of the aspirations of natures born for the infinite. No satellite, with its borrowed light, will compensate for the loss of the sun. You may tempt a man, as he is hurrying on his immortal way with the world's portions; you may hold out to him the golden sheaves of riches, you may seek to detain him amid the sunny glades of pleasure, or on the hilltops of fame (and he may be but too willing for a while to linger); but satisfy him, they cannot!\par \par When his nobler nature acquires its ascendancy, he will spurn them all. Brushing each one in succession away, as the stag does the dewy drops of the morning, he will say, 'All are insufficient, I wish them not. I have been mocked by their failure, I have found that each has a lie in its right hand. It is a poor counterfeit, a shadowy figure of the true. I need the Infinite of Knowledge, Goodness, Truth, Love!' "In the Lord I take refuge. How then can you say to me: 'Flee like a bird to your mountain'"?\par \par The fact is, it is the very grandeur of the soul which leads it thus to pant after God. Small things satisfy a small capacity, but what is made receptive of the vast and glorious can only be satisfied with great things. The mind of the child is satisfied with the toy or the trinket; the mind of the untutored savage with bits of painted glass or tinsel; but the grown man, the sage, the philosopher, desire higher possessions, purer knowledge, nobler themes of thought and objects of ambition. Some insects are born for an hour, and are satisfied with it. A summer afternoon is the duration of existence allotted to myriads of tiny ephemera. In their case, youth and old-age are crowded into a few passing minutes. The descending sun witnesses both their birth and death; the lifetime of other animals would be to them an immortality.\par \par The soul, being unlimited in its capacities, has correspondingly lofty aspirations. Vain would be the attempt to fill up a yawning gulf by throwing into it a few grains of sand. But not more vain or ineffectual than trying to answer the deep yearnings of the human spirit by the seen and the temporal. Men go sighing on\emdash drinking their rivers of pleasure, and climbing their mountains of vanity. They feel all the while some undefined, inarticulate, nameless longing after something nobler; but it is a miserable travesty to say that it has been found, or can be found, in anything here on earth. "Who will show us any good?" will still be the quest of the groping seeker, until he has learned to say, "Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord."\par \par You may have seen in our mountain glens, in the grey twilight, birds winging their way to their nests. There may be bowers and gardens of fragrance and beauty close by, inviting to sweetest melody, nature's consecrated haunts of song. But they tempt them not. Their homes are in the distant rock, and there they speed. So with the immortal spirit. The perches of this world will not satisfy it. There is no stable repose in these for its weary wing and wailing cry. It goes singing up and home to God\emdash it has its nest in the crevices of the Rock of Ages. When detained in the nether valley, often is the warbling note heard, "Oh that I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away, and be at rest." And when the flight has been made from the perishable to the imperishable, from the lower valleys of sense, to the hills of faith, from the creature to the Creator, from man to God\emdash as we see it folding its buoyant pinion and sinking into the eternal clefts, we listen to the song\emdash "Return unto your rest, O my soul!"\par \par O God! All mighty, All wise, All good\emdash You are, in Yourself, all I need, all I require; in sickness and health, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death, in time and through eternity. The snow-clad hills may cease to feed the brooks; that sun may cease to shine, or nature grow weary of his loving beams; that moon may cease on her silver lyre, night by night, to discourse to "the listening earth;" the birds may become mute at the voice of the morning; flowers may droop, instead of ringing their thousand bells at the jubilant advance of summer; the gasping pilgrim may rush from palm-grove and stream, and prefer the fiery furnace-glow of the desert sands\emdash but "this God shall be my God forever and ever." And when death is sealing my eyes, and the rush of darkness is coming over my spirit\emdash even then will I take up the old exile's strain\emdash the great sigh of weary humanity\emdash and blend its notes with the song of heaven\emdash "My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God." "I shall be satisfied when I awake with Your likeness!"\par \par "You know, Lord, the weariness and sorrow\par Of the lonely heart that comes to You for rest,\par Cares of today, and burdens for tomorrow,\par Blessings implored, and sins to be confest.\par \par "You know all the future\emdash gleams of gladness\par By stormy clouds too quickly overcast,\par Hours of sweet fellowship, and parting sadness,\par And the dark river to be crossed at last.\par \par "Therefore I come, Your gentle call obeying,\par And lay my sins and sorrows at Your feet;\par On everlasting strength my weakness staying,\par Clothed in Your robe of righteousness complete."\par \par "I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.'"\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par }  able also to save them to the uttermost." Hebrews 7:25\par \par What, to many, would all the other "three score and ten palm-trees" avail, if they had not this one to rush to for shelter?\par \par The pressing, urgent question with thousands of anxious souls\emdash overwhelmed with the weight of aggravated transgression, is this, "Can the God-Man-Redeemer be a Savior for us? A shelter for others, can these Palms afford sure refuge for the guiltiest?" It is the old controversy that Satan has with not a few, whom he first goads on to presumption, and then, when entangled in his meshes, he seeks to drive to despair. Many such has that relentless guard shut up in the deepest dungeons of "Doubting Castle"\emdash gloomy cells, where the sunlight is forbidden to enter\emdash and rung over them the knell of extinguished hope. The crushing thought of personal unworthiness\emdash the memories of guilty bygone years, rise up before them like avenging angels.\par \par What! this Savior and this salvation for me\emdash it cannot be! I have plunged madly into sin\emdash not, like others, because I have never been warned\emdash never counseled\emdash never known the tenderness of a mother's prayers, nor the sanctity of a father's entreaties, nor the privileges of a hallowed home. I have been oblivious of all these. Even now, I seem to listen (though in years long gone by), to voices which I have lived basely to scorn\emdash to counsels I have trampled on\emdash the retrospect all the sadder by the reflection that the lips which spoke them are hushed in the grave\emdash and the arms that of old caressed me, as on Sabbath night I knelt by the beloved knee, are decaying in the tomb! What! Christ receive me, with all that diary of a misspent, godless, defiant life unveiled to His omniscient eye!\emdash deeds of depravity\emdash outbursts of fiery passion\emdash malignant purposes of revenge; my own bark sunk\emdash and worse it may be than this, miserable wrecks, for which I am guiltily responsible, strewing the shores. Mine is not, as it is with many, a mere upper layer of iniquity; but it is deposit on deposit\emdash strata piled on strata\emdash the mournful consolidation of a life of sin. Ten thousand echoes ring "lost!" along the dreary corridors of the past. "Surely my way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God!" There may be room and welcome for every weary traveler at Elim and its grove, except for me!\par \par No, not so! As aggravated as your case is, it is never hopeless; you cannot hear your spiritual death-knell tolled, so long as you can read the golden letters which head this meditation\emdash "Able to save completely." You may have been a sinner to the uttermost. You may have gone the sickening round of all life's follies\emdash run riot of its whole enchanted circle\emdash O Israel, you may have destroyed yourself\emdash there may not be one redeeming feature in your case\emdash not one apparent gleaning left for the grape-gatherer. You may be a stripped, defenseless, degenerate vine\emdash fit only for the axe and the cumberer's doom. But hear the words of God\emdash "In Me is your help." "I know the thoughts which I think towards you\emdash thoughts of peace and not of evil!"\par \par It is told of Bilney, in the time of the Reformation, that on obtaining Erasmus' translation of the Greek Testament, he hurried away with it and shut himself up in his room in Cambridge. On opening its pages, his eye caught the words\emdash "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." He laid down the book, and meditated on the astonishing declaration. "What! Paul 'the chief of sinners,' and yet Paul is sure of being saved!" He read the verse again and again, exclaiming, "Oh assertion of Paul, how sweet are you to my soul!"\par \par Downcast Pilgrim, in the dreariest of moral deserts! if, with true and sincere penitence of heart, you plead for pardon, "with the Lord there is unfailing love, and with Him is full redemption" (Ps. 130:7). What a wondrous utterance is that\emdash a lustrous jewel sparkling in a dark setting\emdash found in the 18th verse of the opening chapter of Isaiah's prophecy! One would have supposed, after the dreadful indictment contained in the preceding verses, that any hope of forgiveness must be closed against the rebellious race\emdash "The people laden with iniquity." But, all at once, the tolling of the funereal bell ceases; and the joyful chime that has borne hope and comfort in many an hour of spiritual desolation falls upon the ear\emdash "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord\emdash Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."\par \par Or, take another declaration of similar import: "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and will not remember your sins." "I\emdash even I"\emdash the very Being you have most deeply injured\emdash whose Spirit you have grieved\emdash I, the Almighty Creditor, am ready to grant and sign a full discharge\emdash "Whoever comes to Me, I will never drive away." The Stronger than the strong man armed, sounds the silver trumpet of jubilee, "He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound," and blessed have been the millions who have heard that joyful sound! "How useless it is," says an earnest thinker lately lost to the world, and who knew from deep-felt experience the truth of his own words\emdash "How useless it is to tell the desponding, or those distressed by consciousness of guilt, of any remedy but a Savior's blood. It is here that the true test and proof of the Gospel lies. It is light to the blind, strength to the weary, and consolation for the brokenhearted."\par \par "All in weakness, all in sorrow,\par Savior God! I Thee implore;\par Lifting up the sad petition\par You have often heard before,\par In the former days of darkness,\par In despairing times of yore.\par \par "For a present help in trouble,\par You have never ceased to be;\par Since, at first, a weeping sinner\par Fell before You trustingly;\par And Your voice is ever sounding,\par Come, you weary ones, to Me!"\par \par "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } jj[DYm69. Asleep in Jesus{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} 4Cq68. Salvation to the Uttermost{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 SALVATION TO THE UTTERMOST\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "He is{\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 ASLEEP IN JESUS\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." 1 Thessalonians 4:14\par \par Another glimpse which Faith, while seated under the Palms of the Valley, takes of "the Land that is very far off," but which at times, too, is brought so very near! We may first state the special occasion of the words at the head of this meditation.\par \par As the great Apostle was now at Corinth, his beloved son Timothy had brought him from Thessalonica encouraging tidings of the Church he had there founded. But in that good report there were mingled also tidings of death. Some of those to whom he had comparatively recently ministered, had paid the debt of nature and passed from the earthly scene. Their bereaved friends were, moreover, undergoing needless sorrow, because the deceased had been removed before the coming of Christ. The Thessalonians, in common with other infant churches, entertained unfounded expectations regarding the imminence of the Second Advent. They imagined it so near at hand that they would live to behold it; and when they saw their loved relations or fellow Christians taken away, they mourned specially at their being deprived of sharing in the joy of welcoming a returning Lord. This Epistle, from which our motto-verse is taken, was written (among other reasons), to comfort and console the sorrow-stricken. It is interesting and remarkable that the first letter of Paul is thus a letter to the bereaved! It is an "afflicted man's companion." The Spirit of the Lord, by inspiration, was upon him. The Lord anointed him "to heal the brokenhearted."\par \par And what does he say to these drooping, saddened spirits? He tells them not to be disheartened, but to rejoice. "Bothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." 1 Thes. 4:13-14. There is no more expressive symbol of higher and diviner truths than the sleep of the body and the subsequent waking in the morning.\par \par It is beautiful to see the surging waves of daily life rocking themselves to rest\emdash to note, say, in some vast city, when night has drawn its curtains around, light after light put out in the windows, the street lamps paying solitary homage to the stars as they look down from their silent thrones! What a hush pervades the recent 'stunning tide of human care and crime!' Why? Because sleep is locking up ten thousand eyes of those who are dreaming away care and sorrow, fatigue and toil. But again, as the gates of morning open, and when from the silent monitors of fleeting time, the hour summoning to labor strikes, in a moment the ring of countless hammers breaks the trance of night. All is again astir. Sleep has refreshed the workman's wearied body; sleep has put new pith and sinew in that brawny arm. The whole world has arisen like a giant refreshed, and sleep has been the elixir that has soothed its wounds and healed its pains.\par \par We need not wonder, then, that this priceless blessing to the weary, has been taken by God Himself to describe the quiet rest of His own people in the grave. David, the man after God's own heart, after he had served his day and generation, "fell asleep and was gathered to his fathers." "Our friend Lazarus sleeps," said Christ. Stephen, when struck down by his murderers, "fell asleep." Following the same imagery, "Those also," says the Apostle, "who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."\par \par But what does Paul mean by this sleep? Is it the sleep of the soul? Is it that the spirit, at the moment of dissolution, falls into a state of inactivity or insensibility, in which it remains until startled at last by the trumpet of God? No! Let us return to the analogy of earthly sleep. We know that when the body is in a state of profound rest, when the eye is closed in seeming unconsciousness on the pillow, it is only apparently so. The mind is in a state of constant activity; all its powers are vigorous as ever. Memory is there, bringing up old and treasured scenes. Imagination is there, combining these in strange fantastic medley. Gorgeous visions come and go\emdash magnificent combinations, in comparison with which waking realities are dull, prosaic, and commonplace. So it is with the soul at death. While the body "sleeps" in its grassy bed, the spirit is roaming in regions of activity and life. It departs "to be with Christ, which is far better."\par \par ''There is no death\emdash the stars go down\par To rise upon some fairer shore;\par And bright in heaven's jeweled crown,\par They shine for evermore.\par \par "There is no death\emdash an angel-form\par Walks o'er the earth with silent tread,\par And bears our best-loved things away;\par And then we call them dead."\par \par The words of our motto-verse may bear the beautiful rendering, "Those also, who are laid asleep by Jesus!"\emdash a rendering which, among others, suggests two comforting thoughts, two most gracious whispers from these Palm-trees of heavenly consolation.\par \par (1.) That the hour of our death is appointed by Jesus. We are laid asleep by Him. Just as the mother knows the best hour to lay her little one in its couch or cradle; undresses it, composes it to rest, sings its lullaby, and the cherub face, lately all smiles, is now locked in quiet repose. So Christ comes to His people at His own selected season, and says, 'Your hour of rest has arrived. I am to take off the garments of mortality. Come! I will robe you in the vestments of the tomb.' He smooths the narrow bed, composes the pillow, and sings His own lullaby of love, 'Fear not, my child, for I am with you, sleep on now and take your rest!'\par \par Be comforted with this blessed truth, that the hour of death cannot come a moment sooner than Jesus appoints. He knows the best time to bid you and yours the long "good-night." Interesting it is (and a Bible truth too) to think of troops of angels hovering over the death-pillow, and watching with guardian care the sleeping dust. But more comforting still, surely, is it to think of the Lord of angels closing the eyes and hushing to slumber\emdash Christ Himself leading to the grave\emdash the robing room of immortality\emdash "unclothing," that His people may be "clothed upon," and that "mortality may be swallowed up of life."\par \par A second suggested thought is, that the body belongs to Christ. The soul, indeed, is more specially His. It wings its arrowy flight up to the Spirit World. Angels carry it into Abraham's bosom, and from that hour it is "forever with the Lord." But what of the material framework? What of the marble tenement? Is it left to crumble in dishonor and corruption? Now that the jewel is gone, is the treasure-chest to be disowned? Now that the vestal fire is quenched, is the temple left to decay in oblivion? No, it is the body to which Paul in these words refers. It is the body that is "laid asleep by Jesus." Every particle of that dust of the sepulcher was purchased by His blood. The Apostle elsewhere speaks of "body as well as spirit which are His" (1 Cor. 6:20).\par \par You who have treasures in the tomb, come and seat yourselves under the shadow of this Elim-palm. Rejoice in the assurance that these earthly tabernacles are in the custody of Him who has the keys of the grave and of death. The loving hand of Divine parental love was the last to close their eyes; and in the prospect of waking on an eternal morrow, you can go to their graves, and thinking of them as having migrated to the Better Land, away forever from the harsh jarrings and discords and tumults of the present, can write the epitaph\emdash "So HE grants SLEEP to those He loves."\par \par "It is an uncut jewel,\par All earth encrusted now;\par But He will make it glorious,\par And set it on His brow!\par 'Tis but a tiny glimmer\par Lit from the light above,\par But it shall blaze through endless days\par A star of perfect love."\par \par "I will lie down and sleep in peace."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } tor Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE LAST MUSING\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 1 Corinthians 15:54\par \par "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:4\par \par "Rest." "Refreshment."\emdash How can such words be employed regarding Death? How can the shade of Elim-palm be spoken of with reference to that dark valley, in connection with which the willow and the cypress have always been accepted as the appropriate symbols? In the oldest Epic poem of the world, indeed, the grave is spoken of as the place where "the weary are at rest." But with death itself, there is usually associated no such restful, reposeful thought. Though the last enemy\emdash it is still an enemy! Nevertheless, thanks be to God, there is here, too, a palm-grove for His true people. These fronds have no louder or more tender whispering of the name of Jesus, and His exceeding great and precious promises, than at a dying hour! A traveler in Palestine remarks literally, what we may take allegorically, that "the finest and best palm-trees are along the banks of the Jordan."\par \par "I am persuaded that\'85 death shall not separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." "Thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Bunyan represents even the timid pilgrim Much-Afraid, as "going through the stream singing." Yes, there is a real companionship in that closing scene. There is a Tree which can make these bitter waters of Marah sweet. The column of cloud and fire, which has gone before in the wilderness, will not forsake in the swelling of the Border river of death.\par \par And this is no mystical figure\emdash no mere poetical or sentimental illusion. It is a wondrous fact. Thousands who have passed through the final conflict can bear witness to it\emdash the felt nearness of the Savior. No one who has had any experience of deathbeds but can testify, that there is often the sublime consciousness of a PRESENCE there\emdash as if the dying pilgrim rested on a living Arm, and the place became a Peniel, where, like the patriarch, the wrestling soul saw God face to face!\par \par How can we, with lowly confidence and hope, look forward to a similar hour? It is by having Christ as our portion now, if we would have Him as our portion then. What was it that gave David this confidence in the prospect of treading the final Valley? It was the conscious nearness\emdash the realized presence of Jehovah his Shepherd, in life. He was even then rejoicing in this companionship and love. See how near he felt Him to be! Observe the phraseology of the second of our motto-verses\emdash the form of utterance. It is not "I will fear no evil, for You are to be with me," nor is it "for God is with me," but "You are with me." He seems to look up with trustful faith to Him who was even then at his side. He speaks not of a remote Being, who would meet him at the valley-entrance\emdash a mere guide through the gloom of that strange gorge at the end of the journey, but who at other times is unknown and distant. It is the Friend he has known and confided in so long. It is the Shepherd of whom, in the opening strain of the song, he said, that Shepherd is mine\emdash "The Lord is my Shepherd." It is He whose guiding hand had led him by "the green pastures," and "the still waters," and "the paths of righteousness."\par \par And was the Psalmist deceived? Did this song of life prove a delusion when the hour of death came? Could he sing it so long as his journey was carpeted with flowers, and radiant with sunshine? but did his faith forsake him, and his rod and staff give way, and his song melt into a wail of terror, when the shadows fell around? We have his last words recorded. We have the very hymn which this Hebrew minstrel sang, when the valley-gloom was beginning to darken his path, and the sound of the waters of death fell on his ear: "He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. This is all my salvation, and all my desire!"\par \par So also was it with him who uttered the triumphant exclamation of the former verse placed at the head of this meditation. He who had so fondly loved and prized the shelter of the Elim-grove in life, could exult, even amid the lowering clouds which shrouded the closing hours of a consecrated existence\emdash "I am not ashamed: for I know Whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day!" And God is ever faithful who promised, "As your days, so shall your strength be." "You are with me," says Lady Powerscourt, "is still the rainbow of light thrown across the Valley."\par \par Nor will that solemn, mysterious hour be allowed to overtake us until the Lord of life sees fit. This is surely a comforting reflection (which we had occasion also to dwell upon in the immediately preceding meditation), that life and death are in His hands: that what appears to us to be the most wayward and capricious of occurrences\emdash the departure of a human being from this world\emdash is directly under His sovereign control; that He gives the lease of existence; and, when He sees fit, revokes the grant. Sweetly sings one of the minstrel-band of German hymn-writers\emdash\par \par "My God, I know not when I die:\par What is the moment or the hour,\par How soon the clay may broken lie,\par How quickly pass away the flower;\par \par "My God, I know not how I die:\par For death has many ways to come,\par In dark mysterious agony,\par Or gently as a sleep to some.\par \par "My God, I know not where I die;\par Where is my grave; beneath what strand?\par Yet from its gloom I do rely\par To be delivered by Your hand!\par \par "Then comes it right and well to me,\par When, where, and how, my death shall be!"\par \par Death has no terrors, when it comes thus as a message from death's great Conqueror. He sends His angels\emdash glorious beings who delight to do His pleasure\emdash to the bedsides of His saints, to bear their spirits on wings of light and love upward to heavenly mansions.\par \par "For them the silver ladder shall be set\emdash\par Their Savior shall receive their last breath:\par They travel to a fadeless coronet,\par Up through the Gate of death!"\par \par "Father, I will" (is His last and closing intercessory prayer in behalf of every member of the Church on earth), "that those also, whom You have given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory."\par \par Death is but the entrance and portico of "our Father's house." As we stand under the porch, the archway over our head projects a shadow. We are for a moment out of life's sunshine. But the next! the door opens; and better than the blaze of earthly sun is ours. The darkness is past, and the true light shines. In an instant, from the gloomy Valley of the Weeping Willows, we are among THE PALMS OF PARADISE!\par \par "In the stillness and the starlight,\par In sight of the Promised Land,\par We thought of the bygone pilgrimage,\par And the burning, blinding sand.\par \par "How gracious, too, had been the dews,\par Which from God's presence fell;\par And the hallowed hours of resting\par By Palm-grove and by Well.\par \par "But now we pitched our final tent,\par The desert journey done,\par For the glorious hills of the Better Land\par Gleamed in the setting sun.\par \par "A river\emdash the Border river\emdash\par Was seen in the dying light,\par The rush of its swelling waters\par Was heard in the deepening night.\par \par "We sit under Heavenly palm-trees\par In the dawn of Eternal day,\par And look toward the desert hilltops,\par Where the misty shadows play.\par \par "The great and dreadful land\par Of wilderness and drought,\par Lies in these shadows behind us,\par For the Lord has 'brought us out.'\par \par "The great and dreadful river\par Which we stood by night to view,\par Is left far off in the darkness,\par \par For the Lord has 'brought us through.'"\par \par "Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel just as He promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave."\par \par "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God."\par \par "Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." Psalm 116:7\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } )FA!MacDuff - Rest and Refreshment in the Valleys{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\b\f0\fs22 "PALMS OF ELIM" or\par "Rest and Refreshment in the Valleyҁ/EY70. The Last Musing{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generas"\par \b0 by John MacDuff, 1879\par \par "After leaving Marah, they came to Elim ('Valleys'), where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the springs." Exodus 15:27 (Elim was an oasis in the desert.)\par \par This volume is intended for the comfort and refreshment for God's own children of sorrow\emdash for those in the varied 'valleys' of earthly tribulation. The "palm trees of Elim" afford their grateful shade not in Canaan, but in the wilderness. Pilgrims of eternity! weary and travel-worn, fainting under the burden and fear of the day\emdash may you find here in these pages, with their figurative 'palm trees', restful, consolatory thoughts.\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose" Isaiah 28:12\par \par "I delight to sit in His shade, and His fruit is sweet to my taste." Song 2:3\par \par "The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know what to say to all these weary ones." Isaiah 50:4\par \par 01. Divine Immutability\par 02. All for Good\par 03. The Sympathy of Jesus\par 04. The Wind Tempered\par 05. The Fatherhood of God\par 06. Transcendently Able\par 07. Right Guidance\par 08. Higher Uses\par 09. The Gracious Word\par 10. A Reigning Savior\par 11. Divine Leading\par 12. The Farewell Gift\par 13. The Compassion of Jesus\par 14. The Lord Upright\par 15. Full Satisfaction\par 16. The Secret of Submission\par 17. A Risen Christ\par 18. The Creator and Redeemer\par 19. Proof and Triumph of Love\par 20. Future Unfoldings\par 21. A Great Salvation\par 22. Fears Quieted\par 23. The Way Known\par 24. Prayer\par 25. Tender Dealings\par 26. Sleeping and Waking\par 27. The Return to Zion\par 28. The Great High Priest\par 29. Fatherly Chastisement\par 30. God Unchanging\par 31. Healing for All\par 32. Divine Power\par 33. Providence and Grace\par 34. Transformation at Death\par 35. The Incarnate Savior\par 36. The Rebukes of Love\par 37. The Unspeakable Gift\par 38. Jehovah Jireh\par 39. Glorious Attributes and Ways\par 40. The Second Coming\par 41. Imputed Righteousness\par 42. Christ Ever the Same\par 43. The Soul's Portion\par 44. Hope\par 45. The Supreme Rule of Jesus\par 46. The Perpetual Presence\par 47. Christ's Deity\par 48. The Imperishable Gift\par 49. The Recompense of Trust\par 50. The Riches of God's Mercy\par 51. Acceptance of the Little\par 52. None Cast out\par 53. The Blessed Hope\par 54. The Divine Way Perfect\par 55. Perseverance\par 56. Delight in God's Law\par 57. Christ the Propitiation\par 58. Fullness of Joy\par 59. Inviolable Security\par 60. The Safe Deposit\par 61. All Power of Jesus\par 62. Help in Extremity\par 63. Prevailing Intercession\par 64. A Pardoning God\par 65. A Gracious Message\par 66. Perfect Trust\par 67. God All Satisfying\par 68. Salvation to the Uttermost\par 69. Asleep in Jesus\par 70. The Last Musing\par \par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sl240\slmult1\lang2058\f0\fs22 THE SUPREME RULE OF JESUS\par \par "This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"\emdash\par \par "Zion, your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7\par \par "I have installed My King on Zion, my holy hill." Psalm 2:6\par \par God's gracious palm-trees of promise are not designed for comfort and refreshment to the individual believer alone. He has an outlook from under their grateful shade on the Church's far horizon. Delightful and elevating is that topic of consolation which our motto-verses suggest!\par \par In the context from which the former of the two is taken, the prophet, in heavenly vision, beholds the swift-footed Gospel messengers speeding from country to country, from race to race, carrying the tidings of salvation round the globe. He sees a whole world brought under the beneficent reign of the Prince of Peace, and can exclaim (ver. 10)\emdash "The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God." The Church does not end her efforts until every mountain and valley is gladdened with the feet of these evangelists, with trumpet-tongue proclaiming the commands of her Great King.\par \par And what is the opening theme of those who are thus swift to act as His delegates? What is their brief watchword for the children of Zion?\emdash "Your GOD REIGNS!" Happier, more blessed words there cannot be. Messiah rules over His Church and over the nations. "Yet have I set My King on My holy hill of Zion." What a comfort to the Church universal; that amid political complexities: it may be the prevalence and triumph of human tyranny and wrong; all which concerns her is under His omnipotent supervision; that He is controlling every event for her ultimate welfare. 'Kings and potentates,' says M'Cheyne, 'are only like Hiram's workmen in Lebanon cutting down trees to prepare a highway for the King's chariot.'\par \par 'The sacramental host,' His true people throughout all the world, need be in no fear\emdash giving way like Israel in Egypt to precipitate panic; for in front and from behind they have an Almighty guardian. And especially His ministers, 'the armor-bearers of Jehovah,' need never fear the ultimate success of their proclamation of the good tidings; the issue of the conflict is in the Lord's hands. They can take as their battle-song the motto inscribed on the altar erected shortly after Israel left their Elim encampment, "Jehovah Nissi" ("The Lord is my banner").\par \par And that which is the theme of encouragement to the Church universal, is equally so to each separate member of that Church. There are times, amid the mysteries of daily life\emdash amid startling providences\emdash baffling dispensations, when the old moorings threaten to give way, or have momentarily given way, and we feel ourselves drifting out on the joyless sea of human doubt and distrust. All is dark around\emdash no rift in the cloud, no star in the midnight sky\emdash and in the anguish of bitter unbelief we are tempted to mutter the querulous complaint, "Where is my God now?" Or, if God lives and reigns, does He live as a God of terror? does He answer to the fire-god of the Phoenician in his Baal-worship; or to the Jupiter-god of the Roman, armed with the thunderbolt and forked lightning? or, in the fantasies of a later philosophy, has He abdicated His throne, and left man and his fortunes to wild chance, to be driven, things of fate, here and there on the fitful waters\emdash the vessel without a pilot, the world without a ruler?\par \par No! the chart of Providence containing the fortunes of the nations, as well as all that concerns His Church and people, is in the keeping of the Christ of Calvary. "The Lord is king!\par \par Let the nations tremble! He sits on his throne between the cherubim. Let the whole earth quake!" It is He who mingles every drop in the cup, and lights every furnace, and orders every trial, and draws every tear. Oh! what would many have been in those gloomy hours of despair, when the props of existence were shaking underneath them\emdash (what they thought were life's strongholds giving way like the yielding rafters beneath their feet)\emdash what would they have been, but for the sustaining assurance that that roll of human destiny is in the hand of the Lord who died for them?\par \par Especially to the mourner in Zion, how cheering the assurance, that all which concerns him and his, is under His Savior's control and sovereignty! On those gloomy, sterile mountains of trial, on which "every tree is burned up, and all the green grass burned up," glad is this announcement, borne by the messengers of consolation. There are other "good tidings of good"\emdash grander and more glorious gospel promises, embracing the hopes "full of immortality;" but how the soul, amid the ruins of its joy\emdash the dust of its desolation, clings to this elementary truth, that it was no sudden accident or chance which overturned its fondest fabrics, and made "the city lie deserted that was once so full of people." But that every form of outer calamity, fever and disease, lightning and tempest, plague, pestilence, and famine, are so many arrows in the quiver of God. "Zion! your God reigns!"\par \par We may not now, and do not now, see the wisdom and faithfulness of many of His dealings. Many an Elim of blessing may be mistaken for a Marah of bitterness and sorrow. We may even, at times, lose the footsteps of the Sovereign Ruler, and the cry of the smitten heart may be, "Truly You are a God that hides Yourself." But the arm, for the present slumbering, will in due time "awake;" the arm, now concealed, will in due time be "made bare;" the purposes now hidden will be unfolded; and each of the children of Zion will come to be "joyful in their King."\par \par "Know well, my soul, God's hand controls\par Whatever thou fearest;\par Round Him in calmest music rolls\par Whatever thou hearest.\par \par "And that cloud itself, which now before thee\par Lies dark in view,\par Shall, with beams of light from the inner glory,\par Be stricken through."\par \par "The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord."\par \par \pard\cf1\fs23\par } ^G5MacDuff RRV: 45. The Supreme Rule of Jesus{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;}