And the Lord shall guide thee continually. Isaiah chapter 58 verse 11. The Lord shall guide thee. Not an angel, but Jehovah shall guide thee. He said he would not go through the wilderness before his people. An angel should go before them to lead them in the way. But Moses said, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Christian, God has not left you in your earthly pilgrimage to an angel's guidance. He himself leads the van. You may not see the cloudy, fiery pillar, but Jehovah will never forsake you. Notice the word shall. The Lord shall guide thee. How certain this makes it. How sure it is that God will not forsake us. His precious shalls and wills are better than men's oaths. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Then observe the adverb continually. We are not merely to be guided sometimes, but we are to have a perpetual monitor, not occasionally to be left to our own understanding and so to wander, but we are continually to hear the guiding voice of the Great Shepherd. And if we follow close at his heels, we shall not err, but be led by a right way to a city to dwell in. if you have to change your position in life if you have to emigrate to distant shores if it should happen that you're cast into poverty or uplifted suddenly into a more responsible position than the one you now occupy if you are thrown among strangers or cast among foes yet tremble not for the Lord shall guide thee continually There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be delivered if you live near to God, and your heart be kept warm with holy love. He goes not amiss who goes in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God, and you cannot mistake your road. You have infallible wisdom to direct you, immutable love to comfort you, and eternal power to defend you. Jehovah, mark the word, Jehovah shall guide thee continually. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 3 Sometimes the Lord Jesus tells his church his love thoughts. He does not think it enough behind her back to tell it, but in her very presence he says, thou art all fair my love. It is true this is not his ordinary method. He is a wise lover and knows when to keep back the intimation of love and when to let it out. But there are times when he will make no secret of it. Times when he will put it beyond all dispute in the souls of his people. In parentheses, R. Erskine's sermons. The Holy Spirit is often pleased in a most gracious manner to witness with our spirits of the love of Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. No voice is heard from the clouds, and no vision is seen in the night. But we have a testimony more sure than either of these. If an angel should fly from heaven and inform the saint personally of the Savior's love to him the evidence would not be one wit more satisfactory than that which is born in the heart by the Holy Ghost. Ask those of the Lord's people who have lived the nearest to the gates of heaven, and they will tell you that they have had seasons when the love of Christ towards them has been a fact so clear and sure that they could no more doubt it than they could question their own existence. Yes, beloved believer, you and I have had times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and then our faith is mounted to the topmost heights of assurance. We have had confidence to lean our heads upon the bosom of our Lord, and we've no more questioned our Master's affection to us than John did when in that blessed posture. Nay, nor so much. For the dark question, Lord, is it I that shall betray thee, has been put far from us. He has kissed us with the kisses of his mouth and killed our doubts by the closeness of his embrace. His love has been sweeter than wine to our souls.

so shall we ever be with the Lord
1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 17

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are, and how transitory. One moment our eyes see Him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But again, a little time, and we do not see Him. For our Beloved withdraws Himself from us, like a roe or a young heart. He leaps over the mountains of division. He is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies. If to-day he deigns to bless us with a sense of pardoned sin, he to-morrow may distress us, make us feel the plague within.

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face. When he shall not be as a wayfaring man, Tarrying but for a night, But shall eternally enfold us In the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season, But millions of years our wandering eyes Shall o'er our Saviour's beauties rove, And myriad ages will adore The wonders of his love.

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin. No weeping shall dim our eyes, no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts. We shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing forever on the sun of righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for I! And never have a cloud rolling between, And never have to turn one's eyes away To look on a world of weariness and woe.

Blessed day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

There is no spot in thee.
Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 7

Having pronounced his church positively full of beauty, our Lord confirms his praise by a precious negative, There is no spot in thee. As if the thought occurred to the bridegroom that the carping world would insinuate that he'd only mentioned her comely parts, and had purposely omitted those features which were deformed or defiled, He sums up all by declaring her universally and entirely fair, and utterly devoid of stain.

A spot may soon be removed, and is the very least thing that can disfigure beauty. But even from this little blemish, the believer is delivered in his Lord's sight. If he had said there is no hideous scar, no horrible deformity, no deadly ulcer, we might even then have marveled. But when he testifies that she is free from the slightest spot, all these other forms of defilement are included, and the depth of wonder is increased.

If he had but promised to remove all spots by and by, we should have had eternal reason for joy. But when he speaks of it as already done, who can restrain the most intense emotions of satisfaction and delight? Oh my soul, here is marrow and fatness for thee. Eat thy full and be satisfied with royal dainties.

Christ Jesus has no quarrel with his spouse. She often wanders from him and grieves his Holy Spirit. But he does not allow her faults to affect his love. He sometimes chides, but it is always in the tenderest manner, with the kindest intentions. It is my love even then. There is no remembrance of our follies. He does not cherish ill thoughts of us, but he pardons and loves as well after the offense as before it. It is well for us, it is so. For if Jesus were as mindful as injuries as we are, How could he commune with us? Many a time a believer will put himself out of humor with the Lord for some slight turn in providence. But our precious husband knows our silly hearts too well to take any offense at our ill manners.

Behold all is vanity. Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 14. Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord's love and the Lord's own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads but they've been driven out of such fatal refuges. Solomon, the wisest of men, was permitted to make experiments for us all, and to do for us what we must not dare to do for ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own words.

So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me, and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. And this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked in all the works that my hands had wrought, and in all the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.

What, the whole of it vanity? O favoured monarch, is there nothing in all thy wealth, nothing in that wide dominion reaching from the river even to the sea, nothing in Palmyra's glorious palaces, nothing in the house of the forest of Lebanon? In all the music and dancing and wine and luxury, is there nothing? Nothing, he says, but weariness of spirit. This was his verdict when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure.

To embrace our Lord Jesus, to dwell in his love, and be fully assured of union with him, this is all in all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of life in order to see whether they are better than the Christians. If you roam the world around, you will see no sights like the sight of the Savior's face. If you could have all the comforts of life, if you lost your Savior, you would be wretched. But if you win Christ, then should you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a paradise. Should you live in obscurity or die with famine, you will yet be satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord.

Thou art all fair, my love. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 7.

the Lord's admiration of his church is very wonderful and his description of her beauty is very glowing she's not merely fair but all fair He views her in himself washed in his sin atoning blood and clothed in his meritorious righteousness and he considers her to be full of comeliness and beauty. No wonder that such is the case since it is but his own perfect excellency that he admires. For the holiness, glory and perfection of his church are his own glorious garments on the back of his own well-beloved spouse. She's not simply pure or well-proportioned. She is positively lovely and fair. She has actual merit. Her deformities of sin are removed. But more, she has, through her Lord, obtained a meritorious righteousness by which an actual beauty is conferred upon her. Believers have a positive righteousness given to them when they become accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1, verse 6. nor is the church barely lovely. She is superlatively so. Her Lord styles her thou fairest among women. She has a real worth and excellence which cannot be rivaled by all the nobility and royalty of the world. If Jesus could exchange his elect bride for all the queens and empresses of earth or even for all the angels in heaven He would not, for he puts her first and foremost, fairest among women. Like the moon, she far outshines the stars.

Nor is this an opinion which he is ashamed of, for he invites all men to hear it. He sets a behold before it, a special note of exclamation, inviting and arresting attention. Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 1. his opinion he publishes abroad even now and one day from the throne of his glory he will avow the truth of it before the assembled universe come ye blessed of my father Matthew chapter 25 verse 34 will be his solemn affirmation of the loveliness of his elect

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do refers to works that are possible. There are many things which our heart findeth to do which we never shall do. It is well that it is in our heart. But if we would be eminently useful, we must not be content with forming schemes in our heart and talking of them. We must practically carry out whatsoever our hand findeth to do.

One good deed is more worth than a thousand brilliant theories. Let us not wait for large opportunities or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we find to do, day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone. The future has not arrived. We never shall have any time, but time present. Then do not wait until your experience has ripened into maturity before you attempt to serve God. Endeavor now to bring forth fruit. Serve God now, but be careful as to the way in which you perform what you find to do.

Do it with thy might. Do it promptly. Do not fritter away your life in thinking of what you intend to do tomorrow as if that could recompense for the idleness of today. No man ever served God by doing things tomorrow. If we honor Christ and are blessed, it is by the things which we do today. Whatever you do for Christ, throw your whole soul into it. Do not give Christ a little slurred labor, done as a matter of course now and then, but when you do serve him, do it with heart and soul and strength.

But where is the might of a Christian? It is not in himself, for he is perfect weakness. His might lieth in the Lord of hosts. Then let us seek his help. Let us proceed with prayer and faith. And when we've done what our hand findeth to do, let us wait upon the Lord for his blessing. What we do thus will be well done and will not fail in its effect.

Thou hast made summer and winter Psalm 74 verse 17

My soul, begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind thee that he keeps his covenant with day and night, and tend to assure thee that he will also keep that glorious covenant which he has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to his word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world will not prove unfaithful in his dealings with his own well-beloved son.

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now, it will be very painful to thee. But there is this comfort, namely that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation. He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy. He casteth forth his ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all. He is the great winter king and rules in the realms of frost. and therefore thou canst not murmur.

Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects and put a bound to raging diseases. They break up the clods and sweeten the soil. Oh, that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction.

How we prize the fire just now! How pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us, in the same manner, prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of his promises and go forth to labors which befit the season for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plow by reason of the cold for he shall beg in summer and have nothing

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Psalm 107 verse 8. If we complained less and praise more we should be happier and God would be more glorified. Let us daily praise God for common mercies, common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless that when deprived of them we are ready to perish. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear. Let us praise him that we're not cast out among the hopeless or confined amongst the guilty. Let us thank him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts. Let us praise him in fact for everything which we receive from his bounteous hand. For we deserve little and yet are most plenteously endowed.

But beloved the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love. God's redeeming acts towards his chosen are forever the favorite themes of their praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving. We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged. We have been led to the cross of Christ. Our shackles of guilt have been broken off. We are no longer slaves, but children of the living God and can antedate the period when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Even now, by faith, we wave the palm branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair linen which is to be our everlasting array. And shall we not unceasingly give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of God, canst thou be silent? Awake, awake, ye inheritors of glory, and lead your captivity captive, as ye cry with David, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Let the new month begin with new songs.

I have much people in this city. Acts chapter 18 verse 10. This should be a great encouragement to try to do good since God has among the vilest of the vile the most reprobate the most debauched and drunken and elect people who must be saved. When you take the word to them, you do so because God has ordained you to be the messenger of life to their souls, and they must receive it, for so the decree of predestination runs. They are as much redeemed by blood as the saints before the eternal throne. They are Christ's property, and yet perhaps they are lovers of the alehouse and haters of holiness. But if Jesus Christ purchased them, he will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price which his son has paid. He will not suffer his substitution to be in any case an ineffectual dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet. But regenerated they must be. And this is our comfort when we go forth to them with the quickening word of God.

Nay, more, these ungodly ones are prayed for by Christ before the throne. Neither pray I for these alone, saith the great intercessor, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Poor ignorant souls. They know nothing about prayer for themselves. But Jesus prays for them. Their names are on his breastplate. And ere long they must bow their stubborn knee. Breathing the penitential sigh before the throne of grace. The time of figs is not yet. The predestinated moment has not struck. But when it comes, they shall obey, for God will have his own. They must, for the Spirit is not to be withstood when he cometh forth with fullness of power. They must become the willing servants of the living God. My people shall be willing in the day of my power. He shall justify many. He shall see the travail of his soul. I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Romans chapter 8 verse 23. This groaning is universal among the saints. To a greater or less extent, we all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint. It is rather the note of desire than of distress. Having received in earnest, we desire the whole of our portion. We are sighing that our entire manhood, in its trinity of spirit, soul, and body, may be set free from the last vestige of the fall. We long to put off corruption, weakness, and dishonor, and to wrap ourselves in incorruption, in immortality, in glory, in the spiritual body which the Lord Jesus will bestow upon his people. We long for the manifestation of our adoption as the children of God. We groan, but it is within ourselves. It is not the hypocrite's groan by which he would make men believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things, too hallowed for us to tell abroad. We keep our longings to the Lord alone.

Then the Apostle says we are waiting by which we learn that we're not to be petulant like Jonah or Elijah when they said let me die nor are we to whimper and sigh for the end of life because we're tired of work nor wish to escape from our present sufferings till the will of the Lord is done. We are to groan for glorification but we're to wait patiently for it knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door, expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself. This groaning is a test. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth. They worship mammon. Some groan continually under the troubles of life. They are merely impatient. But the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy till he is made like Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord and the resurrection which he will bring to us.

Base things of the world hath God chosen. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 28.

Walk the streets by moonlight if you dare and you will see sinners then. Watch when the night is dark and the wind is howling and the picklock is grating in the door and you will see sinners then. Go to yon jail and walk through the wards and mark the men with heavy overhanging brows men whom you would not like to meet at night. And there are sinners there. Go to the reformatories and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity, and you will see sinners there. Go across the seas to the place where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner there. Go where you will. You need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they are common enough. You may find them in every lane and street of every city and town and village and hamlet. It is for such that Jesus died.

If he will select me, the grossest specimen of humanity, if he be but born of woman, I will have hope of him yet, because Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save sinners. Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best. Pebbles of the brook Grace turns into jewels for the royal crown. Worthless dross he transforms into pure gold. Redeeming love has set apart many of the worst of mankind to be the reward of the Savior's passion. Effectual grace calls forth many of the vilest of the vile to sit at the table of mercy and therefore let none despair.

Reader, by that love looking out of Jesus's tearful eyes by that love streaming from those bleeding wounds by that faithful love, that strong love that pure disinterested and abiding love by the heart and by the bowels of the Savior's compassion we conjure you turn not away as though it were nothing to you but believe on him and you shall be saved trust your soul with him and he will bring you to his father's right hand in glory everlasting

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Revelation chapter 3 verse 4

We may understand this to refer to justification. They shall walk in white. That is, they shall enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith. They shall understand that the righteousness of God is imputed to them. That they have all been washed and made whiter than the newly fallen snow. Again, it refers to joy and gladness. For white robes were holiday dresses among the Jews. They who have not defiled their garments shall have their faces always bright. They shall understand what Solomon meant when he said, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Let thy garments be always white, for God hath accepted thy works. He who is accepted of God shall wear white garments of joy and gladness while he walks in sweet communion with the Lord Jesus.

Whence so many doubts, so much misery and mourning. It is because so many believers defile their garments with sin and error. and hence they lose the joy of their salvation and the comfortable fellowship of the Lord Jesus. They do not here below walk in white.

The promise also refers to walking in white before the throne of God. Those who have not defiled their garments here shall most certainly walk in white up yonder where the white-robed hosts sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High. They shall possess joys inconceivable, happiness beyond a dream, bliss which imagination knoweth not, blessedness which even the stretch of desire hath not reached.

The undefiled in the way shall have all this, not of merit nor of works, but of grace. They shall walk with Christ in white, for he has made them worthy. In his sweet company they shall drink of the living fountains of waters. Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. Psalm 68 verse 10.

All God's gifts are prepared gifts laid up in store for once foreseen. He anticipates our needs and out of the fullness which he has treasured up in Christ Jesus he provides of his goodness for the poor. You may trust him for all the necessities that can occur for he has infallibly foreknown every one of them. He can say of us in all conditions, I knew that thou wouldst be this and that

A man goes a journey across the desert, and when he has made a day's advance and pitched his tent, he discovers that he wants many comforts and necessaries which he has not brought in his baggage. Ah, says he, I did not foresee this. If I had this journey to go again, I would bring these things with me, so necessary to my comfort. But God has marked with prescient eye all the requirements of his poor wandering children. And when those needs occur, supplies are ready. It is goodness which he has prepared for the poor in heart. Goodness and goodness only. My grace is sufficient for thee. As thy days, so shall thy strength be.

Reader, is your heart heavy this evening? God knew it would be. The comfort which your heart wants is treasured in the sweet assurance of the text. You are poor and needy but he has thought upon you and has the exact blessing which you require in store for you. Plead the promise, believe it, and obtain its fulfillment. Do you feel that you never were so consciously vile as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still with all its former efficacy to wash your sin away. Never shall you come into such a position that Christ cannot aid you. No pinch shall ever arrive in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus Christ shall not be equal to the emergency. For your history has all been foreknown and provided for in Jesus.

My people shall dwell in quiet resting places. Isaiah chapter 32 verse 18. Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate. They are the peculiar possession of the Lord's people and of them only. The God of peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him.

When man was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting-places. Alas, how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence! In the day of universal wrath, when the floods swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting place of the Ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the Ark of our salvation.

Israel rested safely beneath the blood-sprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angels smote the firstborn. And in the wilderness, the shadow of the pillar of cloud and the flowing rock gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour, we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and power. We rest in the doctrines of his word, which are consolation itself. We rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight.

More highly favoured are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gird, for none can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the scriptures, prayer or praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace to our spirits.

I hear the words of love. I gaze upon the blood. I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God. Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name. Tis stable as his steadfast throne, forevermore the same. The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky. This blood-sealed friendship changes not. The cross is ever nigh.

whose heart the Lord opened. Acts chapter 16 verse 14. In Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. It was brought about by providential circumstances. She was a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. But just at the right time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi. Providence which is the handmaid of grace led her to the right spot.

Again, Grace was preparing her soul for the blessing. Grace preparing for Grace. She did not know the Savior, but as a Jewess she knew many truths which were excellent stepping stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath, she went when prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard. Never neglect the means of grace. God may bless us when we're not in his house, but we have the greater reason to hope that he will when we are in communion with his saints.

Observe the words, whose heart the Lord opened. She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not do it. Paul did not do it. The Lord himself must open the heart to receive the things which make for our peace. He alone can put the key into the hole of the door and open it and get admittance for himself. He is the heart's master as he is the heart's maker.

The first outward evidence of the opened heart was obedience. As soon as Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of a humble and broken heart. when the child of God is willing to obey a command which is not essential to his salvation, which is not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a simple act of obedience and of communion with his master.

The next evidence was love manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the apostles. Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true convert. Those who do nothing for Christ or his church give but sorry evidence of an opened heart. Lord evermore give me an opened heart.

They go from strength to strength. Psalm 84 verse 7. They go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress. Our own good translation of the authorized version is enough for us this morning. They go from strength to strength. That is, they grow stronger and stronger.

Usually, if we are walking, We go from strength to weakness. We start fresh and in good order for our journey. But by and by the road is rough and the sun is hot. We sit down by the wayside and then painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim Having obtained fresh supplies of grace, he is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out.

He may not be quite so elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some grey-haired veterans have been as firm in their grasp of truth and as zealous in diffusing it as they were in their younger days.

But alas, it must be confessed, it is often otherwise. For the love of many waxes cold, and iniquity abounds. But this is their own sin, and not the fault of the promise, which still holds good. The youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.

Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. Alas, they say, we go from affliction to affliction. Very true, O thou of little faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.

I remember thee, Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 2. Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his church and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love. We desire always to have our precious things in our sight, It is even so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity his delights were with the sons of men. His thoughts rolled onward to the time when his elect should be born into the world. He viewed them in the mirror of his foreknowledge. In thy book, he says, all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139 verse 16

When the world was set upon its pillars, he was there, and he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. Many a time before his incarnation, he descended to this lower earth in the similitude of a man. On the plains of Mamre, Genesis chapter 18, by the brook of Jabbok, Genesis chapter 32 verse 24 through 30, beneath the walls of Jericho Joshua chapter 5 verse 13 and in the fiery furnace of Babylon Daniel chapter 3 verse 19 and 25 the Son of Man visited his people because his soul delighted in them. He could not rest away from them for his heart longed after them. Never were they absent from his heart for he had written their names upon his hands and graven them upon his side. As the breastplate containing the names of the tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the high priest so the names of Christ's elect were his most precious jewels and glittered on his heart.

We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but he never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past forgetfulness and pray for grace ever to bear him in fondest remembrance.

Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image of thy son.

Rend your heart and not your garments. Joel chapter 2 verse 13

Garment rending and other outward signs of religious emotion are easily manifested and are frequently hypocritical. But to feel true repentance is far more difficult and consequently far less common. Men will attend to the most multiplied and minute ceremonial regulations, for such things are pleasing to the flesh. But true religion is too humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the tastes of the carnal men. They prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly.

Outward observances are temporarily comfortable. Eye and ear are pleased, self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness is puffed up. But they are ultimately delusive. For in the article of death and in the day of judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital godliness, all religion is utterly vain. Offered without a sincere heart, every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of heaven.

Heart-rending is divinely wrought and solemnly felt. It is a secret grief which is personally experienced, not in mere form, but as a deep, soul-moving work of the Holy Spirit upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a matter to be merely talked of and believed in but keenly and sensitively felt in every living child of the living God. It is powerfully humiliating and completely sin-purging but then it is sweetly preparative for those gracious consolations which proud unhumbled spirits are unable to receive. And it is distinctly discriminating for it belongs to the elect of God and to them alone.

The text commands us to rend our hearts but they are naturally hard as marble. How then can this be done? We must take them to Calvary. A dying Saviour's voice rent the rocks once, and it is as powerful now. O blessed Spirit, let us hear the death cries of Jesus, and our hearts shall be rent, even as men rend their vestures in the day of lamentation.

And there was no more sea. Revelation chapter 21 verse 1.

Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean. The new heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination if indeed literally there is to be no great and wide sea with its gleaming waves and shelly shores. It's not a text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times. A real physical world without a sea, it is mournful to imagine. It would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious.

There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation, there will be no division. The sea separates nations and sunders peoples from each other. To John in Patmos, the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work. There shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billows lie between us and many a kinsman whom tonight we prayerfully remember. But in the bright world to which we go there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea.

The sea is the emblem of change, with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness, and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs, and its tumultuous roarings. It is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the changeful moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this. Earth is constant only in her inconstancy. But in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown and with it all fear of storm to wreck our hopes and drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory unbroken by a wave. No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings and changes and storms shall be ended. Jesus will waft us there. Are we in him or not? This is the grand question.

I will strengthen thee. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 10.

God has a strong reserve with which to discharge this engagement, for he is able to do all things. Believer, till thou canst drain dry the ocean of omnipotence, till thou canst break into pieces the towering mountains of almighty strength, thou never needest to fear. Think not that the strength of man shall ever be able to overcome the power of God. Whilst the earth's huge pillars stand, thou hast enough reason to abide firm in thy faith. The same God who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun, and trims the lamps of heaven, has promised to supply thee with daily strength. While he is able to uphold the universe, dream not that he will prove unable to fulfill his own promises.

Remember what he did in the days of old, in the former generations. Remember how he spake and it was done, how he commanded and it stood fast. Shall he that created the world grow weary? He hangeth the world upon nothing. Shall he who doth this be unable to support his children? Shall he be unfaithful to his word for want of power? Who is it that restrains the tempest? Doth not he ride upon the wings of the wind, and make the clouds his chariots, and holds the ocean in the hollow of his hand? How can he fail thee? When he has put such a faithful promise as this on record, wilt thou for a moment indulge the thought that he has out-promised himself and gone beyond his power to fulfill? Ah, no! thou canst doubt no longer. O thou who art my God and my strength I can believe that this promise shall be fulfilled for the boundless reservoir of thy grace can never be exhausted and the overflowing storehouse of thy strength can never be emptied by thy friends or rifled by thine enemies.

Now let the feeble all be strong and make Jehovah's arm their song

The spot of his children Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 5

What is the secret spot which infallibly betokens the child of God? It were vain presumption to decide this upon our own judgment, but God's word reveals it to us, and we may tread surely where we have revelation to be our guide. Now we are told, concerning our Lord, to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his name. Then, if I have received Christ Jesus into my heart I am a child of God. That reception is described in the same verse as believing on the name of Jesus Christ. If then I believe on Jesus Christ's name that is simply from my heart trust myself with the crucified but now exalted Redeemer I am a member of the family of the Most High. Whatever else I may not have, if I have this, I have the privilege to become a child of God.

Our Lord Jesus puts it in another shape. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Here is the matter in a nutshell. Christ appears as a shepherd to his own sheep, not to others. As soon as he appears, his own sheep perceive him. They trust him. They are prepared to follow him. He knows them, and they know him. There is a mutual knowledge. There is a constant connection between them. Thus the one mark, the sure mark, the infallible mark of regeneration and adoption is a hearty faith in the appointed Redeemer.

Reader, are you in doubt? Are you uncertain whether you bear the secret mark of God's children? Then let not an hour pass over your head till you have said, Search me, O God. and know my heart. Trifle not here, I adjure you. If you must trifle anywhere, let it be about some secondary matter, your health, if you will, or the title deeds of your estate, but about your soul, your never-dying soul and its eternal destinies. I beseech you to be in earnest. Make sure work for eternity.

you Lo, I am with you always. Matthew chapter 28 verse 20.

The Lord Jesus is in the midst of his church. He walketh among the golden candlesticks. His promise is, Lo, I am with you always. He is as surely with us now as he was with the disciples at the lake when they saw coals of fire and fish laid thereon and bread. Not carnally, but still in real truth, Jesus is with us. And a blessed truth it is, for where Jesus is, love becomes inflamed. Of all the things in the world that can set the heart burning, there's nothing like the presence of Jesus. A glimpse of him so overcomes us that we're ready to say, turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Even the smell of the aloes and the myrrh and the cassia which drop from his perfumed garments causes the sick and faint to grow strong.

Let there be but a moment's leaning of the head upon that gracious bosom and a reception of his divine love into our poor cold hearts and we are cold no longer but glow like seraphs equal to every labor and capable of every suffering. If we know that Jesus is with us every power will be developed and every grace will be strengthened and we shall cast ourselves into the Lord's service with heart and soul and strength. Therefore, it is the presence of Christ to be desired above all things. His presence will be most realized by those who are most like him. If you desire to see Christ, you must grow in conformity to him. Bring yourself, by the power of the Spirit, into union with Christ's desires and motives and plans of action, and you are likely to be favored with his company. Remember, his presence may be had. His promise is as true as ever. He delights to be with us. If he doth not come, it is because we hinder him by our indifference. He will reveal himself to our earnest prayers and graciously suffer himself to be detained by our entreaties and by our tears. For these are the golden chains which bind Jesus to his people.