He shall gather the lambs with his arm. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 11. Our good shepherd has in his flock a variety of experiences. Some are strong in the Lord and others are weak in faith. But he is impartial in his care for all his sheep. And the weakest lamb is as dear to him as the most advanced of the flock. Lambs are wont to lag behind, prone to wander and apt to grow weary. But from all the danger of these infirmities, the shepherd protects them with his arm of power. He finds newborn souls like young lambs ready to perish. He nourishes them till life becomes vigorous. He finds weak minds ready to faint and die. He consoles them and renews their strength. all the little ones he gathers, for it is not the will of our Heavenly Father that one of them should perish. What a quick eye he must have to see them all! What a tender heart to care for them all! What a far-reaching and potent arm to gather them all! In his lifetime on earth, he was a great gatherer of the weaker sort. And now that he dwells in heaven, his loving heart yearns towards the meek and contrite, the timid and feeble, the fearful and fainting here below. How gently did he gather me to himself, to his truth, to his blood, to his love, to his church. With what effectual grace did he compel me to come to himself. Since my first conversion, how frequently has he restored me from my wanderings, and once again folded me within the circle of his everlasting arm. The best of all is that he does it all himself, Personally, not delegating the task of love, but condescending himself to rescue and preserve his most unworthy servant. How shall I love him enough, or serve him worthily? I would fain make his name great unto the ends of the earth, but what can my feebleness do for him? great shepherd, add to thy mercies this one other, a heart to love thee more truly as I ought. Able to keep you from falling Jude 24 In some sense, the path to heaven is very safe. But in other respects, there is no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false step, and how easy it is to take that if grace be absent. And down we go. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to tread. How many times have we to exclaim with the psalmist, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this would not matter so much. But in ourselves, how weak we are! In the best roads, we soon falter. In the smoothest paths, we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely support our tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us. We are mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of faith. Our Heavenly Father holds us by the arms or we should soon be down. Oh, if we are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient power which watches over us day by day. Think how prone we are to sin, how apt to choose danger, how strong our tendency to cast ourselves down. And these reflections will make us sing more sweetly than we have ever done. Glory be to Him who is able to keep us from falling. We have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough and we are weak. But in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush who rush out when we least expect them and labor to trip us up or hurl us down the nearest precipice. Only an almighty arm can preserve us from these unseen foes who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for our defense. He is faithful, that hath promised, and is able to keep us from falling, so that with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we may cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say with joyful confidence, against me earth and hell combine, but on my side is power divine. Jesus is all and he is mine Faultless before the presence of his glory Jude 24 Revolve in your mind that wondrous word faultless We are far from it now, but as our Lord never stops short of perfection in his work of love, we shall reach it one day. The Savior, who will keep his people to the end, will also present them at last to himself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish. All the jewels in the Savior's crown are of the first water and without a single flaw. All the maids of honor who attend the Lamb's wife are pure virgins without spot or stain. But how will Jesus make us faultless? He will wash us from our sins in his own blood until we are white and fair as God's purest angel. And we shall be clothed in his righteousness that righteousness which makes the saint who wears it positively faultless, yea, perfect in the sight of God. We shall be unblameable and unreprovable even in his eyes His law will not only have no charge against us, but it will be magnified in us. Moreover, the work of the Holy Spirit within us will be altogether complete. He will make us so perfectly holy that we shall have no lingering tendency to sin. Judgment, memory, will, every power and passion shall be emancipated from the thralldom of evil. We shall be holy even as God is holy and in his presence we shall dwell forever. Saints will not be out of place in heaven. Their beauty will be as great as that of the place prepared for them. Oh, the rapture of that hour, when the everlasting doors shall be lifted up, and we, being made meat for the inheritance, shall dwell with the saints in light. Sin gone, Satan shut out, temptation passed forever, and ourselves faultless before God. This will be heaven indeed. Let us be joyful now as we rehearse the song of eternal praise so soon to roll forth in full chorus from all the blood-washed host. Let us copy David's exaltings before the ark as a prelude to our ecstasies before the throne. Whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Romans chapter 8 verse 30. In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter and ninth verse, are these words, Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling? Now, here is a touchstone by which we may try our calling. It is an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. This calling forbids all trust in our own doings, and conducts us to Christ alone for salvation. But it afterwards purges us from dead works to serve the living and true God. As he that hath called you is holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you are not called. But if you are truly Christ's, you can say, nothing pains me so much as sin. I desire to be rid of it. Lord, help me to be holy. Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor of thy life towards God and His divine will? Again, in Philippians chapter 3 verse 13 and 14, we are told of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Is then your calling a high calling? Has it ennobled your heart and set it upon heavenly things? Has it elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires? Has it upraised the constant tenor of your life so that you spend it with God and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Partakers of the heavenly calling. Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? Is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven? Unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling.

For those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Is thy calling thus holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been called of God. For such is the calling, wherewith God doth call his people.

I will meditate in thy precepts. Psalm 119 verse 15. There are times when solitude is better than society and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone waiting upon God and gathering through meditation on his word spiritual strength for labor in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine. If we would have wine from it, we must bruise it. We must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser's feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow. And they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom.

Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle and the nerve and the sinew and the bone is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening a while to this and then to that and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking and learning all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness. And the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it.

Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it. They would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it. The fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it. The water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning. I will meditate on thy precepts.

Godly sorrow worketh repentance 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 Genuine spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God Repentance is to choice a flower to grow in nature's garden Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee. For human nature's thorns never produced a single fig. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. True repentance has a distinct reference to the Savior. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross. Or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only in the light of His love. True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally, as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway. And we shall shun it, shun it in everything, not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue lest it should say a wrong word. We should be very watchful over our daily actions less than anything we offend. And each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming. And each morning awaken with anxious prayers that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him. Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time. But this dear sorrow grows with our growth. And it is so sweet a bitter that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest. Love is as strong as death. Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 6. Whose love can this be which is as mighty as the conqueror of monarchs, the destroyer of the human race? Would it not sound like satire if it were applied to my poor, weak, and scarcely living love to Jesus my Lord? I do love him, and perhaps by his grace I could even die for him. But as for my love in itself, it can scarcely endure a scoffing jest, much less a cruel death. Surely it is my beloved's love which is here spoken of, the love of Jesus, the matchless lover of souls. His love was indeed stronger than the most terrible death, for it endured the trial of the cross triumphantly. It was a lingering death, but love survived the torment. A shameful death, but love despised the shame. A penal death, but love bore our iniquities. A forsaken, lonely death, from which the Eternal Father hid his face. But love endured the curse and gloried over all. Never such love, never such death. It was a desperate duel, but love bore the palm. What then, my heart, hast thou no emotions excited within thee at the contemplation of such heavenly affection? Yes, my lord, I long, I pant to feel thy love flaming like a furnace within me. Come thou thyself and excite the ardor of my spirit. For every drop of crimson blood thus shed to make me live, O wherefore, wherefore, have I not a thousand lives to give? Why should I despair of loving Jesus with a love as strong as death? He deserves it. I desire it. The martyrs felt such love and they were but flesh and blood then why not I? They mourned their weakness and yet out of weakness were made strong. Grace gave them all their unflinching constancy. There is the same grace for me. Jesus, lover of my soul, shed abroad such love, even thy love in my heart this evening. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians chapter 3 verse 8 Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person's acquaintance with him. No, I must know him myself. I must know him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge. I must know him not as the visionary dreams of him, but as the word reveals him. I must know his natures, divine and human. I must know his offices, his attributes, his works, his shame, his glory. I must meditate upon Him until I comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. It will be an affectionate knowledge of Him. Indeed, if I know Him at all, I must love Him. An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. Our knowledge of Him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Savior, my mind will be full to the brim. I shall feel that I have that which my spirit panted after. This is that bread whereof if a man eat, he shall never hunger. At the same time, it will be an exciting knowledge. The more I know of my beloved, the more I shall want to know. The higher I climb, the loftier will be the summits which invite my eager footsteps. I shall want them more as I get them more. Like the miser's treasure, my gold will make me covet more. To conclude, this knowledge of Christ Jesus will be a most happy one. In fact, so elevating that sometimes it will completely bear me up above all trials and doubts and sorrows. And it will, while I enjoy it, make me something more than man that is born of woman who is of few days and full of trouble. For it will fling about me the immortality of the ever-living Savior and gird me with the golden girdle of His eternal joy. Come, my soul, sit at Jesus' feet and learn of Him all this day. and be not conformed to this world. Romans chapter 12 verse 2 If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms to this world, at any rate it must be so as by fire. Such a bare salvation is almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Reader, would you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding deathbed, and enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country? then be worldly, be mixed up with Mammonites, and refuse to go without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. But would you have a heaven below, as well as a heaven above? Would you comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your Lord? Then come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Would you attain the full assurance of faith? You cannot gain it while you commune with sinners. Would you flame with vehement love? Your love will be dampened by the drenchings of godless society. You cannot become a great Christian. You may be a babe in grace. But you can never be a perfect man in Christ Jesus while you yield yourself to the worldly maxims and modes of business of men of the world. It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a courtier is too intimate with his king's enemies. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and little frivolities and little rogueries will rob religion of a thousand joys. Oh, Professor, too little separated from sinners. You know not what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you creep where you ought to run. Then, for your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one. Behold to obey is better than sacrifice 1st Samuel chapter 15 verse 22 Saul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God. But Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance that to keep strictly in the path of your Saviour's command is better than any outward form of religion. And to hearken to His precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams or any other precious thing to lay upon His altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands to his disciples I pray you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to your master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. To obey, even in the slightest and smallest thing, is better than sacrifice, however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners. The first thing which God requires of his child is obedience. And though you should give your body to be burned and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child. But it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests but refuse to obey the word of the Lord. My soul, come not thou into their secret. Thy paths drop fatness. Psalm 65 verse 11. Many are the paths of the Lord which drop fatness, but an especial one is the path of prayer. No believer who is much in the closet will have need to cry, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. Starving souls live at a distance from the mercy seat and become like the parched fields in the times of drought. Prevalence with God in wrestling prayer is sure to make the believer strong, if not happy. The nearest place to the gate of heaven is the throne of the heavenly grace. Much alone, and you will have much assurance. Little alone with Jesus, your religion will be shallow, polluted with many doubts and fears, and not sparkling with the joy of the Lord. since the soul-enriching path of prayer is open to the very weakest saint, since no high attainments are required, since you are not bidden to come because you are an advanced saint, but freely invited if you be a saint at all. See to it, dear reader, that you are often in the way of private devotion. Be much on your knees. For so Elijah drew the rain upon famished Israel's fields. There is another special path dropping with fatness to those who walk therein. It is the secret walk of communion. Oh, the delights of fellowship with Jesus! Earth hath no words which can set forth the holy calm of a soul leaning on Jesus' bosom. Few Christians understand it. They live in the lowlands and seldom climb to the top of Nebo. They live in the outer court. They enter not the holy place. They take not up the privilege of priesthood. At a distance they see the sacrifice, but they sit not down with the priest to eat thereof and to enjoy the fat of the burnt offering. But, reader, sit thou ever under the shadow of Jesus come up to that palm tree and take hold of the branches thereof let thy beloved be unto thee as the apple tree among the trees of the wood and thou shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness oh Jesus visit us with thy salvation Babes in Christ 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1 Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life? Because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with blood as he is. You are as much an adopted child of God as any other believer. An infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the full-grown man. You are as completely justified, for your justification is not a thing of degrees. Your little faith has made you clean every whit. You have as much right to the precious things of the covenant as the most advanced believers. For your right to covenant mercies lies not in your growth, but in the covenant itself. And your faith in Jesus is not the measure, but the token of your inheritance in him. You are as rich as the richest, if not in enjoyment, yet in real possession. The smallest star that gleams is set in heaven. The faintest ray of light has affinity with the great orb of day. In the family register of glory the small and the great are written with the same pen. You are as dear to your father's heart as the greatest in the family. Jesus is very tender over you. You are like the smoking flax. A rougher spirit would say, put out that smoking flax. It fills the room with an offensive odor. But the smoking flax, he will not quench. You are like a bruised reed. And any less tender hand than that of the chief musician would tread upon you or throw you away. But he will never break the bruised reed. Instead of being downcast by reason of what you are, you should triumph in Christ. Am I but little in Israel? Yet in Christ I am made to sit in heavenly places. Am I poor in faith? Still in Jesus I am heir of all things. Though less than nothing I can boast and vanity confess yet if the root of the matter be in me I will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the God of my salvation. God my maker who giveth songs in the night Job chapter 35 verse 10 Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow. The difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight. But he is skillful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by, who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself. He may attempt it, but he will find that the song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well. I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go, out of the flowers that grow upon my path. But put me in a desert where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God. How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and the body full of health, and I can sing God's praise. Silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is at first, unless an altar call shall touch his lip. It was a divine song which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Then, since our maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving. The love of Christ constraineth us 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 14 How much owest thou unto my Lord? Has he ever done anything for thee? Has he forgiven thy sins? Has he covered thee with a robe of righteousness? Has he set thy feet upon a rock? Has he established thy goings? Has he prepared heaven for thee? Has he prepared thee for heaven? Has he written thy name in his book of life? Has he given thee countless blessings? Has he laid up for thee a store of mercies which I have not seen nor ear heard? Then do something for Jesus worthy of his love. Give not a mere wordy offering to a dying redeemer. How will you feel when your master comes if you have to confess that you did nothing for him but kept your love shut up like a stagnant pool neither flowing forth to his poor or to his work? Out on such love as that! What do men think of a love which never shows itself in action? Why, they say, open rebuke is better than secret love. Who will accept a love so weak that it does not actuate you to a single deed of self-denial, of generosity, of heroism or zeal? think how he has loved you and given himself for you do you know the power of that love? then let it be like a rushing mighty wind to your soul to sweep out the clouds of your worldliness and clear away the mists of sin for Christ's sake be this the tongue of fire that shall sit upon you for Christ's sake Be this the divine rapture, the heavenly afflatus, to bear you aloft from earth, the divine spirit that shall make you bold as lions and swift as eagles in your Lord's service. Love should give wings to the feet of service and strength to the arms of labor. fixed on God with a constancy that is not to be shaken, resolute to honor him with a determination that is not to be turned aside, and pressing on with an ardor never to be wearied. Let us manifest the constraints of love to Jesus. May the divine lodestone draw us heavenward towards itself. Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your heart? Luke chapter 24 verse 38. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? The Lord cares for all things, and the meanest creatures share in his universal providence. But his particular providence is over his saints. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. Precious shall be their blood in his sight. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose let the fact that while he is the savior of all men he is specially the savior of them that believe cheer and comfort you you are his peculiar care his regal treasure which he guards as the apple of his eye his vineyard over which he watches day and night The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Let the thought of his special love to you be a spiritual painkiller, a dear quietus to your woe. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. God says that as much to you as to any saint of old. Fear not, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. We lose much consolation by the habit of reading his promises for the whole church instead of taking them directly home to ourselves. Believer, grasp the divine word with a personal, appropriating faith. Think that you hear Jesus say, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Think you see him walking on the waters of thy trouble, for he is there, and he is saying, fear not, it is I, be not afraid. Oh, those sweet words of Christ. May the Holy Ghost make you feel them as spoken to you. Forget others for a while. Accept the voice of Jesus as addressed to you. And say, Jesus whispers consolation. I cannot refuse it. I will sit under his shadow with great delight. I will love them freely. Hosea chapter 14 verse 4. This sentence is a body of divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian and he who can dive into its fullness is a true master in Israel. It is a condensation of the glorious message of salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. The sense hinges upon the word freely. This is the glorious, the suitable, the divine way by which love streams from heaven to earth. A spontaneous love flowing forth to those who neither deserved it, purchased it, nor sought after it. It is indeed the only way in which God can love such as we are. The text is a death blow to all sorts of fitness. I will love them freely. Now, if there were any fitness necessary in us, then he would not love us freely. At least, this would be a mitigation and a drawback to the freeness of it. But it stands, I will love you freely. We complain, Lord, my heart is so hard. I will love you freely. But I do not feel my need of Christ as I could wish. I will not love you because you feel your need. I will love you freely. But I do not feel that softening of spirit which I could desire. Remember, the softening of spirit is not a condition, for there are no conditions. the covenant of grace has no conditionality whatever so that we without any fitness may venture upon the promise of God which was made to us in Christ Jesus when he said he that believeth on him is not condemned. It is blessed to know that the grace of God is free to us at all times, without preparation, without fitness, without money, and without price. I will love them freely. These words invite backsliders to return. Indeed, the text was specially written for such. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. backslider. Surely the generosity of the promise will at once break your heart and you will return and seek your injured father's face. Will ye also go away? John 6, verse 67. Many have forsaken Christ and have walked no more with him. But what reason have you to make a change? Has there been any reason for it in the past? Has not Jesus proved himself all-sufficient? He appeals to you this morning, Have I been a wilderness unto you? When your soul has simply trusted Jesus, have you ever been confounded? Have you not, up till now, found your Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend to you and has not simple faith in him given you all the peace your spirit could desire? Can you so much as dream of a better friend than he has been to you? Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present, can that compel you to leave Christ? When we are hard-possessed with this world or with the severe trials within the church, we find it a most blessed thing to pillow our head upon the bosom of our Saviour. This is the joy we have today that we are saved in Him. And if this joy be satisfying, wherefore should we think of changing? Who barters gold for dross? We will not forswear the sun till we find a better light. nor leave our Lord until a brighter lover shall appear. And since this can never be, we will hold him with a grasp immortal and bind his name as a seal upon our arm. As for the future, can you suggest anything that can arise that shall render it necessary for you to mutiny or desert the old flag to serve under another captain? We think not. If life be long, He changes not. If we are poor, what better than to have Christ who can make us rich? When we are sick, what more do we want than Jesus to make our bed in our sickness? When we die, is it not written that neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? We say with Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Luke chapter 22 verse 46 When is the Christian most liable to sleep? Is it not when his temporal circumstances are prosperous? Have you not found it so? When you had daily troubles to take to the throne of grace, were you not more wakeful than you are now? Easy roads make sleepy travelers. Another dangerous time is when all goes pleasantly in spiritual matters. Christian went not to sleep when lions were in the way, or when he was wading through the river, or when fighting with Apollyon, but when he had climbed half-way up the hill Difficulty, and came to a delightful arbour, he sat down and forthwith fell asleep to his great sorrow and loss. The enchanted ground is a place of balmy breezes laden with fragrant odors and soft influences, all tending to lull pilgrims to sleep. Remember Bunyan's description, then they came to an arbor warm and promising much refreshing to the weary pilgrims, for it was finely wrought above head, beautified with greens and furnished with benches and saddles. It had also in it a soft couch. where the weary might lean. The arbour was called the Slothful's Friend, and was made on purpose to allure, if it might be, some of the pilgrims to take up their rest there when weary. Depend on it, it is in easy places that men shut their eyes and wander into the dreamy land of forgetfulness. Old Erskine wisely remarked, I like a roaring devil better than a sleeping devil. There is no temptation half so dangerous as not being tempted. The distressed soul does not sleep. It is after we enter into peaceful confidence and full assurance that we are in danger of slumbering. The disciples fell asleep after they had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop. Take heed, joyous Christian, good frames are near neighbors to temptations. Be as happy as you will, only be watchful. He began to wash the disciples' feet. John chapter 13 verse 5 The Lord Jesus loves his people so much that every day he is still doing for them much that is analogous to washing their soiled feet. Their poorest actions he accepts, their deepest sorrow he feels, their slenderest wish he hears, and their every transgression he forgives. He is still their servant, as well as their friend and master. He not only performs majestic deeds for them, as wearing the mitre on his brow and the precious jewels glittering on his breastplate, and standing up to plead for them, but humbly, patiently, he yet goes about among his people with the basin and the towel. He does this when he puts away from us, day by day, our constant infirmities and sins. Last night, when you bowed the knee, you mournfully confessed that much of your conduct was not worthy of your profession. And even tonight, you must mourn afresh that you have fallen again into the self-same folly and sin from which special grace delivered you long ago. And yet, Jesus will have great patience with you. He will hear your confession of sin. He will say, I will, be thou clean. He will again apply the blood of sprinkling and speak peace to your conscience and remove every spot. It is a great act of eternal love when Christ once for all absolves the sinner and puts him into the family of God. But what condescending patience there is when the Saviour, with much long-suffering, bears the oft-recurring follies of his wayward disciple, day by day and hour by hour, washing away the multiplied transgressions of his erring but yet beloved child. To dry up a flood of rebellion is something marvellous, but to endure the constant dropping of repeated offences, to bear with the perpetual trying of patience, this is divine indeed. While we find comfort and peace in our Lord's daily cleansing, its legitimate influence upon us will be to increase our watchfulness and quicken our desire for holiness. Is it so? Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little, and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Haggai chapter 1 verse 9 churlish souls stint their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations and call such saving good economy. Little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their families and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a method in providence by which he can succeed our endeavors beyond our expectation or can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay. By a turn of his hand he can steer our vessel in a profitable channel or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the liberal and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding tendeth to poverty. In a very wide sphere of observation I have noticed that the most generous Christians of my acquaintance have always been the most happy and almost invariably the most prosperous. I've seen the liberal giver rise to wealth of which he never dreamed And I have as often seen the mean and generous churl descend to poverty by the very parsimony by which he thought to rise. Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord. He gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels. Where wealth is not bestowed, the Lord makes the little much by the contentment which the sanctified heart feels in a portion of which the tithe has been dedicated to the Lord. looks first at home but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Yet in the long run selfishness is loss and godliness is great gain. It needs faith to act towards our God with an open hand but surely he deserves it of us and all we can do is a very poor acknowledgement of our amazing indebtedness to his goodness. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 7. Everything sublunary is on the move. Time knows nothing of rest. The solid earth is a rolling ball, and the great sun himself a star, obediently fulfilling its course around some greater luminary. Tides move the sea, winds stir the airy ocean, friction wears the rock, change and death rule everywhere. The sea is not a miser's storehouse for a wealth of waters, for as by one force the waters flow into it, by another they are lifted from it. Men are born but to die. Everything is hurry, worry, and vexation of spirit. Friend of the unchanging Jesus, what a joy it is to reflect upon thy changeless heritage, thy sea of bliss, which will be forever full, since God himself shall pour eternal rivers of pleasure into it. We seek an abiding city beyond the skies, and we shall not be disappointed. The passage before us may well teach us gratitude. Father Ocean is a great receiver, but he is a generous distributor. What the rivers bring him, he returns to the earth in form of clouds and rain. That man is out of joint with the universe, who takes all but makes no return. To give to others is but sowing seed for ourselves. He who is so good a steward as to be willing to use his substance for his Lord shall be entrusted with more. Friend of Jesus, art thou rendering to him according to the benefit received? Much has been given thee, what is thy fruit? Hast thou done all? Canst thou not do more? To be selfish is to be wicked. Suppose the ocean gave up none of its watery treasure, it would bring ruin upon our race. God forbid that any of us should follow the ungenerous and destructive policy of living unto ourselves. Jesus pleased, not himself. All fullness dwells in him, but of his fullness have all we received. Oh, for Jesus' spirit, that henceforth we may live not unto ourselves. I have chosen you out of the world. John chapter 15 verse 19. Here is distinguishing grace and discriminating regard. For some are made the special objects of divine affection. Do not be afraid to dwell upon this high doctrine of election. When your mind is most heavy and depressed, you will find it to be a bottle of richest cordial. Those who doubt the doctrines of grace or who cast them into the shade miss the richest clusters of eshkol. They lose the wines on the lees well refined, the fat things full of marrow. There is no balm in Gilead comparable to it. If the honey in Jonathan's wood, when but touched, enlightened the eyes, this is honey which will enlighten your heart to love and learn the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Eat, and fear not a servant. Live upon this choice dainty, and fear not that it will be too delicate a diet. Meat from the king's table will hurt none of his courtiers. Desire to have your mind enlarged, that you may comprehend more and more the eternal, everlasting, discriminating love of God. when you have mounted as high as election, tarry on its sister mount, the covenant of grace. Covenant engagements are the munitions of stupendous rock behind which we lie entrenched. Covenant engagements with the surety Jesus Christ are the quiet resting places of trembling spirits. His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the raging flood. When every earthly prop gives way, this still is all my strength and stay. If Jesus undertook to bring me to glory and if the Father promised that he would give me to the Son to be part of the infinite reward of the travail of his soul then, my soul, till God himself shall be unfaithful till Jesus shall cease to be the truth thou art safe. When David danced before the ark, he told Michael that election made him do so. Come, my soul, exult before the God of grace and leap for joy of heart. His head is as the most fine gold, His locks are bushy and black as a raven. Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 11 Comparisons all fail to set forth the Lord Jesus, but the spouse uses the best within her reach. By the head of Jesus we may understand his deity, for the head of Christ is God. And then the ingot of purest gold is the best conceivable metaphor, but all too poor to describe one so precious, so pure, so dear, so glorious. Jesus is not a grain of gold, but a vast globe of it, a priceless mass of treasure, such as earth and heaven cannot excel. The creatures are mere iron and clay. They all shall perish like wood, hay, and stubble, but the ever-living head of the creation of God shall shine on forever and ever. In him is no mixture nor smallest taint of alloy. He is forever infinitely holy and altogether divine. The bushy locks depict his manly vigor. There's nothing effeminate in our beloved. He is the manliest of men. Bold as a lion, laborious as an ox, swift as an eagle, every conceivable and inconceivable beauty is to be found in him, though once he was despised and rejected of men. His head the finest gold, with secret sweet perfume, his curled locks hang all as black as any raven's plume. The glory of his head is not shorn away. He is eternally crowned with peerless majesty. The black hair indicates youthful freshness, for Jesus has the dew of his youth upon him. Others grow languid with age, but he is forever a priest, as was Melchizedek. Others come and go, but he abides as God upon his throne, world without end. We will behold him tonight and adore him. Angels are gazing upon him. His redeemed must not turn away their eyes from him. Where else is there such a beloved? Oh, for an hour's fellowship with him! Away, ye intruding cares! Jesus draws me, and I run after him.