The Lord, my restorer. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. He restores my soul. Psalm 23, verse 3.

It is not the least important duty of the shepherd, under which similitude our meditation yesterday viewed our blessed Lord, to go in quest of the stray ones of the flock. It would be an extraordinary exception indeed, were there none such, no silly lamb, no fickle sheep wandering from the fold.

The religious history of the believer is a history of declension and revival, of departure and return. of his backsliding and of the Savior's restoring. The regenerate soul is bent upon backsliding from the Lord. The sun does not more naturally decline, nor the planets start off from their center, than does the believing heart wander from God.

O Lord, how many and hidden are my soul's departures from You, You only know. How often my love chills, my faith droops, my zeal flags, and I grow weary, and am ready to halt in your service. Mine is a sinful, roving heart, fickle to you as the changing wind, false to my vows as a broken bow.

But you, O Lord, are my shepherd, and you restore my soul, pitying my infirmity, knowing my wanderings and tracking all my steps. You recover, heal, and pardon your poor, silly sheep, prone to leave your wounded, sheltering side in quest of that which can be found in yourself alone.

He restores us gently. When He might justly commission some harsh messenger to awaken us from our reverie and bring our sin to our remembrance, He sends a gentle Nathan to say to us, You are the man. Some kind and loving messenger, filled with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, to remind us of our backsliding, to deal with our sin, and to win and lead us back to the Savior towards whom our love had chilled and from whom our feet had strayed.

Recall his own gentle dealing. Behold him traversing mountain and valley in search of one sheep that had wandered, nor resting until he had found it. Then, laying it upon his shoulder with soft and gentle step, he bears it back to the fold amid the welcomeings of the flock, the music of its own restored joy, and the songs of angels.

The faithfulness of Jesus in our restorings is not less conspicuous. Though we prove faithless and unbelieving. And oh, what words can describe our unfaithfulness to Christ. Yet He is faithful and cannot deny Himself.

It is a sweet truth, O my soul, which you should never forget, that the love and constancy and promises of Jesus are never negated or affected by your conduct towards Him. When our love to Jesus chills, or our spiritual frames and feelings fluctuate, we are prone to infer a similar change in the Lord. Whereas to awaken us from our drowsiness, to bring us to reflection and prayer, He may suspend the sensible manifestations of His presence, and the especial communications of His grace, and ceasing to stand and knock, may withdraw himself a while, leaving us to exclaim, I opened to my beloved, and he had withdrawn himself.

Nevertheless, his lovingkindness he will not take from us, nor allow his faithfulness to fail. Oh, the love of Jesus in curbing our waywardness, checking our wanderings, arresting, healing, and restoring our souls. Truly He forsakes not His people, though they forsake Him times without number.

How can he turn his back upon one bought with his sufferings, groans, and tears? How can he forsake the work of grace wrought in the soul by his spirit? He may withdraw himself for a time, gently to awaken us from our slothfulness and slumber, yet he returns again, and our lips gratefully sing, he restores my soul. And for what intent are all the Lord's loving corrections and faithful rebukes, His measured, though often painful and even crushing, afflictions, but to bring back our wandering hearts to Himself? O blossoming rod, O sweet bitter, O bright cloud, O loving, gentle chastening that arrests my wanderings, hedges my path so that I cannot find my lovers, and turns my feet back to His ways of pleasantness and to His paths of peace. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. The Lord my light. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. The Lord is my light. Psalm 27 verse 1. Without approaching the pantheistic idea that all nature is God, the Christian can trace God and Christ in all nature. and affirm that the religion which glows in the sunbeam, sparkles in the dewdrop, breathes from the floweret, is the religion of Christ. Because, material though the object be, it yet shows forth the glory of God, images some feature of Christ's person, illustrates some truth of his word, and inculcates some lesson of his gospel. Nature, more true to God than man, ever rises above and beyond itself, elevating the renewed and reflective soul from matter to mind, and from mind to spirit, until, quickened with a life from God, the soul soars to God through Christ, to find its study, happiness, and repose in His infinite fullness, as that fullness is embodied and revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Read nature. Nature is a friend to truth. Nature is Christian, preaches to mankind, and bids dead matter aid us in our greed. But the natural man is spiritually dark. Yes, in the abstract meaning of the term, he is darkness. The way of the wicked is as darkness. The light which is in them is darkness. Hence, departing out of this world still in the darkness of an unrenewed state, they go from the inner to the outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. My unconverted reader, ponder, oh seriously, prayerfully, ponder this dreadful condition and these appalling words. Living in this world without Christ, you live in the darkness of spiritual death and dying without Christ. you pass to a darkness infinitely and eternally remote from every ray of light and joy, a darkness that is outer and forever. But what is true conversion? The words of inspiration shall answer. It is a calling out of darkness into God's marvelous light. 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Have you so been called, called by the special and effectual grace of God? Oh, it is of more infinite moment that you should know that you are converted, born again of the Spirit, that you have become a new creature in Christ Jesus, that you are a child of the light and are safe for eternity, than to possess the diadem of the universe? For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul? Solemn, urgent question. But Christ is the Christian's light. The believer is a child of the light and of the day. Having passed into God's marvelous light, Marvelous light it is. Marvelous because it is divine, flowing from Him who is essential light, the fountain of all light. Marvelous because it is incarnate light, dwelling in Christ Jesus, who is our light. Marvelous because it is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit, by whom alone the darkness of the soul is dissipated, and Christ, the true light, shines. In a word, marvelous because of the surprising grace, the free and sovereign mercy, by which we who were once darkness are now light in the Lord.

Yes, O my soul, Jesus is your light. He is the light of your salvation, the light of your comfort, the light of your path, the light of your hope of glory. In your light, we shall see light. Guided by his light, you shall walk through dreary nights and cloudy days, through tempestuous seas and stormy winds of adversity, temptation and sorrow, until he leads you home to the inheritance of the saints in light, where the sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light. and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more. The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.

Isaiah 60 verses 19 and 20. The Lord, my Keeper,
The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

Those who you gave me, I have kept. John 17, verse 12.

And who could keep his people but the Lord himself? All the saints and angels in heaven could not keep a believer from finally falling and forever perishing. unable to keep themselves, how could they keep another? There is not one rational being in the universe left to his own upholding, but would prove his own destroyer. And terrible would his suicide be.

The restraining and upholding power of God over his creatures is marvelous, universal, and incessant. Power belongs unto God. It reigns in heaven. It rules on earth. It is felt in hell. God has spoken once. Twice have I heard this. Heard it in the solemn tones of its resounding echo. that power belongs unto God, kept by the power of God.

In the intercessory prayer which Jesus, in the exercise of his priestly office on earth, offered, the royal prayer, preeminently and emphatically the Lord's prayer, a type of his intercession on our behalf within the veil, His keeping of his people is solemnly affirmed. Those that you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost.

But you will perhaps reply, was not Judas given to Jesus? And was he not lost? Most assuredly. And the answer to this is, Judas was given to Christ, as a disciple, as an apostle, as a minister, but not a saint, nor for the salvation of his soul. And what a dreadful picture, and what a solemn lesson does his history present. We gather from it how far a religious professor, or a church officer, or a preacher of the gospel distinguished for his gifts and usefulness may go, and yet be utterly destitute of the converting grace of God, and dying so, go to his own place.

O Lord, hold me up, and I shall be safe. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins, and let them not have dominion over me. Search me, O God, know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.

But the Lord is our keeper. He is a divine keeper. Deity alone could keep us from falling. The same power that upholds the universe upholds the saints. And no power short of this could uphold them one moment. My soul, the Savior that redeemed you and called you, keeps you. And because he is divine, you are divinely kept. Kept every moment and kept forever. kept by the power of God through faith and through salvation. But we equally needed a human keeper, one in personal union with our nature, acquainted with our weakness, in sympathy with our infirmities, temptations, and sorrows. We have all this in Jesus, the Lord, our keeper. Oh, there is not an angel in heaven who could have compassion upon our infirmities, pity our weaknesses, sympathize with our assaults, bear with our proneness to fall, and restore us when we wander. Jesus can. Jesus does.

Nor does this divine keeping release us from the solemn obligation of personal and incessant prayer and watchfulness. There is a sense, limited indeed, in which the believer is his own keeper. keep yourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 21. Let us then Be in our watchtower whole days and whole nights, watching over our besetting sins, watching against the evil of the world, and watching against the assaults of the evil one of the world. Oh, you weak and humble saint of God, often fearful lest at last you will fall short of heaven, look up The Lord that bought you with His blood, called you by His grace, preserves you by His indwelling Spirit, and who prays for you moment by moment that your faith fails not, keeps you, and will continue to keep you until He brings you to glory.

now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

The Lord, my caretaker. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. He cares for you. 1 Peter 5 verse 7.

This may be with you, my soul, a day of anxious care. The sun shines brightly. All nature is clad in beauty, and every object smiles. But with you, it is a cloudy and dark day, and your heart is sad. A care presses you. Anxiety shades you. And now you are casting about, if perhaps you may respond to it. yet with much unbelief, despondency, and fear as to the result. But be still. The Lord, who is your portion, is enough for each cloudy day, and is enough for this. Come, sit down and meditate a while upon this truth. and see if this pressure may not prove a real uplifting, this anxiety a sweet repose, and this cloud reflect a silver light.

By stirring you up to prayer, and leading you to learn more experimentally and blessedly what Jesus is in His all-sufficiency for all our needs. Thus, out of the eater will come forth meat, and out of the strong will come forth sweetness.

If the Lord cares for us, then without any figure of speech He is our caretaker. Though all worlds, all beings, all events, all creatures are hanging upon His arm, and yet we have not a care, infinitesimal though it be as an atom or light as a cobweb, but the Lord cares for it. Can anything more truly and impressively illustrate the greatness of Jesus than this, that, as great is He, nothing in the history of His saints is too small or trivial for His notice and regard?

Alas, we deal too imperfectly with God in the little sins and the trifling acts of disobedience in the daily duties of life, It is one of the believer's highest attainments in grace to live to God in small things. We think for the most part that because God is so great, he can bend his infinite mind only to objects and things that are great, whereas we forget that He who is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, has condescended to say, I dwell with Him also, who is of a contrite and humble spirit. But He cares for us. My soul, has not Jesus proved it? Did he not care for you when he embarked in the work of your salvation? Did he not care for you when you were dead in trespasses and sins? And when the Holy Spirit convinced you of sin and broke your heart and led you in holy contrition to the cross, Did not Jesus manifest his care for you then by raising you up from his feet, enfolding you in his arms, and applying his atoning blood to your conscience, saying to your tempest-tossed spirit, peace, be still, and there was peace?

The Lord cares for you still. He cares for your needs, for your trials, for your temptations, for your sorrows. Still more, he cares for your holy, happy walk, for the doubts and fears and tremblings which sometimes assail you, for the darkness which often enshrouds you, for the loneliness and solitude of the way by which he is leading you home to himself. Only cast your care upon him, whatever it may be, with a child's simple, unquestioning, unhesitating faith. And be anxious only how you may most love, trust, and glorify him. Make his service your delight, his honor your study, his truth your care, and his sweet peace will spring up in your soul, shedding its soothing influence throughout your whole being.

Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God, this is the Christian's true heart's ease, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. But if you go to Him with your care, and return with it still corroding, shading, and crushing you, it is not because the Lord refuses to take it upon Himself, but because you refuse to transfer it to Him. You go, and you come away with it still entwined around your heart, and wonder that you find no relief. But leave with him your care, be it the care of your soul or the care of the body. Hang it upon his arm. Lay it upon his heart. And sweet will be the repose your father in heaven will give.

He cares for you. The Lord, my provider. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. And my God shall supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4 verse 19.

The anxious care of yesterday has expanded into the pressing need of today. The trouble that was near has come, and the need you anticipated is urgent. Be it so. The life God intends his people should live is not one of sight, but of faith. Not one for tomorrow, but for today. For the most part, he will allow them to have nothing in hand, lest it should mar the simplicity and so interfere with the operation of their faith. Like the poor widow whose little oil got increased by Elisha, we are often led to exclaim, your handmaid has nothing in the house but a jar of oil. Our dear Lord recognized our daily life of faith by teaching us to offer the daily prayer, give us this day our daily bread.

The apostle wrote these words in grateful acknowledgement of a gift of love he had just received from the Philippian saints. He had ministered to them of his spiritual things. And they, in return, ministered unto him of their temporal things, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God. And now, as if conscious of his inability to make them any adequate return in kind, he instructs them in a truth and breathes for them a prayer most precious.

And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Let your soul anchor itself on this truth. God is my God. And though the winds may blow, and the billows surge, and the sky darken, you shall not be moved. Needs may be great and urgent, Claimants harsh and pressing. Resources clean gone. Yet, if the believing soul can take hold of God and claim its interest and proprietorship in Him, none of these things shall move it.

And God is your God, O my soul. Your God in an everlasting covenant. Your God in Christ Jesus. your God in a thousand troubles past, your God and your guide even unto death. God is as pledged as he is able to supply all your temporal need. He would have us recognize and deal with him as the God of providence equally as the God of grace. The divine promise is your bread and your water shall be sure. Has he ever failed you? He may have brought you to an extremity, the barrel of meal and the cruise of oil well near exhausted. Not anything in the house but a jar of oil. Yet he knows your need and at the last will appear and supply it. Faith may be sharply tried, but it shall surely triumph in the end. Gad, a troop, shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at last. There may be a present and temporary defeat of faith in its battle with trying and afflictive circumstances, but, like the tribe of Gad, It shall overcome at last.

God shall supply all your temporal needs according to His covenant engagement and inexhaustible resources. Only trust Him. Above all is the Lord our spiritual provider. If He provides for the body, most assuredly and yet more richly and amply will He provide for the soul. There is grain in Egypt. There is the raining manna and the gushing rock in the desert. All the supplies of the covenant of grace, all the fullness that is in Christ Jesus, all the boundless resources of the triune Jehovah are for the needs of the believing soul. You need more faith. Jesus is its author and he will increase it. You need more grace. Out of his fullness you may draw grace for grace, or, as it is in the Greek, wave on wave. You need more love. Feed its waning flame at the altar of his, and while you are musing on his wondrous love, the fire of yours shall burn. Thus take all you need to your Heavenly Provider, and He will supply it, not according to your stinted desires, or unbelieving expectations, or personal desserts, but according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

What need shall not our God supply from His abundant store? What streams of mercy from on high an arm almighty pour? From Christ, the ever-living spring, those ample blessings flow. Prepare, my lips, his name to sing, whose heart has loved you so.

The Lord, my rest. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. They have forgotten their resting place. Jeremiah 50, verse 6. To the weary, way-worn soul, how sweet and expressive the word rest. The class is a large one. We need not extend our research into the outer world. There, indeed, the circle has no limit. Oh, what a weary humanity is ours! But, restricting our observations to the Regenerate Church of God, who of all the saints composing it will not exclaim, the sweetest chimes that float from the belfry of heaven are those that breathe of rest for the weary soul. Sit down a while, and listen to the music, and, weary and sad though you are, did ever sweeter strains of melody break on the ear than these words of Jesus, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. and I will give you rest. Who can count the myriads now in glory, once toiling through this weary world, foot sore and sad, often ready to halt? On whose ears these words fell, in sweeter strains than angels use, causing them to lie down in a quiet resting place.

But are these words fully and clearly understood by all the Lord's weary ones? If so, why do unrest and roaming exist among them to so painful an extent as it does? Is it not because the following points are not clearly seen and practically recognized? Do we distinctly see that a personal savior is the true rest of the believing soul? We may rest in the gospel of Christ, in the promises of Christ, in the work of Christ, and yet be far from that real rest which brings with it a comfortable assurance of perfect forgiveness, and freedom from condemnation, which it is our privilege to attain. Until our humble faith apprehends a personal savior, we have not fully apprehended that for which we are apprehended of Christ Jesus. We have not reached our highest point of rest, rest in Jesus himself.

The saints of God deal too faintly with the personalities of the ever-blessed Trinity. They seem to forget that three distinctions in the Godhead are not attributes or influences, but divine and distinct persons. They lose sight of the personality of the Father, and of the personality of the Son, and of the personality of the Spirit. And in so doing, they dishonor each distinct person of the Godhead, and rob him of his distinction and glory. And now we are invited, weary and worn and sad, to a personal savior. In language it would seem impossible to misinterpret. He does not say, come to my church, or come to my minister, or come to my gospel, or come to my work. But in the clearest and most emphatic language, paraphrasing his words, he says, come unto me, pass by every object and being and work, and cast yourself, guilt-laden and ready to perish, in faith upon me, a living, loving, personal Savior. And you shall find the rest for which your weary spirit pants. Thus, O my soul, come. Thus, O Lord, I do come. And oh, what a rest is Jesus! In embracing Him, we embrace all rest. The blood that pardons, the righteousness that justifies, the grace that sanctifies, the sympathy that soothes, the power that keeps, is all realized in a personal acceptance of a personal Redeemer.

To him, then, repair, O sin- and sorrow-laden one. Rest in the love his heart cherishes, In the blood his heart shed, In the compassion his heart feels, Yes, in all that he is, all things are yours, For you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Beware of forgetting your resting place. It was the sin of the church of old. They have forgotten their resting place. Let memory forget all else, the fondest being, the dearest name, the loveliest object. But in sin's weariness and woe, in affliction's sorrow and suffering, in starless nights and cloudy days, when all other resting places are broken and destroyed, oh, do not forget that your present, your true, and your only resting place is Jesus.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest. Lay down, you weary one, lay down your head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

The Lord, my Bishop. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. The Bishop of your souls. 1 Peter 2, verse 25. The Greek word episkopos, rendered Bishop, signifies overseer, one who watches over the interests of the church, superintends its order, and administers its discipline. In this sense, it primarily and pre-eminently applies to the Lord Jesus Christ as the universal bishop of his one elect church, and especially as the bishop or overseer of each individual member of that church.

Now, there is something peculiarly beautiful and assuring in this title of Jesus, as it relates to the spiritual interests of the believer. Observe, Jesus is the bishop or overseer of the soul, as distinct from the providential care he takes of the body. The bishop of your souls. Study your Lord, O believer, as sustaining this high, responsible, and close relation to you, and receive the divine instruction and rich comfort the Holy Spirit intended to convey to you thereby.

As the bishop of our soul, he is its author. Thus, he is more than all other bishops could possibly be. He is a creating bishop. Thereby, Jesus proves his divinity. The creator must necessarily be before and above the thing created. Now creation is ascribed to Jesus. All things were made by Him, Logos the Word, and without Him was not anything made that was made. To what rational conclusion do these words conduct us but the one that the Bishop of our souls is essentially and absolutely God? Oh, blessed, assuring truth! What substance and stability it gives to faith reposing upon the Atonement. The Atonement reposes in its turn upon Deity.

Jesus is a life-giving Bishop. We have more than natural life from Him. We have spiritual life. In Him was life essential. In Him, also, was life mediatorial. And this life was in Him for us. Christ, who is our life, sweet thought, the spiritual life by which we become, in the highest sense, living souls, is in Jesus. and from Jesus our Bishop. In virtue of our union with Him we become partakers of His life, and this we have not so much in virtue of our engrafting into Him as His dwelling in us by His Spirit. Thus, each believer has a risen or a living Christ dwelling in his heart. through the Spirit by faith. And thus the regenerate soul is safe forever, since, before he can be lost, the personal Savior dwelling in him must perish.

Jesus is also a soul-redeeming bishop. He has done what no other bishop ever has done or ever could do. He died for us. The Church of Christ has had her martyr bishops. Such were Latimer and Cranmer. But they only died for the truth. Whereas Christ died for His Church. Their blood was witnessing, sealing blood. Jesus' blood was atoning, redeeming blood. How dear then to our divine redeeming Bishop must be the souls for whom his own prevailed in the unknown sorrow of the garden and in the death agonies of the cross.

Lastly, Jesus is, in the divinest and most blessed sense, the bishop or overseer of our souls. He guards, watches over, keeps, and guides us moment by moment with a vigilance, tenderness, and individuality inexpressibly great. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. The eye of his providence watches over your body. The eye of his grace watches over your soul. It is the oversight of love, eternal love, redeeming, unchanging love. Oh, what a loving bishop is Jesus. Was ever love like his? Was ever such love heard of, thought of, displayed as the love of Jesus, the bishop of our souls? My soul, keep near your bishop's side. No other bishop possesses his authority, can give his spirit, offer his sacrifice, or communicate his grace. Earthly bishops are but men, men of like passions as ourselves, sinful, fallible, mortal. But Jesus is the divine human bishop, at whose feet, O my soul, you sit, to whose authority humbly you submit, in the luster of whose divine miter you ever rejoice. until he shall exalt you to be a king and a priest in the church above, where at his feet all crowns and coronets and miters shall be devoutly and adoringly laid, and he shall be Lord of all.

The Lord, my leader,
The Lord is my portion, says my soul.
He shall gently lead those that are with young.
Isaiah 40 verse 11.

In other words, those who are burdened and need a skillful, sure, and gentle leader, Such is Jesus, and as such, the scripture which cannot be broken is fulfilled which prophesied concerning him. Behold, I have given him for a leader to the people. We need just such a leader as Christ is. Our journey to heaven is across a waste, howling wilderness, through an enemy's country, all armed and combined to resist, dispute, and oppose our every step. It is a road, also, all untraveled and unknown. Over the entrance of every new path is written You have not passed this way heretofore. A new bend in our life transpires. A new path in our pilgrimage is presented, involving new duties and responsibilities, new cares and trials. And like the disciples who on Mount Tabor feared they entered into the cloud, With fear and trembling, we gird ourselves for the new cloud-veiled position which God in his goodness has appointed us.

But why these doubts, these tremblings, these fears? Jesus is our leader. He knows all the way that we take, has mapped every road. has appointed every path and leads us through no duty or sorrow or suffering in which he has not gone before us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. As a teacher, he leads us into all truth. As a captain, he leads us from victory to victory. As a shepherd, He leads us into green pastures as a guide. He leads us along our difficult path skillfully, gently, safely, and so fulfills his precious promise. I will instruct you and teach you in the way in which you shall go. I will guide you with my eye.

Oh, what a combination of blessings center in Christ, flowing forth like beams of light from the sun, as streams of water from the fountain, touching at every point, in every place, and at every moment, all the circumstances, needs, and trials of his church. And how does Jesus lead us? He leads us graciously. He leads us in conversion by His Spirit out of ourselves and out of the broad road of destruction into Christ. the narrow way, but the way everlasting. He leads us along all the stages and through all the exercises of our Christian experience, leaving us not when our frames are low and our evidences are obscured and our faith is assailed and darkness, often thick darkness, covers our soul as with a pall Who could skillfully, patiently, and faithfully lead us along all the mazes, intricacies, and perils of our Christian course safely to glory but Christ our leader?

He leads us by his providence. I will guide you with my eye. It has been quaintly but truly remarked that they who watch the Lord's providences will never lack a providence to watch. God's eye by which He guides His people is His providence, and it is our wisdom to keep an eye of faith vigilantly, constantly upon His eye of providence. watching every glance and interpreting every look as guiding us in the way in which we should go. Commit yourself, oh my soul, confidently to the Lord's leading. The way may appear all wrong to you, But it is the right way. Mystery may enshroud it. Trials may pave it. Sorrows may darken it. Tears may bedo it. And not an answering look or an echoing voice may relieve or cheer its loneliness. Nevertheless, he is leading you by the right way home.

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known. Along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do. I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42, verse 16.

Now, Lord, I take you at your word. Make good this promise. I am a poor, blind child, not knowing my way. And when I do see it, I am often so burdened that I cannot walk. Take me by the hand and gently, skillfully lead me until traveling days are over and I am at home with you forever. You have promised gently to lead the burdened and feeble who cannot travel. Still less keep up with the flock. Lord, lead me.

The Lord, my food. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. John 6 verse 55. The believer in Jesus is divinely and richly fed. He lives on more than angels' bread. We know but little what that food is, but this we do know. Never did angels taste above redeeming grace and dying love. This wondrous feast was reserved for man, fallen, sinful man, doomed to die. Draw near in faith, O my soul. and sit down afresh at this heavenly banquet provided for you by electing love and sovereign grace. Listen to the description of the feast as given by Him who is both its founder and substance. For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. All who eat my flesh and drink my blood remain in me, and I in them. Listen again, and to the same gracious voice inviting you to the meal. Eat, oh friends. Drink, yes. Drink abundantly, oh beloved.

Was there ever such a provider? Ever such a provision? Ever such guests? Let us consider in a few words the two elements of which this royal banquet is composed. The present meditation will include the first, for my flesh is the true food. The language is obviously figurative and is to be interpreted as his words on another occasion are, I am the door. and as those employed by the evangelical prophets, all flesh is grass. This, the only rational and correct theological interpretation the words of our Lord will admit, at once explodes the notion of a corporeal or real presence of Christ in the elements of the Lord's Supper, a notion religiously held by the genuine Romanist and surreptitiously adopted by the semi-Romanists, while yet claiming the profession and dignity of a Christian and a Protestant.

Such is the divine bread, the true nutriment of the renewed soul. The Lord never intended that his people should live on anything below himself. The life within us is divine, and its nourishment must be divine. It is from heaven, and its nourishment must be heavenly. It is supernatural, and its food must be spiritual. If we attempt to live upon anything but Christ, we shall soon exclaim with bitterness of soul, my leanness, my leanness. As our natural life can only be sustained by food suited to its nature and maturity, milk for babes and strong meat for those who are of full age, So our spiritual life can only be kept healthy and vigorous by living upon food adapted to its requirements, which is Christ, the bread of life. His flesh is the true food. The one who feeds on me will live because of me. Such is the daily life of faith we are to live, and living such only can we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fruits of the Spirit within us are kept vigorous, healthful, and abounding by the life, the nourishment they daily derive from Christ. Nothing else is true spiritual food. The word, the ministry, the ordinances are all divinely appointed and exceedingly needful and precious means, but they are not Christ and only help as they lead us to Christ. Oh, live daily and simply upon Christ, and your soul shall be fat and flourishing. Live upon Him for everything, for the grace that subdues the power of sin, and for the blood that cleanses the guilt of sin. Live upon Him for the wisdom that counsels and for the sympathy that supports you. Live upon Him for the evidences of your union with Him and for the union itself.

Look not within for holiness and comfort, but look only to Jesus Seek not your fruitfulness from yourself, but from Christ. From me is your fruit found. You're true, your only food is the flesh of Christ, eaten in simple faith. That is, a full, a loving, a gracious, an ever-present Savior, standing at your right hand, prepared to respond to your every cry, and to supply your every need, and to soothe your every sorrow.

Again, I repeat, Attempt to live upon your spiritual exercises, upon your faith, or love, or joy, or peace, or fruitfulness, and your soul will starve. But live a life of daily, hourly faith on Christ, and your soul shall be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, and to the glory and praise of God.

The Lord, my drink. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink." John 6, verse 55.

Life is sustained by life. It is God's ordained law in nature, His yet higher law in grace. The believer is the subject of spiritual life, but his life springs from and is nourished by life, the life of Jesus. His soul lives, but only as it is fed and nourished by the lifeblood of the Savior. The blood is the life. It is the blood that makes atonement.

Jesus, having given us his flesh to eat, offers yet more. He presents to us a cup to drink, a wondrous cup, such a cup as angels never tasted. And yet, the vilest of Earth's fallen race are permitted to drink freely of it, have drink deeply of it, are drinking of it now. and will continue to drink of it until they pass to that bright and holy world where they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, but where they shall eat of the hidden manna and drink from the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb,

And now, what are we to understand by our Lord's words, my blood is the true drink? The first thought which they suggest is the believer's experimental acquaintance with Christ. To taste or to drink of a thing is to have an experimental knowledge of it. There are many religious professors who read of Christ's blood and hear of Christ's blood and outwardly commemorate Christ's blood, but who never spiritually and experimentally drink of Christ's blood. Oh, let us not be mere professing, theoretic Christians, but real, vital, experimental Christians, living by Christ, living on Christ, and having Christ in us, the hope of glory, looking forward to that blessed hope of being with Christ, forever.

Another idea is the soul-quickening, nourishing power of Christ's blood. We drink naturally that our life may be strengthened, refreshed. Thus we drink spiritually and by faith of the blood of Christ that the divine life within us may be invigorated, revived, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Oh, there is nothing which so truly and so effectually moistens and nourishes our Christian graces as the blood of Jesus. as there is life in the blood, so the blood constantly flowing around our living, believing, loving hearts nourishes the roots of our grace and causes faith and love, peace and joy, patience and hope to bloom and blossom and bring forth fruit in our souls

Our Lord also signified by the expression, the continuous application to the sin healing, guilt cleansing efficacy of His blood. As our natural thirst needs incessant supplies, not less intense and imperious is the thirst of our spiritual healthy soul for the constant application of the blood that cleanses from all sin. Our spiritual travel through a sin-polluted and sin-polluting world involving constant contamination and taint demands our frequent washing in atoning blood. A person who has a bath needs only to wash his feet. His whole body is clean. Oh my soul, Keep the roots of your profession well moistened with Christ's blood. Keep your heart constantly sprinkled with Christ's blood. See that all your religious doings and duties are cleansed in Christ's blood. Live near the fountain. Live, yes, in the fountain. So shall your walk be close with God, calm and serene your frame. So pure light shall mark the road that leads you to the Lamb.

Constrained by love and in the exercise of faith, approach, O my soul, the table of the Lord. and eat of his flesh and drink of his blood in obedient, grateful remembrance of him who gave his life a ransom for you, and who said, do this in remembrance of me. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Let no sense of unworthiness, weakness of faith, or coldness of love keep you back, since you come not to remember yourself, but your Lord, not to commemorate your love to Him, but His great, His dying love to you.

The Lord, my Savior. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Matthew 1, verse 21. It is from this alabaster box of precious ointment that the sweetest holiest odor breathes on the church and throughout the world, wherever and by whomever the name of Jesus, which is as ointment poured forth, is proclaimed.

But, wherein lies the great charm, power, and sweetness of this one name? It is in the fact that He saves His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save. Of all the points of light in which the Lord, our portion, is seen, there is not one equal to this, the incarnate God, my Savior. All other glorious and precious views are swallowed up in this. If Jesus were not a savior, he would be nothing to us. But if we can spell his name, Jesus, though it may be with faith's most stammering tongue and faltering accents, we may put in a personal and confident claim to all that Jesus is and to all that he has done.

There are many from whose lips this precious name frequently and musically breathes, but who, while they bend the knee to it, are still servants of sin and the slaves of Satan, having never experienced in their souls the saving power which this name contains, or the emancipation it was designed to confer. They know the name of Jesus historically, intellectually, theoretically, but nothing of it personally, spiritually, savingly. What multitude saw him, heard him, conversed with him, followed him, and shouted their hosannas when he was upon earth, who nevertheless, slighting and rejecting him, died a Christless, graceless, hopeless death, with no other prospect than that of the impious Balaam, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not near.

But, O my soul, what a debtor are you to divine, free, and discriminating grace. For to you the name of Jesus is life, joy, peace, and hope. Yes, it is every precious name in one, the dearest, sweetest name in earth or in heaven. You have not simply heard of him with the hearing of the ear. But you have been drawn to Him by cords of love, or impelled by an overwhelming sense of your lost condition as a poor sinner, finding salvation in no other name but His. But, whether drawn or driven, Jesus is precious to you, the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely one. Yes, he is to your faith, hope, and love, all and in all. Your Alpha and Omega, your first and last. Your resounding, never-ending jubilee.

But what does our precious Jesus actually do for us? He saves us from the guilt of sin. This He accomplishes by His precious bloodshedding. Such were some of you, but you are washed. He that is washed The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Walk, O my soul, in the constant realization of this by a daily application of the blood to the conscience. Keep not the guilt of sin for one hour, but the moment its taint distresses, and the cloud shades, and the wound inflames, go at once to the fountain opened, wash, and be clean.

Jesus saves us too from the power of sin. He shall subdue their iniquities. This is what the truly saved soul pants for. Deliverance from the tyranny of sin. We cannot be happy, blessed be God, while one sin remains unsubdued, while one corruption has the ascendancy. But, by his conquering grace, Jesus saves us from the dominion of sin. breaking its neck, subduing its principle, weakening its power, enabling us to shout, thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus.

Jesus saves us also from the condemnation of sin. condemned himself as our surety for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Oh, what a finished, accepted, glorious salvation is ours. But not only are we saved, from the condemnation of sin, but we are saved unto eternal life. Jesus will not leave the work he has undertaken incomplete, nor be satisfied until he has safely brought all his blood-bought, blood-washed, blood-saved people home to glory.

The Lord, our peace, The Lord is my portion, says my soul. He is our peace, Ephesians 2 verse 14. There is a beautiful gradation in the development of the graces of the Spirit in the believing soul. First, peace. Then, joy. This is a merciful and gracious provision of our God. There are, alas, but few rejoicing Christians. And yet, in the absence of joy, the subject of our next meditation, what a comfort that we may arrive at a state of peace, this being a fruit of the Spirit growing lower down on the tree.

bearing all manner of fruit, and therefore more accessible than the higher grace of joy, a fruit found on loftier boughs and growing in a sunnier region. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Thus, we often hear in the dying experience of God's saints the expression, I am not joyful, but I am peaceful. I have no great ecstasy or transport of feeling, but my soul believingly, sweetly rests on Jesus, and I am kept in perfect peace.

Well, this is no small Christian attainment in divine blessing. And, if our peace is a genuine fruit of the Spirit, springing from simple faith in Jesus, the effect of his peace-speaking blood upon the conscience, it is worth countless worlds, and passes all understanding. A few reflections may aid us in the fuller realization of this blessed state.

In the first place, we must keep the great essential truth ever in view that not only can Christ make peace, give us peace, and bequeath his peace as a precious legacy, but Jesus himself is our peace. Christ is our peace. This thought raises us above a mere dogma to a person, above the truth of Christ to Christ himself.

God says of the sinner at variance with himself, Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. Isaiah 27 verse 5. Now Christ is the power of God, or the strength of God, taking hold of whom in faith we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the expression, so general, he made his peace with God, as applied to many who pass out of this world into eternity without any scriptural evidence of conversion, involves a fearful delusion and a fatal error.

The sinner cannot of himself make his peace with God. Christ has already made peace, or rather, Christ is himself our peace. And until we believe in Christ, and have received Christ, our boasted peace is false. It is the peace not of life, but of death. The peace of Satan. Easily understood. Not the peace of God, which passes all understanding.

Yes, Jesus is our peace. He stood in the breach, bore the sin, endured the curse, and suffered the condemnation. Upon Him fell the stroke that bowed His holy soul in sorrow to the earth, and so secured our reconciliation with God. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. even Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

And now the atoning work of Jesus in its two distinct branches, the blood that pardons and the righteousness that justifies, is the channel through which peace flows into our soul. The one is termed peace-speaking blood The other is represented as placing us in a state of free and full justification, and so bringing us into the experience of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Behold, then, O my soul, the channel through which your true peace flows, the blood of Christ applied to the conscience, and the righteousness of Christ put upon you by the Spirit. The Lord can give you peace in trouble. When the tempest rages and the waters are dark and billowy, beneath the surface your peace from God through Christ may flow like a river. You are firmly anchored in faith on God.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Guard against that which would compromise your peace, O my soul. Toy not with temptation, trifle not with conscience, walk not at a distance from Jesus. Wash daily in the fountain, and your peace shall be as an ever-springing well. When he gives quietness, who then can make trouble?

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always, by all means. The Lord, my joy. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk 3 verse 18.

The lowly bud of peace has now blown into the fragrant flower of joy. a higher grace, and a more advanced stage in the happy life of the believer. That this is an attainment in the divine life to which, alas, but few Christians arrive, has already been intimated. And yet, it is a kindred grace of the Spirit, growing upon the same tree of life, though, as we have remarked, found upon its higher and more sunlit boughs.

The apostolic precept, Rejoice in the Lord Always, and again I say, Rejoice, is as personally and as solemnly enjoined as any holy precept of God's Word. It may aid you, O my soul, in attaining in some measure to this high holy state, if you will consider some of the reasons why the child of God should be a joyful Christian. Yes, always rejoicing in the first place. We ought to rejoice that God is our God in an everlasting covenant. Can the wing of faith soar higher? Is there beyond this another, a loftier or a richer spring of happiness? Surely not. To be enabled to say, in the exercise of humble, filial faith, God is my God, my Father, my portion, my all, is to pluck the richest, sweetest fruit that grows upon the tree of life. Rise to this, my soul. Uplift your two-drooping pinion and soar.

Listen to the words of God Himself, respecting the remnant, or third part, left in Jerusalem, and whom He will bring through the fire. and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried. I will say it is My people, and they shall say, The Lord is My God." Zechariah 13 verse 9 Oh, what a joy to lay faith's hand upon Jehovah and exclaim, this God is my God. All his perfections smile upon me. All his attributes encircle me. All his resources are at my command. He is my God forever and ever and will be my guide even unto death.

What a rich, fathomless fountain of joy is Jesus, O my soul. All the offices he fills, all the relations he sustains, all the supplies he possesses belong to you. His thoughts entwine you. His heart beats for you. His eye is over you. His hand guides and keeps you moment by moment. Who ought not to be joyful, who can say, Christ is my brother, my goel, next of kin. Christ is my friend, loving me at all times. Christ is my Redeemer, ransoming me from condemnation. Christ is my High Priest, making constant and successful intercession for me within the veil.

Oh, realize what a portion, what a treasure, what a very present help, what an almighty, sympathizing, full Savior Jesus is. and the water of your sorrow shall be turned into the wine of your joy. And what a joy should it be that you have a throne of grace at all times to repair to. He who knows from personal and sweet experience the privilege and power of prayer must be a joyful Christian. Is there a higher, holier, sweeter privilege, this side of glory? Dark though the cloud is, crushing the burden, bitter the sorrow, and pressing the want. The moment a believer arises and gives himself to prayer, the cloud dissolves, the burden falls. The sorrow is soothed, and the need is met and more than supplied.

They looked unto him and were lightened.

What joy is this? Access by the blood of Jesus within the holiest. Lost in the effulgent glory that encircles the throne of a Father's love. And what a joy to know that we are saved. Realizing this fact, it would be no exaggeration of our joy were we to proclaim from the housetop I am saved. I am saved. Forever saved.

Think what hell is. Think what heaven is. And then to know, to be quite sure that we are snatched from the one and shall soon arrive at the other. Oh, this is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

the thought of being in heaven forever with the Lord, no more sin, no more suffering, no more tears, no more death, no more separation. Oh, it were enough to lift us superior to present tribulation and to make the desert across which we journey resound with our songs of joy until we rise to sing forever the new song before the throne of God and the Lamb.

The Lord, my song. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. The Lord is my song. Psalm 118, verse 14.

A joyful spirit is a praiseful spirit, and he around whom our loftiest sweetest praises gather, has, for the encouragement of this holy exercise, said, whoever offers praise glorifies me. That there are, as we have remarked, so few joyful believers will account for there being so few praiseful believers in the Church of God.

Praise is one of the holiest graces as it is one of the sweetest employments of the believing soul. As far as the enjoyments of the glorified saints are revealed, and the door of heaven is only open ajar in order that sight might not in any degree impair the simplicity of faith, we learn that praise is the chief employment and recreation of the saints in glory.

Read attentively the unveilings of heaven, dim though they are, in the apocalypse, and this fact will come home to you with great power, that the golden harps and the new songs and the loud hallelujahs of heaven all indicate that music or praise is the grand recreation of the glorified saints who stand upon Mount Zion and upon the sea of glass, having the harps of God, their high transporting anthem, the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

pluck your harp from the willows where too long it has hung in silence, and, waking its lower notes, praise your God for providential mercies, for the blessings of this life, food and clothing, home and friends, his daily care and thought of you. Praise him for sovereign, calling, converting grace. Oh, did we but fully realize what conversion is, and were more clearly assured that we were truly converted, would not the very thought kindle our soul with the deepest thanksgiving, and wake our harps to the loudest praise?

Praise Him for preserving grace. We need the same divine power that called us by grace to keep us from falling from the profession of grace. From the possession of grace, the true believer can never fall. The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. They shall never perish.

But The history of God's church proves that no power can keep the best of saints from falling into the worst of sins, but the power of God. Have you been thus kept, O my soul, in many temptations, dangers, and stumblings? Then wake your heart to the high praise of Christ's power, faithfulness, and love.

kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. The Lord, too, is our song in view of the consolations and comforts of his grace. You've been brought through many deep sorrows, have traveled through many dark stages and cloudy days of your earthly pilgrimage. But your consolations have been neither few nor small. The God of all comfort has never deserted you. The consolation of Israel has never failed you. And the divine Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, has ever stood by to soothe, soften, and heal your wounds with the wine and the oil of divine grace and human sympathy, both flowing from the heart of Jesus.

Then, uplift your praises with every morning's light and evening's shadow. Praise Him with a new song for every new blessing. Praise Him for everything, for the cloud that shades, for the beam that brightens. For the mercies given, for the mercies withheld. For all he removes, for all he bestows. Praise him for every affliction he sends. For every cross he appoints. For every sorrow he mingles. For every temptation he permits. Praise him for present sickness and suffering, bereavement and loss. For a blessing is in it all, and all demands are grateful praise.

Oh, cultivate a thankful, praiseful spirit. It will cheer many a lonely path, sweeten many a bitter trial. Lighten many a burden born along life's weary, dusty road, home to God. Soon the praises of earth will be exchanged for the higher, holier, and more lasting praises of heaven. And then will come the new song of glory, honor, and thanksgiving unto Him who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.

The Lord, my creditor, The Lord is my portion, says my soul. How much do you owe, my master? Luke 16, verse 5. There is not a greater debtor in the universe than the believer in Jesus. The natural man owes God much, ten thousand talents, But the renewed man owes God ten thousand times more. A debt of love, gratitude, and service such as the highest number cannot compute, or the longest eternity pay. It is very salutary to keep constantly in mind our indebtedness to Christ. We are prone to forget it. We are tempted at times to imagine that some little service of love, or act of obedience, or season of suffering has cancelled, in some degree, the immense obligation we are under to God.

No, more, we are even tempted to cherish the delusion that by this very sacrifice on our part of self-denying service and endurance of suffering, we have actually made the Lord Himself our debtor. But this will not always be the reflection of a truly spiritual mind and Christ-loving heart. Of one who, in view of what Jesus has done for him, the hell from whence he is ransomed, and the heaven to which he is raised, exclaims, Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

We owe Jesus supreme, obedient, and self-denying love. Oh, if there is a being in the universe whom it were no exaggeration of affection to love with every throb of our hearts, it is Jesus. This supreme concentration of love on one object implies no rupture of tie, or a lessening of affection towards others. There is a self-love, natural and proper. There is a conjugal love. holy and deep. There is a parental love, tender and enduring. There is philial love, God-commanded and God-honored. All these bonds of affection may exist in harmony with a supreme love to Jesus. which, while it recognizes and hallows them, towers above, transcends, and outshines them as the sun, the inferior planets which revolve around it, their center.

We owe Jesus unwearied service. True religion is practical. The grace of God in the heart is diffusive. Divine love in the soul is constraining. The service of Christ to which our grateful love binds us is perfect freedom and a supreme delight. Are you, my soul, devoting yourself to the service of your Lord? yes, Himself for you? Are you lending a loving, sympathizing, helping hand to His ministers? Vindicating, encouraging, aiding them? Are you seeking the conversion of souls and thus aiding to increase His kingdom? What are you doing for Jesus?

We owe Jesus our talents, time, and substance. If we recognize the fact that we are not our own proprietors, then it follows that there was nothing exaggerated in the entire devotion of the early Christians, of whom it is recorded no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own. Yes, We are not our own, but Christ's, and if we withhold from Him our one talent, burying it in the earth, our time frittering it away in mere baubles and trifles of life, our property lavishing it in self-indulgence, we are robbing Christ of what by right of creation, redemption, and vow of consecration belongs to Him, proving ourselves to be unfaithful stewards. Can we ever do or suffer too much for Him who paid all our great debt of obedience and suffering and death both to law and justice that we might go free?

Oh no, my soul, how much owe you unto my Lord. I owe you my talents, my rank, my wealth, my time, my all, body, soul, and spirit, through time and through eternity. When this passing world is done, when has sunk yon glowing sun, when we stand with Christ above, looking o'er life's tale of love, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, not until then, how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see you as you art,
Serve you with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not until then, how much I owe.