Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t28300

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28301
 April 1                                                  Evening

 \\"It is time to seek the Lord."\\
                                                    --Hosea 10:12

    This month of April is said to derive its name from the Latin
 verb \\aperio\\, which signifies \\to open\\, because all the
 buds and blossoms are now opening, and we have arrived at the
 gates of the flowery year. Reader, if you are yet unsaved, may
 your heart, in accord with the universal awakening of nature, be
 opened to receive the Lord. Every blossoming flower warns you
 that \\it is time to seek the Lord\\; be not out of tune with
 nature, but let your heart bud and bloom with holy desires. Do
 you tell me that the warm blood of youth leaps in your veins?
 then, I entreat you, give your vigour to the Lord. It was my
 unspeakable happiness to be called in early youth, and I could
 fain praise the Lord every day for it. Salvation is priceless,
 let it come when it may, but oh! an early salvation has a double
 value in it. Young men and maidens, since you may perish ere you
 reach your prime, "\\It is time to seek the Lord\\." Ye who feel
 the first signs of decay, quicken your pace: that hollow cough,
 that hectic flush, are warnings which you must not trifle with;
 with you\\ it is indeed time to seek the Lord\\. Did I observe a
 little grey mingled with your once luxurious tresses? Years are
 stealing on apace, and death is drawing nearer by hasty marches,
 let each return of spring arouse you to set your house in order.
 Dear reader, if you are now advanced in life, let me entreat and
 implore you to delay no longer. There is a day of grace for you
 now--be thankful for that, but it is a limited season and grows
 shorter every time that clock ticks. Here in this silent
 chamber, on this first night of another month, I speak to you as
 best I can by paper and ink, and from my inmost soul, as God's
 servant, I lay before you this warning, "\\It is time to seek\\
 \\the Lord\\." Slight not that work, it may be your last call
 from destruction, the final syllable from the lip of grace.

28302
 April 2                                                  Evening

 \\"He shall see his seed; he shall prolong his days, and the\\
 \\pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."\\
                                                   --Isaiah 53:10

    Plead for the speedy fulfilment of this promise, all ye who
 love the Lord. It is easy work to pray when we are grounded and
 bottomed, as to our desires, upon God's own promise. How can he
 that gave the word refuse to keep it? Immutable veracity cannot
 demean itself by a lie, and eternal faithfulness cannot degrade
 itself by neglect. God must bless his Son, his covenant binds
 him to it. That which the Spirit prompts us to ask for Jesus, is
 that which God decrees to give him. Whenever you are praying for
 the kingdom of Christ, let your eyes behold the dawning of the
 blessed day which draweth near, when the Crucified shall receive
 his coronation in the place where men rejected him. Courage,
 you that prayerfully work and toil for Christ with success of
 the very smallest kind, it shall not be so always; better times
 are before you. Your eyes cannot see the blissful future: borrow
 the telescope of faith; wipe the misty breath of your doubts
 from the glass; look through it and behold the coming glory.
 Reader, let us ask, \\do you\\ make this your constant prayer?
 Remember that the same Christ who tells us to say, "Give us this
 day our daily bread," had first given us this petition,
 "Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in
 earth as it is in heaven." Let not your prayers be all
 concerning your own sins, your own wants, your own
 imperfections, your own trials, but let them climb the starry
 ladder, and get up to Christ himself, and then, as you draw nigh
 to the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, offer this prayer
 continually, "Lord, extend the kingdom of thy dear Son." Such a
 petition, fervently presented, will elevate the spirit of all
 your devotions. Mind that you prove the sincerity of your prayer
 by labouring to promote the Lord's glory.
28303
 April 3                                                  Evening

 \\"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one\\
 \\to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of\\
 \\us all."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 53:6

    Here a confession of sin \\common\\ to all the elect people
 of God. They have all fallen, and therefore, in common chorus,
 they all say, from the first who entered heaven to the last who
 shall enter there, "All we like sheep have gone astray." The
 confession, while thus unanimous, is also \\special\\ and
 particular: "We have turned every one to his own way." There is
 a peculiar sinfulness about every one of the individuals; all
 are sinful, but each one with some special aggravation not found
 in his fellow. It is the mark of genuine repentance that while
 it naturally associates itself with other penitents, it also
 takes up a position of loneliness. "We have turned every one to
 his own way," is a confession that each man had sinned against
 light peculiar to himself, or sinned with an aggravation which
 he could not perceive in others. This confession is
 \\unreserved\\; there is not a word to detract from its force,
 nor a syllable by way of excuse. The confession is \\a giving up\\
 \\of all pleas of self-righteousness\\. It is the declaration of
 men who are consciously guilty--guilty with aggravations, guilty
 without excuse: they stand with their weapons of rebellion
 broken in pieces, and cry, "All we like sheep have gone astray;
 we have turned every one to his own way." Yet we hear no
 dolorous wailings attending this confession of sin; for the next
 sentence makes it almost a song. "The Lord hath laid on him the
 iniquity of us all." It is the most grievous sentence of the
 three, but it overflows with comfort. Strange is it that where
 misery was concentrated mercy reigned; where sorrow reached her
 climax weary souls find rest. The Saviour bruised is the healing
 of bruised hearts. See how the lowliest penitence gives place to
 assured confidence through simply gazing at Christ on the cross!

28304
 April 4                                                  Evening

 \\"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord."\\
                                                     --Isaiah 2:3

    It is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this
 present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of
 this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke
 everything good within us, and we grow fretful, desponding,
 perhaps proud and carnal. It is well for us to cut down these
 thorns and briers, for heavenly seed sown among them is not
 likely to yield a harvest; and where shall we find a better
 sickle with which to cut them down than communion with God and
 the things of the kingdom? In the valleys of Switzerland many of
 the inhabitants are deformed, and all wear a sickly appearance,
 for the atmosphere is charged with miasma, and is close and
 stagnant; but up yonder, on the mountain, you find a hardy race,
 who breathe the clear fresh air as it blows from the virgin
 snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well if the dwellers in
 the valley could frequently leave their abodes among the marshes
 and the fever mists, and inhale the bracing element upon the
 hills. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you
 this evening. May the Spirit of God assist us to leave the mists
 of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills which gather
 in this valley of earth, and to ascend the mountains of
 anticipated joy and blessedness. May God the Holy Spirit cut the
 cords that keep us here below, and assist us to mount! We sit
 too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that,
 unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would,
 perhaps, if it came really to the test, be loath to have it
 snapped. May God now grant us grace, if we cannot escape from
 the chain as to our flesh, yet to do so as to our spirits; and
 leaving the body, like a servant, at the foot of the hill, may
 our soul, like Abraham, attain the top of the mountain, there to
 indulge in communion with the Most High.

28305
 April 5                                                  Evening

 \\"Before honour is humility."\\
                                                 --Proverbs 15:33

    Humiliation of soul always \\brings a positive blessing with\\
 \\it\\. If we empty our hearts of self God will fill them with
 his love. He who desires close communion with Christ should
 remember the word of the Lord, "To this man will I look, even to
 him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my
 word." Stoop if you would climb to heaven. Do we not say of
 Jesus, "He descended that he might ascend?" so must you. You
 must grow downwards, that you may grow upwards; for the sweetest
 fellowship with heaven is to be had by humble souls, and by them
 alone. God will deny no blessing to a thoroughly humbled spirit.
 "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of
 heaven," with all its riches and treasures. The whole exchequer
 of God shall be made over by deed of gift to the soul which is
 humble enough to be able to receive it without growing proud
 because of it. God blesses us all up to the full measure and
 extremity of what it is safe for him to do. If you do not get a
 blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one. If
 our heavenly Father were to let your unhumbled spirit win a
 victory in his holy war, you would pilfer the crown for
 yourself, and meeting with a fresh enemy you would fall a
 victim; so that you are kept low for your own safety. When a man
 is sincerely humble, and never ventures to touch so much as a
 grain of the praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God
 will do for him. Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the
 God of all grace, and fits us to deal efficiently with our
 fellow men. True humility is a flower which will adorn any
 garden. This is a sauce with which you may season every dish of
 life, and you will find an improvement in every case. Whether it
 be prayer or praise, whether it be work or suffering, the
 genuine salt of humility cannot be used in excess.
28306
 April 6                                                  Evening

 \\"In the name of the Lord I will destroy them."\\
                                                   --Psalm 118:12

    Our Lord Jesus, by his death, did not purchase a right to a
 part of us only, but to the entire man. He contemplated in his
 passion the sanctification of us wholly, spirit, soul, and body;
 that in this triple kingdom he himself might reign supreme
 without a rival. It is the business of the newborn nature which
 God has given to the regenerate to assert the rights of the Lord
 Jesus Christ. My soul, so far as thou art a child of God, thou
 must conquer all the rest of thyself which yet remains unblest;
 thou must subdue all thy powers and passions to the silver
 sceptre of Jesus' gracious reign, and thou must never be
 satisfied till he who is King by purchase becomes also King by
 gracious coronation, and reigns in thee supreme. Seeing, then,
 that sin has no right to any part of us, we go about a good and
 lawful warfare when we seek, in the name of God, to drive it
 out. O my body, thou art a member of Christ: shall I tolerate
 thy subjection to the prince of darkness? O my soul, Christ has
 suffered for thy sins, and redeemed thee with his most precious
 blood: shall I suffer thy memory to become a storehouse of evil,
 or thy passions to be firebrands of iniquity? Shall I surrender
 my judgment to be perverted by error, or my will to be led in
 fetters of iniquity? No, my soul, thou art Christ's, and sin
 hath no right to thee.

    Be courageous concerning this, O Christian! be not
 dispirited, as though your spiritual enemies could never be
 destroyed. You are able to overcome them--not in your own
 strength--the weakest of them would be too much for you in that;
 but you can and shall overcome them through the blood of the
 Lamb. Do not ask, "How shall I dispossess them, for they are
 greater and mightier than I?" but go to the strong for strength,
 wait humbly upon God, and the mighty God of Jacob will surely
 come to the rescue, and you shall sing of victory through his
 grace.

28307
 April 7                                                  Evening

 \\"Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my\\
 \\salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy\\
 \\righteousness."\\
                                                    --Psalm 51:14

    In this SOLEMN CONFESSION, it is pleasing to observe that
 David plainly names his sin. He does not call it manslaughter,
 nor speak of it as an imprudence by which an unfortunate
 accident occurred to a worthy man, but he calls it by its true
 name, bloodguiltiness. He did not actually kill the husband of
 Bathsheba; but still it was planned in David's heart that Uriah
 should be slain, and he was before the Lord his murderer. Learn
 in confession to be honest with God. Do not give fair names to
 foul sins; call them what you will, they will smell no sweeter.
 What God sees them to be, that do you labour to feel them to be;
 and with all openness of heart acknowledge their real character.
 Observe, that David was evidently oppressed with the heinousness
 of his sin. It is easy to use words, but it is difficult to feel
 their meaning. The fifty-first Psalm is the photograph of a
 contrite spirit. Let us seek after the like brokenness of heart;
 for however excellent our words may be, if our heart is not
 conscious of the hell-deservingness of sin, we cannot expect to
 find forgiveness.

    Our text has in it AN EARNEST PRAYER--it is addressed to the
 God of \\salvation\\. It is his prerogative to forgive; it is
 his very name and office to save those who seek his face. Better
 still, the text calls him the God of \\my\\ salvation. Yes,
 blessed be his name, while I am yet going to him through Jesus'
 blood, I can rejoice in the God of \\my\\ salvation.

    The psalmist ends with A COMMENDABLE VOW: if God will deliver
 him he will\\ sing\\--nay, more, he will "\\sing aloud\\." Who can
 sing in any other style of such a mercy as this! But note the
 subject of the song--"THY RIGHTEOUSNESS." We must sing of the
 finished work of a precious Saviour; and he who knows most of
 forgiving love will sing the loudest.

28308
 April 8                                                  Evening

 \\"I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."\\
                                                     --Psalm 23:4

    Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy
 Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine
 within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how
 calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro,
 and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself,
 with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the
 music of a Christian's heart, but rather makes that music become
 more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act
 which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the
 heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss! Let us
 have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit's power to comfort
 us. Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not;
 the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty
 than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys
 may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will
 plant the roses of content. Are you conscious of a growing
 failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long
 nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed
 may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that
 shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your
 dross--a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your
 soul. Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the
 ears fail you? Jesus' name will be your soul's best music, and
 his person your dear delight. Socrates used to say,
 "Philosophers can be happy without music;" and Christians can be
 happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing
 are withdrawn. In thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come
 what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my
 heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me
 here below.

28309
 April 9                                                  Evening

 \\"thy gentleness hath made me great."\\
                                                    --Psalm 18:35

    The words are capable of being translated, "thy \\goodness\\
 hath made me great." David gratefully ascribed all his greatness
 not to his own goodness, but the goodness of God. "Thy
 \\providence\\," is another reading; and providence is nothing
 more than goodness in action. Goodness is the bud of which
 providence is the flower, or goodness is the seed of which
 providence is the harvest. Some render it, "thy \\help\\," which
 is but another word for providence; providence being the firm
 ally of the saints, aiding them in the service of their Lord. Or
 again, "thy \\humility\\ hath made me great." "Thy
 \\condescension\\" may, perhaps, serve as a comprehensive
 reading, combining the ideas mentioned, including that of
 \\humility\\. It is God's making himself little which is the
 cause of our being made great. We are so little, that if God
 should manifest his greatness without condescension, we should
 be trampled under his feet; but God, who must stoop to view the
 skies, and bow to see what angels do, turns his eye yet lower,
 and looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great. There
 are yet other readings, as for instance, the Septuagint, which
 reads, "thy discipline"--thy fatherly correction--"hath made me
 great;" while the Chaldee paraphrase reads, "thy word hath
 increased me." Still the idea is the same. David ascribes all
 his own greatness to the condescending goodness of his Father in
 heaven. May this sentiment be echoed in our hearts this evening
 while we cast our crowns at Jesus' feet, and cry, "thy
 gentleness hath made me great." How marvellous has been our
 experience of God's gentleness! How gentle have been his
 corrections! How gentle his forbearance! How gentle his
 teachings! How gentle his drawings! Meditate upon this theme, O
 believer. Let gratitude be awakened; let humility be deepened;
 let love be quickened ere thou fallest asleep to-night.
28310
 April 10                                                 Evening

 \\"For there stood by me this night the angel of God."\\
                                                     --Acts 27:23

    Tempest and long darkness, coupled with imminent risk of
 shipwreck, had brought the crew of the vessel into a sad case;
 one man alone among them remained perfectly calm, and by his
 word the rest were reassured. Paul was the only man who had
 heart enough to say, "Sirs, be of good cheer." There were
 veteran Roman legionaries on board, and brave old mariners, and
 yet their poor Jewish prisoner had more spirit than they all. He
 had a secret Friend who kept his courage up. The Lord Jesus
 despatched a heavenly messenger to whisper words of consolation
 in the ear of his faithful servant, therefore he wore a shining
 countenance and spake like a man at ease.

    If we fear the Lord, we may look for timely interpositions
 when our case is at its worst. Angels are not kept from us by
 storms, or hindered by darkness. Seraphs think it no humiliation
 to visit the poorest of the heavenly family. If angel's visits
 are few and far between at ordinary times, they shall be
 frequent in our nights of tempest and tossing. Friends may drop
 from us when we are under pressure, but our intercourse with the
 inhabitants of the angelic world shall be more abundant; and in
 the strength of love-words, brought to us from the throne by the
 way of Jacob's ladder, we shall be strong to do exploits. Dear
 reader, is this an hour of distress with you? then ask for
 peculiar help. Jesus is the angel of the covenant, and if his
 presence be now earnestly sought, it will not be denied. What
 that presence brings in heart-cheer those remember who, like
 Paul, have had the angel of God standing by them in a night of
 storm, when anchors would no longer hold, and rocks were nigh.

            "O angel of my God, be near,
            Amid the darkness hush my fear;
            Loud roars the wild tempestuous sea,
            Thy presence, Lord, shall comfort me."

28311
 April 11                                                 Evening

 \\"Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my\\
 \\sins."\\
                                                    --Psalm 25:18

    It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked
 with pleas concerning our sins--when, being under God's hand, we
 are not wholly taken up with our pain, but remember our offences
 against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to
 the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow: it
 was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, \\we\\
 \\must take our sorrows to God\\. Even your little sorrows you
 may roll upon God, for he counteth the hairs of your head; and
 your great sorrows you may commit to him, for he holdeth the
 ocean in the hollow of his hand. Go to him, whatever your
 present trouble may be, and you shall find him able and willing
 to relieve you. \\But we must take our sins to God too\\. We
 must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them,
 to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power.

    The special lesson of the text is this:--that \\we are to go\\
 \\to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit\\.
 Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, "\\Look\\
 \\upon\\ mine affliction and my pain;" but the next petition is
 vastly more express, definite, decided, plain--"\\Forgive\\ all
 my sins." Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction
 and my pain, and look at my sins." But David does not say so; he
 cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not
 dictate to thy wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to
 thee, I should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as thou
 wilt; but as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I
 must have them forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their
 curse for a moment." A Christian counts sorrow lighter in the
 scale than sin; he can bear that his troubles should continue,
 but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.

28312
 April 12                                                 Evening

 \\"The king's garden."\\
                                                  --Nehemiah 3:15

    Mention of the king's garden by Nehemiah brings to mind the
 \\paradise\\ which the King of kings prepared for Adam. Sin has
 utterly ruined that fair abode of all delights, and driven forth
 the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and
 briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was \\thy\\
 fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully
 ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which thou art a
 member, as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons
 dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights.

    See yonder another King's garden, which the King waters with
 his bloody sweat--\\Gethsemane\\, whose bitter herbs are
 sweeter far to renewed souls than even Eden's luscious fruits.
 There the mischief of the serpent in the first garden was
 undone: there the curse was lifted from earth, and borne by the
 woman's promised seed. My soul, bethink thee much of the agony
 and the passion; resort to the garden of the olive-press, and
 view thy great Redeemer rescuing thee from thy lost estate. This
 is the garden of gardens indeed, wherein the soul may see the
 guilt of sin and the power of love, two sights which surpass all
 others.

    Is there no other King's garden? Yes, \\my heart\\, thou art,
 or shouldst be such. How do the flowers flourish? Do any choice
 fruits appear? Does the King walk within, and rest in the bowers
 of my spirit? Let me see that the plants are trimmed and
 watered, and the mischievous foxes hunted out. Come, Lord, and
 let the heavenly wind blow at thy coming, that the spices of thy
 garden may flow abroad. Nor must I forget the King's garden of
 \\the church\\. O Lord, send prosperity unto it. Rebuild her
 walls, nourish her plants, ripen her fruits, and from the huge
 wilderness, reclaim the barren waste, and make thereof "a King's
 garden."

28313
 April 13                                                 Evening

 \\"And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-\\
 \\offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement\\
 \\for him."\\
                                                  --Leviticus 1:4

    Our Lord's being made "sin for us" is set forth here by the
 very significant transfer of sin to the bullock, which was made
 by the elders of the people. The laying of the hand was not a
 mere touch of contact, for in some other places of Scripture the
 original word has the meaning of leaning heavily, as in the
 expression, "thy wrath lieth hard upon me" (Psalm 88:7). Surely
 this is the very essence and nature of faith, which doth not
 only bring us into contact with the great Substitute, but
 teaches us to lean upon him with all the burden of our guilt.
 Jehovah made to meet upon the head of the Substitute all the
 offences of his covenant people, but each one of the chosen is
 brought personally to ratify this solemn covenant act, when by
 grace he is enabled by faith to lay his hand upon the head of
 the "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world."
 Believer, do you remember that rapturous day when you first
 realized pardon through Jesus the sin-bearer? Can you not make
 glad confession, and join with the writer in saying, "My soul
 recalls her day of deliverance with delight. Laden with guilt
 and full of fears, I saw my Saviour as my Substitute, and I laid
 my hand upon him; oh! how timidly at first, but courage grew and
 confidence was confirmed until I leaned my soul entirely upon
 him; and now it is my unceasing joy to know that my sins are no
 longer imputed to me, but laid on him, and like the debts of the
 wounded traveller, Jesus, like the good Samaritan, has said of
 all my future sinfulness, 'Set that to my account.'" Blessed
 discovery! Eternal solace of a grateful heart!

             "My numerous sins transferr'd to him,
             Shall never more be found,
             Lost in his blood's atoning stream,
             Where every crime is drown'd!"

28314
 April 14                                                 Evening

 \\"Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him."\\
                                                    --Isaiah 3:10

    \\It is well with the righteous\\ ALWAYS. If it had said,
 "Say ye to the righteous, that it is well with him in his
 prosperity," we must have been thankful for so great a boon, for
 prosperity is an hour of peril, and it is a gift from heaven to
 be secured from its snares: or if it had been written, "It is
 well with him when under persecution," we must have been
 thankful for so sustaining an assurance, for persecution is hard
 to bear; but when no time is mentioned, all time is included.
 God's "shalls" must be understood always in their largest sense.
 From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the
 first gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in
 all conditions and under all circumstances, it shall be well
 with the righteous. It is so well with him that we could not
 imagine it to be better, for he is \\well fed\\, he feeds upon
 the flesh and blood of Jesus; he is \\well clothed\\, he wears
 the imputed righteousness of Christ; he is \\well housed\\, he
 dwells in God; he is \\well married\\, his soul is knit in bonds
 of marriage union to Christ; he is \\well provided for\\, for
 the Lord is his Shepherd; he is \\well endowed\\, for heaven is his
 inheritance. It is well with the righteous--\\well upon divine\\
 \\authority\\; the mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance.
 O beloved, if God declares that all is well, ten thousand devils
 may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all to scorn.
 Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when
 the creatures contradict him. It is, says the Word, at all times
 well with thee, thou righteous one; then, beloved, if thou canst
 not see it, let God's word stand thee in stead of sight; yea,
 believe it on divine authority more confidently than if thine
 eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God blesses is blest
 indeed, and what his lip declares is truth most sure and
 steadfast.
28315
 April 15                                                 Evening

 \\"Lift them up for ever."\\
                                                     --Psalm 28:9

    \\God's people need lifting up\\. They are very heavy by
 nature. They have no wings, or, if they have, they are like the
 dove of old which lay among the pots; and they need divine grace
 to make them mount on wings covered with silver, and with
 feathers of yellow gold. By nature sparks fly upward, but the
 sinful souls of men fall downward. O Lord, "lift them up for
 ever!" David himself said, "Unto thee, O God, do I lift up my
 soul," and he here feels the necessity that other men's souls
 should be lifted up as well as his own. When you ask this
 blessing for yourself, forget not to seek it for others also.
 There are three ways in which God's people require to be lifted
 up. \\They require to be elevated in character\\. Lift them up,
 O Lord; do not suffer thy people to be like the world's people!
 The world lieth in the wicked one; lift them out of it! The
 world's people are looking after silver and gold, seeking their
 own pleasures, and the gratification of their lusts; but, Lord,
 lift thy people up above all this; keep them from being
 "muck-rakers," as John Bunyan calls the man who was always
 scraping after gold! Set thou their hearts upon their risen Lord
 and the heavenly heritage! Moreover, \\believers need to be\\
 \\prospered in conflict\\. In the battle, if they seem to fall,
 O Lord, be pleased to give them the victory. If the foot of the
 foe be upon their necks for a moment, help them to grasp the
 sword of the Spirit, and eventually to win the battle. Lord,
 lift up thy children's spirits in the day of conflict; let them
 not sit in the dust, mourning for ever. Suffer not the adversary
 to vex them sore, and make them fret; but if they have been,
 like Hannah, persecuted, let them sing of the mercy of a
 delivering God.

    We may also ask our Lord to\\ lift them up at the last\\! Lift
 them up by taking them home, lift their bodies from the tomb,
 and raise their souls to thine eternal kingdom in glory.

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