Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t28350

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28351
 April 16                                                 Evening

 \\"And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun."\\
                                                   --Exodus 17:12

    So mighty was the prayer of Moses, that all depended upon it.
 The petitions of Moses discomfited the enemy more than the
 fighting of Joshua. Yet both were needed. No, in the soul's
 conflict, force and fervour, decision and devotion, valour and
 vehemence, must join their forces, and all will be well. You
 must wrestle with your sin, but the major part of the wrestling
 must be done alone in private with God. Prayer, like Moses',
 holds up the token of the covenant before the Lord. The rod was
 the emblem of God's working with Moses, the symbol of God's
 government in Israel. Learn, O pleading saint, to hold up the
 promise and the oath of God before him. The Lord cannot deny his
 own declarations. Hold up the rod of promise, and have what you
 will.

    Moses grew weary, and then his friends assisted him. When at
 any time your prayer flags, let faith support one hand, and let
 holy hope uplift the other, and prayer seating itself upon the
 stone of Israel, the rock of our salvation, will persevere and
 prevail. Beware of faintness in devotion; if Moses felt it, who
 can escape? It is far easier to fight with sin in public, than
 to pray against it in private. It is remarked that Joshua never
 grew weary in the fighting, but Moses did grow weary in the
 praying; the more spiritual an exercise, the more difficult it
 is for flesh and blood to maintain it. Let us cry, then, for
 special strength, and may the Spirit of God, who helpeth our
 infirmities, as he allowed help to Moses, enable us like him to
 continue with our hands steady "\\until the going down of the\\
 \\sun\\;" till the evening of life is over; till we shall come
 to the rising of a better sun in the land where prayer is
 swallowed up in praise.

28352
 April 17                                                 Evening

 \\"We would see Jesus."\\
                                                     --John 12:21

    Evermore the worldling's cry is, "Who will show us any good?"
 He seeks satisfaction in earthly comforts, enjoyments, and
 riches. But the quickened sinner knows of only one good. "O that
 I knew where I might find HIM!" When he is truly awakened to
 feel his guilt, if you could pour the gold of India at his feet,
 he would say, "Take it away: I want to find HIM." It is a
 blessed thing for a man, when he has brought his desires into a
 focus, so that they all centre in one object. When he has fifty
 different desires, his heart resembles a mere of stagnant water,
 spread out into a marsh, breeding miasma and pestilence; but
 when all his desires are brought into one channel, his heart
 becomes like a river of pure water, running swiftly to fertilize
 the fields. Happy is he who hath one desire, if that one desire
 be set on Christ, though it may not yet have been realized. If
 Jesus be a soul's desire, it is a blessed sign of divine work
 within. Such a man will never be content with mere ordinances.
 He will say, "I want Christ; I \\must\\ have him--mere
 ordinances are of no use to me; I want \\himself\\; do not offer
 me these; you offer me the empty pitcher, while I am dying of
 thirst; give me water, or I die. Jesus is my soul's desire. I
 would see Jesus!"

    Is this thy condition, my reader, at this moment? Hast thou
 but one desire, and is that after Christ? Then thou art not far
 from the kingdom of heaven. Hast thou but one wish in thy heart,
 and that one wish that thou mayst be washed from all thy sins in
 Jesus' blood? Canst thou really say, "I would give all I have to
 be a Christian; I would give up everything I have and hope for,
 if I might but feel that I have an interest in Christ?" Then,
 despite all thy fears, be of good cheer, the Lord loveth thee,
 and thou shalt come out into daylight soon, and rejoice in the
 liberty wherewith Christ makes men free.
28353
 April 18                                                 Evening

 \\"And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good."\\
                                                  --Genesis 32:12

    When Jacob was on the other side of the brook Jabbok, and
 Esau was coming with armed men, he earnestly sought God's
 protection, and as a master reason he pleaded, "And thou saidst,
 I will surely do thee good." Oh, the force of that plea! He was
 holding God to his word--"Thou saidst." The attribute of God's
 faithfulness is a splendid horn of the altar to lay hold upon;
 but the promise, which has in it the attribute and something
 more, is a yet mightier holdfast--"Thou saidst, I will surely do
 thee good." And has \\he\\ said, and shall he not do it? "Let
 God be true, and every man a liar." Shall not \\he\\ be true?
 Shall \\he\\ not keep his word? Shall not every word that cometh
 out of his lips stand fast and be fulfilled? Solomon, at the
 opening of the temple, used this same mighty plea. He pleaded
 with God to remember the word which he had spoken to his father
 David, and to bless that place. When a man gives a promissory
 note, his honour is engaged; he signs his hand, and he must
 discharge it when the due time comes, or else he loses credit.
 It shall never be said that God dishonours his bills. The credit
 of the Most High never was impeached, and never shall be. He is
 punctual to the moment: he never is before his time, but he
 never is behind it. Search God's word through, and compare it
 with the experience of God's people, and you shall find the two
 tally from the first to the last. Many a hoary patriarch has
 said with Joshua, "Not one thing hath failed of all the good
 things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are
 come to pass." If you have a divine promise, you need not plead
 it with an "if," you may urge it with certainty. The Lord meant
 to fulfil the promise, or he would not have given it. God does
 not give his words merely to quiet us, and to keep us hopeful
 for awhile with the intention of putting us off at last; but
 when he speaks, it is because he means to do as he has said.

28354
 April 19                                                 Evening

 \\"The Amen."\\
                                                --Revelation 3:14

    The word AMEN solemnly confirms that which went before; and
 Jesus is the great Confirmer; immutable, for ever is "the Amen"
 in all \\his promises. Sinner\\, I would comfort thee with this
 reflection. Jesus Christ said, "Come unto me all ye that labour
 and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If you come to
 him, he will say "Amen" in your soul; his promise shall be true
 \\to you\\. He said in the days of his flesh, "The bruised reed
 I will not break." O thou poor, broken, bruised heart, if thou
 comest to him, he will say "Amen" to thee, and that shall be
 true in\\ thy\\ soul as in hundreds of cases in bygone years.
 \\Christian\\, is not this very comforting to thee also, that
 there is not a word which has gone out of the Saviour's lips
 which he has ever retracted? The words of Jesus shall stand when
 heaven and earth shall pass away. If thou gettest a hold of but
 half a promise, thou shalt find it true. Beware of him who is
 called "Clip-promise," who will destroy much of the comfort of
 God's word.

    Jesus is Yea and Amen in all \\his offices\\. He was a Priest
 to pardon and cleanse once, he is Amen as Priest still. He was a
 King to rule and reign for his people, and to defend them with
 his mighty arm, he is an Amen King, the same still. He was a
 Prophet of old, to foretell good things to come, his lips are
 most sweet, and drop with honey still--he is an Amen Prophet.
 He is Amen as to the merit of his blood; he is Amen as to his
 righteousness. That sacred robe shall remain most fair and
 glorious when nature shall decay. He is Amen in every single
 title which he bears; your Husband, never seeking a divorce;
 your Friend, sticking closer than a brother; your Shepherd, with
 you in death's dark vale; your Help and your Deliverer; your
 Castle and your High Tower; the Horn of your strength, your
 confidence, your joy, your all in all, and your Yea and Amen in
 all.

28355
 April 20                                                 Evening

 \\"Fight the Lord's battles."\\
                                                 --1 Samuel 18:17

    The sacramental host of God's elect is warring still on
 earth, Jesus Christ being the Captain of their salvation. He has
 said, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
 Hark to the shouts of war! Now let the people of God stand fast
 in their ranks, and let no man's heart fail him. It is true that
 just now in England the battle is turned against us, and unless
 the Lord Jesus shall lift his sword, we know not what may become
 of the church of God in this land; but let us be of good
 courage, and play the man. There never was a day when
 Protestantism seemed to tremble more in the scales than now that
 a fierce effort is making to restore the Romish antichrist to
 his ancient seat. We greatly want a bold voice and a strong hand
 to preach and publish the old gospel for which martyrs bled and
 confessors died. The Saviour is, by his Spirit, still on earth;
 let this cheer us. He is ever in the midst of the fight, and
 therefore the battle is not doubtful. And as the conflict rages,
 what a sweet satisfaction it is to know that the Lord Jesus, in
 his office as our great Intercessor, is prevalently pleading for
 his people! O anxious gazer, look not so much at the battle
 below, for there thou shalt be enshrouded in smoke, and amazed
 with garments rolled in blood; but lift thine eyes yonder where
 the Saviour lives and pleads, for while he intercedes, the cause
 of God is safe. Let us fight as if it all depended upon us, but
 let us look up and know that all depends upon him.

    Now, by the lilies of Christian purity, and by the roses of
 the Saviour's atonement, by the roes and by the hinds of the
 field, we charge you who are lovers of Jesus, to do valiantly in
 the Holy War, for truth and righteousness, for the kingdom and
 crown jewels of your Master. Onward! "for the battle is not
 yours but God's."

28356
 April 21                                                 Evening

 \\"Who is even at the right hand of God."\\
                                                    --Romans 8:34

    He who was once despised and rejected of men, now occupies
 the honourable position of a beloved and honoured Son. The right
 hand of God is \\the place of majesty and favour\\. Our Lord
 Jesus is his people's representative. When he died for them they
 had rest; he rose again for them, they had liberty; when he sat
 down at his Father's right hand, they had favour, and honour,
 and dignity. The raising and elevation of Christ is the
 elevation, the acceptance, and enshrinement, the glorifying of
 all his people, for he is their head and representative. This
 sitting at the right hand of God, then, is to be viewed as the
 acceptance of the person of the Surety, the reception of the
 Representative, and therefore, the acceptance of \\our\\ souls.
 O saint, see in this thy sure freedom from condemnation. "Who is
 he that condemneth?" Who shall condemn the men who are in Jesus
 at the right hand of God?

    The right hand is \\the place of power\\. Christ at the right
 hand of God hath all power in heaven and in earth. Who shall
 fight against the people who have such power vested in their
 Captain? O my soul, what can destroy thee if Omnipotence be thy
 helper? If the aegis of the Almighty cover thee, what sword can
 smite thee? Rest thou secure. If Jesus is thine all-prevailing
 King, and hath trodden thine enemies beneath his feet; if sin,
 death, and hell are all vanquished by him, and thou art
 represented in him, by no possibility canst thou be destroyed.

            "Jesus' tremendous name
            Puts all our foes to flight:
            Jesus, the meek, the angry Lamb,
            A Lion is in fight.

            "By all hell's host withstood;
            We all hell's host o'erthrow;
            And conquering them, through Jesus' blood
            We still to conquer go."
28357
 April 22                                                 Evening

 \\"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night."\\
                                                     --Psalm 91:5

    What is this terror? It may be the cry of fire, or the noise
 of thieves, or fancied appearances, or the shriek of sudden
 sickness or death. We live in the world of death and sorrow, we
 may therefore look for ills as well in the night-watches as
 beneath the glare of the broiling sun. Nor should this alarm us,
 for be the terror what it may, the promise is that the believer
 shall not be afraid. Why should he? Let us put it more closely,
 why should \\we\\? God our Father is here, and will be here all
 through the lonely hours; he is an almighty Watcher, a sleepless
 Guardian, a faithful Friend. Nothing can happen without his
 direction, for even hell itself is under his control. Darkness
 is not dark to him. He has promised to be a wall of fire around
 his people--and who can break through such a barrier? Worldlings
 may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a
 guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them;
 but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich
 mercy. If we give way to foolish fear we shall dishonour our
 profession, and lead others to doubt the reality of godliness.
 We ought to be afraid of being afraid, lest we should vex the
 Holy Spirit by foolish distrust. Down, then, ye dismal
 forebodings and groundless apprehensions, God has not forgotten
 to be gracious, nor shut up his tender mercies; it may be night
 in the soul, but there need be no terror, for the God of love
 changes not. Children of light may walk in darkness, but they
 are not therefore cast away, nay, they are now enabled to prove
 their adoption by trusting in their heavenly Father as
 hypocrites cannot do.

              "Though the night be dark and dreary,
              Darkness cannot hide from thee;
              Thou art he, who, never weary,
              Watchest where thy people be."
28358
 April 23                                                 Evening

 \\"Lo, in the midst of the throne ... stood a Lamb as it had\\
 \\been slain."\\
                                                 --Revelation 5:6

    Why should our exalted Lord appear in his wounds in glory?
 The wounds of Jesus are his glories, his jewels, his sacred
 ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair
 because he is "white and ruddy;" white with innocence, and ruddy
 with his own blood. We see him as the lily of matchless purity,
 and as the rose crimsoned with his own gore. Christ is lovely
 upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was
 such a matchless Christ as he that did hang upon the cross.
 There we beheld all his beauties in perfection, all his
 attributes developed, all his love drawn out, all his character
 expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our
 eyes than all the splendour and pomp of kings. The thorny crown
 is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that he bears not
 now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that never
 flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a
 slain Lamb as his court dress in which he wooed our souls, and
 redeemed them by his complete atonement. Nor are these only the
 ornaments of Christ: they are the \\trophies\\ of his love and
 of his victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has
 redeemed for himself a great multitude whom no man can number,
 and these scars are the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ
 thus loves to retain the thought of his sufferings for his
 people, \\how precious should his wounds be to us\\!

         "Behold how every wound of his
         A precious balm distils,
         Which heals the scars that sin had made,
         And cures all mortal ills.

         "Those wounds are mouths that preach his grace;
         The ensigns of his love;
         The seals of our expected bliss
         In paradise above."

28359
 April 24                                                 Evening

 \\"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of\\
 \\birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our\\
 \\land."\\
                                           --Song of Solomon 2:12

    Sweet is the season of spring: the long and dreary winter
 helps us to appreciate its genial warmth, and its promise of
 summer enhances its present delights. After periods of
 depression of spirit, it is delightful to behold again the light
 of the Sun of Righteousness; then our slumbering graces rise
 from their lethargy, like the crocus and the daffodil from their
 beds of earth; then is our heart made merry with delicious notes
 of gratitude, far more melodious than the warbling of birds--and
 the comforting assurance of peace, infinitely more delightful
 than the turtle's note, is heard within the soul. Now is the
 time for the soul to seek communion with her Beloved; now must
 she rise from her native sordidness, and come away from her old
 associations. If we do not hoist the sail when the breeze is
 favourable, we shall be blameworthy: times of refreshing ought
 not to pass over us unimproved. When Jesus himself visits us in
 tenderness, and entreats us to arise, can we be so base as to
 refuse his request? He has himself risen that he may draw us
 after him: he now by his Holy Spirit has revived us, that we
 may, in newness of life, ascend into the heavenlies, and hold
 communion with himself. Let our wintry state suffice us for
 coldness and indifference; when the Lord creates a spring
 within, let our sap flow with vigour, and our branch blossom
 with high resolve. O Lord, if it be not spring time in my chilly
 heart, I pray thee make it so, for I am heartily weary of living
 at a distance from thee. Oh! the long and dreary winter, when
 wilt thou bring it to an end? Come, Holy Spirit, and renew my
 soul! quicken thou me! restore me, and have mercy on me! This
 very night I would earnestly implore the Lord to take pity upon
 his servant, and send me a happy revival of spiritual life!

28360
 April 25                                                 Evening

 \\"If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in\\
 \\to him."\\
                                                --Revelation 3:20

    What is your desire this evening? Is it set upon heavenly
 things? Do you long to enjoy the high doctrine of eternal love?
 Do you desire liberty in very close communion with God? Do you
 aspire to know the heights, and depths, and lengths, and
 breadths? Then you must draw near to Jesus; you must get a clear
 sight of him in his preciousness and completeness: you must view
 him in his work, in his offices, in his person. He who
 understands Christ, receives an anointing from the Holy One, by
 which he knows all things. Christ is the great master-key of all
 the chambers of God: there is no treasure-house of God which
 will not open and yield up all its wealth to the soul that lives
 near to Jesus. Are you saying, "O that he would dwell in my
 bosom?" "Would that he would make my heart his dwelling-place
 for ever?" Open the door, beloved, and he will come into your
 souls. He has long been knocking, and all with this object, that
 he may sup with you, and you with him. \\He sups with you\\
 because you find the house or the heart, and \\you with him\\
 because he brings the provision. He could not sup with you if it
 were not in your heart, you finding the house; nor could you sup
 with him, for you have a bare cupboard, if he did not bring
 provision with him. Fling wide, then, the portals of your soul.
 He will come with that love which you long to feel; he will come
 with that joy into which you cannot work your poor depressed
 spirit; he will bring the peace which now you have not; he will
 come with his flagons of wine and sweet apples of love, and
 cheer you till you have no other sickness but that of "love
 o'erpowering, love divine." Only open the door to him, drive out
 his enemies, give him the keys of your heart, and he will dwell
 there for ever. Oh, wondrous love, that brings such a guest to
 dwell in such a heart!
28361
 April 26                                                 Evening

 \\"Blessed is he that watcheth."\\
                                               --Revelation 16:15

    "We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the
 early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their
 hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same
 fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace
 to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the
 present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more
 likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have
 to bear the sneer of the world--that is little; its
 blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning,
 its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich
 and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of
 this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not
 the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be
 torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death
 by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he
 destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in him. I fear
 me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her
 integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher
 times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted
 ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing,
 unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a
 vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely
 to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on
 their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God.
 Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can
 dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these
 things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display
 his omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all
 these softer things, as well as in the rougher, "We are more
 than conquerors through him that loved us."

28362
 April 27                                                 Evening

 \\"The Lord is King for ever and ever."\\
                                                    --Psalm 10:16

    Jesus Christ is no despotic claimant of \\divine right\\, but
 he is really and truly the Lord's anointed! "It hath pleased the
 Father that in him should all fulness dwell." God hath given to
 him all power and all authority. As the Son of man, he is now
 head over all things to his church, and he reigns over heaven,
 and earth, and hell, with the keys of life and death at his
 girdle. Certain princes have delighted to call themselves kings
 by the \\popular will\\, and certainly our Lord Jesus Christ is
 such in his church. If it could be put to the vote whether he
 should be King in the church, every believing heart would crown
 him. O that we could crown him more gloriously than we do! We
 would count no expense to be wasted that could glorify Christ.
 Suffering would be pleasure, and loss would be gain, if thereby
 we could surround his brow with brighter crowns, and make him
 more glorious in the eyes of men and angels. Yes, he shall
 reign. Long live the King! All hail to thee, King Jesus! Go
 forth, ye virgin souls who love your Lord, bow at his feet,
 strew his way with the lilies of your love, and the roses of
 your gratitude: "Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him
 Lord of all." Moreover, our Lord Jesus is King in Zion by
 \\right of conquest\\: he has taken and carried by storm the
 hearts of his people, and has slain their enemies who held them
 in cruel bondage. In the Red Sea of his own blood, our Redeemer
 has drowned the Pharaoh of our sins: shall he not be King in
 Jeshurun? He has delivered us from the iron yoke and heavy curse
 of the law: shall not the Liberator be crowned? We are his
 portion, whom he has taken out of the hand of the Amorite with
 his sword and with his bow: who shall snatch his conquest from
 his hand? All hail, King Jesus! we gladly own thy gentle sway!
 Rule in our hearts for ever, thou lovely Prince of Peace.

28363
 April 28                                                 Evening

 \\"All the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted."\\
                                                    --Ezekiel 3:7

    Are there no exceptions? No, not one. Even the favoured race
 are thus described. Are the best so bad?--then what must the
 worst be? Come, my heart, consider how far thou hast a share in
 this universal accusation, and while considering, be ready to
 take shame unto thyself wherein thou mayst have been guilty. The
 first charge is \\impudence\\, or hardness of forehead, a want
 of holy shame, an unhallowed boldness in evil. Before my
 conversion, I could sin and feel no compunction, hear of my
 guilt and yet remain unhumbled, and even confess my iniquity and
 manifest no inward humiliation on account of it. For a sinner to
 go to God's house and pretend to pray to him and praise him
 argues a brazen-facedness of the worst kind! Alas! since the day
 of my new birth I have doubted my Lord to his face, murmured
 unblushingly in his presence, worshipped before him in a
 slovenly manner, and sinned without bewailing myself concerning
 it. If my forehead were not as an adamant, harder than flint, I
 should have far more holy fear, and a far deeper contrition of
 spirit. Woe is me, I am one of the impudent house of Israel. The
 second charge is \\hardheartedness\\, and I must not venture to
 plead innocent here. Once I had nothing but a heart of stone,
 and although through grace I now have a new and fleshy heart,
 much of my former obduracy remains. I am not affected by the
 death of Jesus as I ought to be; neither am I moved by the ruin
 of my fellow men, the wickedness of the times, the chastisement
 of my heavenly Father, and my own failures, as I should be. O
 that my heart would melt at the recital of my Saviour's
 sufferings and death. Would to God I were rid of this nether
 millstone within me, this hateful body of death. Blessed be the
 name of the Lord, the disease is not incurable, the Saviour's
 precious blood is the universal solvent, and me, even me, it
 will effectually soften, till my heart melts as wax before the
 fire.

28364
 April 29                                                 Evening

 \\"The Lord taketh pleasure in his people."\\
                                                    --Psalm 149:4

    How comprehensive is the love of Jesus! There is no part of
 his people's interests which he does not consider, and there is
 nothing which concerns their welfare which is not important to
 him. Not merely does he think of you, believer, as an immortal
 being, but as a mortal being too. Do not deny it or doubt it:
 "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." "The steps of a
 good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way."
 It were a sad thing for us if this mantle of love did not cover
 all our concerns, for what mischief might be wrought to us in
 that part of our business which did not come under our gracious
 Lord's inspection! Believer, rest assured that the heart of
 Jesus cares about your meaner affairs. The breadth of his tender
 love is such that you may resort to him in all matters; for in
 all your afflictions he is afflicted, and like as a father
 pitieth his children, so doth he pity you. The meanest interests
 of all his saints are all borne upon the broad bosom of the Son
 of God. Oh, what a heart is his, that doth not merely comprehend
 the persons of his people, but comprehends also the diverse and
 innumerable concerns of all those persons! Dost thou think, O
 Christian, that thou canst measure the love of Christ? Think of
 what his love has brought thee--justification, adoption,
 sanctification, eternal life! The riches of his goodness are
 unsearchable; thou shalt never be able to tell them out or even
 conceive them. Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! Shall such
 a love as this have half our hearts? Shall it have a cold love
 in return? Shall Jesus' marvellous lovingkindness and tender
 care meet with but faint response and tardy acknowledgment? O my
 soul, tune thy harp to a glad song of thanksgiving! Go to thy
 rest rejoicing, for thou art no desolate wanderer, but a beloved
 child, watched over, cared for, supplied, and defended by thy
 Lord.

28365
 April 30                                                 Evening

 \\"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God."\\
                                                   --Psalm 139:17

    Divine omniscience affords no comfort to the ungodly mind,
 but to the child of God it overflows with consolation. God is
 always thinking upon us, never turns aside his mind from us, has
 us always before his eyes; and this is precisely as we would
 have it, for it would be dreadful to exist for a moment beyond
 the observation of our heavenly Father. His thoughts are always
 tender, loving, wise, prudent, far-reaching, and they bring to
 us countless benefits: hence it is a choice delight to remember
 them. The Lord always did think upon his people: hence their
 election and the covenant of grace by which their salvation is
 secured; he always will think upon them: hence their final
 perseverance by which they shall be brought safely to their
 final rest. In all our wanderings the watchful glance of the
 Eternal Watcher is evermore fixed upon us--we never roam beyond
 the Shepherd's eye. In our sorrows he observes us incessantly,
 and not a pang escapes him; in our toils he marks all our
 weariness, and writes in his book all the struggles of his
 faithful ones. These thoughts of the Lord encompass us in all
 our paths, and penetrate the innermost region of our being. Not
 a nerve or tissue, valve or vessel, of our bodily organization
 is uncared for; all the littles of our little world are thought
 upon by the great God.

    Dear reader, is this precious to you? then hold to it. Never
 be led astray by those philosophic fools who preach up an
 impersonal God, and talk of self-existent, self-governing
 matter. The Lord liveth and thinketh upon us, this is a truth
 far too precious for us to be lightly robbed of it. The notice
 of a nobleman is valued so highly that he who has it counts his
 fortune made; but what is it to be thought of by the King of
 kings! If the Lord thinketh upon us, all is well, and we may
 rejoice evermore.

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