desire it; but it comes in due season; it never comes too late. In the most unexpected moment, in the most unexpected manner, He appears for their deliverance; so singular is it sometimes that they can scarcely credit it (Ps. cxxvi. 1-3). He does not always deliver them from every river into which they enter. He permits some one or other of them to carry them down the stream till they reach the waters of Jordan. But there they do not perish. He gives them victory over death, and by means of this deliverance sets them free from all their troubles.- James Peddie, D.D.: Discourses, pp. 395-424.

It is assumed that God's people will pass through the waters and through the fire. These elements, so useful as friends, so terrible as enemies, represent trouble and distress. Water may be too deep to ford, the practised swimmer may be overpowered. Within the grasp of fire, injury, destruction, death are speedily accomplished. The sufferer is sometimes like one aroused from sleep in a burning house. Despair seizes him. Those who have no God, or whose faith fails to realise His sufficiency, relinquish effort and hope. The antidote is found in God's allsufficient promises. Here is one that assures believers of the Divine presence in trouble, and the Divine deliverance from it.

I. THE DIVINE PRESENCE IN TROUBLE. What is it in our nature that finds a relief in the presence of a friend in times of deepest sorrow? In the first burst of sorrow, the heart must be left alone. It prefers to be alone. The nearest earthly friend must not intrude on the sacredness of its grief. But the time comes when it craves for sympathy. The presence of a friend, even if no word is spoken, exerts the mysterious influence that brings relief and consolation. At suitable time and in suitable manner, there will be the sympathetic word. Perhaps the substantial aid. Whether or not, there will be the restful feeling of the weak when they depend upon the strong.

Your friend's trouble may have been the hopeless ruin of his fortune. You could do nothing for him. But you made it in your way to call upon him.

He will never forget it. He is sick; and time, to the sick, is weariness. You visited him. You visited him. Dear to Paul the apostle were those friends who were not ashamed of his chain; who visited him in imprisonment and ministered to his wants. It is not merely that there is society to relieve the tedium of solitude, and divert attention from the presence of sorrow. Any one might do that. But more is wanted. A stranger, or one to whom the sufferer is personally indifferent, could not convey the mysterious influence that has help and comfort in it. The comfort comes from the consciousness that the presence is that of a friend.

Now, God is the best of friends. It is the privilege of believers to call Him. friend. By faith their sins are forgiven. They are reconciled to Him. By His grace they are born again. The old enmity of their hearts is abandoned. Its place has been taken by love. Fellowship with God is the Christian's joy. His friendship reflects glory on those who are honoured with it. It is this Friend who says, 66 When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee." We cannot see Him. Sight is not necessary to the conscious presence of even an earthly friend. The room may be dark, not a word may be spoken, not a sound heard; but we feel that he is there; the influence is the same as if we saw him. God's conscious presence fills the soul with faith, hope, peace. It is the consciousness of love and sympathy. It is the invisible, scrt, gentle power of His Spirit that gives calmness and strength while trouble is pressing most heavily, and while external circumstances are the most distressing. "I will be with thee" (H. E. I. 198, 3677).

II. THE DIVINE DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE. If the believer is called to pass through the waters, they shall not overflow him; if he is called to walk through the fire, he shall not be burned, nor shall the flames kindle upon

him. Trouble may come : but he shall be brought through at the last. It may seem like a miracle. It is like saying the action of fire and water shall be so controlled that their natural result shall not follow. No difficulty, no trouble is so great that the Lord cannot effect a deliverance; in some unexpected way deliverance shall come. The day is overcast with gloomy clouds; the atmosphere is depressed; the rain comes in torrents; the wind sweeps down houses and trees before it; universal wreck seems impending; when unexpectedly the storm abates, wind and rain cease, the clouds separate, a genial warmth is diffused, the sun shines out, the storm is forgotten. "All things work together for good to them that love God." He suffers His people to pass through fire and water, not only that He may display His power and love in their deliverance, but often, because the fire and the water lie in their way to some good exceeding what they have ever enjoyed; which, without it, could not have been reached. Sickness is sometimes the pathway to health; temporal calamity to prosperity; sorrow to established Christian character; spiritual distresses to a profounder realisation of spiritual blessings. The cross prepares for the crown. Death is the gate of life.

Oh, how many such deliverances are recorded in the sacred history! Joseph from prison. The bush burned, but was not consumed. The children of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Daniel from the lions' den. The three Hebrew youths in the furnace of fire; but there was one with them "like the Son of God, and therefore upon their bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed." Fire cannot burn, water cannot drown those whom the Lord preserves. Nothing can prevent the fulfilment of His word.

Consider the grounds on which your confidence may repose1. His purpose. The salvation of His people from every evil is part of His redeeming plan. Everything is

3. His love. Is He not thy Father? He loves His children. His heart is set on their salvation. Will not love do all that is necessary?

4. His power. all material and spiritual hindrances that lie in the way. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

He can sweep away

But there must be faith. God's promises are made to faith. The blessing is according to faith. Let your mind rest in the promises in every time of distress, whatever its nature, assured that either He will remove it or overrule it, so that a blessing shall come through it. If there are losses, disappointments, bereavements, soul-troubles, the solemn hour of death, His presence, and His delivering power shall be the sufficient antidote.-J. Rawlinson.

God's grace never shines so brightly as when it shines through the cloud of His people's sins. Nor does it ever appear so glorious as when displayed in the depth of their unworthiness. When nature is at the lowest, grace is generally at the highest. When God has threatened His people for their sins, or chastened them for their follies, He then generally steps in with some revelation of His grace, or makes some precious promise. This was the case with Israel of old, whom God had visited with sore and terrible judgments; and then, instead of utterly consuming them, He comes forward and says, "When thou passest," &c.

I. THE PILGRIM'S PAINFUL LOT. He has to pass through deep, sore, and successive trials. Persecution, temptations, conflict within. Temporal trials: losses, crosses, disap

pointments, and vexations. The fire tries the metal, and separates it from the dross, &c. So the believer's trials refine him, &c.

II. THE LORD'S GRACIOUS PROMISE. "I will be with thee." Nothing is so much needed, nothing so much prized by the believer in affliction, as the presence of God. 1. To direct thy steps, for I know all the way. 2. To strengthen thy faith, for I know how weak and feeble it is. 3. To cheer thy heart, for I know all thy sorrows. 4. To secure thy benefit, for I will surely do thee good. 5. To bring thee safely through all, and lead thee safe to glory.

CONCLUSION. Our trials will sweeten home. Heaven will make amends for all. Whatever happens, God is still our Father, and we are His beloved children.-James Smith.

(a) In most parts of our country, ingenuity and labour have been employed to lessen the fatigues and remove the dangers of travelling. Roads are cut through woods and morasses, and over mountains; inns are established; and bridges are thrown over rivers and brooks. But in countries which are thinly inhabited, or into which the improvements of modern times have not been introduced, travelling is full of danger and of toil. The stranger, if he has not a guide, is in perpetual uncertainty, is harassed by apprehensions; and if he reach his destined place, it is not till he is almost exhausted by fatigue, and after many hair-breadth escapes. At one time, he is almost faint with hunger; at another, he is

parched with thirst; at another, either be numbed with the cold, or scorched by the heat, or overpowered by the severity of the storm, before he can reach a place of shelter, or find the necessary refreshments of nature. Now, he knows not at what place he shall enter the forest, to avoid being torn by the briars and thorns, or entangled in some impenetrable thicket. Then, he hesitates whether the thick mire be not too deep for him, or the marshy ground may not sink beneath his feet. In a little while he is distressed how he shall, by the best and easiest path, ascend the steep and woody mountain; or how, in descending, he shall avoid the precipices which appear below. A gain, he arrives at the banks of some deep and rapid river, or approaches some torrent descending from the mountains, and swelled by the winter floods; and how he shall descend, and where he shall pass through, and whether the waters be fordable, or the streams be not too rapid, are questions which distress his mind and fill him with anxiety and fear.

Many such impediments were in the traveller's way; and to many such hazards was he exposed in Canaan, and especially in the countries adjacent, many of which were mountainous and waste. On this account, frequent allusions to this state of things are made by the Spirit of God in scripture, especially in describing the Christian life. The Christian is represented as a man travelling through the waste howling wilderness to Immanuel's land. . . . Many a mountain of difficult duty has he to ascend, and many a steep of painful suffering has he to descend on his way to his heavenly home. Many waters of deep distress, which sometimes rush unexpectedly upon him, like torrents from the mountains, and threaten to sweep him away into destruction, has he to pass through.— Peddie.

We learn here-1. That nations and armies are in the hand of God and at His disposal. 2. That His people are dear to His heart, and that it is His purpose to defend them. 3. That the revolutions among nations, the rise of one empire and the fall of another, are often in order to promote the welfare

of His Church, to defend it in danger, and deliver it in time of calamity. 4. That His people should put the utmost confidence in Him as being able to defend them, and as having formed a purpose to preserve and save them.A. Barnes.

Again we enter upon the dark of uncertainty. Standing upon the threshold of another year, which we know

by experience will have its cares, and its perils, and its sorrows. What is the true antidote of fear? What is

miracle than conversion itself? Be content with these miracles, and expect them from Him who says, "I will say," &c.

2. Does He promise His efficiency in converting the heathen, on the supposition that we become His organ? Then, let us no longer blame Him for the partial communication of the Gospel. As was said by the Israelites to Pharaoh, "The fault is in thine own people." The Gospel is committed to us in trust.

You whisper, "But if success is thus indefinitely assured to Gospel missions, none can fail of effect." I answer-(1.) None do fail altogether. (2.) The promise in the text, and every similar one, implies that, though God will command success, it shall be through a fit instrument. (3.) God will work in a way worthy His infinite wisdom as well as goodness. Duty is our province; events of time, &c., belong to Him.

II. THE GLORY OF THE THING SPOKEN.

"I will say to the south." No partiNo particular country is specified. Better so, than otherwise. "The south," amongst the cardinal points of the world-the east, west, north. In those verses

(5, 6) we have a grand promise of universal conversion.

"I will say to the south, Keep not back." This implies

1. Something divinely tender and affecting. affecting. "I am your Maker and Saviour essential love; and wait upon you, to unite you to myself and to all the flower of being in the universe," &c. Can infidelity propose a greater good to mankind than the Gospel?

2. He will say to the south as He says to us, "Bring out your dead, deliver up all your vices, keep none of them back." The design of Jesus Christ is to redeem from all iniquity.

3. That there is a disposition in the south to do the contrary. They have not only the common corruption of our nature to contend with, but the prejudice of ages to keep them back from the Gospel. Then, every exertion on our part is necessary. The natural and strong predilection of the heathen for their own ancient system.

In this work nothing can be lost. Nothing less will be gained than eternal glory, for millions upon millions in the South Seas will be won.-T. Prutycross, A.M.: The Pulpit, vol. v. pp.

161-172.

He

This is what Jesus says to us. has left His fame in our hands (Acts i. 8). He could have done without us. But He has chosen the weak things to witness as to what He has done and is doing now.

I. WHY GOD HAS CHOSEN A BELIEVER FOR THIS WORK. Because-1. He knows experimentally more of God than any other being. Angels could witness of His majesty and goodness. Devils, of His wrath and justice. All men, of His wisdom. But a child of God, while witnessing to all these, can tell of His forgiving love, &c. 2. He can have no greater joy. 3. On account of our being constantly in the presence of our fellow-men. He would have the world without excuse.

II. THE THINGS A BELIEVER MUST POSSESS IN ORDER TO WITNESS FOR

CHRIST. 1. Knowledge. 2. Veracity. 3. Consistency. 4. Patience. 5. Boldness, firmness. (H. E. I. 3922-3976).

III. THE BEST METHODS CHRIST'S WITNESSES CAN ADOPT. A parade of private devotion? Learned expositions of your creed? Denunciation of your opponents? Seclusion in a hermit's cell? Nay. But rather-1. A daily manifestation of heart-loyalty to Christ. 2. A daily feeding on His promises, thus showing contentment and hope. 3. A daily growing in His likeness. 4. The daily display of the graces of His Spirit.-R. A. Griffin: Stems and Twigs, pp. 63.