196, 36923695). (5.) Sometimes from God's delay in the accomplishment of prayer. Distinguish between the acceptance and the answer of prayer; God always immediately hears, but does not always immediately answer the prayer of faith (2 Pet. iii. 9; Lam. iii. 26; H. E. I. 3884-3899). 2. Who can find language to express the wretchedness such a false conclusion causes? The misery produced by it in a child of God is due to three causes :-(1.) He loves God, not perfectly, but supremely; and love can never be reconciled to the absence of its object. (2.) He entirely relies upon Him, and therefore feels that it God has withdrawn from him, all must be darkness, dreariness, desolation, and death. (3.) He has enjoyed Him already, and therefore nothing can satisfy him but God (H. E. I. 1018, 2378-2387). II. A SATISFACTORY ANSWER (ver. 15). Notice, 1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed. The case supposed is not likely, but it is possible. But the tenderest feelings of nature are as nothing when compared with the kindness of God. 2. The certainty of the assurance. "Yet will not I forget thee." With God there is no fickleness (Num. xxiii. 19). -H. E. I. 2324, P. D. 815. all-sufficiency of the truth established; that is, the perpetual regard of God for us. If His favour is set upon us, it secures everything else (Ps. lxxxiv. 11, 12). 3. The Concluding remarks.-1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion (H. E. I. 339-346, 2907). 2. See how concerned God is, not only for His people's safety, but for their comfort also. Let His people fall in with this design (Ps. xlii. 11). 4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character.-W. Jay: "The British Pulpit," vol. v. pp. 221-230. (a) Our comfort must always be according to our faith. "In whom," says Peter," believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." There is always consolation in God's riches of glory by Christ Jesus; but these "Can a II. GOD'S ASSERTION. woman forget her sucking child?" &c. "Yet will I never forget thee." Why? 1. He is too nearly related to Zion. 2. He bestows too much thought upon Zion. 3. He has done too much on behalf of Zion. 4. He has given too many promises-great and preciousto Zion. 5. He expects too much from Zion. 6. He hath ordained that Zion shall for ever dwell in His immediate presence. "For ever with the Lord." God, then, cannot forget His people. Improvement. 1. Zion should at once withdraw her complaint. 2. As God will never forget Zion, Zion should never forget her God. 3. Zion should never despond in the presence of any untoward event which may overtake her. -W. Roberts, Penybontfawr, "Pregethau." 1. God's love is like a mother's love. There is no love in this world like a mother's love. It is free, unbought, unselfish (P. D. 2357). God's love to a soul in Christ is stronger (Ps. ciii. 13, 14; Mal. iii. 17; Isa. lxvi. 13; H. E. I. 2322-2333; P. D. 1499). Be not cast down in affliction (H. E. Í. 189-196). Deserted souls, God's love cannot change unless His true nature change. Not till God cease to be holy, just, and true, will He cease to love the soul that hides under the wings of Jesus (H. E. I. 2324). 2. His love is full love. A mother's love is the fullest love which we have on earth. She loves with all her heart. But there is no love full but that of God toward His Son; God loves Jesus fully the whole heart of the Father is as it were continually poured down in love upon the Lord Jesus. But when a soul comes to Christ, the same love rests on that soul (John xvii. 26). True, a creature cannot receive the love of God as Jesus can; but it is the same love that shines on us and Him -full, satisfying, unbounded love. How can God forget what He fully loves ? A creature's love may fail; for what is a creature?—a clay vessel, a breath of wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But the Creator's love cannot fail-it is full love toward an object infinitely worthy of His love-in which thou sharest. A 3. It is an unchanging love. mother's love is, of all creature-love, the most unchangeable. But far more unchanging is the love of God to Christ, and to a soul in Christ: "I am the Lord; I change not." The Father that loves has no variableness. Jesus who is loved, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How can that love change? It flowed before the world was; it will flow when the world has passed away. If you are in Christ, that love shines on you (Jer. xxxi. 3; Rom. viii. 38, 39).R. M. M'Cheyne: Sketches of Sermons. These words apply, first of all, to God's ancient people, the Jews, but they are equally true of all believers. I. There are times when believers are apt to think themselves forsaken. 1. In time of sore affliction. So it was with Naomi, Hezekiah, Job. It is a sad thing when the soul faints under the rebukes of God. They were intended to lead you deeper into Christ -into a fuller enjoyment of God (H. E. I. 66-70). 2. When they have fallen into sin. As long as a believer walks humbly with his God, his soul is at peace. But the moment that unbelief creeps in, he is led away into sin-like David he falls very low. A believer generally falls lower than the world; and now he falls into darkness. When Adam fell, he was afraid; and he hid himself from God among the trees of the garden, and he made a covering of leaves. When a believer falls, he also is afraid -he hides from God. Desertion is 3. In time of desertion. God withdrawing from the soul of a believer; so that His absence is felt. Sometimes it pleases God to withdraw from the soul, chiefly, I believe, to humble us in the dust; or to discover some corruption unmortified; or to lead us to hunger more after Him. Such was the state of David when he wrote Psalm xlii. (Joh vi. 4; xxix. 1, 2; H. E. I. 1644-1659). II. God cannot forget a soul in Christ: "Can a woman," &c. TO THE PREACHER. 1. Comfort downcast believers. Your afflictions and desertions only prove that you are under the Father's hand. There is no time when the patient is an object of such tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is under his knife; so, you be sure, if you are suffering from the hand of God, His eye is all the more bent on you (Deut. xxxiii. 27). 2. Invite poor sinners to come and taste of this love. It is a sweet thing to be loved. I suppose the most of you have tasted a mother's love; but this is nothing to the love of your God. may Oh! it is sweet to pass from wrath to love-from death to life. That poor murderess would leap in her cell, when the news came that she was not to die the murderer's death; but, ah! ten thousand times sweeter would it be to you, if God were, this day, to persuade you to embrace Christ freely offered in the gospel.-R. M. M'Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 99-105. GRAVEN UPON JEHOVAH'S HANDS. xlix. 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. The prophets were more than half poets. The language here is highly figurative. It is a bold anthropomorphism. The words are used of Zion, the Church of God. That glorious building, complete in the Divine idea, is regarded as graven upon God's hands. Each individual member of the spiritual Zion has his own place therein marked out by Jehovah. It is to the individual reference implied in the text that attention is invited. I Amid temptations to regard ourselves forgotten of the Lord, how consoling is the reflection that the life of the true believer in God is linked with the life of the Eternal! "Where there is no eye to see reality," it has been said, "there is ever an eye-brow waiting to rise in scornful wonder at the name of it." And again, "Where the substantial hand to grasp things worthy is wanting, there is always some thin shadow-hand to wave them off with mocking gestures." But spiritual discernment embraces the fact, that man, and especially the Christlike man, lives in God. The being of the godly is bound up with the being of God; they are specially dear to God, shall never be lost sight of by Him, have their life hid with Christ in God, and go forward to the fulness of life, to the pleasures, which, according to another use of the same figure, are said to be at God's right hand for evermore. To speak after this manner is no doubt mysticism to the unspiritual. But the obscurity is in them. Not always is this momentous truth quite clear even to the spiritual; but it is peculiarly dark and unintelligible to those whose understanding has not been enlightened from above: for it is one of those things which "are spiritually discerned." II. Why it is often hard for even the believer in God to realise this union. Many reasons might be suggested. Consider one. The world is but a small part of the universe, and man's life on earth bears but a small proportion to his God-given immortality. Hence the obscurity resting upon the purpose to which all things tend, and also upon the tendency itself as residing in the means to the end. Chance and accident seem to rule widely in this world. The goal is reached by much. of seeming waste, sacrifice, and sorrow (H. E. I. 4033, 4034). As for the world, so for the individual, there is a divine idea, but it is a mosaic, beautiful as a whole, we may believe, yet tesselated with innumerable fragments. Why trouble ourselves unnecessarily, complaining till ourselves are hoarse, and others miserable-why not just fall in to our little work patient, and believing that the Divine purpose is good, and will yet sparkle forth like a bright jewel from the short period. of confusion (H. E. I. 4047). III Consider some part of the proof that our union with God endures and is indissoluble. 1. The believer in God should find it easy to convince himself that there is much undeveloped power in the Church which shall yet be made manifest. And so with the individual. The feeling of undeveloped power within us, this feeling that there is life within us down below our present life, is identical with being graven Jehovah's hands. We do not know the possibility of our being, but we feel within us depths that no man knows, and which we ourselves can appreciate with no distinctness. on 2. Do not suppose, because you have been appointed a humble place in the world's work, because your luxuries are few, and your hands never idle, and sickness like a lion ever crouching at the door of your house, that God has forgotten you, and not graven out your place on the palms of His hands. Poverty, weakness, suffering, shame, are not these just so many powers plying to bring up into play the deep, Divine life? (H. E. I. 91-98). In ways we cannot fathom, God is showing us that He remembers us, is present, ordaining for the best, in every circumstance of life. For the bringing of order out of seeming confusion, it is necessary to believe that He is present in the most trivial circumstances, and, as Christ says, numbers the very hairs of your head.-J. M. Simcock. The text belongs primarily to the seed of Israel; next, to the whole Church as a body; and then to every individual member. I. Consider our text verbally. Every single word deserves to be emphasised. 1. "Behold." It is a word of wonder; intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in Scripture, it is like an ancient sign-board, signifying that there are rich wares within, drawing attention to something particularly worthy of observation. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that God should grave upon His hands the names of sinners. Speak of the seven wonders of the world, why this is a wonder in the seventh heavens! No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word "Behold," is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. How the Divine mind seems to be amazed at this wicked unbelief of man! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favoured people? He seems to say, "How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven," &c. Here follows the great marvel, that God should be faithful to such a faithless people, and that when He is provoked with their doubting, He nevertheless abideth true. Behold! and be ashamed and confounded for all your cruel doubts of your indulgent Lord. not chosen me, but I have chosen you." No one can write upon the hand of God but God Himself. Neither our merits, prayers, repentance, nor faith, can write our names there, for these in their goodness extend not unto God so as to write upon His hands. Then, again, if the Lord hath done it, there is no mistake about it. If some human hand had cut the memorial, the hieroglyphs might be at fault; but since perfect wisdom has combined with perfect love to make a memorial of the saints, then no error by any possibility can have occurred; there can be no erasures, no crossing out of what God has written, no blotting out of what the Eternal hath decreed. 3. "Behold, I have graven thee Not, "I will," nor yet, "I am doing it; it is a thing of the past, and how far back in the past! Oh! the antiquity of this inscription! Do not these deep things comfort you? Does not eternal love delight you? 4. "Graven." I have not merely printed thee, stamped thee on the surface, but I have permanently cut thee into my hand with marks which never can be removed. That word graven" sets forth the perpetuity of the inscription. 66 5. "I have graven thee," &c. "My Lord, dost thou mean me? Yes, even me, if I by faith cling to Thy cross." "I have graven thee." It does not say, "Thy name." The name is there, but this is not all; "I have graven thee." See the fulness of this! I have graven everything about thee, all that concerns thee; it is a full picture, as though the man himself were there. 6. We are engraven, where? Upon His hands, not upon the works of His hands. They shall perish; yea, they shall all wax old as doth a garment, but His hands shall endure for ever. Notice, it does not say, "I have graven thee upon the palm of one hand," but "I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands." There are two memorials. His saints shall never be forgotten, for the inscription is put there upon the palm of this hand, the right hand of blessing, and upon the palm of that hand, the left hand of justice. Now let us proceed to the second part of the subject II. Consider the text as a whole. God's remembrance of His people is-1. Constant. 2. Practical. He will work and show Himself strong for His people; He brings His omnipotent hands to effect our redemption. 3. Eternal. You cannot suppose it possible that any person can erase what is written on God's hand. 4. Tender. 5. Most surprising. Child of God, let your cheerful eyes and your joyful heart testify how great a wonder it is that you, once so far estranged from God, are this day written on the palms of His hands. 6. Most consolatory. There is no sorrow to which our text is not an antidote. III. Be heedful of the duty which such a text suggests. 1. If you be partakers of this precious text, is it not your duty to leave your cares behind you to-day? Should not the fact that God always graciously and tenderly recollects you, compel you once for all to leave your burden with Him who careth for you? 2. If this text is not yours, how your mouths ought to water after it! Is there a soul here who says, "O that I had a part and lot in this matter!" Thou mayest have His pardoning love shed abroad in thy heart even now.-C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 512. THE PROMISED INCREASE OF THE CHURCH. xlix. 18-23. Lift up thine eyes round about, &c. Two things are here promised, which were to be in part accomplished in the reviving of the Jewish church, after its return out of captivity, but more fully in the planting of the Christian Church, by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ; and we may take the comfort of these promises. I That the Church shall be replenished by the adding to it of great numbers. It was promised (ver. 17) that her children should "make haste;" that promise is here enlarged upon, and is made very encouraging. It is promised 1. That multitudes shall flock to the Church from all parts (ver. 18). They came to Jerusalem from all the adjacent countries, for that was then the centre of their unity; but, under the Gospel, it is by a spiritual accession to the mystical body of Christ in faith and love (Heb. xii. 22, 23). It is a matter of joy to the Church to see a multitude of converts to Christ. 2. That such as are added to the Church shall not be a burthen and blemish to her, but her strength and ornament (ver. 18). This promise is accomplished, and only then, when those who are added to the Church are serious, holy, and exemplary in their conversation. 3. That the country which was waste, desolate, and without inhabitant, shall be again peopled, nay, it shall be overpeopled (ver 19). What a reversal of the sentence previously and justly passed! (ch. v. 9-13, vi. 11). The kingdom of God among men, which had been impoverished and almost depopulated, partly by the corrup tions of the Jewish church, and partly by the abominations of the Gentile world, was again peopled and enriched by the setting up of the Christian Church, and by its graces and glories. 4. That the new converts shall strangely increase and multiply (ver. 20). Jerusalem, after she has lost abundance of children by the sword, famine, and captivity, shall have a new family. growing up instead of them (Zech. viii. 5). So the Church, after it has lost the Jews, cut off by their own infidelity, shall have abundance of children still, more than she had when the Jews belonged to her (Gal. iv. 27). They shall be so numerous that (1.) the children shall complain for want of room (cf. 2 Kings vi. 1). Yet still more shall desire to be admitted, and the Church shall gladly admit them, and the inconvenient straitness of the |