last point of view, for a man to risk his peace and the strength of the joy of his life upon things that crumble and change, when all the while there is lying before him open for his entrance, and wooing him to come into the eternal home of his spirit, this covenant! 2. To stay the soul in seasons which come to everybody sometimes, when we are made painfully conscious of the transientness of this present. What ever comes thou canst not be desolate if thou hast God's loving-kindness. 3. To give to us hopes of years as immortal as itself. We are immortal as the tenderness that encloses us. God's endless love must have undying creatures on whom to pour itself out. The hope that is built upon the eternal love of God in Christ is the true guarantee to me of immortal existence, and this all turns on the one thing. Come into the covenant-the covenant of peace. Take the covenant God offers you, close with the offer, and then life and death, principalities and powers, things to come, height and depth, and every other creature shall be impotent to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.-A. Maclaren, D.D.: The Freeman, April 29, 1881. I. THE TEXT ASSUMES THE MUTABLE AND EVANESCENT NATURE OF ALL EARTHLY THINGS. 1. The Lord fixes not on things most evanescent, but on those which are obviously the most enduring. 2. Even these stupendous works shall be shaken and removed. The discoveries of modern science. The Bible assumes it. 3. May be regarded as a type of the evanescence of all earthly things. Of human nature itself. "All flesh is grass," &c. Of our earthly possessions, &c. II. THE TEXT ASSERTS THE DURABLE AND IMMUTABLE NATURE OF HEAVENLY AND INVISIBLE THINGS. These are put strikingly in contrast with the objects of time and sense (Heb. xii. 28, and others). 1. The benefits comprehended in the engagement. The favour of Jehovah-the love which He bears to His redeemed people. This love is traced up to eternity, and gave birth to the covenant of peace. 2. The nature of the affirmation. His covenant shall not be broken, His favour not removed. We are tempted to fear the reverse. He sometimes appears to withdraw His favour. His covenant is established on immutable principles. His regard for His people is unchangeable. III. THE MOST AMPLE AND CONSOLING ASSURANCE IS AFFORDED OF THE CERTAINTY OF THIS FACT. No higher kind of evidence could be afforded or even desired than that contained in the text. 1. We have the assurance of the word of Jehovah: "Saith the Lord." 2. We have an appeal to the exercise of former mercy. 3. We have an assurance of a personal kind, and therefore most encouraging. The personal pronoun, more than once employed, may well encourage our hearts. When the mind is oppressed with a consciousness of guilt; in times of affliction; in the hour of death; in anticipation of the judgment. Such, then, are the glorious privileges of true believers. Are you one of them? Have you obtained mercy, &c. "Incline your ear," &c.-George Smith, D.D. I. THE PERPETUITY AND UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD'S REGARD TO HIS CHURCH, WHATEVER BE THE RE VOLUTIONS AND VICISSITUDES WHICH OBTAIN IN THE WORLD. 1. That God should be unchangeable in His own nature is a necessary property of His infinite perfection. 2. Of equal importance is the doctrine of the Divine unchangeableness to the general interests of religion. Hence the incalculable importance of those Scriptures which speak of God's incapacity of change, and hence the value of the assurance of the text, as establishing our confidence in the Divine character, and furnishing a basis of certainty for our present and future hopes. Whatever else perishes the Church shall live, &c. You may take the text figuratively-or compara tively-or in its most direct and literal sense. What is true respecting the Church as a whole is true of every individual of which it is composed. The promise of the text is sure to all the seed. Many things may depart, and hope and life itself may depart, but God's loving-kindness shall never depart. II. THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD TO THE PROMISES RECORDED IN HIS WORD. The covenant of grace. The promises are made to Christ, and in the application of it they are made to us in Him. Confirmed by an oath (Heb. vi. 17, 18). Think of God's condescension in giving such a pledge. Come and rest your all upon this great foundation. By faith in Christ you become a party to this covenant, and have a claim to all its stupendous blessings, &c. CONCLUSION.-1. Appropriate the character in order to share the consolation. 2. Expect faith and hope to be put to the test. 3. Walk worthy of your high expectations.-Samuel Thodey. In what sense can the Divine Being be properly said to enter into covenant with man? Certainly not in the sense in which equal parties bind themselves to do certain things on given conditions. Man has no claim on God, nor right to bind Him to anything. If God enters into covenant with sinful man it is an act of grace. He binds Himself. And man's interest is to accept the conditions imposed upon him. Accordingly, in the Scriptures, the term covenant is variously used to express the Divine purposes, promises, laws, dispensations, institutions, relations to man, established through the operation of God's grace. Thus the covenant may be viewed-1. In relation to God. Then, it is an infinite purpose and plan of the Godhead that sinners should be saved in a certain way. 2. In relation to the Mediator. Then it is the inscrutable arrangement that He should have a people saved out of the world as the result of His redeeming death. 3. In relation to man. Then, it is God's gracious promise, His purpose revealed and made known, that He will bestow the blessing on the persons described. It is, therefore, God's gracious purpose, plan, and promise to save sinners through the Gospel of Christ. II. ITS PROVISIONS. In covenanting to bestow salvation He meant all that leads to it-1. The sending the Redeemer. 2. The gift of the Holy Spirit. 3. The communication of spiritual blessings. The sinner is justified, and sanctified, and will be glorified. III. ITS STABILITY. It is assured to us-1. By the pledged word of God. Better than the word of a king, which has often been falsified. Better than the word of a father, which he may be unable to perform. Better than man's word of honour, which is not always respected. 2. By the past acts of God. (1.) He prepared for it by prophecies, types, historic events. (2.) He ratified it. Each form of it by blood (Gen. xv.; Ex. xxiv. 6-8; Heb. ix. 15-26). (3.) He sealed it. His Spirit, which is the "earnest" in our hearts. 3. By the revealed nature of God. Consider the love, the faithfulness, the immutability of the Divine nature. By CONCLUSION.-Have you an interest in this covenant? Will you accept its blessings? You are free to do so. You are freely invited. Those who are willing can have no greater encouragement as to the certainty of obtaining anything than the certainty of salvation.-J. Rawlinson. THE CHURCH, Vers. 11, 12. I. The distressed condition of the Church. Without. Within. II. The promised glory of the Church. Completed. Adorned. Perfected with grace. III. The perpetuation of the Church. Her children instructedblessed with abundant peace. IV. The inviolable security of the Church. Established. Protected from oppression, fear, terror.-Dr. Lyth. THE AFFLICTED AND BEAUTIFIED CHURCH. liv. 11, 12. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, &c. These verses, which doubtless had a reference to the future glory of Israel, are in a spiritual sense true of God's people in all time. In them God sees His people as they often are, and as they will be when His purposes concerning them shall have been accomplished. We find in them I. GOD'S PEOPLE DESCRIBED. "O thou afflicted." How often this has been true of the Church; of the individual believer (Ps. xxxiv. 19). "Tossed with tempest." How often have heresies and dissensions shaken the Church to its foundations! "And not comforted:" all ordinary sources of comfort having proved vain; the true source of comfort not having been sought. How often it is our own fault that we are comfortless! Herein we are apprised-1. Of God's knowledge. How important is this, that God knows our sins and our sorrows! (John x. 14). 2. God's sympathy. The tone is sympathetic; the speaker is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. 3. God's affection. This is not a taunt, nor a complaint, nor a rebuke. Love speaks here: true love, deep love, Divine love. Mere friendship leaves us when our dark days come; but love calls us by our name in the darkness as in the light. II. GOD'S PROMISE DECLARED. We may leave all fanciful speculation and content ourselves with seeing here the contrast between the present and future condition, (1) of Israel; (2) of the Church. This is a picture of a beautiful city; its pavements fair, its foundations firm, its windows-or rather its battlements -all radiant, its gates like a burning coal, its borders-its whole circuit-full of glory. We may note-1. That God promises what is needful. Stones, foundations, battlements; no city is com plete without these. It is that which we most need that God offers to bestow upon us. 2. God promises that which is valuable. Zion is to be rebuilt, not merely with "stones," but with "precious stones." God acts like Himself in blessing His people. He gives the best of the best. 3. What God promises He undertakes to carry out (Josh. xxi. 45; xxiii. 14; 1 Kings viii. 56). "Hitherto hath the Lord helped Who will "taste and see that the Lord is gracious?"-Walter J. Mayers. us." I. A desolate condition described. Apply it-1. To the history of the Church at large. Like a vessel in a storm, but always saved from shipwreck. 2. To the experience of individual Christians. It may be with-1. Outward calamities. 2. Mental griefs. 3. Foreboding fears. But God beholds with a complacent eye. He is no indifferent observer. All the relations He sustains breathe consolation (ver. 5). Make sure of the friendship of Him who is the pilot of the vessel, and then commit your interests to His guidance; otherwise when storms come you will have no anchor, and when death comes no hope. II. The gracious promise given. Not only taken off the tossing wave, but promised a city rising from ruins. A promise of the final restoration of the Church, begun on earth, perfected in heaven. 1. The skill of the architect. God claims the work as His own (Eph. i. 19). 2. The strength of the foundation. Combining beauty and durability. 3. The beauty of the superstructure. What beauty like the beauty of holiness. 4. The happiness and security of the worshippers.-Samuel Thodey. GOD'S PUPILS. liv. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Teaching and learning are the universal and everlasting occupations of all mankind. It is well to learn of wise men; it is better still to learn of the all-wise God. A precious promise is this given to Israel, and through Israel to mankind. I. THE SCHOOL. What, where, is God's school? The largest and truest answer is-1. The world, which to those who apprehend it aright, is not altogether a workshop or a play ground, but a school, in which the highest lessons are taught and may be acquired. 2. The Church, which is a higher form of the school, where the teaching is, as it were, more advanced. II. THE SCHOLARS. All who will learn may learn. It is the education of mankind which is proceeding in this school; and there are those who do not know it, who little think it, who are the pupils of the giver of light and wisdom. III. THE TEACHER. Upon this, indeed, all depends. The Lord undertakes to be our teacher. This office He fulfils by His servants inspired to convey His mind and will, but, above all, by His Son, the Great Teacher, "the Light of the world." IV. THE LESSONS. They are mainly 1. God's truth concerning His own. character and relationship to men. 2. God's will, which is the same as our duty, the summons addressed to our faith and obedience. V. THE DISCIPLINE, Knowledge alone is no blessing. In all education the moral result, the influence upon character is of supreme concern. God's discipline is unspeakably precious. Just it is; and yet, gentle too. VI. THE PURPOSE EFFECTED BY DIVINE TEACHING AND TRAINING. 1. Knowledge. When of the right sort a priceless boon. 2. Character. The ultimate result of the highest teaching. 3. Usefulness. God teaches us, that, through us, He may teach our fellowmen. 4. Eternal life. Life is eternal learning, and heaven is the approach of the soul to Him from whose fulness it drinks in unfailing and everlasting supplies. Application. There is needed, in order to learn, a lowly and teachable disposition. The cry of the heart should be, "Teach me Thy way, O God!"— Homiletical Library, vol. ii., p. 76. I. The relation which believers sustain to the Church-thy children. II. The advantages they enjoy in the Church. 1. Divine instruction. 2. Great peace: "the peace of God"-profound, strengthening, satisfying, enduring, &c. Ver. 14. I. The foundation of the Church-righteousness. II. The security of it. III. The comfort of it. Oppression, and terror, and fear excluded. IV. The permanency of it. Ver. 15. I. The last combination of the Church's enemies. II. Its unauthorised character. III. Utter abortiveness. IV. The blessed assurance. Vers. 16, 17. I. All agencies and forces are the creation of God. II. He licenses, employs, controls them. as He pleases. III. Hence no weapon or power can prosper against the Church which He has redeemed.J. Lyth, D.D. THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. liv. 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, &c. I. THE CHRISTIAN'S EXPERIENCE. 1. Weapons are formed against him. No Christian need expect aught else. As Israel's experience in the wilderness, so the Christian's in the world. The devil will try to hinder his progress, &c. The world, too, in various ways-by its cares, shares, &c. The law in his members also will war against the law of his mind. He must fight his way, "fight the good fight of faith," fight under the banner "Jehovah-Nissi," fight, "putting on the whole armour of God." 557 2. Tongues rise against him. From the days of Cain it has been so, and will be so to the end. Christians need not think it strange if they are mocked, maligned, misrepresented, all manner of evil said against them. So they treated the Lord, and so they will treat His disciples (John xv. 9). But while this shall be, more or less, the experience of every Christian, learn, over against it— II. THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 1. No weapon shall prosper. His enemies may be mighty, &c.; but more mighty, wise, watchful, indefatigable and loving is his protector. He is perfectly safe. This does not mean, however, that he is not to use expedients— to watch and pray, to resist and strive. 2. Every tongue he shall condemn. (1.) He shall do it himself by welldoing (1 Peter ii. 15). (2.) God shall do it for him. (3.) It shall be done sufficiently on earth (Ps. xxxvii. 6). (4.) Perfectly in eternity (Job. xix. 25). 3. Let Christians see to it that they so live that men speaking evil of them shall do it "falsely," and God shall fully vindicate them. But now the question comes, Who has this security and in answer seeIII. THE CHRISTIAN'S CHARACTER. "The servants of the Lord." Only real Christians, to whom this security is given, i.e., those whose faith is a real root within and bears corresponding fruit without. Many arrogate such promises as this who have no right to them. They only who keep the pre WORTHLESS Old castles contain many relics of the past, and on the walls hang many weapons of ancient date. To such a place the Church may be likened. A divine and secure citadel, it contains not a few victorious trophies-signs of its enemies' defeat. cepts reap the promises. We must be servants if we would be safe. It is he who serves that the Lord preserves ; none other (Matt. vii. 21). This security is further described as IV. THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. This description may teach us—1. That while he is a servant, he is also a son— son and heir. Each believer may say with John (1 John iii. 1, 2). 2. That his security is a thing not of merit, but of inheritance. It is a legacy secured to him by the death of Christ (Luke xii. 32). 3. We may be sure that a heritage from God is a certain possession (James i. 17). V. THE CHRISTIAN'S TITLE. 1. The Christian's justification is of God (Phil. iii. 9). 2. His sanctification is of God (Phil. ii. 13). 3. Boasting is excluded. "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" 4. His security is perfect. If God justify, who can condemn? (Rom. viii. 34.) And if God sanctify, He will perfect that which concerneth us. This clause thus explains as well as ratifies the promise, and, further, it tells us how we may secure this promise for ourselves. Righteousness we have not by nature; we cannot attain it of ourselves; but we may receive it from God. Let us seek it by faith in Christ, and He will be "the Lord our righteousness," and then this glorious heritage is ours. What a different one from that of the wicked (Job xx. 1-29). David Jamison, B.A.: The Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv. p. 538. WEAPONS. What is liv. 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. I. Some of the weapons that have been used against the Church collectively. 1. The first that we notice is very old. It was employed against Noah, Job, David, all who have been called 2. Behold another of these hostile implements. Its edge is keen; it |