CHAPTER IV. The Consolation. YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, FOR THOU ART WITH ME: THY ROD AND THY STAFF THEY COMFORT ME. WE E have now traced the believer's course from his recovery to the fold, when "the Lord" becomes in the peculiar sense, his "Shepherd," through the various stages of instruction through the word, sanctification by the Spirit, and restoration after backsliding, to that habitual "patient continuance in welldoing" which is implied in the words, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake." We have dwelt with thankfulness and with de light on these last memorable words, as affording the strongest conceivable consolation to those "who have fled for refuge to the hope set before them in the Gospel," because resolving all that is to be done in them, as well as all that has been done for them, into the sufficiency, the sovereignty, the supremacy of grace. The reliance of the Psalmist, despite his own conscious and continual frailty is, as we have seen, on the immutability of Jehovah, "whose mercy endureth for ever;" while we can add to this the gracious assurance conveyed through the Prophet Malachi, "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed," and the emphatic declaration of St. James, that "with Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. It is our high privilege, then, to build for eternity on a "foundation that never can be b a Malachi iii. 6. b James i. 17. moved;" and though we have not and cannot have, any covenanted and chartered immunity from the "troubles to which man is born, as the sparks fly upward," yet of this we are assured, that come what may, our foundation standeth sure, having this seal, “the Lord knoweth them that are His."d And when the Apostle declares his persuasion that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," he does but repeat, with greater minuteness of detail, the confidence here expressed by the Psalmist, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 1 Cor. iii. 11. d 2 Tim. ii. 19. for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." It has already been observed that by this strong expression, "the valley of the shadow of death," is symbolized affliction, when it has assumed its sternest aspect, and multiplied its terrors to the utmost. And these words, accordingly, involve four things. I. The TRIAL; "passing through the valley of the shadow of death." II. The CONFIDENCE; "I will fear no evil." III. The GROUND of this confidence; "THOU art with me. IV. The NATURE and the INSTRUMENTS OF SUPPORT; "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." First then, the TRIAL; the trial, which may come even upon those who are most faithful to their Good Shepherd and best beloved by Him, at any time, from any quarter, or under any circumstances. f We are certified, in the Old Testament, that "though affliction cometh not forth out of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground, yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." While the Gospel embodies precisely the same truth, though in the most mitigated and least repulsive form, where it declares, that "if we be without chastisement, whereof all the children of God are partakers, then are we bastards, and not sons ;" and when it demands, "what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not ?" And this will include trial under every diversity of form, for all are comprehended under the emphatic imagery of the Psalmist, as will at once appear from other passages, in which the very same emblem, the "shadow of death," occurs. Job indeed applies it even to the grave, which he designates "the f Job v. 6, 7. Heb. xiii. 7, 8. |