promises. 1. He promises His own presence with us in our trials. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee" (H. E. I. 198–202, 3677). 2. He promises us preservation under all our calamities. "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." What does this imply? That our trials shall not injure 11s. In proportion as they tend to become temptations, grace will be ministered to us, and they shall not overthrow us. Nay more; the very calamities which appeared likely to destroy every spiritual grace within God's people, to overwhelm their patience, their confidence and love, are made the very means of displaying and brightening them all (H. E. I. 204-214). By calling the suffering graces of His people into exercise, He will render them invincible. He will enable them to pass through rivers of trouble as safely as His beloved Israel passed through the Red Sea, and cause the fires of affliction to play as innocently around them as they played around His three servants in the furnace at Babylon.

IV. In the greatness of His condescension, God vouchsafes to add to His precious promises several arguments to assure us of their fulfilment.

1. The first is drawn from the relation in which He stands to us as our Creator. "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel." He created us naturally, and has re-created His people spiritually (ver. 21; Eph. ii. 10). Here, then, is a solid ground of confidence. The Father of our spirits must be well acquainted with our infirmities and weakness (Ps. ciii. 13, 14; Isa. lxiii. 9). Neither will He ever forsake the work of His own hands. He raised us out of the ruins of the Fall, made us temples in which He delights to dwell and be worshipped; and He will never suffer the structures which He has erected at so much labour and cost to be thrown

down by violence, or worn away by storms (Ps. cxxxviii. 8; 1 Pet. iv. 19).

2. The Almighty draws another argument from the property which He has in His people and the manner in which He acquired it. "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." We are His by redemption also. And what a mighty price did He pay for us! He gave "Egypt for the ransom" of His ancient people, "Ethiopia and Seba for them." But when we were to be redeemed, kingdoms and empires were too poor a ransom (Rom. viii. 32; Acts xx. 28). Hence He estimates us, not by what we are, but by what we have cost Him. Will He abandon that which cost Him so dear? (Zech. ii. 8).

3. The covenant which God has formed with His people ensures the fufilment of His promises. "FOR I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour;" thus implying that He has entered into some engagement with His Israel; that He considers Himself bound to be with them in their troubles and distresses; that His own veracity and faithfulness are at stake, and would be sacrificed if Israel were forsaken or injured.

REFLECTIONS. 1. How rich in con solation is the Word of God! 2. How essential to our happiness is a knowledge of our interest in the divine promises (H. E. I. 306–308). 3. How full of confidence and praise ought they to be, who live in the enjoyment of the divine presence in the hour of trouble! It is tranquillising and sweet to have a beloved friend near us when our sorrows are multiplied upon us, but what is the presence of the dearest earthly friend, when compared with the presence of a sympathising God! 4. How blind to their own interest are they who reject the gospel of Christ !—Charles Bradley: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 266–285.

I. The most eminent piety, the most exalted privileges, form no ground of exemption from the heaviest trials. God, by His prophet, in this chapter multiplies descriptions of the

character and dignity of His people, and yet in the same breath speaks of the severe trials that await them. The people of God have had to pass through severe trials; not merely to hear about them, &c., but to endure them. Abraham (Gen. xxii. 2). Jacob (Gen. xxxvii. 32). Martha and Mary (John xi. 1, &c.)

1. Let us not presume upon exemption from them (H. E. I. 234-236, 3361, 3674).

2. Let us not wonder if trial increases in weight and severity. This may be intimated in the text-waters, rivers; fire, flame. There is an ascent in the path of suffering, a graduated scale of sorrow. Trials are proportioned according to our strength; to our missing the improvement of former calamities; to our insensibility to chastisements (Amos iv.)

II. The supports which God furnishes are equal to the utmost emergency in which we can be placed. "I will be with thee." Enough!

1. Enough to temper the excess of trial, and to enable us to bear up under it. The text engages that the trial shall not reach beyond a certain point: "they shall not overflow thee." Our supOur sup ports shall be in every way equal to our necessity. Mr. Cecil says: "I shall never forget the encouragement when standing by the dying bed of my mother. I asked her, 'Do you not

tremble at entering an unknown world, not knowing what you shall meet there? 'It is no matter what I shall meet there,' was her answer; 'He hath said, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee'" (H. E. I. 198, 3677).

2. Enough to sanctify the calamities to the promotion of our highest interest (H. E. I. 215, 3696-3701).

III. The promise of support is as certain as the trial is inevitable (Numb. xxiii. 19). "I will be with thee," &c. Apprehended, this promise induces resignation, prayer, commitment to God, hope.-Samuel Thodey.

I. The character of the people to whom this promise is made. "Jacob," "Israel." II. What God has done for them in time past; or what are the steps which He has taken to make them what they are. He has created them; He has redeemed them; He has called them by their names. Therefore He calls them His; "Thou art mine." III. What He promises to do for them in time to come.-Daniel Rees: Ser mons, pp.136-156.

We have here God's redemption, calling, and adoption of His people set forth as a ground of fearlessness in danger, and of comfort in the season of greatest distress.-Charles Neat: The Protestant Preacher, vol. iii. pp. 383-390.

deration of God having formed them; their relation to Him renders their rebellion against Him an incalculable evil (H. E. I. 4488-4489). A man must be renewed and reconciled to God before his creation can be judged a proper ground of confidence in Him. But it should be rested on by those who have received the atonement. Is it possible that He who made you, and whose forfeited favour as your Creator has been restored to you, can ever leave you or forsake you? Shall He Decome the Father of your spirits,

and suffer your spirits, and souls, and bodies to perish?

2. If creation is a ground of confidence in God to them who are reconciled to God and bear His image, what must redemption be? What a magnificence of love, grace, mercy, compassion, holiness, and justice do we behold in this wonderful transaction! Is it to be supposed that redeeming mercy, surmounting every obstacle to the salvation of a sinner, can suffer you, in all the helplessness of your corrupted nature, to be driven to and fro with every wind of passion, and at last to be destroyed for ever! No! if you would calculate the extent of the divine assistance offered to the people of God, you must calculate upon the scale of redemption (H. E. I. 4631-4632; P. D. 3204).

3. In calling you by His grace, God has given you a personal interest in the redemption of His Son, and in all the blessings of His salvation. The unspeakable condescension, friendship, and tenderness which God in this heavenly calling manifests are strikingly declared here: "I have called thee by thy name." When you call each other by your proper names, you do not by this signify more familiarity, benignity, and confidence than God does in calling you by them. He speaks to you, as to Abraham His friend; when He addressed Abraham by name, He did not feel more love for him than He feels for you day by day, continually. Why should you fear, whom He calls by your names? He has thus made your redemption and all its blessings His personal concern.

4. He who has called you by your names has adopted you into His family. "Thou art mine," my servant, my child, mine heir, the heir of mine everlasting kingdom. What can be a higher ground of confidence in God than adoption into His family, than the endearing and exalting relation of a child? What condescension and mercy in God, thus to select one of the tenderest relations in life, by which to illustrate the nature of His love to us! (ch. xlix. 15).

II. On these grounds God exhorts His people to display a fearless fortitude when they are exposed to trials: "Fear not."

III. In order to render it easier for them to manifest the courage which His children may well be expected to display. He adds gracious promises which should be to them a pillar of fire, to illuminate, guide, keep, and cheer them in the wilderness, or in the deep waters, through which their passage to a better country has been marked out for them: verse 2.

Right on to the end, they shall have His presence and protection.-Miles Jackson: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 233–257.

Those relations of God to man which form the groundwork of the believer's obligations, are in this passage adduced as the foundations of his confidence and peace; and this fact shows, further, that the two must stand or fall together. Men should think of this before they seek to lower the strict requirements of God's law. We can only lower our estimate of what we ought to do for God, by first lowering our estimate of what God has done for us, and so stripping from our faith all that now raises it into heights above our reach, and depths beyond our fathoming. God is your Creator, Preserver, Saviour, King. These are the very grounds of the assured confidence of which the prophet speaks. Consider

I. THE CHARGE GIVEN "Fear not." The quality of fear is described in the Scriptures under various aspects.

Thus it is spoken of sometimes as a feeling to be exercised. "Be not highminded, but fear ;" and again as a thing to be avoided, "Fear not." There is the coward's fear, which cannot bear the very sight of danger. Such is the fear that makes a man shrink from examining into the true state of his soul before God, and that makes men hide from themselves the thought of death. There is another kind of fear, which never shows

itself till the time of actual trial comes; beforehand, it is arrogant and boastful, but sinks into despondency and despair when it is put to the test. God's people are free from both of these; they are deeply conscious alike of their danger and of the inadequacy of their own strength to meet it but they stand fast, "strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." A righteous, godly fear, the believer has ; but the cowardice of the world, which is loud to boast, and slow to act, and quick to doubt, he must never know. It becomes neither the dignity of his calling, nor the faithfulness of his God. The believer and the unbeliever are sharply separated in respect of the objects of their fear. The timid child and the courageous man both have fear; but the one fears a shadow: the other, that which, not to fear, would show the absence of a reasonable courage.

What things ought we to fear? Shall we fear the opposition and hatred of the world; those who can injure the body, but cannot touch the soul; pain, or sickness, or temporal misfortune? Those may do so who make this world their all, but not the believer, who recognises in them the medicines of the soul. Shall we fear the devil? Not with God on our side. Or death? Not so; for it is the gate of higher life, and introduces us to life's crown of glory. He who fears God need know no other fear. Such fear is not a base naked terror; it becomes a wondering reverence, and loses itself in love; for He is not against His people, but for them; "Fear not, for I am with thee." But the absence of this fear makes everything else fearful.

II. THE REASON ASSIGNED. "Thou art mine." These words were spoken to Israel after the flesh; yet, as the relations named--Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour-are not peculiar to them, but are realised by every believing heart, every believer may take to himself his share in this animating promise; for all these relations are aiduced, not as reasons for anything we are to pay to God, but as reasons

for that which we are to receive from Him, they form the ground of our confidence (Ps. cxix. 94). The certainty of our hope does not depend on our holding God, but on God's holding us; it is not in our power to realise His promise at all times, but we may rest on the immutability of that promise (2 Tim. ii. 13). The believer's hope is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." To see to what a strong rock that anchor holds, turn your thoughts to the relationship spoken of in these words, "I am thy Creator, thy Redeemer, thy Saviour;" "I have called thee by thy name," words which imply a personal, immediate interest. All is His work; the goodness which created, the grace which has quickened, corrected, strengthened, taught, sanctified, has all come from Him!

III. THE PROTECTION PROMISED (ver. 2). This does not consist of any absence of trial and danger; the expressions of the text rather imply their presence, many in number, and varied in kind (Ps. lxix. 1, 2). No extraordinary interposition will preserve the child of God from those miseries "to which man is born as the sparks fly upwards." The protection promised consists in the constant presence with the soul of its unseen but Almighty Saviour (Ps. xvi. 8; Heb. xiii. 5, 6).

CONCLUSION.-Contrast the condition of the believer, and of the unbeliever. Affliction is the lot of all; but while a man loses nothing, in the calculation of earthly happiness, by becoming a follower of the Saviour, in the calculation of heavenly happiness he gains all. There is more sunshine, even in this world, to the righteous than to the unrighteous. Both have to share the "ills that flesh is heir to;" but what a difference in the strength of the two to meet them! If for a moment the Christian's heart sinks, then the promise comes back to him like a refreshing breath from above-"Fear not; for I have redeemed thee."-Edward Garbett, M.A. : Sermons, pp. 204-222.