still, my friends, it is His choice, and therefore it is the right path for us: He not only commands us to walk in this His way, but He will teach us in it; every step in that path He will show us. The believer might often be 'discouraged because of the way' did he look only at the 'things which are seen;' but when the eye has been anointed with heavenly eye-salve, he can see behind the darkness and clouds that sometimes gather over his path his Father's face shining on him still, and can feel his Father's hand gently laid upon him to guide him in the right way. Then he learns by the very darkness of the way to magnify the lovingkindness of the Lord. He has learned in part at least the lesson that his Father would teach him, and his heart is filled to overflowing with the joy and gladness which that teaching alone can give. Beloved friends, I know not what your outward circumstances may be; whether you may be in peace and at rest; or, amid turmoil and perplexity you may be passing through the deeper sorrows of bereavement: I know not, but He knows; and He is teaching you thereby. Oh, take this word home with you, with all its blessed peace and comfort for breaking hearts, 'Him shall He teach in the way that He shall choose.' Take it home to each of your hearts, and bless and praise His holy Name that He has such tender love and care for you, that from amid all the entanglements of a world like this He is drawing you to Himself, breaking the bonds that might else have enthralled you for ever, and leading you in the very path the Man of Sorrows trod before, whose roughest places are all well known to Him. Yes, beloved, when in the clearer light of heaven we look back on all the way by which the Master led us, there will be many a dark turn and winding of the path that we shall then see to have been bright with love, and concerning which we shall have to say that He has indeed turned our sorrow into joy. Verse 13. His soul shall dwell at ease,'-or, 'lodge in goodness,' as the margin reads; more correctly, he shall lodge at night in goodness.' At night! that is, during the dark night of his earthly pilgrimage; the night whose long watches must pass ere the dawning of that day when the shadows shall flee away for ever. Friends, are we anxious and perplexed about any near and dear to us? Let us be still, for the Lord reigneth. Only let us fear the Lord, let us be among the number of His loving, believing people, and whatever troubles may arise, amid all our anxieties, our soul shall still 'lodge at night in goodness:' not in temporal prosperity, for that is but a low view of the subject, nor even in spiritual prosperity, though that is of course included; the eternal goodness of Jehovah shall be our resting-place. It has come near to us, beloved; the Saviour, the man Christ Jesus, the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person, has brought it near; He has come Himself, and as man has dwelt among us, and these are His words to us, 'Abide in Me, and I in you. If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' And 'Now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.' Oh, let it be so with us! Let us abide in Him. Let Him be our dwellingplace, our abode through all the pain or distress or weariness of our earthly pilgrimage. Let us lodge thus all night in His goodness; and then we shall inherit the earth.' As surely as the Canaan of old was promised to the children of Israel, so is this glorious inheritance secured to the people of God, having been purchased for them, by the untold price of His precious blood. The new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; all shall be theirs; for they are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.' If you speak to an unconverted man of the Bible, with all its glorious testimony of truth from the 1st chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation, he will not see it, nor understand it; but when once the day-star arises in his heart and he passes from death unto life, then he sees what he never saw before, the glorious view of the character of God contained in the word; he sees God as just, and yet able to forgive the sinner through the excellency of the Saviour's work; he sees His love, His justice, and His truth, all gathered up in one great ray of pure and heavenly light, and in that light he goes on his way rejoicing, for in it he sees 'the secret of the Lord.' Ah! how little do men guess of his secret! He is richer far than many of earth's mighty ones, for he knows 'the secret of the Lord.' He knows that though all men should forsake him, father and mother, friends the nearest and dearest, yet his Father will never leave nor forsake him. This is that blessed secret; he lives on it; and therefore none of these things move him,' for none shall separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' 'And He will show them His covenant,' or, as it is in the margin, and his covenant to make them know it.' The covenant is, on His part, well ordered in all things and sure. He cannot, He will not, let them go; they are His for ever. They are in His hand, and none can pluck them away. He comes and speaks to the believer, saying to him, 'Come, and I will show thee My covenant;' and ever as day by day he obtains clearer views of the covenant, he gets more and more into the secret of the Lord.' Like a traveller toiling up a steep and difficult mountain, who finds that ever as he gets onward and mounts to a higher standpoint and breathes the purer air of the mountain side, he can see spread out as in a map the country around him: so the Christian as he gets upward gains larger and broader views of the wonderful things of God. He gets his heart enlarged by these bright glimpses of the covenant as he toils on his way, until at last reaching the summit and standing upon the height he looks down upon all the windings of the way, clear and plain enough to him now, and he sees as he never saw before, that these two things are ever alongside of each other— the sweetness of the secret and the everlasting certainty of the covenant.' 6 Thy way, not mine, O Lord, Lead me by Thine own hand, Smooth let it be, or rough, The kingdom that I seek Take Thou my cup, and it Choose Thou for me my friends, Not mine, not mine the choice, H. BONAR. PSALM XXV. 15-18. THE SNARE LAID. 'Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. 'Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. 'The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring Thou me out of my distresses. 'Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.' 'MINE eyes are ever toward the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.' The spiritual mind will at once realise the truth of this, that we are, if believers, walking over a net, so carefully concealed by the great enemy of souls that we are in constant danger of being entangled in it. It is laid for us in various ways. It is not often visible to the eye. It has many forms, and of these perhaps none are more dangerous than the ensnaring love of the world, which takes hold of some minds; or the love of pleasure, which attracts others. With some, the hidden snare consists in their going about to establish a righteousness of their own; with others, in the attempt to make a mere outward profession: having a good deal of sentiment in religion with very little reality. little reality. Sometimes the believer is satisfied with what he has attained, or thinks he has attained, in Christ, and this becomes a snare to him. It is true that he has put away the world and taken Christ; but then he is apt to imagine that all is done, and hence arises spiritual pride, or selfrighteousness, one of the most common experiences of the believer, and often a sad means of entanglement to those who otherwise would run well. They think they have reached a standpoint where they may rest, and from whence they may look down upon all their |