same time from the lips of the sufferer the unfaltering testimony, 'He hath done all things well!'

But David says, 'I will sing,' not only of mercy,' but of judgment. We know that it is comparatively easy to sing of some signal mercy which we have received, but when judgment comes how different is it. And yet it is possible for ‘judgment' to be only another name for mercy. The judgment, no less than the mercy, is God's arrangement for the good of His people; it being according to His purpose that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.' Let us, beloved, take as an instance of singing of judgment the beautiful story from the Old Testament of the Shunammite woman. When she came to Elisha, bowed down with grief because of the death of her son, the prophet asked her, 'Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?' And what was her answer? What would have been our answer had we been in her place? She answered, 'It is well!' Here is something more than resignation to the will of God. It is the desire to sing of the judgment that has fallen upon her in the taking away of her son. Not 'The will of the Lord be done' simply, but 'It is well!' O, beloved, that we all could speak thus of those things which we look upon as our 'judgments!'

The captive Jews did not sing in the midst of their enemies, but as soon as they were restored to their own land, their song was heard: 'When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.' Better to sing in the midst of the judgment; but, if we have not grace enough for that, yet afterwards, when the worst is past, we should recall the tears, the sorrow, the bitterness, and praise God, not only for their removal, but for having sent them. We should praise Him for His mercy in removing them, and for His judgment in sending them

to do the work which He saw was needed to be done. This should be the aim of the child of God, to put the mercy on the one side, and the judgment on the other, and say, 'They are both from my Father's hand, and are alike proofs of His love and mercy to me.' Of the combination of mercy and judgment well has an old writer said, 'As the badge of the ship St. Paul sailed in was Castor and Pollux, twin-brothers, so the badge of this Psalm is mercy and judgment, inseparable companions; of whom it may be said, as our prophet sometimes spake of Saul and Jonathan, "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided." These are the two brightest stars in the firmament of majesty; the two fairest flowers and choicest jewels in the imperial crown; like the carnation and the lily, the ruby and the sapphire, or the carbuncle and the diamond, yielding a mutual and interchangeable lustre each to other. They resemble not unfitly the two supporters of the King's arms, or the two seraphim stretching out their golden wings over the propitiation, or the white and red rose in the same escutcheon.'

Let me, in conclusion, point out four things which David turns into subjects for praise. First, as we have been considering, 'I will sing of mercy;' second, ‘I will sing of judgment.' For a third he says, 'Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.' Understanding by Thy statutes' the law of God, does it not seem strange to speak of making the law a theme for a song? When we think of the law, the holy, inexorable law of a just and holy God, it seems strange to speak of it as a matter for praise. And yet David says, I will make it my song. And even beyond this, 'The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.' A man living without God hates the law of God because it condemns him; but as soon as he comes to Christ and finds Him to be the end of the law for right

eousness,' then he loves the law because of its holy character, and because of its excellent instruction as to how he shall hereafter walk and please God. We have had as subjects for a song, mercy, judgment, and the law; and now for the fourth we have, Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.' Deliverance from sin, deliverance from sorrow, deliverance from all mine enemies. A deliverance from spiritual enemies far more deadly than the enemies over whose destruction Israel sung on the farther shore of the Red Sea. The song there was but the prelude to the song of the redeemed, who sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. O beloved, cannot many of us sing this song, the song of deliverance? Even now we can sing it. But what will it be when our feet touch the swellings of Jordan; when we begin to catch some of the breezes from the better land; when, all being dark behind, yet all will be light beyond. And when at length we are gathered home, where nothing will ever be found to mar the song of praise, how great will be our joy! The same themes will occupy us there as we had sung here. As we look back upon all here, we shall be ready to say, in the words of the beautiful hymn,

With mercy and with judgment

My web of time He wove;
And aye the dews of sorrow

Were lustred with His love:
I'll bless the Hand that guided,
I'll bless the Heart that plann'd,
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.

PSALM CI. 2.

THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

'I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt Thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.'

WE have already considered the first verse of this Psalm in which David declares, 'I will sing of mercy and judgment,' and at the same time we glanced at the resolutions which follow upon his song, two of which are contained in this second verse; but I think it will be interesting to dwell a little more fully upon the second verse, as it presents before us two matters of importance in connection with his resolution and conduct.

First the resolution, 'I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.' Now there are two things involved in this resolution. First, he who makes it, must find out the 'perfect way. This is a matter of pressing importance. The perfect way here spoken of cannot be man's way; it cannot come from man, it must come from God. It can only be God's way that can ever be called a perfect way. 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.' God's way is truly a perfect way in everything which He does and in everything which He says. He is Himself perfect, and He can never change. With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is 'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Whenever He sets forth a way for man to walk in it is a perfect way, as it must be consistent with His own perfect nature and character. Nothing, beloved, that we do can be right until we find this perfect way which comes from Him. The law of God, which may be said to be the unfolding of His 'way,' as we read in another Psalm, is perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.' The law of the Lord is the same word as it was at the beginning; not a tittle of it can

says,

fail; and its character is that it is right and good and perfect. The law is not easy, dear friends, it is not pleasing to the natural man. Far from it; it goes contrary to the natural man's inclinations and desires, so that we cannot wonder that he does not like it. We all know by experience, if we know anything of the perfect way here spoken of, that it is a straight gate and a narrow way; but still it is a perfect way, and the way which leadeth unto life, unto life eternal, the life without change, without sin, without sorrow, without death. O, what a way is this! Have you and I, beloved, found this way? It is comprised in one word, the Name of Jesus. Jesus 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' The Law, with all its requirements, was fulfilled by Him perfectly. O, what a blessed thing to have no uncertainty with regard to the way! There are in the Bible many difficulties which we are meeting with in our daily reading, things difficult for us to understand, and we are at times. sorely perplexed with them; but here all is plain, so plain, that he who runs may read. Jesus said, 'I am the way.' 0, dear friends, have you and I made up our minds to seek and to pursue that way, and that alone? Giving up every other way, giving up all desire to shape our course by any other way, or to reconcile the world's way and God's way? There is but one way, one bridge it may be called, from everlasting death to everlasting life. Have we taken that step? Have we crossed that way? Let there be no doubt, no hesitation, beloved friends; let us settle the point at once. Let us make sure that we are in the way, this one only perfect way!

Then let us consider what the Psalmist adds, 'I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.' We must not only walk in that perfect way, but we must behave ourselves wisely in it. For an example of what is here meant we may look at St. Paul's exhortations in regard