"Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep, whereof every one bears twins, and none is barren amongst them" (Cant. iv. 2; Gen. xlix. 11). John xvi. 15, teaches us this as positive matter of doctrine. May we thirst and drink more deeply!

I will just notice, to maintain the parallel between Israel and the church, that as they were made to ride on the high places of the earth, feeding on butter of kine, etc.; so our essential standing is, "blessed with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." And what are we called upon to do, but like them, "to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called" (Ephes. iv.)?

But then comes man's part in it. Though thus set of God, yet trusting in himself, forgetting that by faith he stood, he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Yea, more than that, (for evil can never be merely negative)" they provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger." For when we forsake the fountain of living waters, we are sure to hew out to ourselves broken cisterns that can contain no water.

"To gods that came newly up" (ver. 17). Aye, men may boast as they like of antiquity, antiquity in faith and worship; but when God and His word are departed from, it is but after all to "gods newly come up" that men are turned. Antiquity and tradition, it should be noticed, will ever be on the side of evil, not of good; for, alas! in man's history, good is the exception, but evil is the rule.

A simple reference to God's word carried the returning remnant of the captivity over the heads of all antiquity to the days of Joshua, the son of Nun (Neh. viii. 14-17), the first time when it could have been observed probably, as being a feast for the land. There were men of antiquity and tradition in the time of our Lord," the true Witness." But what does He tell them? "IN VAIN do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. xv).

Then comes the Lord's visitation upon all this evil; for we know that He is a God who takes vengeance upon their inventions, though He forgives His people. And

what does all the midnight darkness of popery, darkness such as could be felt; what does all the distress of His people since; the distress of the truly awakened, because they are looking endlessly into an evil heart for peace, and racking their consciences for evidences there instead of looking to the finished work, the blood of Christ, that speaks peace, what does all this, with all our present and necessary trials in the church, that have been and shall be, tell us, but that God has been chastening His church with its own rod? "They that observe lying vanities,” says Jonah, when restored, "forsake their own mercy.' It is a pithy lesson but a deep one. Still God has been mindful of His people, and will be. He will surely honour them that honour Him; He does not forget (ver. 27) that they are His people, and that He has linked His name with them. The Lord will not," says Samuel, in those blessed words of comfort (1 Sam. xii. 22) "forsake His people for His great name's sake; because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people." "The Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up and left." So that our wisdom is clearly to acknowledge fully our ruin and helplessness, that we may have His power put forth for

us.

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How worthily does the song end! "Rejoice, O ye nations with His people." We find, I believe, apostasy proved both in the nations (the Gentiles) and His people (ver. 32. and ver. 37), yet in the end both are called on to rejoice together. According to that word in Rom. xi. 33., "O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. He hath concluded them all in unbelief [or disobedience] that He might have MERCY upon all." And it is blessed indeed to know, that through all the manifold painful history of man's evil, God will yet finally get glory to Himself, and will manifest Himself to the very uttermost worthy alone to be praised; God over all, blessed for evermore! He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee." He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is He.

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G.

No. XXV.

GRACE TRIUMPHANT.

2 Sam. xi.-xix.

"HE restoreth my soul," says David, while recounting in the twenty-third Psalm, the wonderful ways of his Divine Shepherd. And who, among all the sacred penmen, could be better prepared than David, to sing of restoring grace? Precious was the grace that had chosen him when least in his father's house, and taken him from the sheep-fold to be ruler over God's people, Israel. But surely the grace which restored his soul, when, through his own sin and folly, he had fallen from the eminence on which he had been placed, shines more brightly still. May our hearts be humbled and refreshed while we meditate a little on the above scripture, unfolding to us, as it does, a part of the process by which the Lord restored the psalmist's soul; as well as revealing something of the tone of his soul when thus restored.

Nothing can be more solemn than the proof afforded us by David's history, of what our poor hearts are. Does it not rehearse to us the serious lesson which, alas! we are so slow to learn, that no past experience of the Lord's goodness, no measure of communion with Him in bygone days, no amount of favour shewn us by the Lord, is any safeguard against present temptation? Nay, that without the present exercise of His gracious, preserving power, to keep and to uphold us, all the blessing we have enjoyed in the past, is in danger of being perverted by our wretched hearts into an occasion of self-complacency and self-indulgence. It was when David had been brought by the hand of God, through all the dangers and trials of his exile under Saul, when he had obtained undisputed possession of the throne, to which God had appointed him;-it was after he had celebrated the Lord's dealings with him thus in a number of those wondrous Psalms in which we may see how his soul had been leaning on God, and learning God, amid the many trials which had

marked his path;-it was after all this, when God had given him rest and prosperity on every side, that he forgat God, and was left of Him to experience the meaning of that word, "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin! And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James. i. 14, 15).

Not to dwell on the well known circumstances of David's fall, there is one fact claiming special notice, as shewing that there is no more natural or inherent power of recovery in a saint, than there is in an unconverted sinner. A saint when fallen, can no more restore himself, than a poor sinner can save himself at first. The alone Saviour is the alone Restorer too. When David's eye had enkindled the unholy flame in David's heart, and when, left to himself, he had plunged headlong into sin, were there immediate risings of compunction in his breast? Did he at once perceive how deeply he had fallen, and how terribly he had dishonoured God? Did he at once confess his sin, and return to the Lord with weeping and supplication? Alas! no; we read of no such thing. So far from this, when David had defiled himself, and dishonoured his God, his only thought seems to have been how he could shield his own character from infamy by the concealment of his sin. And it was thus he was led into still greater enormities. If, by pretended kindness, he could have made Uriah the instrument of hiding the wrong which had been done to him, as well as the dishonour done to God, David was willing enough that it should be so; and he tried this plan first. But at any cost his character must be maintained, and his shame concealed. And hence, when Uriah's fidelity to his master, and his deep sense of the honour put upon him, as a soldier of Israel, leads him to decline the king's offers, and prefer fellowship with his comrades in the hardships they were enduring in the open field, to resting comfortably in his own house, and in his own bed, this noble, self-renouncing fidelity makes him the victim of David's pride. Uriah's life must be sacrificed rather than David's character be stained. He is to be slain too by the sword of the children of Ammon. And as a still

further illustration of the hardening effect of sin upon the conscience, Joab is selected as the agent to execute the king's will. As I remember another to have observed, when David's heart was right, the sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him; but now the most crafty and cruel of Zeruiah's sons is the instrument well suited to the work in which it was in David's heart to employ him. And all was permitted, for the time being, to succeed. Everything occurred exactly to his mind. The voice of the only one, as he thought, who could bear witness against him, was hushed in death. His faithless wife, when she hears that her husband is dead, mourns for him. "And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son." "But," adds the sacred penmen (and how it falls upon the ear like the death-knell of all David's prospective enjoyment) "the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." Better for us, infinitely better, to be wading through deepest waters of trial, with the smile of God upon our ways, than in circumstances of ease and prosperity, to have it recorded of us, "the thing that he had done displeased the Lord."

Nearly twelve months, at least, had elapsed, and there was not the slightest symptom of contrition on the part of David. Nay, so deep was the slumber into which he had sunk, that when Nathan, commissioned of the Lord, had addressed to him the parable of the rich man who passed by his own flocks and herds, to regale himself and his friends on the one ewe lamb of his poor neighbour, the indignation of the monarch arose, and he passed immediate sentence on the wretch who had done this; never perceiving that he was thus passing sentence on himself. It was requisite for the prophet to apply the parable as well as to speak it, before the least vitality was manifest in David's conscience. "Thou art the man," however, comes home to his conscience; and David at once acknowledges "I have sinned against the Lord." As immediate is the response to this confession, "the Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." Thus does the Lord meet in full grace the first motion of the wanderer's heart towards Him; yea, knowing as he