This was a great deal for Joseph Hart to say; and if we look at it, it will be a great deal for you and me to say, "We'll trust Him for all that's to come," for we cannot always do this. hymns: I will give you another of his "Dream not of faith so clear As shuts all doubting out; Remember how the devil could dare" he did dare: he did attempt; but it was only an attempt "Remember how the devil could dare To tempt even Christ to doubt." There are election doubters, grace doubters, vocation doubters, and perseverance doubters. What a mercy when we can withstand them all. I will look at the text. 1st. It embraces Trinity in Unity. "God is love!"-don't forget that. "Whom once He loves He never leaves, But loves them to the end." God loves His people in Christ, the Son of His love. Therefore Christ will bear all the blame for ever if He does not bring all his Benjamins to God. All the Benjamins must be brought to the Father, and Christ will say, "Here am I, Father, and the children that Thou hast given me." "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Do you want an evidence? Does God the Holy Ghost lead you? "They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them." However long you may be before you come to Him—it may seem a very long time to you-but you are on the road if you feel your need of Christ. "All the fitness He requireth Is, to feel your need of Him." Lots of people talk of Christ and mercy, and say, “O Lord, have mercy upon us." And if you say to them when they come out of church, "You ask for mercy; what have you done? Do you really feel your need ?" I fear in many cases it would be proved only mockery. to come. The writer of this psalm says, "God is," he does not say it in the past tense, God was; no, but present, God is-past, present, and When we speak of God, we must speak of Him as one eternal NOW. But when we speak of the time here, we must speak of it as past, present and to come. The Psalmist must have had some experience, for he says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.' God said there should be cities of refuge, that the slayer that killed any person unawares might flee thither. He might run for his life. "A coward," say you. O no; not a coward to run for life: for in the heat of feeling the avenger might slay such a one. So he could flee to the city of refuge. The roads were to be particularly looked to, and the word "Miklat" (refuge) to be put upon posts where two roads met, to show the way to the city of refuge. “He that hath made his refuge God, Shall find a most secure abode.' My dear friends, "we all deserve eternal death, and thus we all are even." We have all sinned and come short of glory; but look to Jesus, my dear friends; "None but Jesus; none but Jesus, Can do helpless sinners good." Life is very precious. I dare to say, when one was near enough to see the city of refuge, he thought, My strength is nearly gone. This refuge, my friends, was to save natural life. Then how much more important is it to think of our soul's salvation, when we have the exhortation, "Flee from the wrath to come!" We must have this decided for ourselves-Are we in the City of Refuge? "Other refuge have I none; Hangs my helpless soul on Thee." "Thou shalt call His ? What a blessing that the Lord reveals this. name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins:" He shall save His people from the wrath to come. What does He say! "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." This seems a great deal easier to me than fleeing to the city of refuge. This is not said to the dead, as those in our day who call upon the dead and the blind to look unto God. I never knew a blind man to perceive things, or a dead man to feel. If there were such a one, he would be a curiosity. There must be spiritual eyesight or there will be no looking to God, and this eyesight must be given by God. If you were in a room with the shutters closed you might think it was all sweet and clean; but open the shutters, and let the rays of the sun come in, then you will see there is plenty of dust. Just like the sun coming into the secret chamber of the heart and revealing the sin in every corner, when you say, I never thought I had such a heart, I never thought it could be so sinful. Solomon prayed for such characters at the dedication of the temple. He said, "If there are any that know the plague of their own heart, turn and pray unto Thee; and also those that are carried captive, if in their captivity they turn unto Thee, then hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and when Thou hearest forgive." I am much inclined to think that Daniel was one of these; and though the decree had passed, yet this Daniel of the captivity was found praying night and day as aforetime, with his window open toward Jerusalem-toward where the Temple had stood. Could he see the place? No; but he could look toward it. For Solomon had said, Anyone that looked toward it. "Other refuge have I none; Hangs my helpless soul on Thee." Is He your only refuge? Is He your only hiding-place? When I look at the 8th of Proverbs, it seems to confirm our text. "Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid." Moses desired to see the Lord's glory, and God said, "There is a place by Me, and He put him into the clift of the rock”—the rock Christ. "He is a tried stone, a sure stone, and a precious corner stone." God put Moses in the rock, and on the rock, and God declares that He is well pleased with every poor sinner that is in this rock. So He passed by and proclaimed His name: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, that will by no clear the guilty." "But," say you, "if this is the case, what is a poor guilty sinner to do?" Friends, go to Jesus; for in Him there is full satisfaction. means "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied; by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the_great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bear the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (To be continued.) CHARACTERISTICS OF OUR AGE. II. PREVALENT SPIRITUAL APATHY. "While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept." Matt. xxv. 5. HUS predicted the Heavenly Bridegroom Himself; and thus it has come to pass. For yet He tarries; as yet we see Him not. "The heaven has received Him until the time of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began," Acts iii. 21. But He will come again, and that speedily-" come, to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe," 2 Thess. i. 10. Meanwhile "the spirit of slumber"-an evil influence from "the prince of the power of the air," has fallen on the great mass of the Christian profession, and infected both the foolish and the wise virgins with its stupefying effects. They all slumber and sleep and in an age when, in a worldly sense, men were never more wide awake in the pursuit of the things that perish with the using. An age that, by its rapidity of motion in every department of human labour, calls for the constant putting forth of mental and physical energy. : Here and there some warm-hearted and highly-favoured ones are to be met with, who have quitted the bed of sloth and carnal ease to seek "the Beloved" in the streets and lanes of the city. Now and then may be alighted on some precious, spiritually-minded person, who is seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. But these are exceptions-rare exceptions to the prevailing rule. And these are mostly to be found in the midst of tribulation. They may be compared to the rich forced grapes in a heated conservatory-being brought to a state of perfection "in love," by the extra warmth they have experienced, both in trials and mercies, from their covenant God. These also may and do have their drowsy seasons; but they are not of long duration. They may sleep; but it is "not as do others." Roused from time to time by a knocking at the door, and by the sound of words, uttered by One Whom never man spake like, they are aroused by the pleasing recognition to open to Him, and cry, "It is the voice of my Beloved!" Happy souls! they "hear and follow If like Mephibosheth "lame in the feet," it is often their privilege to sit at the King's table, and to receive those sweet portions from Him, which they who are grovelling among the "muck-rakes" of the world are strangers to. But the prevailing APATHY is, notwithstanding these cheering exceptions, a solemn and marked feature of our day. The absorption of mind in, not only the struggle for life, but the general desire for the rapid attainment of wealth, is highly prejudicial to the welfare of the soul. The abounding conformity to the world's spirit and pleasures, among those who assume the profession of religion, is also a bait and a trap to many of the people of God, who have but a shallow experience of either law or Gospel, and who are but seldom "driven with fear, or drawn by love." Society with its parties and amusements tells upon them, and leads to the neglect of the reading of the scriptures, and a cold, perfunctory attendance on the means of grace. From week to week they remain in this carnal state, receiving no visits or tokens from the Lord to refresh their spirits and invigorate them in His ways. Yet they are not altogether at rest within; for a legal spirit leavens them, and often forebodes some approaching trial, by which they fear their nest will be stirred up, and they be bereaved of their comforts and prosperity. And what of the pulpit at the present time ? Are not its occupants in the main fast asleep? Not as respects their intellectual efforts. No: never were these more zealously applied. All the sciences are invoked, and the vast stores of popular and erudite literature are drawn upon to rouse into action. But to rouse what? Not the spiritual desires of the heaven-born soul after Christ and the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins. Not to stimulate to the giving of all diligence to make calling and election sure. Not to pursue after a richer and fuller acquaintance with the everlasting love of God the Father. For what care the popular men and their carnal flocks for these things? It is to these things they are asleep while their peril is as great as his who sleeps at the top of a mast. These are the idol shepherds: (so-called for their devotion to their numerous idols, whether they be those of ancient Babylon, Greece or Rome, or the modern gods of Rome, or the Esthetics of refined Morality and Intellectuality); and their aim is to glorify Human Nature and deify Carnal Reason. It is thus they "lull to sleep" the consciences of the carnal throng, who gather together to listen to their lectures, and to worship their talent, and drink in the rich strains of music provided for their entertainment. And thus that "Kingdom of God," which "is not in word but in power," becomes the laughing-stock with the fashionably religious; and its preachers are despised, as was David by Michael when he danced before the ark. For them the Lord's table and the card table, the church (or grand chapel) and the opera house, the sacred anthem and the strains of Venus and |