Verses 65–72

65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, 0 Lord, according unto thy word.

THERE is a time for all things in the believer’s experience — for confession, prayer, praise. This Psalm mestly expresses the professions and prayers of the man of God — yet mingled with thankful acknowledgment of mercy. He had prayed, “Deal bountifully with thy servant.” l Perhaps here is the acknowledgment of the answer to his prayer, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word.” And who among us has not daily reason to make the same acknowledgment? Even in those trials, when we have indulged hard thoughts of God, a clearer view of his judgments, and a more simple dependence upon his faithfulness and love, will rebuke our impatience and unbelief, and encourage our trust.2 Subsequent ex perience altered Jacob’s hasty view of the Lord’s dealings with him. In a moment of peevishness, the recollection of the supposed death of a beloved son, and the threatened bereavement of another, tempted him to say, “All these things are against me.” 3 At a ‘If all the sad losses, trials, sicknesses, infirmities, griefs, heaviness, and inconstancy of the creature be expounded to be, as I am sure they are, the rods of the jealousy of a Father in heaven, contending with all your lovers on earth, though there were millions of them, for your love, to fetch it home to heaven, single, unmixed, you will forgive (if we may use that word) every rod of God, and “let not the sun go down upon your wrath” against any messenger of your afflicting and correcting Father.’ — RutherfonTs Letters.

3 Genesis xlii. 36.

brighter period of his day, when clouds were beginning to disperse, we hear that “the spirit of Jacob revived. And Jacob said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive, I will go and see him before I die.” l And when his evening sun was going down almost without a cloud, in the believing act of “blessing the sons of” his beloved “Joseph,” 2 how clearly does he retract the language of his former sinful impatience! — “God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, did walk — the God which fed me all my life long unto this day — the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.” 3 This surely was in the true spirit of the acknowledgment, Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, 0 Lord, according to thy word.

And how is it that any of us have ever harboured a suspicion of unbelief? Has God in any one instance falsified his promise? Has “the vision” failed to come at the end? Has it ever “lied?”4 Has he not “confirmed his promise by an oath,” “that we might have two immutable things” as the ground of “strong consolation?”5 Any degree less than the full credit that he deserves, is admitting the false principle, that God is a man that he should lie, and the son of man that he should repent. It weakens the whole spiritual frame, shakes our grasp of the promise, destroys our present comfort, and brings foreboding apprehensions of the future. Whereas, if we have faith and patience to wait, — “in the mount the Lord shall be seen.” 6 “All things” may seem to be “against us,” while at the very moment under the wonder-working hand of God, they are “working together for our good.” 7 When therefore

1 Gen. xlv. 27, 28. 2 Heb. xi. 21.

3 Gen. xlviii. 15, 16. 4 Hab. ii. 3.

5 Heb. vi. 17, 18. 6 Gen. xxii. 14. See Scott in loco. we “are in heaviness through manifold temptations,” and we discover a “needs be” for it all, and “the trial of faith is found unto praise and honour and glory” l — when we are thus reaping the fruitful discipline of our Father’s school,2 must we not put a fresh seal to our testimony, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, 0 Lord?” But why should we delay our acknowledgment till we come out of our trial? Ought we not to give it even in the midst of our “heaviness 1” 3 Faith has enabled many, and would enable us, to “glorify God in the fires;” 4 to “trust” him, even when “walking in darkness, and having no light;” 5 and, even while smarting under his chastening rod, to acknowledge, that he “has dealt well with us.”

But if I doubt the reasonableness of this acknowledgment, then let me, while suffering under trial, endeavour to take up different language. ‘Lord, thou hast dealt ill with thy servant; thou hast not kept thy word.’ If in a moment of unbelief my impatient heart, like Jacob’s, could harbour such a dishonorable suspicion, my conscience would soon smite me with conviction — ‘What! shall I, who am “called out of darkness into marvellous light” — shall I, who am rescued from slavery and death, and brought into a glorious state of liberty and life, complain? Shall I, who have been redeemed at so great a price, and who have a right to “all the promises of God in Christ Jesus,” 6 and who am now an “heir of God, and joint heir with Christ”7 — murmur at my Father’s will? Alas, that my heart should prove so foolish, so weak, so ungrateful! Lord! I

1 1 Peter i. C, 7. 2 Heb. xii. 11.

3 Verses 71, 75. “In every thing (therefore including affliction) by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving” &c. Phil. iv. 6. Compare also 1 Thess. v. 18. 4 Isaiah xxiv. 15.

6 Ib. 1. 10. 6 2 Cor. i. 20. 7 Rom. viii. 17.

would acknowledge with thankfulness, and yet with humiliation, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, according to thy word” But how sinfully do we neglect these honourable and cheering acknowledgments! Were we habitually to mark them for future remembrance, we should be surprised to see how their numbers would multiply. “If we should count them, they are more in number than the sand.”! And truly such recollections — enhancing every common, as well as every special mercy — would come up as a sweet savour to God “by Christ Jesus.”2 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name; and forget not all his benefits.” 3

66. Teach me good judgment and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments.

IF the perception of the Lord’s merciful dealings with my soul is obscure — Teach me good judgment and know ledge. Give me a clear and enlarged apprehension, that I may be ready with my acknowledgment — All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.11 Or even with an enlightened assurance of his wise and faithful dispensations, still would I urge this petition before him, as needful for every step of my path. Indeed this prayer illustrates the simplicity and intelligence of Christian faith — always desiring, asking, and expecting the most suitable blessings. For what blessings can be more suitable to an ignorant sinner, than good judgment and knowledge: “knowledge” of ourselves, of our Saviour, of the way of obedience — and “good judgment,” to

apply this knowledge to some valuable end? These

•

‘Psalm cxxxix. 18. * Hebrews xiii. 15.

3 Psalm «iii. 1, 2. * Ib. xxv. 10.

two parts of our intellectual furniture have a most important connection and dependance upon each other. “Knowledge” is the speculative perception of general truth. “Judgment” is the practical application of it to the heart and conduct. No school, but the school of Christ — no teaching, but the teaching of the Spirit — can ever give this “good judgment and knowledge.” .Solomon asks it for himself — Paul for his people. - Both direct us to God as the sole fountain and author. :<

We cannot fail of observing a very common defect in Christians — warm affections connected with a blind or loose judgment. Hence too often a lightness in religion, equally unsteady in profession and in practice — easily satisfied with a narrow compass in the vast field of Scripture, instead of grasping a full survey of those truths, which are so intimately connected with our Christian establishment and privilege. Much perplexing doubt, discouragement, and fear; much mistaken apprehension of important truth, much coldness and backsliding of heart and conduct, arises from the want of an accurate and full apprehension of the scriptural system.

This prayer has a special application to the tender

1 1 Kings iii. 9. 2 Phil. i. 9, 10. Col. i. 9.

3 Prov. ii. 6. i Cor. i. 5. 2 Tim. i. 7. It is recorded of one of the Reformers, that, when he had well acquitted himself in a public disputation, a friend begged to see the notes, which he had been observed to write, supposing that he had taken down the arguments of his opponents, and sketched the substance of his own reply. Greatly was he surprised to find that they consisted simply of these ejaculatory petitions — ‘More light, Lord, — more light, — more light! ‘How fully was the true spirit of prayer compressed in these short aspirations! Could they fail of success? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James i. 5. Greenham, being asked his judgment of some important matters, answered — ‘Sir, neither am I able to speak, nor you to hear; for we have not prayed. I may indeed talk, and you may answer, as natural men; but we are not now prepared to confer as children of God.’ Works, p. 19.

and sensitive child of God. The disease of his constitution is too often a scrupulous conscience — one of the most active and successful enemies to his settled peace and quietness. The faculty of conscience partakes with every other power of man of the injury of the fall; and therefore, with all its intelligence, honesty, and power, is liable to misconception. Like a defect of vision, it often displaces objects: and, in apparently conflicting duties, that which touches the feeling, or accords with the temper, is preferred to one, which though more remotely viewed, really possessed a higher claim. Thus it pronounces its verdict from the predominance of feeling, rather than from the exercise of judgment — more from an indistinct perception of the subject presented to the mind, than from a simple immediate reference “to the law and testimony.” Again — matters of trivial moment are often insisted upon, to the neglect of important principles.2 External points of offence are more considered, than the habitual mortification of the inward principle. Conformity to the world in dress and appearance is more strongly censured than the general spirit of worldliness in the temper and conduct of outward non-conformists; while the spirit of separation from the world (which may exist in a somewhat wider range of Christian liberty, than the narrow perception of some professors has conceived,3) is

1 ‘Scruple ’ — as Bishop Taylor justly observes — ’ is a little stone in the foot. If you set it on the ground, it hurts you. If you hold it up you cannot go forward. It is a trouble, when trouble is over; a doubt, when doubts are resolved; a little party behind the hedge, when the main army is broken and cleared; and when conscience is instructed in its way, and girt for action, a light trifling reason, or an absurd fear, hinders it from beginning the journey, or proceeding in the way or resting at the journey’s end.’ Duct. Dubitant. Book i. chap. vi. See Calvin’s lively description of scrupulosity in Scott’s Analysis of his Institutes. — Continuation of Milner, iii. 563. 2 Col. ii. 18. 3 See 1 Cor. viii. 4, 7.

totally disregarded. Thus are non-essentials confounded with fundamentals — things indifferent with things unlawful, from a narrow misconception of what is directly forbidden and allowed. Conscience, therefore, must not be trusted without the light of the word of God; and most important is the prayer, “Teach me good judgment and knowledge.”

The exercises of this state of feeling are both endless and causeless. In the well-intended endeavor to guard against a devious track, the mind is constantly harassed with an over-anxious inquiry, whether the right path is accurately discovered; and thus at once the pleasure and the progress of the journey are materially hindered. The influence, therefore, of this morbid sensibility is strenuously to be resisted. It renders the strait way more strait. It retards the work of grace in the soul. It is usually connected with self-righteousness. It savours of, and tends to produce, hard thoughts of God. It damps our cheerfulness in his service, and unfits us for the duty of the present moment. What, however, is more than all to be deprecated, is, that it multiplies sin; or, to speak more clearly, it superinduces another species of sin, besides the actual transgression of the law of God. For opposition to the dictates of conscience in any particular is sin, even though the act itself may be allowed by the law of God. We may, therefore, sin in the act of doing good, or in obedience to the liberty and enjoyment of the gospel, as well as in the allowed transgression of the law. Indeed, under the bondage of scrupulous conscience, we seem to be entangled in the sad necessity of sinning. The dictates of conscience, even when grounded upon misconception, are authoritative. -

“* ‘Measuring actions by atoms is the way — not to govern, but to disorder, conscience.’ — Bishop Taylor, ut supra. 2 See Romans xiv. 14.” To him that esteemeth anything to be tin-Listening to its suggestions may be sinning against the liberty, wherewith Christ has made us “free,” and in which we are commanded to “s’tand fast.” l No human authority can free from its bonds. Resistance to its voice is disobedience to God’s vicegerent, and therefore. in a qualified sense at least, disobedience to God himself. And thus it is sin, even when that which conscience condemns may be innocent.’ 2

The evil of a scrupulous conscience may often be traced to a diseased temperament of body, to a naturally weak or perverted understanding, to the unfavorable influence of early prejudice — to a want of simple exercise of faith, or perception of the matters of faith. In these cases faith may be sincere, though weak; and the sin, such as it is, is a sin of infirmity, calling for our pity, forbearance, prayer, and help. In many instances, however, wilful ignorance, false shame that will not inquire, or a pertinacious adherence to deep-rooted opinion, is the source of the disease. Now such per sons must be roused, even at the hazard of wounding the conscience of the more tenderly scrupulous. But as the one class decidedly sin, and the other too frequently indulge their infirmity, the excitement will probably be ultimately useful to both. Both need to have the conscience enlightened; and to obtain “a right judgment in all things” — by a more diligent “search in the Scriptures” — by “seeking the law at the mouth of the priest”3 — and, above all, by earnest prayer with the Psalmist —

clean (though clean by the express appointment of God,” Acts x. 9 — 15, 1 Tim. iv. 3 — 5, and only “unclean “therefore by the misconception of conscience) “<o him it is unclean’’’1 — i. e. — he must not touch it upon the ground of conscience — though the gospel allowed the use of it, and it was an infringement of Christian liberty to abstain from it. Thus did his ignorance make to himself an occasion of sin.

1 Gal. v. 1, with iv. 9, 10. 8 Compare Rom. xiv. 20 — 23.

a Mai. ii. 7. See the example of the primitive church. Acts xv. 1, ‘2.

“Teach me good judgment and knowledge.” Thus they will discern between what is imperative, and what is indifferent: what is lawful, and what is expedient. If “whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” then the only prospect of the removal of the doubt will be increase of faith — that is, a more full persuasion of the Divine warrant and instruction. “Howbeit there is not in every one this knowledge; “2 yet the exhortation speaks alike to all — “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 3 Indeed the most favorable symptoms of scrupulosity (except where the disease originates in external causes) partake of the guilt of wilful ignorance; because none can be said sincerely to ask for “good judgment and know ledge” who do not diligently improve all means of obtaining it. If, therefore, the scrupulous shrink from honestly seeking the resolution of their difficulties in private conferences (where they are to be had) lith ministers or experienced Christians, so far they must be considered as wilfully ignorant. We would indeed “receive them,” “bear with their infirmities,” 4 and encourage them to expect relief from their hard bondage in the way of increasing diligence, humility, and prayer. While their minds are in doubt concerning the path of duty, their actions must be imperfect and unsatisfactory. Let them therefore wait, inquire, and pray, until their way be made plain. This done, let them act according to their conscience, allowing nothing that it condemns, neglecting nothing which it requires. The responsibility of error, (should error be eventually detected) will not be — the too implicit following of the guidance of conscience — but the want of due care and diligence for its more clear illumination. Generally, however, the rule will

1 Romans xiv. 5. 2 1 Cor. viii. 7.

3 2 Peter iii. 18. 4 Rom. xiv. 1: xv. 1.

apply — “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”1

But, besides the scrupulous conscience, the imperfectly enlightened conscience presents a case equally to be deprecated. Often does it charge to a sinful source those incessant variations of feeling, which originate in bodily indisposition, or accidental influence of temptation. Sins of infirmity are confounded with sins of indulgence; occasional with habitual transgressions of duty. Only a part of the character is brought under cognizance; and while short comings or surprisals are justly condemned; yet the exercise of contrition, faith, love, and watchfulness, is passed by unnoticed. Thus the gospel becomes the very reverse of the appointment of its gracious Author.2 It brings ashes for beauty, mourning for the oil of joy, and the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. If this evil is “not a sin unto death,” it is “a sore evil under the sun,” which may often give occasion for the prayer — “Teach me good judgment and knowledge;” that, in the simplicity of faith, I may be blessed with a tender conscience, and be delivered from the bondage of a scrupulous, and from the perplexity of an unenlightened conscience. Let my heart never condemn me where it ought not. Let it never fail to condemn me where it ought.

But alas! the perception of our need of this “good judgment and knowledge,” is far too indistinct and uninfluential. We need to cry for these valuable blessings with deeper earnestness, and more diligent and patient

1 Matthew vi. 22. Compare Prov. xxiv. 5. For a similar view of this case, see Baxter’s Christian Directory, Book i. chap. iii. The sacrifices appointed for sins of ignorance under the law, (Lev. iv.) mark God’s sense of this case: while the frequent breaches of Christian unity and forbearance arising from it may well justify this extended consideration of it.

2 Compare Isaiah lxi. 3.

waiting upon God. Divine wisdom is a treasury, that does not spend by giving; and we may ask to be enriched to the utmost extent of our wants, “in full assurance of faith.” But this faith embraces the whole revelation of God — the commandments as well as the promises. And thus it becomes the principle of Christian obedience. For can we believe these commandments to be as they are represented — “holy, just, and good,” and not delight in them? l “In those is continuance” — saith the prophet — “and we shall be saved.” 2 Convinced of their perfection, acknowledging their obligations, loving them, and living in them, we shall “come to full age” in the knowledge of the Gospel, and, “by reason of use have our senses exercised to discern good and evil.”3

67. Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word.

THE teaching of good judgment and knowledge will lead us to deprecate, instead of desiring, a prosperous state. But should the Christian, by the appointment of God, be thrown into this seductive atmosphere, he will feel the prayer that is so often put into his lips, most peculiarly expressive of his need — “In all time of our wealth — Good Lord! deliver us!” 4 A time of wealth is indeed a time of special need. It is hard to restrain the flesh, when so many are the baits for its indulgence. Such mighty power is here given to the enemy, while our perception of his power is fearfully weakened! Many and affecting instances are recorded of the heart of the Lord’s people,

1 Rom. vii. 12, with 22. 2 Isaiah lxiv. 5.

3 Hebrews v. 14. * Litany.

in the deadening influence of a proud and worldly spirit. But the unmitigated curse to the ungodly is written as with a sun-beam for our warning — “When Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked — I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; hut thou saidst, I will not hear.”2 But how awful will be the period, when the question shall speak to the conscience with all the poignancy of self-conviction — “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” What is the end of this flowery path? “Death?”3 “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castest them down into destruc* tiou. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! They are uttterly consumed with terrors! “4 “the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”5

Our Saviour’s allotment for his people — “In the world ye shall have tribulation“6 — marks not less his wisdom than his love. This is the gracious rod, by which he scourges back his prodigal children to himself. This is the wi.;e discipline, by which he preserves them from the poisoned sweetness of carnal allurements, and keeps their hearts in a simple direction towards himself, as the well-spring of their everlasting joy. With all of them this one method has been pursued. All have been taught in one school. All have known the power of affliction in some of its varied forms of inward conflict or outward trouble. All have found a time of affliction a time of love. All have given proof, that the pains bestowed upon them have not been in vain. Thus did Mauasseh in affliction beseech” the Lord, and humble

1 The histories of David, 1 Chron. xxi. 1 — 4; Solomon, 1 Kings xi. 1 — 8; Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 16; and Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25 — 32, will readily occur to the mind.

£ Dent, xxxii. 15. Jer. xxii. 21. 3 Rom. vi. 21.

4 Psalm lxxiii. 18, 19. 5 Prov. i. 32.

8 John xvi. 33. Act* xiv. 22. 1 Thess. iii. 3.

himself greatly before the Lord God of his fathers.” l Thus also in afflictions the Lord “heard Ephraim bemoaning himself;” 2 and beheld Israel “seeking him early,” 3 and the forlorn wandering child casting a wishful, penitent look towards his Father’s house, as if the pleasures, that had enticed his heart from home, were now embittered to the soul.4

And thus the Christian can give some account of the means by which his Father is leading and preparing him for heaven. Perhaps he did not at first see the reason.5 It was matter of faith, not of consciousness, But in looking back, how clear the path, how valuable the benefit — Before I was afflicted, I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. I never prized it before. I could, indeed, scarcely be said to know it. I never understood its comfort until affliction expounded it to me. I never till now saw its suitableness to my case. But what an heightened aggravation of guilt, when these especial mercies fail of their gracious end — when vanity, worldliness, and sin still reign with uncontrolled sway! Ah! when sinners are unhumbled “under the mighty hand of God” — when they are afflicted, and not purged by affliction — when it is said of them — “They received not correction” 6 — it seems the forerunner of that tremendous judgment — “Why should ye be stricken any more.” 7

Heavenly Father! keep thy poor weak erring child from this fearful doom. Let not that measure of prosperity, which thou mayest be pleased to vouchsafe, prove my curse. But especially let every cross, every affliction, which thou art pleased to mingle in my cup,

: 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12. Compare Daniel iv. 30, 37. 2 Jer. xxxi. 18, 19. 3 Hosea v. 15; vi. ], 2.

* Luke xv. 16, 17. 6 See Heb. xii. 11.

6 Zcph. iii. 2. 7 Kaiah i. 5.

conform me more to my Saviour’s image, restrain my heart from its daily wanderings, endear thy holy ways and word to my soul, and give me sweeter anticipations of that blessed home, where I shall never wander more, but find my eternal happiness in “keeping thy word.”

68. Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

THE blessed effects of chastisement, as a special instance of the Lord’s goodness, might naturally lead to a general acknowledgement of the goodness of his character and dispensation. Judging in unbelieving haste, of his providential and gracious dealings, feeble sense imagines a frown, when the eye of faith discerns a smile, upon his face; and therefore in proportion as faith is exercised in the review of the past, and the experience of the present, we shall be prepared with the ascription of praise — “Thou art good.” This is indeed the expression * — the confidence 2 — the pleading3 — of faith. It is the sweet taste of experience — checking the legality of the conscience, the many hard and dishonorable thoughts of God, and invigorating a lively enjoyment of him. Indeed ’ this is the true and genuine character of God. He is good4 — He is goodness. Good in himself — good in his essence — good in the highest degree. All the names of God are comprehended in this one of “Good.” 5 All the acts of

1 Heb. xi. (J. 2 Nab. i. 7. Psalm xxv. 7; lxxxvi. 5.

4 Ib. xxxiv. 8, with Micah vii. 18.

5 The revealed “goodness” of God made to Moses in answer to bis prayer — “I beseech thee show me thy glory” — shows it to be not a single attribute, or a display of any particular feature of the Divine character, but rather the combined exercise of all his perfections. Exodus xxxiii. 18, 19. with xxxiv. 5 — 7.

God are nothing else but the effluxes of his goodness, distinguished by several names according to the object it is exercised about. When he confers happiness without merit, it is grace. When he bestows happiness against merit, it is mercy. When he bears with provoking rebels, it is long-suffering. When he performs his promise, it is truth. When he commiserates a distressed person, it is pity. When he supplies an indigent person, it is bounty. When he succours an innocent person, it is righteousness. And when he pardons a penitent person, it is mercy. All summed up in this one name — Goodness. None so communicatively good as God. As the notion of God includes goodness, so the notion of goodness includes diffusiveness. Without goodness he would cease to be a Deity; and without diffusiveness he would cease to be good. The being good is necessary to the being God. For goodness is nothing else in the notion of it but a strong inclination to do good, either to find or to make an object, wherein to exercise itself, according to the propension of its own nature. And it is an inclination of communicating itself, not for its own interest, but for the good of the object it pitcheth upon. Thus God is good by nature; and his nature is not without activity. He acts consistently with his own nature; — “Thou art good, and doest good.’” ’

How easily is such an acknowledgment excited towards an earthly friend! Yet who has not daily cause to complain of the coldness of his affections towards his God? It would be a sweet morning’s reflection to recollect some of the innumerable instances, in which the goodness of God has been most distinctly marked; to trace them in their peculiar application to our own need; and above all to mark, not only the source from which they come, but the channel through which they flow. A view of covenant love does indeed make the goodness of God to shine with inexpressible brightness “in the face of Jesus Christ;” l and often when the heart is conscious of backsliding, does the contemplation of this “goodness” under the influence of the Spirit, prove the Divinelyappointed means of “leading us to repentance.” 2 Let us therefore wait on, even when we see nothing. Soon wre shall see, where we did not look for it. Soon we shall find goodness unmingled — joy unclouded, unspeakable, eternal.

Meanwhile, though the diversified manifestations — the materials of our happiness-^in all around us — be countless as the drops of sand and the particles of dew — yet without heavenly teaching they only become occasions of our deeper misery and condemnation. It is not enough that the Lord gives — he must teach us his statutes. Divine truths can only be apprehended by Divine teaching. The scholar, who has been longest taught, realizes most his need of this teaching, and is most earnest in seeking it. Indeed “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,” yet we may be utterly ignorant of it. The instances of goodness in the shape of a cross, we consider to be the reflection on it. Nothing is goodness in our eyes that crosses our own inclination. We can hardly bear to hear of the cross, much more to take it up. We talk of goodness, but yield to discontent. We do not profess to dislike trial — only the trial now pressing upon us — any other cross than this — that is, my will and wisdom rather than God’s. Is there not therefore great need of this prayer

1 2 Cor. iv. G. * Rom. ii. 4.

for Divine teaching, that we may discern singly the Lord’s mercies so closely crowded together, and make the due improvement of each? Twice before had the Psalmist sent up this prayer and plea. Yet he seems to make the supplication ever new by the freshness and vehemency of his desires. And let me ever make it new by the remembrance of that one display of goodness, which casts every other manifestation into the shade — “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.”2

This constitutes of itself a complete mirror of infinite and everlasting goodness — the only intelligent display of his goodness — the only manifestation, that prevents from abusing it. What can I say to this — but “Thou art good, and doest good?” What may I not then expect from thee! ’ “Teach me thy statutes.” Teach me the Revelation of thyself — Teach me the knowledge of thy Son. For “this is life eternal, that I might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” ’ 3

69. The proud have forged a lie against me; but I will kept thy precepts with my whole heart.

IF the Lord does us good, we must expect Satan to do us evil. Acting in his own character, as a “liar and a father of it,” 4 he readily puts it into the hearts of his children to “forge lies against” the children of God! But all is over-ruled by the ever-watchful care and providence of God for the eventual good of his church. The cross frightens the insincere, and removes them out of the way; while the stedfastness of his own people

1 Verses 12, 64. Comp. Psalm xxv. 8. - John iii. 16.

* Ibid. xvii. 3.” Ibid. viii. 44.

marvellously displays to the world the power and triumph of faith. A most delightful source of encouragement in this fiery trial is to take off the eye from the objects of sense, and to fix it upon Jesus as our pattern, no less than our life. For every trial, in which we are conformed to his suffering image, supplies to us equal direction and support. Do “the proud forge lies against us?“” So did they against him. “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple, that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household.”2 “Consider him therefore, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”8

But is it always “lies that are forged against us?” Is there no worldliness, or pride, or inconsistency in temper and walk, that opens the mouths of the enemies of the gospel, and causes “the way of truth to be evil spoken of?” 4 Do they not sometimes say all manner of evil against some us, for Christ’s sake; yet alas! not altogether “falsely;” 5 “Woe unto the world, because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man, by whom the offence cometh!” 6 If however the reproach of the world be “the reproach of Christ,” “let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.”7 Insincerity of heart can never support us to a consistent and persevering endurance of the cross. A heart divided between God and the world will ever be found faulty and backsliding.8 Wholeness

1 Comp. Matt. xxvi. ,59 — 61. 2 Ibid. x. 24, 25.

3 Heb. xii..’3. 4 2 Peter ii. 2.

5 See Matt. v. 11. 6 Ibid, xviii. 7.

7 Heb. x. 23. 8 Comp. Hosea x. 2. Jer. iii. 10.

of heart in the precepts of God adorns the Christian profession, awes the ungodly world, realizes the full extent of the Divine promises, and pours into the soul such a spring-tide of enjoyment, as more than counter balances all the reproach, contempt, and falsehood, which the forge of the great enemy is employing against us with unceasing activity, and relentless hatred. Yet forget not, believer, that these proofs of the malicious enmity of the proud must often be received as the gentle stroke of your Father’s chastisement. Let the fruits of it then be daily visible in the work of mortification — in the exercise of the suffering graces of the gospel — in your growing conformity to his image — and in a progressive meetness for the world of eternal uninterrupted love.

70. Their heart is as fat as grease: but I delight in thy law.

AN awful description of the hardened state of the proud forgers of lies! Yet not of their state only, but of every sinner who stands out in wilful rebellion against God. The tremendous blow of Almighty justice has benumbed his heart, so that the pressure of mountains of sin and guilt is unfelt! The heart is left of God, “seared with a hot iron,” ’ and therefore without tenderness; “past feeling; “2 unsoftened by the power of the word; unhumbled by the rod of providential dispensations, given up to the heaviest of all spiritual judgments! But it is of little avail to stifle the voice of conscience, unless the same power or device could annihilate hell. It will only” awake out of sleep, like

1 1 Timothy iv. 1. * Eph. iv. 18, 19.

a gaint refreshed with wine,” ] and rage with ten-fold interminable fury in the eternal world, from the temporary restraint, which for a short moment had benumbed its energy. “Wilful resistance to the light of the gospel, and the strivings of the Spirit, constrained even from a God of love the message of judicial abandonment —” Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.“2 Who then among us will not cry, From hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and commandment, Good Lord! deliver us! 3 Tenderness is the first mark of the touch of grace, when the heart becomes sensible of its own insensibility, and contrite on account of its own hardness. ‘Nothing,’ said Jerome, in a letter to a friend, ’ makes my heart sadder, than that nothing makes it sad.’ But when” the plague of our own heart” begins to be “known,“4 and becomes matter of confession, humiliation, and prayer; the promise of “a new heart,” is as life from the dead,” The subject of this promise delights in God’s law; and this, amidst the sometimes overwhelming power of natural corruption, gives a satisfactory witness of a change “from death unto life.”

Christian! can you daily witness the wretched condition of the ungodly, without the constraining recollection of humiliation and love? What sovereign grace, that the Lord of glory should have set his love upon one so vile! 6 What mighty power to have raised my insensible heart to that delight in his law, which comforms me to the image of his dear Son! 7 Deeply would I” abhor

1 Psalm lxxviii. 66, P. T. 2 Isaiah vi. 9, 10.

3 Litany. * I Kings viii. 38.

5 Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 6 Eph. ii. 4, 5.

7 See Psalm xl. 8.

VERSt 71. 189

myself; “and gladly would I acknowledge, that the service of ten thousand hearts would be a poor return for such unmerited love. What, O “what shall I render to the Lord!” 1 Prayer for them who are still lying in death — praise for myself quickened from death. But what can give the vital breath, pulse, feeling, and motion? “Come from the four winds, O breath; and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”:

Let us apply, for the purpose of daily self-examination, this description of the heart, either as given up to its natural insensibility, or as cast into the new mould of “delight in the law of God.” Such an examination will prove to us, how much even renewed souls need the transforming, softening influences of grace. “The deceitfulness of sin hardens the heart” 3 to its original character, “as fat as grease” unfeeling, incapable of impression, without a divine touch. 0 Lord, let not my heart be unvisited for one day, one hour, by that melting energy of love, which first made me feel, and constrained me to love.

71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

IF I mark in myself any difference from the ungodly — if I can feel that my natural insensibility is yielding to the influence of grace — if I am enabled to “delight in God’s law,” which before I had neglected as a “strange thing,”4 if this softening transformations has been wrought in the school of affliction; let me thankfully acknowledge, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” None indeed but the Lord’s scholars can

1 Psalm cxvi. 12. 2 Ezek. xxxvii. 9. 3 Heb. iii. 13.

4 Hosea viii. 12. 5 Job xxiii. 16.

know the benefit of this school, and this teaching. The first lessons are usually learned under the power of the words pricking and piercing the heart; yet issuing in joyous good. All special lessons afterward will probably be learned here. 2 ‘I never,’ said Luther, ’ knew the meaning of God’s word, until I came into affliction. I have always found it one of my best schoolmasters. ’ 3 This teaching marks the sanctified from the unsanctified cross, explaining many a hard text, and sealing many a precious promise — the rod expounding the word, and the Divine Teacher effectually applying both.

Indeed, but for this discipline we should miss much of the meaning and spiritual blessing of the word. For how can we have any experimental acquaintance with the promises of God, under those circumstances, for which the promises are made? When, for example, but in the day of trouble, could we understand the full mercy of such a gracious word, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” 4 And how much more profitable is this experimental learning than mere human instruction! When therefore we pray for a clearer apprehension and interest in the blessed book, and for a deeper experience of its

1 Acts ii. 37 — 47; xvi. 27 — 34. 2 See Job xxxvi. 8 — 10.

3 On another occasion, referring to some spiritual temptation on the morning of the preceding day, he added to a friend (Justin Jonas), ‘Doctor, I must mark the day; I was yesterday at school.’ Milner v. 484. In one of his works, he most accurately calls affliction ’ the theology of Christians’ — ’ theologium Christianorum.’ To the same purport is the testimony of a learned French divine and tried saint of God — ‘I have learned more divinity,’ said Dr. Rivet, confessing to God of his last days of affliction — ‘in these ten days that thou art come to visit me, than I did in fifty years before. Thou hast brought me to myself. “Before I was afflicted I went astray.” and was in the world; but now I am conversant in the school of my God; and he teacheth me after another manner than all those doctors, in reading whom I spent so much time.’ — Middletons Biog. Evan. iii. 238. 4 Psalm 1. 15.

power upon our hearts; we are in fact often unconsciously supplicating for the chastening rod of our Father’s love. For it is the man “whom the Lord chasteneth, that he “teacheth out of his law.” ‘Peter indeed, when on the mount of transfiguration, said, “It is good for us to be here. Let us build here three tabernacles.” Here let us abide in a state of comfort, indulgence, and sunshine. But well was it added by the sacred historian, “Not knowing what he said.” 2 The judgment of David was far more correct, when he pronounced, that “it was good for him that he had been afflicted.” For so often are we convicted of inattention to the voice of the Lord — so often do we find ourselves looking back upon forsaken Sodom, or lingering in the plains, instead of pressing onward to Zoar, 3 that the indulgence of our own liberty would shortly hurry us along the pathway of destruction. Alas! often do we feel the spirit of prayer to be quenched for a season by “a heart overcharged with the cares of this life” 4 — or by the overprizing of some lawful comfort — or by a temper inconsistent with our Christian profession — or by an undue confidence in the flesh. And at such season of backsliding, we must count among our choicest mercies, the gracious discipline, by which the Lord schools us with the cross, “that we may learn his statutes.”

After all however, this must be a paradox to the unenlightened man. He can only “count it” all grief,

1 Psalm xciv. 12. The use of the word iratSeia in the acceptation of chastening (LXX. in this verse, and Heb. xii. 5.) is remarkable, as describing literally the instruction, by which a child is trained to the acquisition of useful knowledge, which, however, not being generally effected without chastening, accounts for the use of the word, to mark the discipline which usually attends instruction.

2 Luke ix. 33. 3 Compare Gen. xix. 17 — 23.

4 Luke xxi. 34.

not “all joy, when he falls into divers temptations.” l His testimony is — It is evil — not it is good for me that I have been afflicted. And even God’s children, as we have before remarked, do not always take up this word while smarting under the rod. The common picture of happiness is freedom from trouble, not, as scripture describes it, 2 the portion of trouble. Yet how true is God’s judgment, when it is the very end of affliction to remove the source of all trouble, 3 and consequently to secure — not to destroy — solid happiness. Yet we must determine the standard of real good by its opposition — not its accordance — to our own fancy or indulgence. The promise of “every good thing” may be fulfilled by a plentiful cup of affliction. 4 Present evil may be “working together for” ultimate “good.”5 Let God take his own way with us. 6 Let us interpret his providences by his covenant 7 — his means by his end, 8 and instead of fainting under the sharpness of his rod, earnestly desire the improvement of it.

Are you, then, tried believer, disposed to regret the lessons you have already learned in this school? Or have you purchased them at too dear a cost? Do you grieve over the bleedings of a contrite heart, that have brought you under the care of the healing physician? Or could you by any other way have obtained so rich a knowledge of his, love, or have been trained to such implicit obedience to his will? As Jesus, “though he were a Son, yet learned obedience by the things that he suifered;” 9 so may we “rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of his sufferings,” 10 and be thankful to

1 James i. 2. 2 Job v. 17. 3 Isaiah xxvii. 9.

4 Psalm xxxiv. 10, 19. 5 Rom. viii. 28. Comp. Jer. xxiv. 5.

8 Ib. xxix. 11. John xvi. 6, 7. 7 Gen. xxxii. 10 — 12.

8 James v. 11. 9 Heb. v. 8.

10 1 Peter iv. 13.

learn the same obedience, as the evidence and fruit of our conformity to him.

The Lord save us from the greatest of all afflictions, an affliction lost I1 “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.”2 “He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”3 A call to tremble and repent, to watch and pray, and “turn to him that smiteth us!”4

Oh! is there one of that countless throng surrounding the everlasting throne, who has not sung, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted?” “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”5

72. The law of thy mouth is better unto me, than thousands of gold and silver.

WELL might David acknowledge the benefit of affliction, since he had thus “learned in God’s statutes” some thing that was “better to him than thousands of gold and silver.” This was indeed an enlightened judgment for one to form, who had so small a part of “the law of God’s mouth,” and so large a portion of this world’s treasure. And yet, if we study only his book of Psalms to know the important uses and privileges of this law,

1 Compare 1 Kings xiii. 33. 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. 1 Jer. vi. 8. 3 Prov. xxix. 1.

4 Isaiah ix. 13. 6 Rev. vii. 13, 14.

K and his son’s book of Ecclesiastes, to discover the real value of paltry gold and silver,1 we shall, under divine teaching, be led to make the same estimate for ourselves. Yes, believer, with the same, or rather with far higher delight than the miser calculates his “thousands of gold and silver,” do you tell out the precious contents of the law of your God. After having endeavoured in vain to count the “thousands” in your treasure, one single name sums up their value — “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”2 Would not the smallest spot of ground be estimated at “thousands of gold and silver,” were it known to conceal under its surface a mine of inexhaustible treasure? This it is that makes the word so inestimable. It is the field of the “hidden treasure.” “The pearl of great price”3 is known to be concealed here. You would not therefore part with one leaf of your Bible for all the “thousands of gold and silver.” You know yourself to be in possession of the substance — you have found all besides to be a shadow. “I lead,” saith the Saviour, “in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment; that I may cause them that love me to inherit substance; and I will Jill their treasures.”4 The grand motive therefore in “searching the Scriptures,” is because “they testify of Christ.”5 A sinner has but one want — a Saviour. A believer has but one desire — to “know and win Christ.”6 With a “single eye,” therefore, intent upon one point, he studies this blessed book. “With unveiled face he beholds in this glass the glory of the Lord;”7 and no arithmetic can compute the price of that, which is now unspeakably better to him than the treasures of the earth. Christian! bear your testimony to your supreme

1 Eccles. v. 9 — 20; vi. 1,2. 2 Eph. iii. 8.

3 Matt. xiii. 44 — 46. 4 Prov. viii. 20, 21.

5 John v. 39. 6 Phil. iii. 8 — 10. * 2 Cor. iii. 18.

delight in the book of God. You have here opened the surface of much intellectual interest and solid instruction. But it is the joy that you have found in the revelation of the Saviour, in his commands, in his promises, in his ways, that leads you to exclaim, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold!”1 Yes, indeed — every promise — every declaration — centering in him, is a pearl; and the word of God is full of these precious pearls. If then they be the richest, who have the best and the largest treasure, those who have most of the word in their hearts — not those who have most of the world in their possession — are justly entitled to this pre-eminence. “Let then the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom.”2 For those who are rich in this heavenly treasure are men of substance indeed.

True — this is a correct estimate of the worth of God’s law — better than this world’s treasure. But is it better to me? Is this my decided choice? How many will inconsiderately acknowledge its supreme value, while they yet hesitate to relinquish even a scanty morsel of earth for an interest in it! Do I then habitually prefer “this law of God’s mouth” to every worldly advantage; am I ready to forego every selfish consideration,3 if it may only be the means of uniting my heart more closely to the Book of God? If this be not my practical con viction, I fear I have not yet opened the mine. But if I can assent to this declaration of the man of God, I have made a far more glorious discovery than Archi-

1 Psalm xix. 10. Col. iii. 1C.

3 A Jewish Rabbi, when induced by the prospect of a lucrative situation to fix his settlement in a place where there teas no synagogue, ps said to have resisted the temptation by the recollection of this verse. Poli Synopsis — in loco. A reproof to Christians, who, in “choosing the bounds of their habitation,” have not always eyed their Master’* rule. Matt. vi. 33.

K 2 medes; and therefore may take up his expression of joyful surprise — f I have found it! I have found it! ‘What? That which the world could never have given me — that which the world can never deprive me of.

Yet how affecting is it to see men poor in the midst of great riches! Often in the world we see the possessor of a large treasure — without a heart to enjoy it — virtually therefore a pauper. Oftener still in the Church do we see professors (may it not be so with some of us?) with their Bibles in their hands — yet poor even with the external interest in its “unsearchable riches.” Often also do we observe a want of value for the whole law or revelation of God’s mouth. Some parts are highly honoured to the depreciation of the rest. But let it be remembered, that the whole of Scripture is “Scripture given by inspiration of God, and therefore profitable” for its appointed end. Oh! beware of resting satisfied with a scanty stock. How rich should we be, should we ponder only one word of the law each day with prayerful meditation! As you value your progress and peace in the ways of God — as you have an eye to your Christian perfection — put away that ruinous thought — true as an encouragement to the weak,2 but false as an excuse to the slothful3 — that a little knowledge is sufficient to carry us to heaven.

And — Lord — help me to prize the law as coining from “thy mouth.”4 Let it be for ever written upon my heart. Let me be daily exploring my hidden treasures. Let me be enriching myself and all around me with a present possession and interest in these heavenly blessings.

1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Zech. iv. 10.

3 Prov. xiii. 4. 4 1 Thess. ii. 13.