On Thy Promises

“All the promises of God in Him are Tea, and in Him Amen.” — 2 Cob. i. 20.

God has made a Will, or Testament, in behalf of His people! It is signed and sealed. It cannot be altered — nothing can denude ns of our patrimony. The bequest is His own “exceeding great and precious promises.” “What a heritage! — All that the sinner requires — all that the sinner’s God can give. In this testamentary deed there are no contingencies, no peradventures. The testator commences it with the sure guarantee for its every jot and tittle being fulfilled,” Yerily, verily, /say unto you!” He endorses every promise, and every page, with a “Yea, and Amen.”” God, willing more abundantly to show to ib THE NIGHT WATCHES.

the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath!”

But who provided such a rich Promise Treasury? What is the source, where the fountain-head, from which these streams of mercy flow to the Church? “Z?i Him.” Believer! from Jesus every promise is derived — in Jesus every promise centres! Pardon, peace, adoption, consolation, eternal life — all “in Him!” In Him you are “chosen,” ‘’called,” “justified,” “sanctified,” “glorified.” You have in possession all the blessings of present grace; you have in reversion all the happiness of coming glory: and “He is faithful that promised!” Your friend may deceive thee — the world has deceived you — He never will! Myriads in glory are there to tell how “not one thing hath failed of all that the Lord their God hath spoken.” Rely on this faithfulness — He gave His Son for you. After the greater blessing, surely for subordinate ones you may trust Him.

And where do these promises beam most

brightly? Like the stars, it is in the night! In the midnight of trial — when the sun of earthly prosperity has set — when deep is calling to deep, and wave to wave; when tempted, bereaved, beaten down with “a great fight of afflictions” — the spiritual firmament, with its galaxy of Promises, will be brightest and clearest!

“Oh! who could bear life’s stormy doom,

Did not Thy Word of Love Come brightly bearing through the gloom,

A Palm-branch from above? Then sorrow touch’d by Thee grows bright,

With more than rapture’s ray;
Ab darkness shows us worlds of light

We never saw by day!”

But be not deceived; the night of sorrow cannot in itself give you the comfort of the Divine Promises. It may be night, and yet the stars invisible. It is only “in Him’’^ these promises can be discerned in their lusti’e. My soul! if “out of Christ,” these stars of Gospel promise shine in vain to thee; they have to the unspiritual eye no beauty or brightness. In the midnight battle of Barak, “the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” They shone on Israel, but denied their light to the enemies of God. The guiding pillar, so lustrous to the chosen people, was a column of portentous gloom to Pharaoh’s host. But ‘• in Him’’^ as “heirs of God,” ye are inheritors of “all the promises.” All the promises! Oh! with such a pillow whereon to rest your aching head, you may well resume your nightly song —

“l ‘WILL BOTH LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP”, FOR THOU, LORD, ONLY MAKEST ME DWELL IN SAFETY 1”