against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." St. Matt. v. 11, 12.

Instead, however, of animating their hearts by the sus taining and exalting view, which these and other Scriptures present, and which our Saviour and His Apostles enjoin, many oppressed believers lose sight of the honor of the cross. They feel their trials in too personal a manner, and too easily therefore become disheartened and cast down. Let them remember that, as it is for Christ's sake they suffer, so it is for Christ's sake that they are to bear, and by His grace to bear patiently. "What glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." 1 Pet. ii. 20. "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed: but let him glorify God on this behalf." 1 Pet. iv. 16.

The Christian is apt to say, "If the charge were true, I could bear it; but to be accused so wrongfully, and to be oppressed without cause, is hard to bear!" Under this trial, the believer is tempted to forget that Jesus his blessed Master, was always accused wrongfully; he becomes also too eager to defend himself, instead of being the more earnest to commit his case to God. An attempt to set himself right amongst worldly men, is not always accompanied with success, and is often attended by further irritation and wounding of the feelings. There are cases where vindication is necessary and becoming; but in a vast number of in

stances the Scriptural rule is at once the safest, and the easiest, "Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." 1 Pet. iv. 19. Live down reproach. Be more diligent than ever in well-doing. Act like Daniel, that no enemy may have any fault to find, save concerning the law of your God, Dan. vi. 5; and soon your once-oppressed Lord will execute righteousness and judgment for your oppressed heart. If, however, you distrust your God, if you doubt whether He will appear on your behalf, that unbelief will lead you to take measures hastily for your own deliverance, and to pursue them eagerly to your own great damage, unless God, in mercy, prevent. Therefore, let us "take heed, lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Heb. iii. 12. When the Lord brings us into trial, we must pray for grace patiently to abide therein, till He Himself bring us out. "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." Psa. xxvii. 14.

By this peculiar form of trial, the Refiner is purifying thy soul. He is assimilating thee to the likeness of thy Lord. We must be made like to Jesus. Of Him, it was emphatically written, "HE WAS OPPRESSED." Isa. liii. 7. This He suffered for thy sake; and to thee, as to the Philippian Christians of old, this double honor is "given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Phil. i. 29. Oh seek, therefore, earnestly seek that the complete will of the Divine Purifier may be ful

filled in thy soul. Seek with St. Paul, "to know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings," and to be "made conformable,” if it were necessary, even "unto His death." Phil. iii. 10. The bruising of the perfume brings out its richest odor. Be thou a willing sufferer of the bruise that heals-a thankful and a pleased bearer of the pressure of The Bruised Hand; then, no longer fretting against this peculiar form of trial, thou wilt bless the All-wise God, thy all-loving Lord, who has appointed it for thy eternal benefit, as well as bless Him also, like David, because He "executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed."

VIII.

The Lord making known His ways to

Men.

He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.-Verse 7.

THE Lord is not only the faithful Avenger of His people's wrongs, but He is also the gracious Instructor of His people's souls. The Psalmist celebrates His goodness in Revelation, as one of the covenanted mercies which he had received. He here specifies it as a delightful subject of his heartfelt thanksgivings : "He hath made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.”

Deeply are we indebted to the Lord, for the Revelation which He has been pleased to make of Himself, of His character, and of His ways. We might have been left to our own unaided imaginations, to our own fancied discoveries. Whither these would have conducted us, experience has amply shown. Man destitute of revelation sinks into the grossness of idolatry, and becomes a blinded worshipper of the host of heaven, of the meanest reptiles, yea, and of the stocks and the stones of the earth. Without the direct teaching of the "Only Wise God," men grope in spiritual darkness. They "seek the Lord, if haply they may feel after

Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us." Acts xvii. 27. It is, therefore, a most gracious instance of the mercy of the Lord towards us, that He condescends to meet the blindness of His creatures, and to manifest Himself to them by the immediate inspiration of His own Spirit. "Bless the Lord," then, O our souls, and all that is within us bless His holy name. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; for He hath made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel."

Among the many peculiar tokens of the Divine favor toward the Hebrew race, this is not the least, that He who dwelleth in the thick darkness revealed Himself to their forefathers, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." Amos iii. 2. Indeed, next to the high honor that "of them as concerning the flesh Christ came," Rom. ix. 5; this is to be regarded as the pride and glory of their nation, "chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." Rom. iii. 2. "He sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.” Psa. cxlvii. 19, 20.

The Lord brought the children of Israel to His footstool. He gave His good Spirit to instruct them, and He set them to be the teachers of the Gentiles. But even amongst these, the Lord hath not wholly left Himself without witness. From the beginning of the world Jehovah had made Himself known in various ways to men. Our first parents heard