wicked one." Art thou as a "father," grown old in the service of the Best of Masters ?-here is the unerring and consolatory Word wherein thou mayest "know Him that is from the beginning," whom time cannot change, whom age cannot enfeeble, and whose love and wisdom cannot decay. In that Word, He has said, "I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee." Dear aged pilgrim, take this promise for thy staff. Grasp it firmly with the hand of faith. Go forward resolutely through this wilderness, leaning upon it; and ever and anon, as thou advancest, look upward to Jesus saying, "Remember Thy word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope," Psa. cxix. 49; and then through the remaining states of thy pilgrimage, He will enable thee "boldly to say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Heb. xiii. 6.

IX.

Manifold Benefits Flowing out of the Character of God.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.-Verses 8, 9, 10.

HAVING separately enumerated seven special benefits which he had received from his God, the Psalmist returns to his most cherished theme, and expatiates with delight on seven-fold excellencies of Jehovah. He appears to feel that he can never speak enough of the goodness of his Redeemer, nor sufficiently extol the freeness, and the fulness, of His forgiving love. The heart of the Psalmist glows with emotion, “and while he is musing the fire burns within him." The mercies of the Lord appear so vast, and His kindnesses so varied and innumerable, that he can no longer stay to specify each individual blessing singly and by itself. Streams of refreshment had continually crossed his path, through all his earthly pilgrimage; and now, when he attempts, in his own thoughts, to trace up each of them to its source, he finds that they all issue out of the same overflowing fountain. He turns, therefore, to drink of that fountain

itself, and he finds it to be full, and free, and satisfying to his soul. The unnumbered and varied mercies which he had successively tested, he here finds in their sum and substance, there essence and their perfection. God in Christ is that Fountain. With ravished heart, therefore, he now sets himself to the contemplation of this glorious Being, from whom all mercies flow; and he exclaims, "All my springs are in Thee." Psa. lxxxvii. 7.

It is in the character of God, revealed in Jesus, that our strength and our security, our peace and our happiness, are all centered. From the best gifts, the richest graces, the dearest friends, we must rise upward to God. Therefore, David says, "My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defence. I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God." Psa. lxii. 5-7. The knowledge of God was spiritual life-" eternal life," to the heart of the Psalmist. He knew the Lord not only in His attributes and acts, but also in His character and feelings. "It is not,” as if he had said,-"it is not only in what God has done for me, but in what God Himself is to me, that I most exceedingly rejoice!" Therefore, his determined resolution. was this: "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord." Psa. xxxiv. 2. See how he exemplifies this resolution in the eighteenth Psalm : "I will love Thee, Oh Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God; my strength in whom I will trust: my buckler; and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." With

a similarly joyful and appropriating faith, does the Psalm

ist pour forth his gratitude in this hundred and third Psalm. In this portion of it, David appears to delight himself exceedingly in the Lord his God. He exults in the twofold persuasion, that whatever is good, or useful, or desirable, is centred in God; and secondly, that whatsoever God thus is, and has, He is to him, and has for him, and that for ever, through Christ Jesus. Blessed persuasion! It is at once the sure foundation, and the crowning topstone, of all true happiness. May this persuasion be ours in life and death! God is the Fountain of all blessedness-a Fountain, the healing virtue of which, to fallen man, freely and fully flows, through the pierced heart of His only Son, and our Elder Brother: "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." Colos. i. 19. Yea, again, adds the Apostle, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Coloss. ii. 9. And all this fulness is made over to us in Him; whether things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. iii. 32. St. John, who lay in the bosom of that Fulness, thus invites us all to become partakers of it with himself: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you,.that your joy may be full." 1 John i. 3, 4. The "joy" of the Psalmist, as a partaker of this Divine fellowship, was "full" to overflowing with these sevenfold benefits-"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; He will not always

chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."

The Lord is most compassionate and "merciful" in His thoughts and feelings towards us, and He is truly "gracious" in His manner of expressing these feelings, and of manifesting that mercy. Instead of being swift to punish, as He might justly be, He is "slow to anger;" and so far from being easily provoked, and soon exhausted in patience by repeated offences, on the very contrary "He is plenteous in mercy." God may occasionally hide His face from His people-but "He doth not always chide." He may take vengeance on their inventions, and punish them with His rod,—but “He doth not keep His anger for ever." No man may doubt or deny these six truths, for this is the proof and evidence of them all-" He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ?" Is there one of our shortcomings, or our transgressions, which He has visited as it deserves; or as our omissions of duty, and our commissions of offence, are visited by men? How imperatively do these sevenfold blessings demand the immediate gratitude, and the unreserved devotedness, of every hu man being! Where is the individual to be found, upon the surface of the globe, who can prefer a charge against the holy God, and say, He hath laid upon me more than is just? If, on the contrary, we must all acknowledge that He has laid less than He justly might, how powerful, how constraining, how irresistible, becomes the argument, and the obligation, upon every living man to stir himself up with David,