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 SABBATHS AT HOME : 
 
 OR, 
 
 A HELP 
 
 TO THEIR RIGHT IMPROVEMENT ; 
 
 FOUNDED ON 
 
 ,4 
 
 THE FORTY-SECOND AND FORTY-THIRD PSALMS : 
 
 INTENDED FOR THE 
 
 USE OF PIOUS PERSONS 
 
 WHEN PREVENTED FROM ATTENDING THE PUBLIC 
 WORSHIP OF GOD: 
 
 BY HENRY MARCH. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 
 NEWBURY: J. BLACKET. 
 
 MDCCCXLHI.
 
 BLACKET, PRINTER, NEWBCKTC.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE Writer of this volume has long considered 
 a work, written expressly on the subject of which 
 it treats, to be a desideratum. That supposed 
 desideratum he has here attempted to supply ; 
 with what success must be left to others to deter- 
 mine. He would have been sincerely happy had 
 the task fallen into more competent hands : but 
 he has done what he could; and, with an un- 
 anxious mind, he leaves the result with God, for 
 to him he has desired to look and to approve him- 
 self in all that he has written. 
 
 In his treatment of the subject, it was satisfac- 
 tory to his mind to found his observations on the 
 word of God, to which he regarded it to be his 
 happiness as well as his duty, to render all 
 A 2
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 reverence and honour. The propriety of selecting 
 
 i 
 the 42nd and 43rd Psalms for this purpose, will, 
 
 he trusts, be at once perceived and acknowledged. 
 
 Observations of a critical nature will not be 
 expected, being foreign from his object, which is 
 professedly practical and devotional. Yet there 
 are two questions respecting the Psalms of which 
 it may be proper that he should take some notice : 
 these relate to their writer, and to the time of 
 their being written. 
 
 About the writer of them, little doubt seems to 
 have arisen, as they have been almost universally 
 ascribed to David, being both in matter and in 
 style so exactly similar to other Psalms which are 
 known to be his ; especially the 63rd, to which his 
 name is prefixed. 
 
 With regard to the time of their being written, 
 some have fixed on the rebellion of Absalom, and 
 others on the persecution of Saul, at both which 
 times David was driven from the house of God. 
 After a careful consideration of the two opinions,
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 the author is " fully persuaded in his own mind " 
 that the latter is the true one, and has written 
 accordingly. But he regards it as a matter of 
 little importance, since, on either hypothesis, the 
 instruction communicated by the Psalms will be 
 materially the same. 
 
 Very sincerely and earnestly does the author 
 entreat the prayers of every devout reader : for 
 himself, that he may have grace to exemplify that 
 which he teaches to others ; and for his book, that 
 it may be the means of good, through the blessing 
 of God, who not unfrequently condescends to 
 benefit his servants and to promote his own honour, 
 by the use of feeble instruments.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. DESIRE. 
 
 Page 
 
 As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for 
 the living God : when shall I come and appear before 
 
 God? 9 
 
 PSALM xlii. 1, 2. 
 
 CHAP. II. MOURNING. 
 
 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they 
 continually say unto me, Where is thy God ? . . . . 56 
 
 Ver. 3. 
 
 CHAP. III. RETROSPECTION. 
 
 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in 
 me ; for I had gone with the multitude, I went with 
 them to the house of God ; with the voice of joy and 
 
 praise, with a multitude that kept holy-day 68 
 
 Ver. 4. 
 
 CHAP. IV. CONFLICT. 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou 
 disquieted in me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
 praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, 
 my soul is cast down within me ; therefore will I remem- 
 ber thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, 
 
 from the hill Mizar 88 
 
 Ver. 5, 6. 
 
 CHAP. V. ANTICIPATION. 
 
 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts : 
 all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet 
 the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my 
 
 prayer unto the God of my life 115 
 
 Ver. 7, 8. 
 
 CHAP. VI. EXPOSTULATION. 
 
 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten 
 me ? why go I mourning because of the oppression of 
 the enemy ? As with a sword in my bones, mine ene- 
 mies reproach me ; while they say unto me daily, where 
 
 is thy God? 144 
 
 Ver. 9, 10. 
 
 CHAP. VII. RELIANCE. 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou 
 disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
 praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and 
 
 myGod 162 
 
 Ver. 11. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. APPEAL. 
 
 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an un- 
 godly nation ; O deliver me from the deceitful and 
 unjust man. For thou art the God of my strength. 
 Why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning be- 
 cause of the oppression of the enemy ? 177 
 
 PSALM xliii. 1, 2. 
 
 CHAP. IX. INTERCESSION. 
 
 O send out thy light and thy truth ; let them lead me, 
 let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy 
 tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, 
 unto God my exceeding joy : yea, upon the harp will I 
 
 praise thee, O God, my God 191 
 
 Ver. 3, 4. 
 
 CHAP. X CONQUEST. 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou 
 disquieted within me ? hope in God, for I shall yet praise 
 him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. 211 
 
 Ver. 5.
 
 SABBATHS AT HOME. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 DESIRE. 
 
 As the hart panteth after tlie icnter-brooks, so 
 panteth my sou! after thee, O God. My soul 
 thirsteth for God, for the lirhfg God: wlten 
 shall I come and appear before God 9 
 
 PSALM xlii. 1, 2. 
 
 TRUE RELIGION IS FOUNDED ON THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE 
 OF GOD. 
 
 _L RUE religion essentially consists in the disposi- 
 tion of the heart towards God : and that which is 
 the right disposition of the heart towards God, is 
 partly reverence and partly love. But it is plainly 
 impossible either to reverence or to love a being of 
 whom we are ignorant. Among mankind, the es- 
 teem which one man entertains of another is the 
 consequence of the knowledge which he has of his 
 character. So is it with respect to God ; we shall 
 then render to him our homage and our love, when 
 we rightly know him. 
 
 B
 
 10 RIGHT KNOWLEDGE 
 
 But where is the right knowledge of God to be 
 obtained ? In the Holy Scriptures ; and there only, 
 for the works of Creation are utterly insufficient to 
 teach us his moral attributes, especially in their 
 relation to sinful beings. ' But a multitude of 
 persons who read, or hear read, the Scriptures, 
 appear to have no true religion.' Still, the reason 
 is, that they have no right knowledge of God. A 
 man maybe intimately acquainted with the contents 
 of the Scriptures, their facts and doctrines, and yet 
 remain destitute of any right knowledge of God, 
 because that knowledge consists not in an opinion 
 of God, but in such a perception of his excellencies 
 as affects the heart, awakens reverence, admiration 
 and love, such a sense of the loveliness of the 
 divine character as begets complacency and delight 
 in the contemplation of it. But no mere reading 
 the scriptures can of itself effect this perception : it 
 is a fruit of divine influence. 
 
 The effect of sin on the human mind has been 
 that of destroying that perception of the excellence 
 and beauty of the divine character with which man 
 was, doubtless, originally endowed. Hence " the 
 natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit 
 of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither 
 can he know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned." Now, of " the things" revealed in the 
 Scriptures by "the Spirit of God," surely none are 
 more highly important than those which relate to 
 the divine character ; for none, therefore, can the
 
 OF GOD. I 1 
 
 divine influence be more certainly necessary in 
 order to their being " spiritually discerned." The 
 divine character is more or less exhibited in all the 
 doings of God recorded in the Scriptures ; and in 
 all the commandments, and promises, and threat- 
 enings, which are only so many different expressions 
 of his will. But its most perfect manifestation is 
 in the person, character, offices, and work of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. " No man hath seen God at 
 any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the 
 bosom of the Father, He hath declared him." In 
 Christ, "who is the Image of the invisible God," 
 are illustriously displayed the divine righteous- 
 ness, wisdom, holiness and love ; and, as beheld 
 in Him, harmoniously combined, they constitute 
 that which is emphatically called "the GLORY of 
 God." To have a spiritual perception, then, of 
 this " glory," is to have a right knowledge of God. 
 But that perception is a fruit of divine influence; 
 it is the consequence of God's "shining into our 
 hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ." It is 
 then that " with open face, beholding as in a glass 
 the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same 
 image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
 Lord." Here then is the foundation of all true 
 religion : God is known, known aright ; his true 
 character is apprehended ; and hence arises a dis- 
 position of heart to reverence his name, to love his 
 excellencies, and to obey his will ; and the soul that
 
 12 DELIGHT 
 
 possesses this disposition, is transformed by the 
 Holy Spirit into the likeness of that " Image" 
 which it delights to contemplate. 
 
 They who know God a rig/it trill delight iff 
 him as the fountain of all good. 
 
 Of this truth, the experience of David, as re- 
 corded in the 42nd and 43rd Psalms, furnishes a 
 very striking and instructive example. His expres- 
 sions, especially those of the first two verses, are 
 those of a man who delighted in God as in Himself 
 THE SUPREME GOOD, and as the FOUNTAIN of all 
 good to his creatures. 
 
 But this delight which he had in God arose from 
 a right knowledge of his true character, from a 
 spiritual perception and cordial sense of the divine 
 excellence and beauty of that character. Doubt- 
 less it was this spiritual and holy apprehension of 
 God that the Psalmist so earnestly sought when he 
 petitioned " Open thou mine eyes that I may be- 
 hold wondrous things out of thy law." Plainly, 
 it was not the eyes of the body that he sought to 
 have opened ; and as plain is it that he was a per- 
 son not only not ignorant of "the law," (the 
 sacred writings) but one who was intimately ac- 
 quainted with all its contents. When therefore he 
 preferred the petition " Open thou mine eyes," he 
 must have sought something not to be attained by 
 the mere reading of the Word, something beyond 
 the reach of " the natural man ;" and what else
 
 IN T GOD. 13 
 
 could that have been but a spiritual discovery, 
 apprehension, and taste of those excellencies of 
 the divine character which are exhibited in the 
 " law ?" " In thy light," saith David, " shall we 
 see light." But when by that supernatural "light" 
 which is shed on the mind, "the light of the 
 knowledge of the glory of God" is beheld, then 
 arise in the soul, from that view, admiration and 
 love, leading to a delight in Him as the fountain 
 
 ' O O 
 
 of all good. This was evidently the experience of 
 the Psalmist when he wrote these two verses, every 
 word of which is expressive of a soul whose chief 
 delight is in God. Especially so is the epithet 
 " living," which he applies to God. He in whom 
 he delighted was "the LIVING God." 
 
 "W hile now a wanderer from the beloved ordi- 
 nances of the true religion, it is probable that he 
 was often pained with the sight of idolatrous wor- 
 ship. But while he mourned to see unhappy men, 
 besotted with superstition, bowing down to idols of 
 their own forming, which had eyes but saw not, and 
 ears but heard not : how natural was it that he 
 should contrast with these that GLORIOUS GOD who 
 was all his salvation and all his desire ! When he 
 viewed, or thought of those senseless forms of wood 
 and stone which, being themselves without life, had 
 none that they could communicate how must his 
 heart have glowed with holy affection and joy when 
 he turned from them to the contemplation of his oirn 
 God, the Living God, who both "hath Life in 
 
 B2
 
 14 GOD DELIGHTED IN 
 
 Himself," and is the fountain from whence pro- 
 ceeds all life to all creatures ! The like contrast 
 was evidently present to the Apostle's mind when 
 he recalled to the remembrance of the Thessaloni- 
 ans their having "turned to God from idols to 
 serve the living and the true God." And this 
 
 O 
 
 seems to have been done, partly, at least, with the 
 intention of exciting them to lively gratitude for 
 the great mercy of being delivered from idolatry, 
 and of being led to a right knowledge of " the only 
 true God." And indeed it should seem that the in- 
 estimable value of this knowledge can be fully ap- 
 preciated only by those who have been eye-wit- 
 nesses of the awfully degrading nature of idolatry, 
 and its tendency to debase increasingly the human 
 mind, already fallen. A striking proof of this is 
 found in the feelings of Christian missionaries on 
 their first entrance into heathen countries. From 
 the sight there exhibited to them, those numerous 
 passages of Scripture which describe the sin, folly, 
 and brutifying effects of idolatry, are beheld in a 
 new and vivid light ; and contrasting with the 
 wretched and degraded state of the Heathen, their 
 own happiness in possessing the knowledge of the 
 living God, they are led to the exercise of adoring 
 thankfulness, and to a sense of joy from the reflec- 
 tion, unknown before.* 
 
 But there was another and far more endearing 
 
 * See Jer. x. 1 16. A passage beautifully illustrative of 
 this idea.
 
 AS THE LIVING GOD. 15 
 
 sense in which David delighted in God as " the 
 living God." He knew him as the Fountain of 
 spiritual as well as natural life. 
 
 It is indeed greatly important to know God as 
 the BEING OF BEINGS, to know him as He who 
 " breathes into man's nostrils the breath of life," as 
 He, "in whom we live and move and have our 
 being." But if he be only thus known, he can 
 never be delighted in. Sin has produced in the 
 human nature that awful condition which the Scrip- 
 ture calls " DEATH ;" a condition in which all men 
 are by nature, " for that" saith our Lord, " which 
 is born of the flesh is flesh," that is, only flesh ; 
 and " they that are after the flesh do mind ihe 
 things of the flesh," and " to be carnally-minded is 
 death." Now, while the man continues in this 
 state, being destitute of all spiritual and holy life, 
 it is impossible that he should rightly know God, 
 much less delight in him as "the living God." 
 
 But when " the power of THE SPIRIT OF LIFE 
 hath made him free from the power of sin and 
 death," then he beholds God in a new and glorious 
 light, he knows him not only as the giver of natu- 
 ral, but also of spiritual life, and he delights in 
 him as such. A wondrous and transcendant change 
 hath taken place ; death is abolished ; he lives, yet 
 not he, but God lives in him ; he is become " the 
 habitation of God through the Spirit," "the 
 temple of the living God !" 
 
 Unquestionedly David was the subject of this
 
 16 GOD, THE FOUNTAIN 
 
 renewal. He knew that it was God who had first 
 quickened his soul, who had maintained the pre- 
 servation of that life which he had implanted in him, 
 and who alone could continue to preserve it unto 
 the end. The constant language of his heart was 
 "all my springs are in THEE." If he had for- 
 titude to endure trial, if he had strength to resist 
 temptation, if he could confide in God in the dark- 
 est seasons, if he could still love him though he 
 seemed severe, all, all he felt to be derived from 
 Him, in whom were all his springs. So, whatever 
 spiritual consolation, whatever holy joys were to be 
 found in the ways of God, in a sense of his favour, 
 or in communion with him, he ascribed to the 
 same source. " Thou shalt make them drink of 
 the river of thy pleasures : for with thee is the 
 fountain of life." Psal. xxxvi. 8, 9. 
 
 "THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS !" How 
 
 fitly, in the Scriptures, is " water " made to be em- 
 blematical of spiritual blessings. If we regard it in 
 itself, what simplicity and purity in its crystal- 
 clearness ! and if in its effects on other bodies, 
 how admirable its use to cleanse and purify ! 
 
 But the waters which are the sign of spiritual 
 blessings are named emphatically " Hring waters." 
 He who drinks of them, drinks LIFE. They are 
 refreshment to the weary, comfort to the miserable, 
 health to the sick, life to the dying. " Then shall 
 the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the 
 dumb sing ; for in the wilderness shall waters break
 
 OF LIVING WATERS. 17 
 
 out, and streams in the desert." Isa. xxxv. 7. 
 David bad drank of those waters. Is it asked of 
 him "From whence hadst thou that living wa- 
 ter ?" His answer is From the living God the 
 fountain itself. 
 
 Yes, God is " the fountain of life :" a fountain 
 ever-full ; but also, ever-flowing. O wretchedness, 
 did man know his need of these waters that he 
 must drink or die and that all abundance of them 
 is in God, but not for him ! A fountain ever-full, 
 but from which no streams flow forth ! But no, the 
 waters of this fountain are not still, but living 
 waters : not only are they full, but they run over ; 
 they have Mowed, they do flow, and they will flow 
 for ever. The Lord of Life waits not to be asked 
 for them ; with amazing grace he anticipates our 
 wants, and proclaims by his Prophet, " Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." If they 
 will not come, or if they stray, he complains "They 
 have forsaken ME, the fountain of living waters, 
 and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 
 can hold no water." 
 
 How fallen is man ! Ignorant and poor, yet proud. 
 Though God himself calls, they give no heed. To 
 be wholly and constantly dependent upon him, to 
 seek their help and their happiness entirely from 
 him ; they will not hear of it. They will have 
 none of his " living waters;" they will have each 
 a reservoir of his own, they will "hew out cisterns" 
 for themselves. They scorn the offer of aid ; they
 
 18 THF HEWERS OF CISTERNS. 
 
 will be no beggars ; they will have a happiness in- 
 dependent of God, of their own contriving, or none. 
 Behold the deluded multitude : they are "turned 
 every one to his own way." This man seeks his 
 happiness in the wealth of this world ; he " irill be 
 rich," and for this he rises up early, and sits up 
 late, by night full of contrivances and by day full of 
 toils ; and so he hews his cistern. That man will 
 have a name; for this he will study, and write, and 
 make oration, he will bow and flatter, or revile and 
 lie ; and so he hews his cistern. Another will have 
 pleasure ; he will ransack earth and air and sea for 
 his gratification; all creatures, whether man or 
 beast, must minister to his lust ; and when he hath 
 sated one appetite, he will endeavour to relievo 
 his loathing by pampering another : and thus he 
 hews his cistern. Of the rest, a great mass doze 
 away their life in a sort of waking slumber, in a 
 dull round of useless and foolish occupations, their 
 amusements all littlenesses, their pursuits all vanity : 
 and so they hew their cisterns. Their methods of 
 hewing to themselves cisterns are various without 
 number, but the result is the same in all ; disap- 
 pointment and failure. For, whatever labour has 
 been bestowed in forming them, however capacious 
 their size, however costly their materials, in every 
 instance they mock the hewer's toil, they fail to 
 serve the purpose intended, they prove to be " bro- 
 ken cisterns, that can hold no water." O wretched 
 estate of fallen man ! Himself his greatest enemy !
 
 LIVING WATERS FROM CHRIST. 19 
 
 A being of boundless desires, whose thirst no crea- 
 ture-streams can satisfy; yet, blinded by sin, and 
 intoxicated with pride, he forsakes the fountain of 
 life and drinks of the muddy waters of earth and 
 sense, refusing to hear the voice of divine compas- 
 sion which calls him back to his true happiness. 
 
 But with all it is not so. There are some who 
 have heard that voice, who have tasted of the 
 Fountain, and whose constant petition is " Give 
 me this water, that I thirst not, neither repair to 
 earthly cisterns to draw." Of these, David was 
 one. He was experimentally acquainted with, and 
 delighted in God, as "the living God." He 
 knew the vanity of earthly good, the drudgery of a 
 carnal life, and the disappointment that attends all 
 its expectations ; and in God he had found that 
 fulness of rest and joy which the world has not to 
 bestow. And when he looked around on mankind 
 and saw them spending their money for that which 
 is not bread, labouring for that which satisfieth not, 
 turned aside by a deceived heart, feeding on ashes, 
 sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind ; how 
 must he have felt the value of his great privilege 
 increased by the consideration of its peculiarity, 
 by the thought that while the multitude were in 
 chase of "lying vanities," to him it was given 
 " with joy to draw water out of the wells of salva- 
 tion," And if David could thus rejoice in " the 
 living God," who lived under a dispensation which 
 was but the " shadow of good things to come/' how
 
 20 PRESENCE OF GOD. 
 
 much greater reason have they to delight in him, 
 whose favoured lot it is to live in gospel-times, 
 when " the darkness is past and the true light 
 shineth," when He who is the Source of Life is 
 made gloriously manifest in " the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God !" He who once spoke by the 
 Prophet, saying, " Ho, every one that thirsteth 
 come ye to the waters," hath now come and spoken 
 to us Himself; for " in the last day, that great day 
 of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any 
 man thirst let him come to ME and drink. He that 
 believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, from 
 within him shall flow rivers of living water." 
 
 Those who have once enjoyed the presence of 
 God in the public ordinances of religion, trill 
 greatly desire, if deprived of them, to be favoured 
 with them again. 
 
 Such was the case with the Psalmist, as is evi- 
 dent from the expressions " When shall I come, 
 and appear before God;" expressions used in 
 Scripture to designate the worshipper's presenting 
 himself in that place where God was peculiarly 
 present, whence he is said to "appear before God." 
 Thus, Exod. xxiii. 17. " Three times in the year 
 all thy males shall appear before the Lord God." 
 But it might be asked " Did not David know 
 that God is present in the wilderness as well as in 
 the Tabernacle, wherefore then should he lay so 
 much stress on place ?" A sufficient answer to this
 
 PECULIAR PRESENCE OF GOD. 21 
 
 question would be that God bade him so to do. 
 Yes, David was indeed well acquainted with the 
 great truth of God's omnipresence, as his own words 
 bear witness "Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? 
 or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I 
 ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if I make my 
 bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the 
 wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost 
 parts of the sea ; even there shall thy hand lead me, 
 and thy right hand shall hold me." But while he 
 knew that God is in all places at the same time by 
 his universal presence, he knew also that he had 
 promised to be peculiarly and graciously present 
 in one place especially. He knew the divine injunc- 
 tion " Unto the place which the Lord your God 
 shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name 
 there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and 
 thither thou shalt come." He knew also the graci- 
 ous promise " In all places where I record my 
 name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." 
 Knowing therefore that where the instituted wor- 
 ship was performed, and that where the ark, the 
 symbol of the divine presence,* was, there God 
 was indeed peculiarly present, and there he had 
 promised to come to his people and to bless them ; 
 no wonder that he should long to be restored to 
 that place, and that he should breathe the fervent 
 desire "When shall I come and appear before 
 God?" 
 
 * Compare 1 Chron. xiii. 10. with 2 Sam. vi. 7. 
 C
 
 '2'2 VALUE OF ORDINANCES. 
 
 f But as David was providentially, and therefore 
 lawfully, hindered from attending at the appointed 
 place, might he not have expected that God would 
 be graciously present with him in his banishment ?' 
 Assuredly he might. And, blessed be God ! so 
 also may all others in the like circumstances. God 
 will never be wanting to his people in this respect ; 
 for though he has commanded them " not to for- 
 sake the assembling of themselves together," and 
 has connected with their so assembling some of his 
 richest promises ; yet, as " He dwellcth not in 
 temples made with hands," if they be lawfully 
 hindered, he will come to them in their retirement 
 also, and bless them. But then, in order to their 
 warrantably expecting this, it is necessary that the 
 hindrance should be indeed a lairfnl one : that 
 is, such as God himself will allow and approve ; 
 such as the conscience, guided by the word of God, 
 testifies to be so. 
 
 ' But if the Psalmist knew that he might confi- 
 dently expect the divine presence and blessinir. 
 though absent from the public worship, why does 
 he so greatly mourn his absence from it ?' Doubt- 
 less, because, though he had the relief of that 
 expectation, he could not but remember that he 
 was still deprived of an inestimable privilege. 
 And, viewed in this light, the fervent breathing of 
 David after the public ordinances, is a lesson of 
 instruction to all other servants of God, teaching 
 them how they also should value those ordinances.
 
 VALUE OF ORDINANCES. 23 
 
 If they prize them as he prized them, they will suffer 
 no light reason to prevent their attendance on them ; 
 they will seriously and anxiously enquire whether 
 there is in truth a lawful prevention, and they will 
 not rest satisfied till they are quite sure that there 
 is. Carelessness in this matter is a fearful symp- 
 tom. He who trifles here, trifles on the brink of a 
 precipice, down which many a professor has fallen. 
 It is therefore immensely important that a jealous 
 watchfulness should be exercised over the state of 
 the heart in this respect. If an insufficient excuse 
 for absence be allowed, it is an ill sign ; still worse 
 if the excuse be a frivolous one. But it is possible 
 that the reason for non-attendance may be undoubt- 
 edly lawful, and yet the heart feels a secret sense 
 of relief at not being obliged to attend. Let him 
 who feels this, take heed. He has taken the first 
 step on a dangerous road, and if he proceeds, every 
 added step will be swifter than the former until 
 lie comes to the end, which is RUIN. Many a fall 
 has begun in a secret undervaluing of public or- 
 dinances; this has led to indifference about at- 
 tending on them or not attending ; then trifling, 
 and, afterwards,- evidently unlawful excuses have 
 been allowed ; then has followed a very infrequent 
 and careless attendance ; and lastly, hardness of 
 heart and avowed contempt. 
 
 It should ever be remembered that it is scarcely 
 possible too highly to value the public ordinances 
 of religion, provided they are viewed in their true,
 
 24 DANGER OF NEGLECTING 
 
 light, and used to the right end. Every where in 
 the Scriptures we are taught to regard them with 
 eminent esteem ; since they are the chief means 
 appointed by God for the salvation of men. It is 
 true, that the word of God read in private may be 
 the means of awakening or sanctifying and has 
 been the means in many instances : that is, many, 
 when considered apart ; but when compared with 
 those instances of which preaching has been the 
 means, they will be found to be few. " It pleased 
 God" says the Apostle " by the foolishness of 
 preaching to save them that believe." Again, he 
 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the word of God." See Rom. x. 14 
 18. where his striking interrogations plainly show 
 that he regarded the preaching of the word as 
 God's appointed, ordinary means through which 
 " faith" is to be obtained by mankind. 
 
 And facts have ever accorded with this doctrine ; 
 tor, in all ages, the great majority of believers have 
 become so by means of the gospel preached. And 
 the appointment of this order of means is not 
 merely arbitrary ; but much of the divine wisdom 
 and goodness is to be perceived in it. Most evi- 
 dently there is in the means prescribed a natural 
 fitness to accomplish the end proposed ; which is 
 that of informing the mind and impressing the 
 heart. Now, we know, from the law of sympathy, 
 common to the human nature, that no means are so 
 well adapted to produce this end as the living voice
 
 THE PUBLIC ORDINANCES. 25 
 
 of a speaker, himself informed and impressed by 
 his subject, and roused by the deep interest that he 
 feels in it, to reason, and persuade, and warn, and 
 expostulate, and beseech. " The icords that I 
 speak unto you," said Christ, " they are spirit and 
 they are life." Not indeed without "the Spirit 
 who quickeneth;" but, made effectual by Him, they 
 are the means of life, and the fittest means. It fol- 
 lows, then, that to esteem lightly the public minis- 
 tration of the holy word, is to esteem lightly 
 God's chief instrument of spiritual good to men ; 
 and that to withdraw from an attendance on it, is 
 to withdraw from that mercy and that grace which 
 it exhibits. An awful consequence ! which should 
 be well considered by those who are ready for light 
 reasons to absent themselves from the preaching of 
 the gospel. 
 
 In like manner, with regard to worship ; it is 
 most true that we may worship God in private and 
 be accepted of him there. But all our duties are 
 to be observed in their due time, and order, and 
 proportion. If, when the public assembly is con- 
 vened, we ought to be with them, having no just 
 and lawful reason of absence then our absence is 
 an act of disobedience, and we have no warrant to 
 expect the blessing of God in the path of disobe- 
 dience. The command is express " Not forsaking 
 the assembling of yourselves together, as the man- 
 ner of some is." 
 
 The promise is great : Oh, how great ! 
 c2
 
 26 NATURE AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 " Where two or three are gathered together in my 
 name, THERE AM I in the midst of them." 
 
 " Though private prayer be a good design, 
 
 Yet public hath more promises, more love : 
 And love's a weight to hearts; to eyes, a sign. 
 
 We all are but cold suitors : let us move 
 Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven ; 
 Pray with the most; for where most pray is heaven." 
 
 It was where he recorded his name, the place of 
 public congregating, of common worship, that God 
 promised to come to, and to bless his people ; it 
 was " there the Lord commanded the blessing, 
 even life for evermore." Ps. cxxxiii. 3. Well 
 then might David long for that place well might 
 he pour out the ardent desire, " When shall I come 
 and appear before God ?" 
 
 It must be confessed that there are numerous 
 instances where persons are constant in their atten- 
 dance on the public ordinances of religion, and thus 
 appear very highly to prize them, who yet evidently 
 do not spiritually profit by their attendance. But 
 if such instances be examined, it will be found that 
 the persons in question do not err in over-valuing 
 those ordinances, but in misusing and perverting 
 them. For example of the characters alluded to, 
 the most common class is that of the self-righteous; 
 persons of sober life, and decent moral habits, who 
 regularly hear the gospel and attend the public 
 worship, and yet remain strangers to a spiritual and
 
 OF PUBLIC ORDINANCES. 27 
 
 vital acquaintance with divine truth. Now, as 
 these persons have no sense of their depravity, and 
 therefore no compunction for sin, no apprehension 
 of their need of the Saviour, and no desires of the 
 heart arising to him in real prayer, in secret, and 
 yet remain self-complacent and self-satisfied ; it is 
 plain that they deceive themselves, and imagine 
 that their sobriety of conduct, and constant attend- 
 ance at the house of God, conciliate his favour 
 towards them, and if any thought of deficiency 
 ever crosses their mind, they quiet themselves by 
 having recourse to vague, general notions of the 
 mercy of God. Thus, they plainly pervert the 
 public ordinances ; and are so far from over-rating 
 them, that they do not even understand their nature, 
 or in what their true value consists. But still, some 
 profit results from their attendance. Witness their 
 moral behaviour, which ought, in all reason to be 
 ascribed chiefly to the restraining effect which the 
 gospel commonly has on the mind, when faithfully 
 preached, even where it is not the means of conver- 
 sion. Besides, by attending, they perform a bounden 
 duty which all men owe to God ; they go to 
 that place where God has promised to be present 
 and to bless, and where they may yet learn the true 
 value of the public ordinances, by their being made 
 the means of life to their souls ; which is not uncom- 
 monly the case even with some who have regularly 
 attended on them, unawakened, through a long 
 course of years.
 
 28 CHARACTERS WHO PERVERT 
 
 Another class of unprofited attendants, is the 
 hypocritical, who being ignorant of the holy cha- 
 racter of God and having no fear of his wrath, 
 venture to profess to be what they are not, and to 
 practise habitual deception. These have generally 
 one of two objects in view. The object of some of 
 them is "a name that they live." They would fain 
 be had in reputation with the religious, and to this 
 end they " come to them in sheep's clothing ;" 
 they are frequent if not constant at the house of 
 God, and talk of what they hear, adopting the 
 phraseology which they find to be in use among 
 those to whom they would recommend themselves. 
 Indeed it is astonishing to what lengths such per- 
 sons are sometimes found to go : so powerful a 
 passion of depraved human nature, is the love of 
 notice and distinction, the anxiety to be reckoned 
 somebody. This urges them to endure the drud- 
 gery of an attendance on services in which they take 
 no spiritual delight, and patiently to submit to a 
 yoke which, if not self-imposed, would be quite 
 intolerable. The object of other hypocrites, is still 
 lower and meaner; that of mere gain. Hence 
 these are chiefly found among the poor, who, finding 
 a spirit of charity among the servants of God, give 
 their attendance on public services merely for the 
 sake of what they hope to get. But God himself 
 hath described them. " They come unto thee as 
 the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my 
 people, and they hear thy words but they will not
 
 THE PUBLIC ORDINANCES. 29 
 
 do them : for with their mouth they shew much love, 
 but their heart goeth after their coveteousness." 
 Ezek. xxxiii. 31. These hypocrites are deplorable 
 characters : but who shall say that they had better 
 not attend on the preaching of God's word ? 
 They are bound to attend, as well as to be sincere. 
 And where will they be likely to see their hypocrisy 
 unmasked and exposed, if not in that place where 
 a faithful ministry is wont to " take forth the preci- 
 ous from the vile ?" 
 
 Another class of those who do not overvalue but 
 pervert the public means of grace, is the licentious ; 
 they who, while they are well acquainted with 
 the theory of religion, and have a clear notional 
 apprehension of the method of salvation, yet live 
 in the practice of known sins. If it might safely 
 be said of any characters that they had better en- 
 tirely withdraw their attendance, it might surely be 
 said of these ; for it is certain that their knowledge 
 aggravates their guilt, and that if they continue in 
 their evil ways to the end, in their fate will be 
 fulfilled the Saviour's dreadful saying " therefore 
 ye shall receive the greater damnation !" But if 
 they are not rocked asleep by the antinomian lullaby 
 of " peace, peace, when there is no peace ;" if, 
 on the contrary, they attend on a holy and awaken- 
 ing ministry ; they are still within reach of the 
 means which are most likely to be instrumental in 
 rousing them from the sleep of death to alarm and 
 repentance. How important then that they should
 
 30 CHARACTERS WHO PERVERT 
 
 continue to attend ! It is true indeed, awfully true 
 that it is possible for such sinners to pass into a 
 state, even in this life, in which they are beyond 
 that limit which even a God who pardons through 
 a priceless sacrifice, has affixed to his mercy. 
 "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, 
 and wept over it, saying If thou hadst known, 
 even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
 belong to thy peace ! But now they are hid from 
 tJiine eyes" There is a day then, in which mercy 
 may be obtained ; and there may be to some, an- 
 other day in which it may not be obtained. But, 
 " secret things belong unto the Lord our God :" 
 it becomes us to be satisfied that he is ever 
 righteous; and to adore in humble silence, not 
 attempting to penetrate that awful veil. Let then 
 even these characters who abuse their knowledge, 
 and awfully pervert the grace of the gospel the 
 vilest and least hopeful of all .- let even t/tc.sc 
 attend where yet " the arrows of the Almighty" 
 may pierce their hard hearts, and bring them, 
 bleeding and filled with remorse, to the feet of 
 the holy Saviour. For with God, EVEN THIS is 
 possible. 
 
 But are these all ? Are there no others of whom 
 it may be said that they make a wrong use of public 
 ordinances ? Would to God there were no others ! 
 Those which have been mentioned are, indeed, the 
 most prominent and remarkable : but, alas, they are 
 not all. Even among reputable professors, there
 
 THE PUBLIC ORDINANCES. 31 
 
 are some who pervert the public means from their 
 proper end. Such are they who make them, wholly 
 or in part, a substitute for domestic, or secret devo- 
 tion, or both. This, it is to be feared, is an evil of 
 increasing prevalence in the present day, when the 
 profession of religion has far less of reproach 
 attached to it, than formerly. And it seems to be 
 an evil that prevails especially in cities and large 
 towns, where the pastoral oversight is necessarily 
 less minute than in smaller places. But it is an 
 evil of great magnitude, because it lays the axe at 
 the root of all vital and experimental godliness. 
 The neglect of family worship by those who make 
 profession, is so utterly inconsistent with such pro- 
 fession, that it is surprising that they should not 
 abandon all pretence to religion ; for family wor- 
 ship is one of the plainest dictates of even natural 
 religion, and but the reasonable consequence of the 
 acknowledgement that there is a Xjod who created 
 and preserves his rational creatures. Even a Deist 
 ought, in consistency, to offer praise and prayer to 
 the Deity with his family : how much more then 
 a Christian ! But as the neglect of this duty is 
 generally allowed to involve in suspicion the chris- 
 tian character of him who neglects it ; so it is less 
 common among professors than the neglect of secret 
 devotion. And as this latter evil, because con- 
 cealed from the knowledge of others, may be long 
 indulged in without the loss of religious reputation; 
 so it is, on that very account, unspeakably the more
 
 32 PUBLIC ORDINANCES PERVERTED 
 
 dangerous and alarming. Oh that those words 
 were always present to the remembrance of profes- 
 sors ; Oh, " that they were graven" on their hearts 
 as "with an iron pen, for ever !" 'APOSTACY BEGIN- 
 
 AT THE CLOSET DOOR.' 
 
 Judging from the numerous and solemn warnings 
 of the holy scriptures on this subject, it is to be 
 apprehended that the resting in a decent profession 
 has been the cause of destruction to a multitude of 
 souls. " Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion !" 
 Let a man hear the gospel, make it the frequent 
 subject of his talk, join himself to some religious 
 society, and practice all those other external duties 
 which belong to a credible profession of religion ; 
 and let him neglect to examine the state of his heart 
 in the sight of a holy God, to humble himself 
 before him, and habitually to beg his mercy as a 
 penitent ; let him neglect these things, and he 
 may GO QUIETLY DOWN TO PERDITION! Such per- 
 sons, it must again be observed, do not overrate the 
 value of public ordinances, but pervert them from 
 the purpose intended by God. That purpose is 
 to lead us to him to give him our hearts, and to 
 walk humbly with him in all holy duties, private 
 as well as public, but private especially. They, 
 then, in whom' this purpose is not accomplished, 
 are " nothing," but are " become as sounding 
 brass, or a tinkling cymbal." Yet let it still be 
 noted that the public ordinances are directly 
 adapted, as well as intended, to lead to this end ;
 
 BY PROFESSORS. 33 
 
 and viewed in this their true light, and used accord- 
 ingly, cannot be too highly prized. We may be 
 assured that they were so regarded by the Psalmist, 
 and that it was, in part, the perception which he 
 had of the excellent end of their institution, and of 
 their admirable fitness to effect that end, which 
 led him fervently to exclaim, " When shall I come 
 and appear before God !" 
 
 But surely it was not merely from his clear and 
 correct views of the means and of the end, that the 
 Psalmist was led so ardently to desire that he might 
 come again to the tabernacle of God ; no, there 
 was another and more powerful impulse that stirred 
 within him : the motive of the affection as well as 
 of the intellect, of the heart as well as of the head. 
 Never was man more distant from the cold specu- 
 latist, than David. His religion was eminently of 
 the living and experimental kind : he had "tasted 
 that the Lord is gracious," and therefore also it 
 was that he now so ardently desired " the sincere 
 milk of the word." 1 Pet. ii. 2, 3. Hear his chief 
 request. " One thing have I desired of the Lord, 
 that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the 
 house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold 
 the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his 
 temple." Here we are told for what purposes 
 especially he sought thus earnestly the privilege 
 of dwelling ever in the house of the Lord. That 
 which he mentions first, and with good reason, is, 
 that he might behold the beauty of the Lord." 
 
 D
 
 34 PUBLIC ORDINANCES 
 
 The tabernacle itself with its hangings and its fur- 
 niture, would to some have been the chief object of 
 attraction : but that which he sought to "behold," 
 was not the "beauty" of the place, but "of THE 
 LORD." There, where his word was published, 
 and his will made known, by faith he had often 
 been favoured to " see the King in his beauty ;" as 
 he himself records in the 63rd Psalm, where, long- 
 ing to be restored to the temple of God, he thus ex- 
 presses the end for which he desired it, " To see 
 thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in 
 the sanctuary." In the sanctuary then especially 
 had he enjoyed those spiritual apprehensions of the 
 divine character which constitute the soul of all 
 religion and all worship, and on which is founded 
 all holy delight in God. There, " the eyes of his 
 understanding being enlightened," he saw the 
 power and the glory of God as they were repre- 
 sented in his word and in his ordinances. His 
 power he saw manifested in the record of his past 
 doings, which were "marvellous in his eyes," and in 
 the effects of its present influence on the hearts of 
 his worshippers. His glory he saw as the result of 
 all his attributes illustriously displayed in harmo- 
 nious combination. He saw " a just God and a 
 Saviour:" "mercy and truth met together, righte- 
 ousness and peace embracing each other." He 
 saw, in the slain victim, righteousness expressing 
 its abhorrence of sin, and the sinner's desert of 
 death; but "the blood of sprinkling, which speak-
 
 LEADING TO GOD HIMSELF 35 
 
 etli better things/' shewed him the throne of 
 judgment changed into a mercy-seat. Yet of al. 
 the views of the Lord which he was favoured to 
 entertain there, none surely was dearer to him than 
 that in which he saw him as "the living God." 
 When he contemplated him as the fountain of all 
 spiritual life to his people, inexhaustible though 
 ever flowing, it was then that, in the most affec- 
 tionate and delightful sense, he beheld "the beauty 
 of the Lord." 
 
 But there was another great object that he had 
 in view, when he desired and sought after that 
 "one thing;" which was, that he might "enquire" 
 or seek "in his temple." Thither he would go 
 that he might seek the counsel of God, that he 
 might learn his will. Hence in that same Psalm 
 (the 27th) he prays, "Teach me thy way, O Lord." 
 So also in the 25th Psalm, with remarkable earnest- 
 ness he entreats, " Shew me thy ways, O Lord ; 
 teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and 
 teach me." And where should the knowledge of 
 the divine will be sought if not in that place where 
 faithful ministers of God " read in the book, in the 
 law of God distinctly, and give the sense, and cause 
 the people to understand the reading?" Neh. 
 viii. 7, 8. Enquiring there, doubts are resolved, 
 perplexities unravelled, unbelief removed. When 
 the faith of Asaph was staggered at beholding the 
 wicked in prosperity, so that his "heart was 
 grieved," and his " steps had well-nigh slipped ;"
 
 36 PUBLIC ORDINANCES 
 
 " When I thought to know this," he says, " it 
 was too painful for me : until I went into the 
 sanctuary of God ; then understood I their end." 
 And how remarkable was the happy effect produced 
 on his mind by the satisfaction to his doubts which 
 he there obtained : " Thou shalt guide me with 
 thy counsel. It is good for me to draw near to 
 God. I have put my trust in the Lord God, that 
 I may declare all thy works." See the whole of 
 that most instructive Psalm, the 73rd. The faith- 
 ful servants of God can still bear the like testi- 
 mony : they have enquired in his temple and have 
 been answered there. 
 
 How eminently are the wisdom and goodness of 
 God displayed in his appointing public means of 
 instruction. Of all the religious knowledge com- 
 municated to mankind, immensely the greater part 
 is communicated by public teaching. Indeed, 
 without it, a great multitude of persons must, almost 
 necessarily, remain ignorant of divine truth. Many 
 cannot read, and vast numbers are so entirely occu- 
 pied with the daily labour requisite to procure a 
 subsistence, that, but for the public instruction of 
 the sabbath-day, they would be nearly cut off from 
 all sufficient means of saving knowledge. Oh ! 
 how many a poor man, who loves to dwelt in the 
 house of the Lord, to see his beauty and to enquire 
 t -e, when wearied in body, and perhaps dejected 
 i: mind, he stoops beneath the pressure of his 
 v jek-day toils, pours out, with David, the fervid
 
 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION. 37 
 
 breathing, "When shall I come and appear before 
 God ?" And when the wished for morning of the 
 Lord's sabbath, returns to smile upon his soul, how 
 gratefully and joyously does he burst into the song 
 
 " Come bless the Lord whose love assigns 
 So sweet a rest for weary minds, 
 Provides an antepast of heaven, 
 And gives this day the food of seven." 
 
 Blessed sanctuary ! Thou art the HOME of the 
 Christian's heart ! In thee " God is known for a 
 refuge," and a rest ! Who that knows the Lord 
 does not know this ? How often has the afflicted 
 saint gone up to his house " in bitterness of soul, 
 and prayed unto the Lord, speaking out of the 
 abundance of his complaint and grief;" and He 
 who said " I will come to you and I will bless you/' 
 has been present to fulfil his word, and to whisper 
 " go in peace !" So that, the same who came 
 mourning and oppressed, has dropped his burden, 
 and has gone his way with his " countenance no 
 more sad." 1 Sam. i. 9 18, Aye, and if there 
 has been " any consolation in Christ, if any comfort 
 of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit," was it not 
 in the house of the Lord that these joys were chiefly 
 experienced ? Truly it was there ; for " they shall 
 be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; 
 and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy 
 pleasures : for with thee is the fountain of life : in 
 thy light shall we see light." These were the 
 words of David ; of him who was now driven by his 
 
 D2
 
 38 PUBLIC ORDINANCES THE MEANS OF CONSOLATION. 
 
 enemies far away from the privileges of the sanc- 
 tuary ; but who, remembering still the enquiries 
 that had been answered, the doubts that had been 
 solved, the fears that had been quelled, the sorrows 
 that had been relieved, the expectations that had 
 been realized, the desires that had been satisfied, 
 the promises that had been fulfilled, the glories 
 that had been seen, and the joys that had been 
 tasted THERE, longed again to return thither, again 
 to "appear before God." 
 
 There was yet another, and far higher motive 
 that influenced the desire of the Psalmist to be 
 restored to the public service of God ; which was, 
 that he might honour him, might " give unto the 
 
 Lord THE GLORY DUE UNTO HIS NAME." A motive 
 
 this, which, from its spiritual and holy nature, very 
 greatly transcends those that have already been 
 mentioned. Yet are those other motives spiritual 
 and holy also ; though not in the same exalted 
 degree. The desires after public ordinances which 
 especially refer to our own edification in knowledge, 
 our own growth in grace, and our own spiritual 
 comfort ; are not only lawful, but, as has been 
 shown, when proceeding from the right source, are 
 excellent and holy, having a divine origin. But 
 when, through a superior influence, we can rise to 
 a forgetfulness of ourselves, to that sublime height 
 where, contemplating and adoring the wonders and 
 the glories of the divine character, we ' lose our- 
 selves in him, in light ineffable ;' then have we
 
 GOD HONOURED ONLY BY THE UN-SELFISH. 39 
 
 attained to a disposition of mind as far surpassing 
 those lesser motives, as the cloudless ether of the 
 upper regions exceeds in purity the mingled atmos- 
 phere of our lower world. 
 
 All the desires of our corrupted nature, how- 
 ever speciously disguised or unconsciously hidden, 
 all terminate in self. The renovation of our na- 
 ture eminently consists in a conversion from the 
 worship of self, to the worship of " the only living 
 and true God." All the precepts, and all the 
 promises, all the noble motives and affecting per- 
 suasives furnished by the gospel, as well as all the 
 internal influence and supply of grace; all tend, 
 as all are designed, to draw us from self to God. 
 Selfishness is bound up in the heart of fallen man, 
 and nothing but a power from God can expel it. 
 And when that power begins to be exerted on the 
 heart, selfishness is its first and strongest opponent ; 
 and it is the last rebel that is subdued. 
 
 Not that all care of self is sinful, but only that 
 which is regardless of God ; which makes an idol 
 of self and dethrones HIM. There is a care of self 
 which God himself approves, invites us to, com- 
 mands. " Do thyself no harm," is a maxim accor- 
 dant with the whole tenor of the Scripture : and an 
 argument used by our Lord was, " It is profitable 
 for thee." But this, the right care of self, is inti- 
 mately and inseparably connected with the honour 
 of God. Rightly to care for self is to seek in the 
 prescribed way, the salvation of the soul ; but the
 
 40 THE CHARACTER 
 
 salvation of the soul is effected in a way that brings 
 the highest honour to God. Most wondrous and 
 admirable plan, which combines together the happi- 
 ness of the creature and the glory of the Creator, 
 and blends them as in one ! 
 
 But it is greatly to be feared that the exalted 
 motive of ascribing glory to God and of honouring 
 his name, very feebly influences the minds of many 
 professsors who duly frequent, and affect to value, 
 the public services of religion. With some it 
 seems to be scarcely, if at all, thought of, much less 
 regarded as of supreme importance. With them 
 religion appears to be little more than refined 
 selftsm. To be made to believe that they are safe, 
 and, if disturbed in that belief, for a moment, by 
 the wakings of conscience, to be made to believe it 
 again ; seems to be the main object which they keep 
 in view in their constant attendance. WORSHIP is 
 a matter about which they give themselves very 
 little concern ; they are hearers. To adore the 
 divine excellencies and praise the name ot the 
 Lord, is a work not contemplated in their aim. 
 SELF is their God. If, notwithstanding their evi- 
 dent love of the world, their frequent indulgence in 
 evil tempers, and other suspicious signs that attach 
 to them, they can be kept in good humour with 
 themselves, and in a quiet undoubting of the safety 
 of their state, they have got what they seek, and 
 are satisfied. These are a spurious breed : they 
 have none of the healthful symptoms of the legiti-
 
 OF SELFISTS. 41 
 
 mate children of God. Their nurses have spoiled 
 them ; their appetite is depraved and sickly, and 
 they cannot feed on the plain and wholesome food, 
 spread at the table of the HOLY Father. They have 
 none of the active industry, the contented disposi- 
 tion, the cheerful mind of "obedient children." 
 Instead of the pure water of life, they drink intoxi- 
 cating liquors, which do not nourish, but inflame 
 with inward heat, and provoke a vicious thirst that 
 ever cries "Give, give." They have no ear for 
 the hymn of adoration and the voice of praise ; 
 they seek not the song that magnifies THE LORD, 
 but that which magnifies themselves, and which is 
 sung eternally to the self-same tune, 'All's well.' 
 
 Happy would it be if a neglect of the divine 
 honour was confined to these. But alas, it is but 
 too prevalent even among those who give undoubted 
 evidences of sincerity. Many an humble, and even 
 watchful Christian is prone to this evil. Hence it is 
 that their thought and their conversation are so con- 
 tinually occupied about their own frames. They 
 minutely detail their train of feelings, dwelling and 
 dwelling upon the theme, until precious hours have 
 been wasted, during all which has never been 
 heard the enquiry, "What shall I render?" or 
 the invitation of the grateful heart, " O magnify 
 the Lord with me and let us exalt his name to^e- 
 
 O 
 
 ther." And too often also is it the case, that even 
 these, the lowly children of God, go to his house 
 almost wholly intent on their own edification and
 
 42 GOD GLORIFIED 
 
 comfort, forgetting that higher and more heavenly 
 purpose of glorifying the divine name. Let them 
 consider this. And they will consider it ; for they 
 desire to know their faults, that, through grace, 
 they may mend them. And God will guide them 
 by his counsel, for they are "the meek;" and " the 
 meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will 
 he teach his way." 
 
 Oh, how excellent and lovely, how sublimely 
 spiritual is the glorying in God of the holy Psalm- 
 ist ! His soul " made her boast in the Lord," and 
 felt her selfish cares and sorrows, her lower aims 
 and all her meaner joys absorbed in him, beheld 
 and adored " in the beauties of holiness." "The 
 Lord is great, and greatly to be praised : he is to be 
 feared above all gods, honour and majesty are be- 
 fore him : strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 
 Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of his people, 
 give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto 
 the Lord the glory due unto his name : bring 
 an offering and come into his courts." Ps. xcvi. 
 How many come into his courts, but bring no 
 offering ! Not so David. A careful examination 
 of his Psalms will shew that though, from his cir- 
 cumstances, he was often led to pour out his com- 
 plaint before God, to tell his wants, and to beg 
 relief and consolation ; yet that the prime joy and 
 glory of his soul was to " go into his tabernacle" 
 that he might "worship at his footstool;" that 
 there, "in the congregation of saints," he might
 
 BY THE WORSHIP OF HIS PEOPLE. 43 
 
 fulfil that vow of his heart, " I will extol thee, O 
 God, my king, and I will bless thy name for ever 
 and ever. I will speak of the glorious honour of 
 thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works." Ps. cxlv. 
 
 Certainly, of all the privileges vouchsafed to the 
 redeemed on the earth, not one is so exalted as 
 that of giving glory to God in his sanctuary. And 
 be it observed, that to this end are they redeemed. 
 " Ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God 
 in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 
 And let it be considered how little honour the 
 blessed God receives from his creatures in this 
 world ; and what abundant reason there was that 
 our Saviour should teach us to pray, " Hallowed be 
 thy name." Sunk in selfishness and sin, they praise 
 one another, and they praise themselves, but not 
 the God who made them. If then the Lord of life 
 were not to receive a revenue of honour from his 
 own servants ; no offering would ascend to him at 
 all from our guilty world. Let the thought of this, 
 while it serves to admonish and rebuke past omis- 
 sions, kindle in the souls of the faithful an ardent 
 flame of zeal to magnify the name of the Lord. 
 Let this be the vow of each, ' The world forsake 
 their Creator, dishonour his sabbaths, and renounce 
 his praise, " but as for me, I will come into thy 
 house in the multitude of thy mercy ; and in thy 
 fear will I worship toward thy holy temple." Ps. v. 
 
 If there be a spectacle on earth which has more 
 of true grandeur and beauty than all others, surely
 
 44 THE BEAUTY AND GLORY 
 
 it is that of " the congregation of the saints," when 
 they " stand up and bless the Lord their God," 
 when, as with one heart and one voice, they raise 
 the adoring hymn, " Blessed be thy glorious name, 
 which is exalted above all blessing and praise." 
 Neh. ix. 5. In their so doing they render to God 
 the highest honour which it is in their power to 
 render. They publicly acknowledge him to be 
 GOD ; they do homage before him as their God. 
 In the face of the world they avow their belief in 
 him, their veneration of him, and their love towards 
 him ; and they give to him " the glory due unto his 
 name." This is a sight at which, if at any, infidels 
 turn pale, deists are abashed, and ' fools who come 
 to scoff,' awed into reverence, ' remain to pray.' 
 To worship the MOST HIGH GOD is the highest dig- 
 nity of a rational creature ; while to his saints it is 
 also the highest happiness. It is when engaged in 
 this noblest act of immortal beings, that they feel 
 their true elevation, and regard themselves as 
 making the nearest approach to the employment 
 and blessedness of the world above. Nay, they 
 feel that it is heaven begun on earth ; for though 
 between the earthly and the heavenly worshippers 
 there is still the great difference of perfection and 
 imperfection, of spotless purity and the remains of 
 defilement ; yet the object of their adoration is the 
 same ; one also is their theme, and one their song ? 
 " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be 
 unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb for ever and ever."
 
 OF SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 45 
 
 Prevention from attending the public ordi- 
 nances of God's House may be made the means of 
 great benefit to the soul. 
 
 From what has been shewn of the benefits, 
 privileges and enjoyments of public ordinances it 
 might be almost supposed, that whatever else he 
 might deprive them of, God would never deprive 
 his people of these ; since in all his dealings with 
 them he chiefly intends the welfare of their souls. 
 But reasonings on the subject such as these would 
 immediately be met by the fact, that God does thus 
 deprive his people, and that frequently. Now, 
 since he does, it must be certain that he is guided 
 in this conduct by reasons infinitely righteous, wise, 
 and good. Doubtless, the reason for it which 
 exists in them, is that they are fallen creatures who 
 need the hand of correction and discipline ; because 
 in heaven where there is no sin, the holy inhabitants 
 enjoy a worship which is uninterrupted and eternal. 
 It is an affecting proof of the degeneracy of human 
 nature, that even in those who are partly renewed, 
 the relish for the provisions of the Lord's house, so 
 soon, and so often palls. Those provisions are 
 always, in themselves, alike excellent. Prayer and 
 praise and the word preached, are ordinances 
 always alike important ; and the discoveries of the 
 gospel, the power of Christ, his offices and work, 
 his " great salvation," with the vast realities and 
 wondrous prospects of the eternal world, are at all 
 E
 
 46 THE PROVISIONS OF GOD's HOUSE 
 
 times equally valuable, and equally glorious. But 
 they are not always felt to be so, even by those who 
 know somewhat of their worth, but who are still 
 subject to the influence of remaining corruption. 
 It belongs to the perfection of heaven to feed on 
 those rich provisions with a relish which 'grows by 
 what it feeds on.' 
 
 Another proof of human degeneracy is found in 
 the proneness to value things less, however excellent 
 in themselves, because of their being common, or 
 plentiful, or of easy attainment. This is the case 
 even with the means of grace. Of two converted 
 persons, generally, he who can hear the gospel but 
 seldom, both values and enjoys it more than he who 
 can hear it constantly. And sometimes in the same 
 individual a similar difference of feeling is known 
 to exist at different times. How commonly has it 
 happened that a person who has been hindered from 
 a frequent attendance by derision or reproach, or 
 by the direct prohibition of relatives or superiors, 
 and has stolen now and then a precious opportunity, 
 has enjoyed that rare and stolen opportunity with 
 far more relish than the abundance with which he 
 might afterwards be favoured. Yes, favoured; 
 for however little abundant opportunities may some 
 times be improved or enjoyed, they are immensely 
 valuable in themselves; and God will bring his 
 people to know, and feel, and acknowledge this. 
 And for the accomplishment of this purpose it is 
 that he so frequently withdraws the privilege ; of
 
 TOO OFTEN UNENJOYED. 47 
 
 which a most striking and interesting example is 
 presented to us in the case of David. He was a 
 man who possessed by nature an ardent mind and 
 warm affections, and who, probably, on that account 
 engaged in the public ordinances of religion with 
 more lively feelings than many others. But it is 
 not to be supposed that, when favoured with the 
 privilege of a constant attendance at the tabernacle, 
 he should often, if ever have experienced that keen 
 appetite for spiritual good, and those earnest long- 
 ings after the living God which he now possessed. 
 
 The language which he employs is the strongest, 
 that could well be used to express the fervency of 
 his affections and desires. " My soul thirsteth for 
 God." Now, it has been observed by those who 
 have suffered from the extremes both of hunger and 
 of thirst, that extreme thirst is greatly more distress- 
 ing and intolerable than extreme hunger. Hence 
 by expressing himself as thirsting for God, David 
 would shew that the longings of his spirit were 
 intensely great : and that he would intimate his 
 thirst to be extreme seems evident from his using 
 the very beautiful simile of the hart panting after 
 the water-brooks. It is said by some that animals 
 of that species are naturally more given to thirst 
 than others : but, be this as it may, if one of them 
 be imagined to have lost his accustomed track 
 (perhaps having been pursued by hounds) and to 
 have wandered long in some sandy desert, fainting 
 beneath the burning heat of a mid-day sun, and
 
 48 SPIRITUAL APPETITE QUICKENED. 
 
 meeting with no drop of water to slake his raging 
 thirst, an image will present itself to the mind 
 highly adapted to convey a lively conception of the 
 Psalmist's fervid pantings after God. But an 
 ardour equal to this he had, probably, never known 
 until banished from the public service, hence it is 
 plain that his banishment was made subservient to 
 his spiritual welfare was overruled for good. For 
 unquestionably, it is better to have an appetite for 
 the provisions of the house of God, though absent 
 from it, than to be there and to have no appetite. 
 What are the richest viands to a sick man ? What 
 is a table spread with dainties to them who are 
 already full, or who have lost their relish for food ? 
 It is better, then, to hunger in the wilderness, than 
 to loathe in the temple. 
 
 SELF-ENQUIRY. 
 
 It has pleased God, in the dispensations of his 
 providence, to prevent my attending on the ordi- 
 nances of his house this day, his holy day, set apart 
 for holy purposes, and especially for the public wor- 
 ship of himself, and the dispensing of his blessed 
 word. To have the opportunity of attending, is a 
 great privilege ; to be deprived of it is a great loss. 
 Yet, a loss that can be made up. How anxious 
 should I be that it may be made up ; that I may 
 not suffer it " in vain" Let me then endeavour
 
 SELF-ENQUIRY. 49 
 
 to improve this retirement. Let me consider what 
 are my views of God, and what my dispositions 
 towards him ; that I may know what my character 
 and state are in his sight. If my views and dispo- 
 sitions are what they ought to be, they will be like 
 those of the holy Psalmist. His experience, in a 
 time of absence from the house of God, is written 
 for our instruction, to teach us what ours should be 
 in the like circumstances. Let me use it then for 
 the purpose intended by God. 
 
 Do I knoio God aright ? Do I know him as he 
 is revealed in the scriptures holy, just, wise, and 
 good ? Do I know him as the Father who hath 
 created me, as the Son who hath redeemed me, and 
 as the Holy Spirit who hath sanctified me ? 
 
 Do I know him so as to delight in him ? Have 
 I a spiritual and heart-affecting sense of the glory 
 and loveliness of his perfections, leading me to 
 delight in meditating on them ? David knew and 
 delighted in him especially as "the living God." 
 Is it so with me ? Have I received from him, as 
 " the fountain of life," that quickening grace which 
 makes alive from the dead ? Is my soul alive unto 
 the living God ? I need continual supplies of spi- 
 ritual life : do I seek them at the fountain, do I 
 receive them ? Is it the habit of my soul to look 
 for all my strength and refreshment from that 
 source ? 
 
 And now that God, by his providence, prevents 
 me from attending on the public ordinances, do I
 
 50 SELF-ENQUIRY. 
 
 sensibly feel my loss, as David felt it ? Surely I 
 have not valued them as I ought to have done, and 
 as he did: and now God deprives me of them, 
 doubtless, that he may admonish me of this. " I 
 do remember my fault this day." When, at any 
 time, I absented myself, was my reason always 
 lawful ? was it not sometimes, at least doubtful ? 
 
 Alas, how many pervert those ordinances ! The 
 self-righteous, the hypocritical, the licentious pro- 
 fessors whose religion is wholly, or almost wholly 
 a public oue ! Though I have been saved from 
 delusion and sin such as theirs, have I not in some 
 other respects misused my privileges ? Have I 
 not been too careless, too unprofitable? Have I 
 always gone to the house of God and come away, 
 earnestly begging for a blessing on the means ? 
 Have I been punctual in my attendance, coming in 
 the right time, so as not to dishonour the public 
 worship of God, and to disturb my fellow-worship- 
 pers ? When in his house have I demeaned myself 
 irith reverence, not lounging or sleeping, as bruti.sh 
 men and infidels, but humbly remembering that 
 God is present, and anxious to set a good example 
 to those around me ? " God is greatly to be feared 
 in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in 
 reverance of all them that are about him." 
 
 W 7 hen I have returned, have I been desirous to 
 retain the savour of holy things on my spirit ; and 
 to this end, have I cautiously avoided all such 
 thought, conversation, or reading as would tend to
 
 SELF-ENQUIRY. 51 
 
 erase or even weaken the impression of these things? 
 Especially, have I made a serious application of 
 the truth I have heard to my own heart and con- 
 science, instead of remarking on the sermon in a 
 captious, criticizing and self-conceited spirit ; a 
 practice, in the indulgence of which, "the milk 
 of the word," intended to nourish, turns sour, and 
 even ministers to disease of soul. Have I made 
 conscience of retiring between the services, as well 
 as at the beginning and close of the sabbath-day, 
 to read the scriptures aud meditate, or at least to 
 pray ? 
 
 If, at any time, I have seemed not to profit, have 
 I been at least as ready to blame myself, as the 
 minister ? Have I not sometimes neglected to pray 
 for the minister that he might be blessed in his own 
 soul, and in his infinitely important work ; that he 
 might be directed to say something suitable to my 
 state; and that I might have grace meekly to 
 receive the word and faithfully to apply it to my- 
 self ? When the sabbath is gone by, have I, during 
 the succeeding week, endeavoured to recall to mind 
 the things which I had heard for my soul's profit 
 on the Lord's day ? or, have I suffered the cares 
 and vanities of earth to drown them all, and that, 
 without a struggle to prevent it? Answer, my 
 soul, answer. Deal faithfully with thyself. Shrink 
 not. If there be a wound, let it be probed ; for, 
 how else shall it be healed ? 
 
 Have I, after the example of the blessed Re-
 
 52 SELF-ENQUIRY. 
 
 deemer, endeavoured to do good on the sabbath- 
 days, as well as to get good ? If favoured with 
 ability and opportunity, have I faithfully and gladly 
 employed them, in visiting the sick and distressed, 
 relieving the needy and wretched, or instructing the 
 ignorant, especially the young and the poor ? For 
 the sabbath was designed to be rest from " servile 
 work," not from " the work of faith and labour of 
 love." 
 
 When it was my favoured lot to attend the house 
 of God, did I meet with the God of the house ? 
 Did I sometimes behold there " the beauty of the 
 Lord," and see his glory and his power ? Was he 
 sometimes present to answer my enquiries, and to 
 instruct me in his will ? Was I sometimes favoured 
 there with renewed excercises of repentance towards 
 God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ ? 
 favoured with an humble confidence of my interest 
 in him, and enabled to 'read my title clear to 
 mansions in the skies ?' And now, does the remem- 
 brance of these advantages and these joys, awaken 
 in me a lively conviction of the value of public 
 ordinances, and earnest and affectionate longings 
 again to enjoy the presence of God in them ? 
 
 One great purpose of God in instituting public 
 religious observances, was, that his name might be 
 hallowed and his glory celebrated and extolled. 
 Have I understood this purpose and acted in accor- 
 dance with it ? Have I gone to the house of God 
 intending not merely to hear, but to worship ?
 
 SELF-ENQUIRY. 53 
 
 Has this part of the service been engaged in " with 
 the understanding and with the spirit ?" Has it 
 been delightful to me to engage in it ? Has God 
 been exalted in my esteem ? Has self been lost in 
 HIM ? Have my own little, selfish cares, com- 
 plaints, and griefs been swallowed up in the reve- 
 rential yet affectionate contemplation of the excel- 
 lency and the amiableness of the blessed God ? 
 Have I felt it to be my privilege and my joy to 
 honour God, by openly acknowledging him in the 
 face of the ignorant, the unbelieving and the scorn- 
 ful ; and by yielding a public obedience to his will, 
 and a public homage to his glorious name ? And 
 now that I am prevented from worshipping with the 
 assembly, do I feel my loss especially on this ac- 
 count, that I am deprived the privilege of thus 
 praising and glorifying the God of my salvation ? 
 
 In times past, when blessed with the opportunity 
 of a constant attendance on the means of grace, how 
 often I have had to lament the want of an appetite 
 for spiritual things. Now that the opportunity is 
 denied me, do I feel my appetite quickened ? It 
 was so with David. Can I now say that my soul 
 thirsteth after God in his ordinances ? If not in 
 this degree, is my relish, my desire, at all increased? 
 Oh, how lamentable would it be, should I get no 
 advantage by my retirement ! My soul, it must 
 not be. Stir up thyself and call upon thy God. 
 Consider how favourable an opportunity thou now 
 hast of drawing nearer to him than thou hast been
 
 54 SELF-ENQUIRY. 
 
 wont to do. I will bow down before him, I will 
 confess to him all my unworthiness, especially my 
 past misimprovement of the privileges of his house. 
 I will beseech his forgiveness. I will beg his 
 quickening grace; that my soul may be greatly 
 profited at this time. 
 
 Blessed be his name ! I have tasted that he is 
 gracious, and shall I not again ? Now for that 
 thirsting after him ! Now may he grant that token 
 for good ! And since my present lot is the lot that 
 was David's ; may my experience also be like his, 
 that, through grace, I may be enabled to say with 
 him, " O God, thou art my God; early will I seek 
 thee : my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth 
 for thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water 
 is. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of 
 hosts ! My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the 
 courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh crieth 
 out for the living God." 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 O FOR the holy, happy place, 
 Where faithful souls the Lord adore, 
 
 And taste the riches of his grace, 
 And see his glory and his power ! 
 
 When shall I, from these wilds, Oh when, 
 
 To that dear home return again ! 
 
 The hart, astray from fertile lands, 
 That faints heneath the sultry beam, 
 
 And roams athirst o'er burning sands, 
 Intensely panteth for the stream.
 
 HYMN. 55 
 
 So do I panl^ O God, for thee ; 
 So do I long thy face to see. 
 
 How happy they who with thee dwell, 
 And all their life in praise employ, 
 
 And from salvation's flowing well 
 The living waters draw with joy ! 
 
 But I, iu wretched exile rove 
 
 A stranger to the joy they prove. 
 
 Fountain of life ! to thee I turn, 
 And seek my solace all in thee ; 
 
 In mercy hear thy suppliant mourn, 
 And bring me where I long to be. 
 
 For thee, for thee I thirst, O God, 
 
 When shall I come to thine abode !
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 MOURNING. 
 
 My tears have been my meat day and night, 
 while they continually say unto me, where is thy 
 God? 
 
 PSALM xlii. 3. 
 
 -L1ERE is a melancholy aggravation of the grief 
 of the Psalmist. Banishment from the house of 
 God, so dearly loved, had been cause enough of 
 grief, even though that banishment had been accom- 
 panied, in all other respects, by circumstances that 
 tended to administer peace and consolation to his 
 mind. But he had " sorrow upon sorrow." He 
 was in the midst of foes who incessantly wounded 
 him by their scoffing and reproaches. To a mind 
 naturally susceptible, as was David's, these taunts 
 must have been peculiarly painful. And it appears 
 that he did indeed suffer acutely. How pathetic 
 are his expressions ! " My tears have been my 
 meat day and night." His tears were instead of 
 meat to him. His great sorrow had the common 
 effect of destroying his appetite, so that he forbore 
 his accustomed meals. Like Hannah, he " wept 
 and did not eat." 1 Sam. i. 7. His tears were 
 his solace. As it is common for the healthful and 
 the happy to enjoy their food ; so he experienced a
 
 MOURNING. 57 
 
 solace in the indulgence of his tears. It is indeed 
 well known that, by a remarkable law of the human 
 economy, the burden of an oppressed mind is greatly 
 relieved by weeping ; and the mourner, though he 
 cannot explain how it is, yet feels a melancholy 
 pleasure in shedding tears. And thus was it with 
 David, so long as the occasion of his grief remained; 
 for as the taunts of his enemies were " continual," 
 so his tears were his meat " day and night." 
 
 How awfully ignorant are irreligious men of 
 the character and conduct of God ! 
 
 We are not told who these persons were that 
 continually uttered the insulting taunt, " where is 
 thy God ;" but it is evident what they were, im- 
 pious, and ignorant of God. Some of them might 
 have been heathen and idolatrous, but as David 
 makes no allusion to this, and merely calls them 
 "his enemies," (verse 9,) it is highly probable 
 that they were, chiefly at least, irreligious Israelites, 
 who were always his principal enemies, and by 
 whose persecution it was that he was now driven 
 from the society of the godly and from the worship 
 of the tabernacle. But though they were Israelites, 
 and had the privilege of living in the land where 
 the true God was made known, they differed in 
 nothing essential from their heathen neighbours; 
 for if they did not, like them, make idols of wood 
 and stone, and worship them, it appears that they 
 were almost equally ignorant of the attributes and 
 F
 
 ^ THE IRRELIGIOUS IGNORANT OF GOD. 
 
 the ways of the "living God." By the scoffing in- 
 terrogation, " where is thy God," it is plain that 
 they regarded David as deserted by him : for, 
 having no spiritual acquaintance with the dealings 
 of God, they considered that as he did not appear 
 for David's deliverance, he had cast him off. They 
 understood not how God, who was w r ont to meet 
 him in his house, was now present with him in his 
 exile ; nor how this trial would be made to subserve 
 his highest welfare and the divine glory. Their 
 views of God were gross and carnal, and they knew 
 of nothing that was to be expected or desired from 
 him but earthly good, "the things that are seen and 
 temporal." Hence their apprehensions of the 
 divine character were essentially the same with 
 those of idolaters. They thought of, and treated 
 God as the heathen do their idols, who, when they 
 are prosperous think that their gods are pleased 
 with them, and when they are in adversity suppose 
 them to be angry. Yet, these were men whose 
 distinguished lot it was to live where the revealed 
 will of God was published and his worship main- 
 tained, a land of SABBATHS. But the people had 
 shamefully neglected their duties and despised their 
 privileges. The most overlooked the spiritual and 
 vital part of religion, and rested in the ritual ; 
 while some abandoned both the one and the other. 
 Thus an awful ignorance of God prevailed among 
 them ; " their foolish hearts were darkened ;" 
 rejecting God, they were rejected by him; loving
 
 THE IRRELIGIOUS IGNORANT OF GOD. 59 
 
 and choosing ignorance, they wandered in error, 
 their minds unenlightened by the Spirit of God ; 
 godliness was contemned ; and the holy Psalmist 
 was made the butt of insult and derision. 
 
 How powerfully do the scoffs and reproaches 
 of the ungodly, tend to shake the faith of a mind 
 already dejected ! 
 
 The suggestion intended to be conveyed in the 
 taunt, " where is thy God ?" contained in it a pow- 
 erful temptation. ' Where is he whom thou callest 
 thy God ? If he be thine, why does he not come 
 to thy help ? If he cares for thee, why does he 
 drive thee away from his tabernacle ?' And this 
 suggestion would come well-timed for effecting its 
 malicious purpose, David being previously so cast 
 down in spirit. It is therefore highly probable that 
 that purpose was effected, at least, in part : a con- 
 sideration that will help to account for the excess 
 of David's sorrow. Oppressed beforehand with 
 regretful and gloomy thoughts, how likely is it that 
 when assailed with the bitter scoff " where is thy 
 God," his heart should sink with mis-giving appre- 
 hensions, and that he should say within himself, 
 " alas, where is he, indeed ! I cannot answer that 
 question, as I would. Oh my sad heart ! May 
 not their insinuation be true ? Do I not seem to 
 be cast off, banished from my home, my friends, the 
 worship of my God ? My God, did I say ? Am 
 I not presuming ? Have I any warrant to call him
 
 60 THE SCOFFS OF THE WICKED 
 
 mine? Does he not seem to say, by his frowning 
 providence, " I know you not ?" Betrayed, as is 
 probable, into questioning like this, no wonder that 
 his weeping should endure both day and night ; 
 for, " a wounded spirit who can bear ?" 
 
 This was part of " the travail of his soul" who 
 was "the Son of David." It was when "they 
 that passed by reviled him, saying, he trusted in 
 God; let him deliver him now, if he will have 
 him :" it was then that " he cried with a loud voice, 
 saying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
 me?" 
 
 But in these wounding and tempting scoffs, with 
 which the enemies of David assailed him at this 
 time, they, who "are not ignorant of his devices," 
 may discover the craft and subtlety of Satan, who, 
 though unseen, was doubtless the prompter of their 
 doings. The impious, who have sold themselves 
 to sin, are his willing servants ; and his influence on 
 them is thus expressly declared by the Apostle, 
 " the Spirit who now worketh in the children of 
 disobedience." Eph. ii. 2. 
 
 It is one of the prime artifices of that great 
 enemy of souls to seize favourable opportunities for 
 the plying of his temptations. Thus it was, when 
 stripped of his children, his property, his health, 
 and all his comforts, that it was urged on Job to 
 "curse God and die." So also, it was after a 
 season of long abstinence that Jesus was tempted. 
 For " when he had fasted forty days and forty
 
 A POWERFUL TEMPTATION. 01 
 
 nights and was afterwards a hungred, the tempter 
 came to him and said, "if thou be the Son of God, 
 command that these stones be made bread." The 
 case of David was similar, his present circumstances, 
 being peculiarly favourable for a successful assault 
 on his faith. And it is still the same in ordinary 
 cases. When the thoughts are gloomy and despond- 
 ing, the mind having become enfeebled, often 
 through the effects of bodily disease ; and when the 
 spirits are sunk low, and their wonted tone and 
 elasticity are gone ; then it is that the great adver- 
 sary, seizing the inviting juncture, plies the soul 
 with unbelieving, dishonourable thoughts of God ; 
 with dismal, unreasonable apprehensions of its 
 state ; and sometimes with those horrid suggestions 
 which are emphatically termed " the fiery darts of 
 the wicked one." Such seasons, as they are always 
 attended with much grief and terror, so, not unfre- 
 quently with much danger, the mind losing its 
 hold of Christ, and of that " hope" in him, which is 
 "as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast." 
 The humble Christian should be cautioned, when 
 thus assaulted, not to hold parley with the enemy, 
 or to attempt contending with him and answering 
 his suggestions one by one ; but, lifting up his cry 
 to him who is greater than the foe, let him consider 
 the MERCIES that remain to him, and burst into a 
 song of praise. In some cases the soul may be too 
 far depressed for this, and when it is so, the best 
 relief, through the blessing of God, will be found 
 
 F2
 
 62 GOD DISHONOURED, 
 
 in the affectionate society of some devout and cheer- 
 ful Christian. Hence much solitude, in which the 
 mind, when low and desponding, is prone to prey 
 upon itself, should be carefully avoided. And here 
 should be remembered again the great advantages 
 of public worship, which, by its exciting, animating, 
 and cheering influence, is eminently adapted to be 
 the cure of a tempted and melancholy state of mind. 
 Could David in his exile have been favoured with 
 the lively and comforting discourse of some holy 
 and faithful friend, it is more than probable that he 
 would not have wept incessant tears. But the me- 
 dicine for his wounded spirit which he regarded as 
 more efficacious than all others, was the enjoyment 
 again of the privileges of the Lord's house, where 
 all his sorrows would be absorbed in the delightful 
 work of waiting on the word, and of joining the 
 common supplication, thanksgiving and praise. 
 
 How peculiarly afflictive to the soul that lores 
 God, is the dishonour cast upon him by his 
 enemies ! 
 
 It is not to be supposed of such a man as David 
 that his grief and his tears were all on his own ac- 
 count. Never, surely, was religion of a more un- 
 selfish character than his. Zeal for the honour of 
 God was, unquestionably, one of the most ardent 
 passions of his soul. No doubt, therefore, the 
 pungent sorrow which he endured at this time, was 
 very greatly occasioned at thought of the dishonour
 
 THE CHIEF SORROW. 63 
 
 which was cast on the God whom he loved and 
 served. The enemies who now insulted him were 
 the impious, of whom one striking feature is, 
 a disbelief of any advantage resulting from a 
 strict service and worship of God. Their insolent 
 enquiry is " What is the Almighty, that we should 
 serve him ? and what profit should we have, if we 
 pray unto him ?" Job xxi. 15. And when, as is 
 often the case, they see the servants of God brought 
 low in adversity, they are confirmed in their disbe- 
 lief, and encouraged to insult over them with mali- 
 cious triumph. So these; ' Where is thy God, 
 whom thou hast served so long ? Is this the reward 
 of thy attendances, thy prayers and thy psalm-sing- 
 ing ? Thou usedst to boast of his faithfulness : a 
 faithful God, truly, is he ! ' Thus, through the 
 side of the servant, they wound the holy name of 
 the master ; and this it was especially that pierced 
 the heart of David. The mournful sense of his 
 own desolate situation would, doubtless, of itself 
 have occasioned tears, but, it may be well believed, 
 excepting for this, his weeping would not have con- 
 tinued " day and night." He must have felt as 
 Asaph did, who, jealous for the divine honour, and 
 penetrated with shame and anguish, exclaimed, 
 " Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory 
 of thy name, and deliver us, and purge away our 
 sins for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the 
 heathen say, Where is their God?" Ps. Ixxix. 
 9, 1 0. And thus will it be, in some measure at
 
 64 MEDITATION. 
 
 least, with every gracious soul, when exposed to 
 the mockery of the wicked, or the terrific sugges- 
 tions of Satan. Though they may suffer deeply 
 from a sense of their own misery ; yet their bitterest 
 grief will be on account of the dishonour cast on 
 the holiness, mercy, and faithfulness of God. 
 
 To these, the principal causes of the excessive 
 grief of David, who, that remembers his compas- 
 sionate disposition,* can doubt to add another, a 
 piteous concern for the souls of his enemies, when 
 he considered their awful impiety and the dread- 
 ful danger to which they were exposed I While 
 more tears were shed for his own misery, and most 
 for the insulted honour of his God ; some, doubtless, 
 were wept over the deeply depraved condition of 
 these abandoned men. 
 
 MEDITATION. 
 
 WHEN the tears of the Psalmist were his meat 
 day and night, he was separated by the providence 
 of God from the benefits and pleasures of his house. 
 So is it with myself. But oh, how different, in 
 other respects, is my own situation from his ! How 
 distinguished by mercies ! In his retirement, his 
 peace was destroyed, his faith assaulted, and the 
 name of his God traduced. But in mine, what 
 comforts ! No scoffers are round me to molest my 
 repose, but friends and helpers ; the blessed word 
 * See 2 Sam. xxiii. 15, 16, 17. xxiv. 17.
 
 MEDITATION. 65 
 
 of God lies before me, and the writings of holy men 
 to help me in understanding it, and to aid me in 
 my devotions. " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
 forget not all his benefits." But what, if my ab- 
 sence from the worship of God, painful in itself, 
 were rendered doubly afflictive, by disquiet and 
 hindrances at home ? Am I better than David, 
 " the man after God's own heart ? " Ought I to 
 wonder, " as though some strange thing happened 
 unto " me ? Is not God righteous : am not I evil ? 
 And could he not, and would he not, as in the case 
 of David, overrule so grievous a trial for my soul's 
 health ? 
 
 David was in exile : I am AT HOME. What a 
 privilege ! But with all my advantages, am I at 
 all so spiritually-minded as he was under all his dis- 
 advantages ? Where is the likeness of his holy love 
 and holy mourning ; of his zeal for the name of God ; 
 his anguish when it was dishonoured ; his commise- 
 ration for the condition even of his enemies ? Alas, 
 how unspeakably below him do I feel myself to be ! 
 Oh, for the help of God, rightly to improve this 
 precious season, that through his grace I may be 
 brought to be what he was, and what, I trust, I do 
 desire to be. 
 
 But the season of retirement has its temptations. 
 Let my time be well-employed, that I may " be 
 able to stand against the wiles of the devil." A 
 mind vacant and unoccupied invites his approach. 
 If it be not taken up with profitable and holy
 
 66 MEDITATION. 
 
 thoughts, he is ever watchful and ready to supply 
 it with foolish and sinful thoughts. I will endea- 
 vour then, looking up to God, to preoccupy my 
 mind with wholesome themes of meditation, that if 
 lie make assault he may find me well prepared. 
 And so may I trust to realize the fulfilment of that 
 gracious promise, " Resist the devil and he will 
 flee from you." 
 
 Begone then all distracting cares of this life, all 
 frivolous or polluting imaginations, all profitless 
 speculative reasonings, all images of worldly sub- 
 stance, or shew, or pleasures, all vanities of earth. 
 Come ye holy and heavenly thoughts that withdraw 
 from earth, that calm the spirit, that raise the affec- 
 tions and set them " on things above, where Christ 
 sitteth at the right hand of God." Adorable theme 
 of meditation ! Look up, my soul, and contemplate 
 thy Saviour. Once he died for thee ; now he inter- 
 cedes : and through his intercession, thou shalt be 
 blessed with all spiritual blessings in- him. On 
 earth he foiled the tempter, and now from heaven 
 he sheds forth on his people that strength which 
 enables them to foil him too. Nay, he is ever pre- 
 sent with them, so that should the enemy say to 
 thee, " Where is thy God ? " answer, "At my right 
 hand, I shall not be moved. " Ps. xvi. 8. 
 
 Most merciful Saviour ! direct my thoughts ; 
 leave me not to temptation, but deliver me from 
 evil ; grant me to enjoy thy presence ; and, in thy 
 goodness bestow that spiritual-mindedness which 
 is LIFE and PEACE.
 
 67 
 HYMN. 
 
 BANISHED from the chosen dwelling, 
 
 From the resting-place of God, 
 Cruel hate my steps impelling 
 
 Thus to wander far abroad ; 
 Gloomy thoughts, my mind assailing, 
 
 Aggravate my former grief, 
 And my burdened spirit, failing, 
 
 Finds in tears a sad relief. 
 
 Now the tempter, watchful ever, 
 
 Seeking whom he may devour, 
 Fain my feeble hope would sever 
 
 From the Lord's protecting power ; 
 Still he comes, my soul molesting 
 
 While I bow beneath the rod, 
 Still with subtle art suggesting 
 
 " Where is now thy faithful God ? " 
 
 " Where is now thy God ! " Oh, sorrow ! 
 
 Hourly thus to hear him say, 
 Finding still the longed-for morrow 
 
 Mournful as the dark to-day ! 
 Yet, n.ot thus my soul would languish, 
 
 Would not thus be grieved and shamed, 
 But for that severer anguish, 
 
 When I hear the Lord defamed. 
 
 " Where is now thy God ! '' Oh aid me, 
 
 Lord of mercy to reply 
 * He is HERE though foes invade me, 
 
 Know his outstretched arm is nigh.' 
 Help me thus to be victorious, 
 
 While the shield of faith I take ; 
 Lord, appear, and make thee glorious : 
 
 Help me for thine honour's sake.
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 RETROSPECTION. 
 
 When I remember these things, I pour out my 
 soul in me ; for I had gone with the multitude,, I 
 went with them to the house of God ; with the 
 voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept 
 holy -day. 
 
 PSALM xlii. 4. 
 
 IT IS COMMON FOR THE MIND, IN SEASONS OF SORROW, TO 
 SEEK RELIEF FROM THE PRESENT IN RECOLLECTIONS 
 OF THE PAST. 
 
 J_ HE present was all gloomy, and all sorrowful to 
 the Psalmist : far from home, in a place of strangers, 
 mocked by enemies, with no kind associate to stand 
 for his defence, or to soothe his depressed and agi- 
 tated spirit. How natural that he should turn from 
 scenes of present misery, and seek some solace for 
 his mind in the remembrance of past enjoyments ! 
 David was a saint ; but yet a man. Religion, in its 
 most exalted state, is far from destroying those 
 passions and affections with which God has en- 
 dowed the human nature. They are a part of his 
 most admirable workmanship, and though so com- 
 monly debased by sin to the lowest and even vilest 
 uses, are capable, under his controuling, directing, 
 and sanctifying influence, of being instrumental 
 in accomplishing the noblest purposes. In the pre-
 
 MEMORY. 69 
 
 sent case, the affections of the man were not 
 inconsistent with the piety of the saint. 
 
 How wonderful a power of the human mind is 
 MEMORY ! It is the store-house of knowledge, 
 learning, wisdom. But it is also the receptacle of 
 images of past scenes and doings, past pleasures or 
 sorrows, past sin or obedience. To some how 
 terrible then, to others how delightful, while to 
 many how combined of the painful and the happy, 
 are its reviews ! It is memory that furnishes to 
 conscience the bright record of holy deeds that 
 have been " wrought in God," the " work of faith 
 and labour of love/' and thus enables the dying 
 saint to say " I have fought a good fight, I have 
 finished my course, I have kept the faith." And it 
 is memory also that presents that long, dark cata- 
 logue of mis-deeds, that gives to conscience its 
 power to accuse, to condemn, and to torment. 
 
 Oh, then, how unspeakably important is it that 
 the life should be holy even on this account, that, 
 in the evil day, the retrospect of memory may not 
 serve to aggravate the present misery ! What 
 would have been the anguish of David at this time, 
 if, in addition to his other sorrows, remorse, awaken- 
 ed by the remembrance of past transgressions, had 
 arisen to sting his soul ! Even the recollection of 
 holy services and enjoyments, in one respect afford- 
 ed him no solace ; because, their brightness, when 
 contrasted with his present grief, had the mournful 
 effect of deepening its gloom. Hence it was that 
 G
 
 70 MEMORY. 
 
 he exclaimed, " when I remember these things I 
 pour out my soul in me." What then had been 
 his agony, had he had to look back on a hollow 
 inconsistent profession ; means of grace perverted, 
 sabbaths misused, opportunities of getting and of 
 doing good neglected, the world secretly loved and 
 partly conformed to, private prayer and humiliation 
 abandoned, evil tempers indulged, spots in the life 
 known and allowed ! ! But no, he could revert to 
 the opposite of these : the house of God frequented, 
 the praise of God delighted in, the word of God 
 obeyed, the people of God consorted with. It was 
 this fair record of memory, this glad testimony of 
 conscience, that, on another occasion of distress, ena- 
 bled him to plead " I have walked in thy truth : I 
 have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in 
 with dissemblers ; I have hated the congregation of 
 evil-doers, and will not sit with the wicked : Lord, 
 Ihave loved the habitation of thy house, and the place 
 where thine honour dwelleth : gather not my soul 
 with sinners." Ps. xxvi. 
 
 In recollections of past enjoyments, those that 
 relate to social worship will be peculiarly dear to 
 the servant of God. 
 
 David was eminent for secret devotion ; and, 
 doubtless, in his hours of retirement he had enjoyed 
 many "times of refreshing from the presence of 
 the Lord." And these must have been sunny spots 
 in his retrospect of past enjoyments. But it seems
 
 MAN A SOCIAL BEING. 71 
 
 that he viewed as brighter even than these, those 
 hours of communion with his God which he enjoyed 
 in company with the saints. " For I had gone 
 with the multitude, I went with them to the house 
 of God ; with the voice of joy and praise, with a 
 multitude that kept holy-day." 
 
 God made man a social being ; and when he re- 
 quires the assembling of his people together, he has 
 respect, among other things, to this part of the con- 
 stitution of the human nature. Man is formed for 
 society not only by his wants, but also by his sym- 
 pathies. It is by the power of sympathy that he is 
 either impelled or attracted to seek association with 
 others ; conscious that there exists between them 
 and himself, a common feeling. Hence when the 
 heart is either laden with grief, or distended with 
 joy, the sympathetic affection powerfully and al- 
 most irresistibly prompts it to unload its burden to 
 another ; another who, it is conscious, can both 
 understand and feel what itself experiences. Thus 
 the truth and propriety of the old remark that friends 
 in the disclosure of their hearts to each other, divide 
 their sorrows and double their joys. Now, religion 
 makes no change in this principle of the human na- 
 ture, but only gives it a new and high direction. 
 That which was before only the intercourse of men, 
 becomes the communion of saints, that spiritual fel- 
 lowship which exists between real Christians, and 
 which is certainly the noblest intercourse of rational 
 and immortal beings with one another that can be
 
 72 COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 
 
 known on this side the society of " the spirits of 
 just men made perfect." The fellowship of a 
 merely human friendship may be strong, where 
 there is a likeness of disposition and of pursuit in 
 the individuals associated ; but since its aims and 
 its plans are all bounded by earth, there must 
 necessarily be attached to it an unspeakable little- 
 ness and meanness when compared with the sublime 
 fellowship of holy minds, whose views stretch be- 
 yond the present world and whose thoughts and 
 converse have for their objects, things of infinite 
 excellence and of eternal duration. And indeed, 
 no ties known among men, whether those of kindred 
 or affection, can possibly be so binding as well as 
 lasting, as those which knit together the hearts of 
 believers. " For by one Spirit are they all bap- 
 tized into one body, and have been all made to 
 drink into one spirit. There is one body and one 
 Spirit, even as they are called in one hope of their 
 calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism ; one 
 God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
 through all, and in them all." 
 
 Now, let the mind imagine an assembly of per- 
 sons to whom these passages are applicable ; per- 
 sons who, in addition to the sympathy of the human 
 nature, are influenced by one spirit ; who trust, love, 
 and obey one Lord ; who have one faith, believing 
 in the same great, essential truths ; and who are 
 animated by one hope, having all the same delight- 
 ful expectation of the eternal blessedness : let the
 
 SOCIAL WORSHIP. 73 
 
 mind imagine an assembly of such persons employed 
 in raising their hearts together in common suppli- 
 cation to the one Father and God of their salvation, 
 through the one Mediator, or in lifting up their 
 united voices in adoration, thanksgiving, or praise, 
 and a picture will be beheld bearing the nearest 
 possible earthly resemblance to the society of the 
 blessed in heaven ! Who then shall wonder that 
 David, passing by the recollections of private joys, 
 should fix on the seasons when he went with the 
 multitude to the house of God, with the multitude 
 that kept holy-day, as the brightest and happiest 
 
 of his life? 
 
 / 
 
 In truth, the disposition of mind that he here 
 discovered proves that his religion was not only 
 genuine in its nature, but exalted in its degree. 
 Every where in the scriptures we are taught that 
 the delighting in the company of the saints, espe- 
 cially when associated for worship, is an eminent 
 sign of grace. And in David it is evident that this 
 gracious disposition was so raised as to include in 
 it that sublime love which embraces in its arms the 
 whole church of God as one body, and which 
 makes the interest and happiness of the body, to be 
 cared for, or rejoiced in, as its own. This noble 
 affection of the soul is a distinguished part of true 
 religion, evidenced to be so both by its likeness to 
 the mind of Christ, and by its being so opposite to 
 the selfishness of depraved man, which is a corrup- 
 tion so strong within him as greatly to overcome 
 
 G2
 
 74 CHRISTIAN LOVE. 
 
 even the social tendency. Hence pious persons of 
 the more spiritual and elevated cast have always 
 been remarkable for their fervent concern for, and 
 love to the universal church : while professors of a 
 lower and more doubtful description have been as 
 remarkable for the contrary. In them, self, that 
 enemy to all that is truly great and good, seems to 
 be the chief prompter of their thoughts, and cares, 
 and conversation ; and their own experience to be 
 nearly their all in all. How it fares with the rest, 
 is to them a matter of little concern. In proof of 
 this, they will do, and they will give, as little a.s 
 possible to promote the general welfare of the 
 church, or the extension of Christ's kingdom upon 
 earth. 
 
 How different were the feelings of David to- 
 wards the church : " Because of the house of the 
 Lord our God, I will seek thy good." In the 
 same Psalm he says " they shall prosper that love 
 thee." A great truth this, which is found ever to 
 hold good. Hence the selfists do not prosper. 
 Their souls are lean ; their spirits sour ; their 
 voice complaint. How can they love Zion whose 
 endless employment it is to hunt for faults in the 
 ministers of God, in religious societies, in other 
 professors ; and when they have found them, or 
 fancied they have, to trumpet them abroad \ They 
 love not: but neither do they prosper. How 
 righteous a retribution ! But the temper of Da- 
 vid was the temper of the gospel ; that temper to
 
 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 75 
 
 which it is the very design of the gospel to reclaim 
 men from the dominion of self. " By this shall all 
 men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love 
 one to another." But it is in social worship espe- 
 cially that this love is called into lively exercise, 
 when heart mingles with heart, and the offering of 
 many is as the offering of one. It is then that the 
 soul has its highest elevation, when it feels its own 
 cares and affections forgotten in the nobler care and 
 affection for the whole. Thus by becoming little, 
 it becomes really great ; and triumphs in the 
 consciousness of its oneness with the redeemed, 
 mystical body. 
 
 To this blessed sympathy with the whole, in wor- 
 ship, the Saviour would lead his disciples ; as is 
 plain, by his directing them to say " Our Father." 
 And he who enters into the full spirit of this direc- 
 tion will delight, even when alone in secret, to feel 
 his union with the body and to say " Our Father : " 
 though it is when actually engaged in worship with 
 the faithful, that this sympathy exerts its most pow- 
 erful and delightful influence on the soul. And 
 then it is that the soul attains to its greatest exalta- 
 tion on earth, and makes the nearest approach to 
 the heavenly happiness ; a happiness which is but 
 social worship perfected. "On earth" it is " two 
 agreeing, as touching any thing that they shall ask;"* 
 or, " two or three gathered together in the name " 
 of Christ, as well to render praise as to ask mercy. 
 * Matt, xviii. 19, 20.
 
 /O BIAS OF THE SOUL MANIFESTED 
 
 In heaven it is all agreeing as touching one offering, 
 being all gathered together in one place, and form- 
 ing one congregated body, composed of "the innu- 
 merable company of angels," and "the general 
 assembly and church of the first-born." But whe- 
 ther in heaven or on earth the disposition exercised 
 is essentially the same ; and any instance of its real 
 exercise, in any place, is a fulfilment of the Saviour's 
 intercession, " That they all may be one, as thou 
 Father art in me, and I in thee ; that they also may 
 be one in us." Happy they who are the subjects 
 of this disposition, and in whom it abounds! In 
 fellowship with the saints they will enjoy a heaven 
 begun on earth ; and when at any time that fellow- 
 ship is interrupted, like David they will look back 
 on the seasons of its enjoyment as the best and hap- 
 piest of the days that are gone. 
 
 The bias of the soul i& remarkably shewn by 
 the objects of regretful recollection. 
 
 Of this a very instructive and beautiful example 
 is afforded by the case of David. At the present 
 time he was deprived of all the comforts of home, 
 of all the alleviations of friendship, of all the respect 
 andhonour which he had been accustomed to receive. 
 Moreover, he knew that he was destined by the ap- 
 pointment of God for the throne of Israel,* and that 
 the cruel persecution which he now suffered from 
 Saul and his followers was highly iniquitous, as he 
 See 1 Sam. xvi. 113.
 
 BY THE OBJECTS REGRETTED. 77 
 
 had been a faithful servant, and deserved only good 
 from the hands of his master. But none of these 
 things were they, the deprivation of which now oc- 
 casioned him to pour out his soul within him : not 
 the comforts of home, nor the alleviations of friend- 
 ship, nor the honours which he had been wont to 
 receive and of which he was now most unjustly de- 
 prived ; no, nor even the throne of Israel which he 
 knew to be his right by divine appointment. But 
 the benefits, the privileges, the enjoyments of the 
 house of God, these were the things on earth which 
 he most prized, and it was the privation of these 
 that he now most lamented. What a view does 
 this afford of the high spirituality of David's mind ! 
 How lovely in itself, how edifying for the instruc- 
 tion of others ! Here is seen the true character of 
 the saint, beautifully illustrated. In banishment and 
 affliction when turning, for the relief of his mind, to 
 look back on the objects that were most loved, and 
 prized, and dearest to his regretful recollection, he 
 passes by all others to fix on those that relate to 
 God, his people, and his worship; and thus proves 
 that his affection was set " on things above, not on 
 things on the earth." 
 
 How lamentably different in this respect are 
 many who profess to esteem the public worship of 
 God. When hindered from their attendance on it, 
 the regrets which they express, are of a character 
 almost opposite to those of David. No mournings 
 over their loss of divine ordinances, no fervent breath-
 
 78 WORLDLY REGRETS. 
 
 ings to be restored to them. If sick, their regrets 
 are concerning the body, not the soul ; and their 
 chief anxiety is that of the idolatrous Ahaziah,* 
 " Shall I recover of this disease ?" The spiritual 
 friend who may call, is grieved to hear nothing but 
 long, tedious descriptions of the minutest particu- 
 lars of the ailment, such as how it came on, and how 
 it proceeded, and how it was at this time better, and 
 how at that time worse ; and what things friends 
 have said and advised, and what things physicians 
 have thought and prescribed, &c. But what is 
 become of him who says, " I am the Lord that 
 healeth thee ?" Alas HE is forgotten ; or, if alluded 
 to, it is only in a cold and formal manner. 
 
 The regrets of others relate to being hindered 
 from business, not to being hindered from divine 
 ordinances ; or even to the changes of the weather, 
 not to the fickleness of their minds; or to the bad- 
 ness of the times, not to the badness of their hearts; 
 or to things unlucky and unfortunate, not to things 
 disobedient and unrepented of : "but none saith, 
 where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the 
 night ?" Job xxxv. 10. None looks back with 
 mournful recollection on the joys of the house of 
 God, and saith, " When I remember these things, 
 I pour out my soul in me." But, " by their fruits 
 shall ye know them." David is made known by 
 his; and by those objects which he chiefly regretted 
 in his affliction may clearly be seen the holy bias of 
 
 * 2 Kings i. 16.
 
 EXEMPLARY CONDUCT OF DAVID. 79 
 
 his soul. Fellowship with the saints, and the pre- 
 sence of God in his ordinances, were the things, 
 the loss of which he mourned so deeply. And 
 indeed, before he was deprived of them, the spirit- 
 uality of his mind was remarkably evinced by his 
 ardent attachment to them under very unfavourable 
 circumstances. In those earlier years of David it 
 was not a thing of repute to be a saint ; for the ark 
 of God, the symbol of his presence, was neglected, 
 and of course his worship also. It appears that for 
 the space of forty years it remained at the house of 
 Abinadab, and that during half that time it was 
 almost entirely disregarded; but at the end of twenty 
 years there seems to have been a general awakening 
 of the people to a sense of their loss, and to a 
 "lamenting after the Lord." 1 Sam. vii. 1, 2. 
 Yet after this it appears to have fallen again into 
 neglect, for when, at the end of another twenty 
 years, David proposed to remove it from the house 
 of Abinadab to Jerusalem, he mentioned that neg- 
 lect as a reason for doing so : "And let us bring 
 again the ark of our God to us ; for we enquired 
 not at it in the days of Saul." 1 Chron. xiii. 3. 
 
 While the people in general did not enquire at 
 the Ark, there was a remnant that did, who, though 
 they were few in comparison with the mass, yet 
 when collected together were a goodly throng, " a 
 multitude that kept holy-day." With them, in a 
 time of general defection, David was not ashamed 
 to be seen going to the worship of his God : nay, he
 
 80 FEELING SUBSTITUTED FOR RELIGION*. 
 
 went thither with exultation, " with the voice of joy 
 and praise." And that joy and praise were truly 
 spiritual, not excited by the grandeur of architec- 
 ture or the pornp of ceremony, or by any external 
 circumstances affecting the imagination through the 
 senses the ark being lodged in a private dwelling- 
 house but founded on a simple faith in the pro- 
 mise, " I will come to you, and I will bless you." 
 
 How many, it is to be feared, who have no such 
 faith, and who go to the public worship without 
 even a thought, much less an expectation, of meet- 
 ing God there, are yet well satisfied with themselves 
 because they are conscious of pleasure, which is 
 only the gratification of the senses, music acting on 
 the ear and scenery on the eye, while the heart 
 remains unchanged, and the mind not only unen- 
 lightened, but involved in darker delusion from 
 substituting feeling for religion. But the delight 
 of David was holy and spiritual ; it was "joy hi 
 believing." Hence, unlike the pleasurable emo- 
 tions excited in the senses by sights and sounds, 
 which vanish away when the exciting causes are 
 withdrawn, his delight in divine things remained 
 with him ; it was a principle, abiding in his heart. 
 And now, while in banishment from the ark of God, 
 it was the loss, not of any gratification of the senses, 
 but of the spiritual worship there in company with 
 the saints, and of the especial presence of God 
 manifested there, which he so greatly lamented. 
 And by this was discovered the bias of his soul,
 
 REVIEW. 81 
 
 which turned to divine objects, its most powerful 
 attractives, by a law as true in its operation, as the 
 turning of the needle to the pole. 
 
 MEDITATIVE REVIEW. 
 
 MY situation calls upon me to reflect, to look 
 back, and to consider what have been my disposi- 
 tion, my character, and my ways. David recalled 
 the past; let me do likewise. What account of the 
 past does memory furnish ; what sentence does con- 
 science pass on that account ? Though I can per- 
 ceive that my past duties and services have been 
 attended by innumerable failings, and stained by 
 sin, yet, through mercy, I can say, " I have not sat 
 with vain persons, I have hated the congregation 
 of evil doers ; I have loved the habitation of thy 
 house." Ps. 26. Oh, how great has been the 
 divine goodness towards me, in keeping me from 
 the paths of sinners, from the society of those who 
 profane or misuse the sabbath, who are " lovers of 
 pleasure more than lovers of God." But for that 
 goodness, I might now have been stupid and insen- 
 sible to my loss ; or else a prey to the terrors of 
 remorse. "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." 
 
 But now, while this hindrance is laid upon me, 
 of what nature are my regrets ? Are my thoughts 
 much taken up with what is earthly in the disap- 
 pointment ? Do I feel fretted at the interruption
 
 82 REVIEW. 
 
 of some plan, or pursuit, or business, wholly relat- 
 ing to the present life ? Or is my chief regret, that 
 of the Psalmist, the being deprived of spiritual 
 privileges and enjoyments ? If in sickness, am I 
 more concerned for the disease of my soul than the 
 disease of my body ? And, in desiring recovery, is 
 it for the sake of being restored to God's house and 
 his service, more than for the sake of returning to 
 my employments in the world ? 
 
 In mourning my loss of public privileges, do I 
 especially regret communion with the saints ? Do 
 I believe in it ; do I understand it ; have I enjoyed 
 it ; is it greatly prized by me ; am I longing to be 
 favoured with it again ? 
 
 In worshipping God in his house, has it been the 
 more delightful to me that I worshipped him in 
 company with his true servants ? Have I in such 
 seasons felt my mind raised to a sense of fellowship 
 with the church in earth and heaven, and to a 
 blessed anticipation of that time when I hope to 
 sing with the whole body assembled, " Unto him 
 that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
 own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 unto God and his Father; to him be glory and 
 dominion for ever. Amen." Have I now, in the 
 mean while, a perception of the excellence, beauty 
 and glory of that one body which Christ loved and 
 for which he gave himself, " that he might sanctify 
 and cleanse it with the washing of water by the 
 word ; that he might present it to himself a glori^
 
 REVIEW. 83 
 
 ous church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing ; but that it should be holy and without blem- 
 ish ?" Do I fully believe and heartily delight in 
 this truth, that there is such a church, constituting 
 one body, notwithstanding the hindrances to such 
 believing and delighting which arise from what is 
 seen of inconsistency in some professors, and of 
 apostacy in others? Do I love to worship with 
 those that make a part of this body ? Do I feel 
 my own interest and happiness interwoven with 
 theirs and with those of the whole Church ? 
 
 Let me consider that this fellowship with the 
 saints is an essential part of true religion. I fear I 
 have been greatly deficient in this respect. I fear 
 that I have been accustomed to think too much 
 about myself in public worship, and to feel too 
 much as an insulated individual. And this should 
 seem to be one reason why I have sometimes en- 
 joyed the public worship no more. May the Lord 
 perfect in me what is wanting in this matter. May 
 he be pleased to make use of this retirement to stir 
 me up to reflect on my deficiencies and to pray for 
 more grace. 
 
 Surely, it is not enough that public ordinances 
 be attended on ; but their nature and the purpose 
 of their institution must be kept in view, and they 
 must be used according to the intention of God. 
 Now the great end of the sabbath is the honour of 
 God and the good of the souls of men. It is a day 
 for serving and praising God, and for seeking the
 
 84 REVIEW. 
 
 welfare of the soul, in an especial manner. David 
 went with the multitude to keep " holy day," this 
 was the object which he had in view. Thousands 
 that despise the mercies of God, convert the sab- 
 bath into a holiday, a day for the more free indul- 
 gence in sensual gratifications. They make it a 
 festival for the body, instead of the soul. They 
 feast themselves with dainties, and go not to God's 
 house at all, or go and sleep ; while others, clothing 
 themselves in a more shewy dress than common, go 
 thither that they may be seen ; thus insulting the 
 great God by converting his house into a place of 
 exhibition. And some who profess better things 
 are not free from a similar conduct. 
 
 Again let me look back. Have I been free from 
 all such profaning of the Lord's day ? Have I 
 consecrated it wholly to him ? Have I abstained 
 from whatever would in any degree unfit me for its 
 duties and its enjoyments ? Has it been the festi- 
 val of my soul ; a day of spiritual joy above all the 
 low gratifications of sense ? In a word, have I, 
 according to the scripture, " turned away my foot 
 from doing my pleasure on God's holy day, calling 
 the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honour- 
 able, and honouring him, not doing my own ways, 
 nor finding my own pleasure, nor speaking my own 
 words?" Isaiah Iviii. 13. 
 
 Have I been wont to enter into the spirit of 
 worship ? Have my mind and my heart been 
 engaged in it ? Has there been life ? David and
 
 REVIEW. 85 
 
 his fellow worshippers, lifted up " the voice of joy 
 (or exultation) and praise." They went to the 
 house of God not to hear and see him worshipped 
 by others, but to worship him themselves. Some 
 attend on prayers but do not pray, and listen to 
 thanksgiving and praise, but give no thanks and no 
 praise themselves. They treat the holy God as an 
 idol, or as a being that may be worshipped by 
 proxy. 
 
 Have I dreaded the least approach to such 
 mockery and insult? Has it been "my heart's 
 desire and prayer" that I might worship " him who 
 is a spirit, in spirit and in truth ?" Have I been 
 accustomed actually to engage in the work of 
 praise, not affronting God by leaving it to others, 
 but lifting up my own voice, and that heartily, and 
 with delight ? Or, if not gifted with a voice to 
 sing, have I nevertheless rendered an offering, 
 " singing and making melody in my heart to the 
 Lord ?" Eph. v. 19. 
 
 Surely this questioning of myself is most im- 
 portant, and what God now calls me to. Let me 
 then deal with myself, sincerely, uprightly, impar- 
 tially, as in his sight. In no other way can I hope 
 to benefit by looking back on the past. For thus, 
 discovering what is amiss, I shall seek to rectify it, 
 through divine grace ; and what I perceive to have 
 been consistent with the will of God, while I give 
 to him the glory, shall be for encouragement and 
 comfort to me, enabling me to say with the Apos- 
 
 H2
 
 86 REVIEW. 
 
 tie "My rejoicing is this, the testimony of my 
 conscience." 2 Cor. i. 12. But, "who can under- 
 stand his errors ?" How numerous they are, how 
 complicated, how subtile ! Many are altogether 
 forgotten by me, many but faintly recollected, 
 and many hidden and unseen. Oh, what reason is 
 there to add, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." 
 And then, when my faults are perceived, what a 
 proneness there is to lessen and excuse them, until 
 they almost seem to be faults no longer. How 
 partial in judging of myself, how backward to come 
 into the full reproving light of the divine law, how 
 unwilling to pass sentence even when convicted. 
 Abundant reason have I to subscribe to that truth 
 " The heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
 perately wicked: who can know it?" Not even 
 they who are enlightened. Even the wisest and 
 best of men have been imposed on by the deceitful- 
 ness of the heart, through sin, and by its proneness 
 to self-flattery and self-exaltation. I will, there- 
 fore, not trust it, but will beg of the Lord to assist 
 me in this work, saying with David, " Search me, 
 O God, and know my heart ; try me and know my 
 thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in 
 me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Ps. 
 cxxxix. 23, 24.
 
 87 
 HYMN. 
 
 ALAS, when memory turns to view 
 
 The happy seasons past, 
 My soul is poured out anew, 
 And sees a gloom of darker hue 
 
 My present grief o'ercast. 
 
 For then, what joy inspired th song, 
 
 What love on holy days ! 
 When, with the glad, exulting throng, 
 To God's dear house I passed along, 
 
 And tuned the voice of praise ! 
 
 My God, the sinners who contemn 
 
 And spurn thy holy ways, 
 Whom all thy righteous laws condemn 
 Ob, gather not my soul with them, 
 
 That mourns thy long delays ! 
 
 For I have loved that sacred place 
 
 Where dwells thine honour, Lord, 
 Have loved, with saints that know thy grace, 
 To praise thee there, and seek thy face, 
 
 And hear thy holy word. 
 
 Oh grant me then that joy once more 
 
 Thy glory to proclaim 
 That longed-for privilege restore, 
 THERE with thy servants to ador, 
 
 Aud THERE to bless thy name.
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 CONFLICT. 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and 
 ivhy art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in 
 God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his 
 countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down 
 within me ; therefore will I remember thee from 
 the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from 
 the hill Mizar. 
 
 PSALM xlii. 5, 6. 
 
 THE MIND, EVEN OF A HOLY MAN, MAY BE UNDULY CAST 
 DOWN AND DISQUIETED. 
 
 W HAT is said by the Apostle James of Elijah 
 is applicable to all, even the most eminent of the 
 saints, they are men " subject to like passions " 
 with others. The change which they have under- 
 gone has not taken from them the wants and feel- 
 ings common to mankind. But, in addition to 
 these, they have others which belong to the spiritual 
 nature ; and which are often the occasion to them 
 of sorrows far more acute than any that arise from 
 the wants and feelings that are merely natural. 
 This was remarkably the case with David in his 
 present situation. Persecuted, mocked, driven from 
 place to place, he must needs have suffered great 
 privations and difficulties as it respected the body, 
 and the things necessary to the support and comfort
 
 DEJECTION. 89 
 
 of life. But of these he says nothing : he does not. 
 even allude to them. His chief sorrow was of a 
 spiritual kind, and so great in its degree as to ab- 
 sorb all griefs and cares about inferior things. But 
 here was his infirmity ; for though his sorrow was 
 on a spiritual account and so far right, yet the de- 
 gree to which it rose was excessive and unjusti- 
 fiable. And of this he was himself conscious, as is 
 plain from his words, "Why art thou cast down, O 
 my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me ? " 
 
 Here he mentions two effects of his excessive 
 grief, dejection and disquietude. His spirit was 
 " cast down" dejected ; bowing under its pressure 
 of distress ; as is expressed in that beautifully pa- 
 thetic passage, " Heaviness in the heart of man 
 maketh it stoop." Prov. xii. 25. There is a natu- 
 ral elasticity in the human mind, whose tendency is 
 to resist what is burdensome, or, if forced for a 
 season to bend, to spring up again, like the bow 
 when the power that bent it is removed. This is 
 that "spirit of a man that will sustain his infirmi- 
 ties," and, when elevated and strengthened by the 
 principle of grace, what may it not be expected to 
 endure ? But there are sometimes seasons in the 
 life of holy men when that natural elasticity and the 
 ordinary supply of grace, conjoined, have been in- 
 sufficient to preserve them from undue dejection, 
 the casting down of the spirit. Then follows the 
 unhappy consequence disquietude, the next sad 
 effect of excessive sorrow. " Why art thou disqui-
 
 90 THE UNDULY DEJECTED SOUL 
 
 eted:" more literally, tiumdtnated, a word fre- 
 quently applied to the roaring and tumult and toss- 
 ing of the sea.* There is a certain state of dejec- 
 tion, into which the mind may sink, when it loses 
 its wonted possession and command of itself, and 
 becomes a prey to distracting thoughts and bewild- 
 ering imaginations ; a state, aptly called a tumult ; 
 and well imaged by the ever restless ocean. This 
 state of mind, while it is in itself very distressing 
 and humiliating, is also very dishonourable to God, 
 and very hurtful and dangerous to the soul. Im- 
 moderate dejection is to the eye of the mind what 
 the jaundice is to the eye of the body; it occasions 
 every thing to be viewed through a false medium, 
 every object beheld is discoloured, the same gloom 
 rests upon all. The burden of every day's lamen- 
 tation is "All these things are against me." The 
 mind becomes absolutely unreasonable, and the 
 most powerful arguments, as well as the most affect- 
 ing persuasives, avail nothing to lift up or to calm 
 a soul so cast down and disquieted. 
 
 In cases of undue dejection and disquietude, 
 the proper remedy is to expostulate with the soul, 
 and to direct it to the ONLY TRUE SOURCE of relief. 
 
 Though David was thus deeply distressed, he 
 was not sunk so low as to be unable to use the pro- 
 per means for his relief. He therefore checks him- 
 self by a wise and timely interference, well knowing 
 * gee Isaiah xvii. 12. Jeremiah v. 22. vi. 23. li. 55.
 
 TO BE EXPOSTULATED WITH. 91 
 
 that his grief was immoderate, and that to indulge 
 it would be sinful and perilous. And in this he is 
 an example to all others of God's people, admo- 
 nishing them to make an early and vigorous re- 
 sistance to their sorrows when they are becoming 
 excessive; lest, as is sometimes deplorably the case, 
 they sink into that state of helpless despondency, 
 which fills the soul with darkness, injures the health 
 of the body, unfits for the duties of life, prejudices 
 others against serious religion, and dishonors the 
 name and the grace of God. There is indeed, a 
 grief for sin which all must experience who would 
 be saved ; for, saith Christ, " Except ye repent, ye 
 shall all likewise perish." This "godly sorrow 
 worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented 
 of." But even sorrow for sin may be immoderate; 
 and is so, whenever it is such as to lead off the soul 
 from the power and grace of the Saviour and from 
 the efficacy of his atoning blood " which cleanseth 
 from all sin." Much more, then, is that sorrow 
 immoderate, which is occasioned by the deprivation 
 of religious privileges and spiritual comforts for- 
 merly enjoyed : and such was the sorrow of David 
 in the present instance. But when he now found 
 that it was becoming excessive, with holy wisdom he 
 rebukes himself, expostulating " Why art thou cast 
 down, O my soul ? " ' Tell me, what is the cause ? 
 Is it a reasonable, is it a just one ? True, thy situ- 
 ation is mournful : unjustly persecuted; compelled 
 to be a wanderer, in the midst of strangers, of ene-
 
 92 CAUSE OF UNDUE DEJECTION. 
 
 mies ; mocked, traduced, reviled ; without the so- 
 lace of kindred; far from home, from friends, from 
 the house of God ! But yet, consider, O my soul, 
 not far from God himself. Lift thyself up, then, 
 from this casting down ; let thy disquiet cease, thy 
 tumult of gloomy thoughts be hushed, hope thou 
 in God.' 
 
 " HOPE THOU IN GOD." The word which is 
 here rendered "hope," denotes that expectation 
 which is founded on faith in God, and which leads 
 the soul to wait upon him. The idea is beautifully 
 expressed in Ps. xxxix. 7. "And now, Lord, 
 what wait I for ? My hope is in thee." And also 
 in Lam. iii 26. " It is good that a man should 
 both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the 
 Lord." See also Ezek. xix. 5. Now, from the 
 remedy which David here prescribed for his soul, 
 it is shewn what he considered to be the cause of 
 the disease. The disease was undue dejection and 
 disquietude of spirit; the cause, a want of that 
 faith which leads the soul to hope in God, to ex- 
 pect from him, to wait on him. When this faith is 
 in lively exercise, the soul is established in tran- 
 quillity, realizing the being, attributes, and presence 
 of God, and laying hold on his promises and on its 
 interest in them. But when this faith sinks low, 
 the soul loses its anchor-hold, and like a ship with- 
 out its ballast, is " driven with the wind and 
 tossed." Or, like the dove of Noah, that found no 
 resting-place in all her flight until she returned to
 
 REVIVAL OF CONFIDENCE. 93 
 
 the ark ; so the soul can find no relief from its tu- 
 mult until it returns to God by faith, and then hath 
 it "joy and peace in believing." Thus David, by 
 a long poring on his sorrows, began to bow down 
 under their weight, and to be filled with a tumult 
 of disquieting thoughts and apprehensions that ab- 
 sorbed his mind, and drew it off* from a believing 
 recollection of God; until, at length, perceiving 
 his error, and rousing himself to consideration, he 
 comes back to God as the only refuge and rest for 
 his soul. " Hope thou in God," notwithstanding 
 that all these things seem to be against thee. 
 Judge not the Lord by appearances. Walk by 
 faith, not by sight. God is the same now, that he 
 was. Though my circumstances are changed 
 though for the house of God, I have a wilderness, 
 for the friendship of his saints, the enmity of his 
 foes, for " the voice of joy and praise," the cry of 
 reproach and derision : yet God remains the same. 
 Hope, then, in God. Consider what he is, what 
 he has done, and what he has promised to do. 
 Yes, and what, relying upon his word, I am per- 
 suaded he will do; "for I shall yet praise him." 
 
 " FOR I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM." This persua- 
 sion of David is a striking and delightful example 
 of that confidence which is the effect of faith in 
 exercise. 'Hope, my soul, in God, because I 
 shall yet praise him. Though I seem like one 
 cast off, yet I shall praise him ; though my long 
 waiting appears to be vain, yet I shall praise him ; 
 i
 
 94 A SEASON TO EVERY GRACE. 
 
 though the prospect is dark and there are no pre- 
 sent appearances of a favourable change, yet I shall 
 praise him.' How glorious is the power of faith ! 
 " All things are possible to him that believeth." 
 " This is the victory that overcometh the world," 
 its temptations, cares, and griefs, "even our FAITH." 
 ' But why should David speak of praising God 
 at a future time ; why not praise him now ; has not 
 a saint always, even in the most trying circum- 
 stances reason to praise God ?' It is most true, in 
 a certain sense, that he has. The holiest men have 
 reason to say, at all times, " It is of the Lord's 
 mercies that we are not consumed." But, to 
 " every thing there is a season ; there is a time to 
 weep and a time to rejoice." Eccl. iii. 1, 4. To 
 mourn in a time of rejoicing, or to rejoice in a time 
 of mourning, would be contrary to the very nature 
 of man ; and, doubtless, God expects nothing from 
 his people contrary to the nature with which he has 
 formed them. They ought, indeed, even in their 
 heaviest hours, to retain a due sense of their obli- 
 gations to sparing and redeeming mercy ; but in a 
 time of darkness, humiliation, and dejection of 
 spirit, to be engaged in the work of praise, as in 
 times of light and gladness, would be what is not 
 suitable, and what is not required. "To every 
 thing there is a season." Hence that direction of 
 the apostle James, " Is any among you afflicted ? 
 Let him pray. Is any cheerful ? Let him sing 
 psalms." Agreeably to this, David mourns now in
 
 SPIRITUAL-MINDEDNESS. 95 
 
 the time of casting down ; but he confidently anti- 
 cipated a time of lifting up when he should again 
 rejoice. 
 
 But, indeed, the praise which David here in- 
 tends, was not the silent, private offering of the 
 heart ; but the praise of public celebration, for to 
 this the word here used is almost ever applied. 
 Besides, that he means public praise is evident 
 from the context. Looking back, he says, " I had 
 gone with the multitude, I went with them to the 
 house of God, with the voice of joy and praise :" 
 looking forward, he says, "I shall yet praise him ;" 
 that is, as I was used to do ; with his people, in his 
 house, with the lifted voice. Here then, again, is 
 unveiled to us the heart of David. What did he 
 mourn as his chief sorrow ? Banishment from the 
 worship of his God. What did he anticipate as 
 his chief joy ? The being engaged in it again. 
 
 How spiritual was the mind of David, even in 
 this season of trial ! His soul was still intent on 
 glorifying God in the work of praise. Of all 
 things that he could be allowed to hope for in this 
 world, however valued or delightful, this, was the 
 prime. " So will I compass thine altar, O Lord ; 
 that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, 
 and tell of all thy wondrous works." Ps. xxvi. 6, 
 7. He does not say, he will deliver me; but "I 
 shall praise him :" shewing evidently that he more 
 delighted in the thought of honouring God, than 
 in that of his own personal safety and comfort, when
 
 96 SCRIPTURE METAPHORS. 
 
 he should be delivered. And the gladdening anti- 
 cipation of it he proposes to his soul for the calm- 
 ing of its perturbation. ' Cheer thee, my soul, 
 the day shall yet come, when thou shalt be restored 
 to thy most beloved employment ; and the joy that 
 thou shalt then experience shall amply overpay thy 
 present grief, shall cause thee even to forget it, so 
 that it shall be to thee as though it had never been. 
 Then, cheer thee, my soul, dismiss thy fears and 
 lamentations, hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
 praise him for the help of his countenance.' 
 
 " THE HELP OF HIS COUNTENANCE." The term 
 countenance, as applied to God, is used to express 
 either his favour or his anger towards men ; and is 
 intended to convey a spiritual idea in a more lively 
 manner by the use of an image familiar to mankind, 
 the human face being an expressive index of kind- 
 ness, or of displeasure. " God is a Spirit," "dwell- 
 ing in the light which no man can approach unto ; 
 whom no man hath seen, or can see." His nature 
 and his ways infinitely transcend all human com- 
 prehension. When, therefore, in his great mercy, 
 he was pleased to reveal himself and his will to 
 men, he made use of such language and such fig- 
 ures of speech, as were best adapted to convey 
 those ideas of spiritual and supernatural things 
 which he intended to impart ; many of which could 
 not be apprehended so clearly in any other way, 
 and some, indeed, unless represented by another 
 image or idea commonly known, could not be ap-
 
 THE DIVINE COUNTENANCE. 97 
 
 prehended at all. In the use, then, of such terms 
 in the Scriptures, is to be seen, admired, and grate- 
 fully acknowledged, the wisdom, and condescen- 
 sion, and goodness of God. 
 
 Of all the metaphors used to express what, from 
 his dealings, seems to be the disposition of God 
 towards men, either as favourable or unfavourable, 
 that of the countenance is one of the most striking 
 and beautiful. As men, when displeased, are wont 
 to turn away the head; so God is said to "hide his 
 face" in the time of displeasure : and as men, when 
 angry with offenders, are accustomed to look at 
 them with a stern and frowning aspect, so it is said 
 that " the face of the Lord is against them that do 
 evil." On the other hand, as men, when pleased, 
 are used to turn towards the object that pleases 
 them a kind and smiling countenance; so the appro- 
 val and favour of God are designated by the " light 
 of his countenance," and "the shining of his face." 
 
 The expressions here used by the Psalmist are 
 particularly remarkable, " the help of his counte- 
 nance," or, more literally, the salvations of his 
 countenance ; that is, those salvations, or that com- 
 plete deliverance from all his present trials, which 
 should be effected for him by the favour of God. 
 Hence it is plain that David considered the face of 
 God to be now hidden from him. And it was this 
 that gave to all his sorrows their keenest edge, the 
 being deprived of all sensible comforts, and of those 
 gracious manifestations of the divine presence whicli
 
 98 LIVELY FAITH. 
 
 are called " the lifting up of the light of his coun- 
 tenance." Thus it appears that the faith which 
 was in exercise when he uttered these words was 
 of a very lively kind, and even extraordinary in its 
 degree. Though "walking in darkness and having 
 no light, yet he trusted in the name of the Lord, 
 and stayed upon his God." Isaiah 1. 10. 
 
 Such an exercise of faith in such circumstances, 
 while it was a bright evidence of uncommon grace, 
 was also in a very high degree honourable to God. 
 To trust him and to " speak good of his name " in 
 the time of prosperity, as it is comparatively an easy 
 thing, requiring no unusual grace; so, compara- 
 tively also, it brings but little honour to his name. 
 But to cleave to him though apparently forsaken ; 
 to follow him though he seems to frown ; and, in 
 the darkest and most difficult circumstances, though 
 no way of escape appears, yet to wait and trust 
 that the time of rescue shall come ; " against hope 
 believing in hope, not staggering at the promise 
 through unbelief, but being fully persuaded that 
 what he has promised he is able also to perform, " 
 this is to be " strong in faith giving glory to God." 
 Such a faith gives him glory, not only because the 
 confidence which that soul reposes in him is so hon- 
 ourable to his character, but also, because it is a 
 glorious display of his power and grace supporting 
 the soul through such deep trials, and overcoming 
 such vast and numerous difficulties. It is like oil 
 that in the most tempestuous sea still surmounts
 
 FAITH VICTORIOUS. 99 
 
 the waves ; or rather it is like a spark of fire, that by 
 some wondrous power, is maintained unquenched 
 amid the billows of the ocean. It was so with 
 David. Not the privation of all earthly comforts, 
 not the upbraiding of his cruel adversaries, not the 
 want of divine ordinances, not the hiding of the face 
 of God, not even the sorrows, and regrets, and ap- 
 prehensions that rose in tumult in his soul, could 
 extinguish that living faith which abode within him. 
 Like the vigorous swimmer that buffets the waves 
 with his strong arm, and though oftentimes ap- 
 parently overwhelmed, yet rises again, pursues his 
 course, and regains the shore ; so David, emerging 
 from the waves of dejection and disquietude, sets 
 his foot upon the rock, and shouts, " I shall yet 
 praise him for the help of his countenance." 
 
 Expostulation with the soul in times of distress, 
 is then productive of its proper end, when it leads 
 to an immediate application to God. 
 
 As the soul when sunk into deep dejection is 
 prone to entertain very unfounded apprehensions, 
 from viewing things through a false medium, in or- 
 der to its recovery, it is necessary that it should be 
 expostulated with ; for it is in this way only that it 
 can be led to see the unreasonableness of its undue 
 sorrows and fears. But this unreasonableness is 
 made evident by considerations of the nature, cha- 
 racter, promises, and ways of God. Thus, when 
 David brings his soul to account for its immoderate
 
 100 RENEWED APPLICATION TO GOD. 
 
 grief, he recals it to are collection of the arguments 
 for still trusting in God ; for, evidently, it was from 
 a fresh perception of these that he urged his soul 
 to hope in him, and that he was emboldened to 
 say, " I shall yet praise him." Now, when the de- 
 jected spirit is thus far raised up again, when it 
 begins to remember what powerful reasons there 
 are for holding fast its confidence in God, the un- 
 changeableness of his nature, his faithfulness to his 
 promises, and the wisdom and goodness of all his 
 dealings with his people, then hope revives, faith 
 is again brought into exercise, and the next step is 
 an immediate application to God by prayer. And 
 this is the proper end of all arguing with the soul, 
 the leading it anew to apply to that source " from 
 whence cometh its help." And here may be seen 
 the unspeakable value of an experimental know- 
 ledge of God ; for without this, great anguish of 
 mind can end only in despair or in hardness of 
 heart : there is no REFUGE. But David had a 
 strong hold to fly to ; for though for a short season 
 his grief had rendered him unmindful of it, no sooner 
 did his soul catch a glimpse of it again, than at once 
 he betakes himself to it, crying out, " O my God." 
 " My God :" Astonishing expression ! Who 
 shall dare to say to the Creator of the ends of the 
 earth, the Majesty in the Heavens "my God?" 
 An exile, a wanderer, an outcast ; a man forsaken, 
 despised, reviled; a soul cast down and disquieted: 
 he shall dare. By what right ? Of covenant. Sin
 
 GOD IN COVENANT. 101 
 
 has separated between God and man. Man has 
 wandered from him and become alienated in mind 
 and in deed. In this state of distance and rebellion, 
 God has sent a message to him, " Return unto me 
 and I will return unto you ; and I will be your God 
 and ye shall be my people." That message came 
 to David ; it came with power ; he returned to the 
 Lord, and was received according to his word ; and 
 thus the covenant (be it reverently spoken) was 
 sealed between them. God became to him a Fa- 
 ther ; and he became to God a child. But all this 
 was done through the Mediator, without whom none 
 returneth unto God, and God returneth unto none. 
 If Abraham saw the day of Christ, much more did 
 David for he spake of him. John viii. 56. Acts 
 ii. 30, 31. He saw how peace was made through 
 the blood of atonement, and having his heart sprink- 
 led from an evil conscience, and having received 
 the Spirit of adoption, he could draw nigh to God 
 saying " Abba, Father." It was so now. He re- 
 membered this blessed relationship, and looking 
 up to God as his reconciled and gracious Father, 
 he is free to say to him, " O my God." How 
 wondrous a privilege ! How could a trembling 
 sinner, convicted, penitent and self-abased, venture 
 to lay hold of it, but for what he sees in Emmanuel, 
 God with us ? All holy confidence towards God, all 
 freedom of access to him by prayer, is the effect of 
 faith in him as a Father, shewing mercy through 
 the blood of his Son. When the soul can thus say,
 
 102 GOD A PRESENT HELP J 
 
 " my God," it is enabled to " come boldly to the 
 throne of grace." 
 
 How awful is the state of those, who when 
 directed in their distresses to look to God, know 
 not how to do it, the thing being quite new and 
 strange to them ! They have heard of him by the 
 hearing of the ear, but now that they are bidden to 
 seek him, he seems afar off, at a vast distance, 
 beyond the reach of their calls. But far otherwise 
 is it with those who have known him already as 
 their God. They have not to go to him, as to a 
 stranger, as to one with whom they have no ac- 
 quaintance, who may relieve them, or may not. 
 No, but naturally they turn to him in their tribula- 
 tion, as to a well-known friend, a tried resource, a 
 present help. So the child, though it may let go 
 the mother's hand for a while, yet, when terrified, 
 it returns to fling itself again into her bosom. And 
 thus David, from the forgetfulness occasioned by 
 sorrow, comes back to cast himself again on the 
 favour of his heavenly friend, his almighty pa- 
 rent. And oh, with what sweet, but humble and 
 holy freedom, he draws nigh to his God ; bring- 
 ing with him his tale of sorrows, and making bold 
 to tell it all before him ! 
 
 " O MY GOD MY SOUL IS CAST DOWN WITHIN ME, 
 THEREFORE WILL I REMEMBER THEE." ' Because I 
 
 am very low in spirit, am deeply sorrowful, there- 
 fore will I remember thee. I will remember how 
 condescending thou art to thy " poor and afflicted
 
 REMEMBERED IN TIME OF TROUBLE. ] 03 
 
 people ;" how ready to receive them when deserted 
 or cast out by men ; how kind and patient to 
 hear their complaint when they pour out the soul 
 before thee. I will remember thy loving-kindness 
 to me in seasons past ; how thou hast looked on my 
 distress, hast heard the voice of my supplications, 
 hast delivered me from my trials, or helped me to 
 bear their burden, strengthening me with strength 
 in my soul. I will remember all that I have enjoyed 
 of thy presence when waiting on thee in thy house, 
 or when celebrating thy praises there in company 
 with thy "saints, the excellent of the earth." I 
 will remember what thou ART ; how meet an object 
 for the trust of a desolate being like myself! For 
 though I am poor, thou art rich; though I am 
 weak, thou art mighty ; though I am miserable, 
 thou art happy. I will remember that thou art my 
 God. That thou hast manifested thyself to my soul, 
 that thou hast enabled me to choose thee for my 
 portion, that I have trusted in thee and have never 
 been confounded. I will remember that word of 
 promise on which thou hast caused me to hope, to 
 which thou hast ever been faithful throughout all 
 the past, and wilt be, as I truly believe, even unto 
 the end.' 
 
 Oh, how happy, even in the midst of their un- 
 happiness, are they, who, in their trials, can thus 
 take shelter in God ! Would it were so with all 
 who profess to know him. But with some it is far 
 otherwise. They have a burden of grief; and the
 
 104 COMPLAINTS. 
 
 heavy heart must unload itself to some one. But 
 instead of carrying it to God, ' they fill a fellow 
 creature's ear, with the sad tale of all their care.' 
 The unburdening the heart to a pious friend is 
 indeed both lawful and useful in many cases ; pro- 
 vided always that it be not done to the neglect of 
 God as the chief counsellor, friend and helper. 
 But endless complainings in the ear of earthly 
 friends is an ill sign, betokening that the throne of 
 grace has been but little resorted to ; for they that 
 constantly and perseveringly carry their burden 
 thither, will often leave it there, and coming light- 
 hearted away, will meet their friends with a smile 
 and sometimes with a song of praise. The more 
 there is of pouring out the heart before God in 
 secret, the less there will be of long tales of trouble 
 told to fellow mortals, themselves as helpless as 
 those who complain to them. David knew and 
 practised the "more excellent way." "Because 
 my soul is cast down, I will remember THEE." 
 And with how great reason; for if God cannot 
 help, who can ? If he be forgotten, the remem- 
 brance of all other help will avail nothing. 
 " THEREFORE WILL i REMEMBER THEE FROM THE 
 
 LAND OF JORDAN, AND OF THE HERMONITES, FROM 
 
 THE HILL MIZAR." What an affecting picture these 
 words present of the wretched fugitive life which 
 David was now compelled to lead. Driven from 
 place to place, he found no abiding shelter in any, 
 none where he could lay his head in peace, or
 
 DAVID A FUGITIVE. 105 
 
 even rest the sole of his foot. Some parts of the 
 history of that season of his life are remarkably 
 illustrative of his words in this place. " Saul also 
 and his men went to seek him ; and they told Da- 
 vid; wherefore he came down into a rock, and 
 abode in the wilderness of Maon : and when Saul 
 heard that, he pursued after David in the wilder- 
 ness of Maon. And Saul went on this side of the 
 mountain ; and David and his men on that side of 
 the mountain : and David made haste to get away 
 for fear of Saul ; for Saul and his men compassed 
 David and his men round about to take them." 
 1 Sam. xxiii. 25, 26. So wandering and perilous 
 was his life : " hunted as a partridge on the moun- 
 tains," as he himself described his situation when 
 expostulating with the cruel Saul : when also, he 
 pathetically exclaimed, " thou huntest my soul to 
 take it." 1 Sam. xxiv. 11. xxvi. 20. But in all 
 places, whithersoever he came, still he remembered 
 his God ; revealed to him his griefs, besought his 
 help, and looked to him for all his consolation. 
 Though deprived of earthly comforts, he had still 
 this best and all-sufficient refuge. How inestima- 
 bly precious, then, is true religion ! It is that good 
 part which shall not be taken away from them who 
 choose it. Luke x. 42. The enemies of God's 
 people may revile them, may mock and persecute 
 them, may hunt them from their homes, and their 
 domestic enjoyments ; they may deprive them of 
 their good name, their liberty, and even their means 
 K
 
 106 GOD PRESENT WITH HIS EXILED PEOPLE. 
 
 of living ; they may rob them of the society of the 
 faithful and of the privileges of holy ordinances ; 
 but they cannot rob them of THEIR GOD. For the 
 God in whom they trust "delighteth in mercy," 
 and " executeth judgment for the oppressed ;" he 
 is " nigh unto all that call upon him," and " fulfils 
 the desire of them that fear him." "And this God 
 is their God FOR EVER AND EVER; he will be their 
 guide even unto death !" 
 
 The testimony of his conscience must greatly 
 have encouraged David at this time to call upon 
 God as his God ; knowing as he did that he had 
 not voluntarily withdrawn himself from the benefit 
 of divine ordinances, but had been driven from 
 them. Painful instances sometimes occur of pro- 
 fessors of religion leaving a situation where they 
 have been favoured with a faithful ministry and a 
 spiritual worship, and, for the sake of gain, or some 
 worldly object, settling down in a place destitute 
 of these great blessings, where, instead of doing 
 good to their neighbours, they have been more oft- 
 en found to sink into the neglect of all serious 
 religion, and into conformity with the sinful prac- 
 tices of those around them. The removal of the 
 candlestick, or gospel ordinances, out of a place, is 
 threatened by Jesus Christ as one of his heaviest 
 judgments. Rev. ii. 5. What then must be their 
 crime, who for this world's sake, wilfully turn away 
 from them? Should they, in the place whither 
 they go, be ever brought to a sense of the inesti-
 
 ABANDONMENT OF RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES. 107 
 
 mable value of that which they have left, how must 
 conscience upbraid them, and with what face can 
 they look up to God and call him their God ? 
 
 But, with David, the consciousness of his integ- 
 rity, and of his faithful adherence to God in the 
 midst of his enemies, must have been a witness 
 to him that it was not without warrant that he 
 addressed himself to God, saying, "my God." 
 There are some who will make a fair shew of at- 
 tachment to the Lord and his people when they are 
 situated where religion is in repute ; or among those 
 whose good will they desire, and to whom a profes- 
 sion is a recommendation : but if they remove to 
 another situation, where the circumstances are op- 
 posite, where the world is in repute, will drop their 
 serious language and mode of life, and appear in 
 their true character, mere worldlings, who, to serve 
 a turn, had worn a mask. But the noble reverse of 
 this was the conduct of David. He too had to 
 leave the society of the pious, and to come into 
 neighbourhood with the ungodly ; but he took his 
 religion with him, and not only sought God in 
 secret as before, but honoured him by an open a- 
 vowai of his name. Wherever he came he was 
 manifestly the servant of God ; a living epistle, 
 "known and read of all men." 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. 
 This is evident from the very language of his foes. 
 He had formerly been in favour with the great, and 
 among the people, but he was now brought into 
 straits and disgrace ; yet they do not upbraid him
 
 108 GOD CONFESSED BEFORE ENEMIES, 
 
 with, ( "Where is thy wealth, or greatness, or hon- 
 our ; but, where is thy God ?' A taunt this, which 
 they never would have used had he not continued 
 to make an open profession. For had he aban- 
 doned it, and joined them in their evil ways, they 
 would have forgiven him all his past strictness, and 
 have received him as a friend, for the world greatly 
 rejoice in such apostates. 
 
 Now this upright adhering to God in such cir- 
 cumstances must have been a delightful evidence 
 to his soul that he was indeed what he professed to 
 be, a faithful servant towards God as his master, 
 and an obedient and affectionate son towards him, 
 as his heavenly father. " If our heart condemn us 
 not, " says the apostle John, " then have we con- 
 fidence toward God." Thus David's unshaken 
 attachment to God in the face of his enemies must 
 have been a substantial and satisfactory proof to 
 him that his professed love was sincere, and that 
 the enjoyments which he had formerly experienced 
 in the worship of God arose, not from the excite- 
 ment of merely natural feelings, but from a real and 
 vital principle. And it must have been a proof to 
 him also that God was with him to afford him that 
 strength which enabled him to endure. Thus, 
 then, might he confidently say, as on another occa- 
 sion, " I am thy servant," and also, thou art my 
 God. Thus also was he encouraged to lay all his 
 complaint before the Lord, and emboldened to en- 
 tertain, in all his wanderings and amid all his sor-
 
 A SOURCE OF CONFIDENCE. 109 
 
 rows, the animating persuasion that he should yet 
 praise him, in the chosen place, with the assembly 
 of the saints. 
 
 SOLILOQUY. 
 
 O my soul ! let me hold conference with thee, as 
 David did with his. How dost thou feel under 
 thy present deprivation ? Art thou sorrowful at 
 thought of the past, remembering how many sab- 
 bath opportunities have been but negligently im- 
 proved I It is well that thou shouldest. Dost 
 thou wonder that God should hinder thee from the 
 use of those means which he has himself appointed 
 for the good of the souls of his people ? Are thy 
 musings on this part of his dealings towards thee, 
 attended, not only with grief, but with surprise and 
 perplexity ? My soul, to reflect, to examine, to feel, 
 and even to mourn, becomes thee in thy present sit- 
 uation. Yet, beware of immoderate sorrow ; be- 
 ware of any approach to it. Dread nothing so 
 much as dishonouring God in the time of trial. 
 With this view guard thy thoughts. And not only 
 so, but guard against any thing that even savours 
 of discontent or peevishness, that, to his praise, thy 
 friends around may see in thee that which shall 
 convince them that thou art still well pleased with 
 that God in whom thou hast professed to put thy 
 trust. And let them hear thee "speak good of 
 his name." 
 
 K2
 
 1 10 SOLILOQUY. 
 
 Does God seem to hide his face from thee now, 
 and art thou much cast down on that account ? 
 But consider that thou art still defiled with sin, 
 and that therefore thou needest trial and discipline. 
 He " scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." 
 Thou thyself dost confess that there was need that 
 thou shouldest be recalled to reflection, to self- 
 examination, and to an humbling thyself before 
 him. Be not desponding, then, because he seems 
 to hide his face. Let thy mourning after the re- 
 turn of " the light of his countenance " be to thee a 
 token for good. For hadst thou never known and 
 enjoyed it, thou wouldest not now grieve to lose it; 
 nor wouldest thou now grieve to lose it, didst thou 
 not prize it. How shall he lose a treasure who 
 never possessed it? Or, how shall the loss of that 
 be lamented which is not valued ? Be encouraged 
 then. Hope thou in God : for " it is good that a 
 man should both hope and quietly wait for the sal- 
 vation of the Lord." Indue time he will return 
 and shine upon thee again. 
 
 God is " THE SAME." Thou changest; but with 
 him " is no variableness, neither shadow of turn- 
 ing." He is faithful to his Son, and, in him, to 
 his word and to his people. O my soul, thou shall 
 yet praise him : either in his beloved house, whither 
 thou longest to return, or else, in silent adoration 
 in secret. Yes, thou shalt praise him for the help 
 of his countenance. He shall turn to thee his shin- 
 ing face again ; and that light shall restore to thee
 
 SOLILOQUY. Ill 
 
 the joy of his salvation. For it shall be given to 
 thee to look, by renewed faith, on his " dear Son," 
 and in him thou shalt see the Father reconciled 
 and well-pleased. Then, with what delightful em- 
 phasis shalt thou say to him, " O my God ? " And 
 canst thou not say this now, though not with that 
 sensible rejoicing in him ? It was in sorrow and 
 in darkness that David called him his God. And 
 is he not thine ? Whither art thou now looking for 
 solace and support ? Is it not to him, and to him 
 alone ? 
 
 They who have lived ignorant of God, the care- 
 less, the formal, the hypocritical; they, in their 
 sorrow, will seek other aid, will seek any vanity, 
 foolish talk or trifling amusement, any thing that 
 shall help them to forget him whom they have never 
 'truly known or really loved. But it is not so with 
 thee. Thou turnest to him, naturally ; for thou 
 hast had experience of his goodness, and art deeply 
 persuaded that he is thy only help, and rest, and 
 happiness. Is he not then, thine ? Oh, then, un- 
 burden thyself to his attentive and compassionate 
 ear. Tell him all thy grief. Deeply convinced of 
 the vanity of all creature-help, turn to him and say, 
 " I will remember thee'' Avoid as an enemy to 
 thy dearest welfare, whatsoever would hinder thy 
 remembering him above all. In this respect, even 
 things in themselves lawful may be a snare. The 
 conversation of a good friend, the reading of a good 
 book, the thinking on a good subject, though all
 
 112 SOLILOQUY. 
 
 good in their place, become the means of ill, when 
 they are so far indulged in as to hinder the soul 
 from making immediate application to the Lord 
 himself. 
 
 Oh, the blessedness of being able in all seasons, 
 especially those of sorrow, to say with an un waver ~ 
 ing tongue " my God !" Wouldst thou, my soul, 
 ever enjoy that blessedness, then be careful ever to 
 have " the answer of a good conscience towards 
 God." It was this which in an eminent degree, 
 supplied to David, in his griefs, a comfortable 
 evidence that he was a true servant and a dear 
 child. He was not ashamed of his Saviour in an 
 enemy's presence. He did not compromise witli 
 the world. He did not hide his profession to 
 obtain their favour. But in every place, he con- 
 fessed the Lord whom he served in the face of 
 opposition and reproach. What a testimony to his 
 soul was this ? Wouldst thou possess the same { 
 Then let thy conduct be like his. Take thy reli- 
 gion with thee whithersoever thou goest. If called 
 in providence to spend a sabbath from home, among 
 those who do not sanctify the day ; dare to be 
 singular, avow thine allegiance to the Lord of the 
 Sabbath. Abhor the cowardice, the meanness, the 
 hypocrisy, of being a saint at home, and a world- 
 ling abroad. Be the manifest Christian in all 
 places and on all occasions ; not only in the house 
 of God, in the society of the godly, but among 
 strangers, and in all the business of life. And this
 
 SOLILOQUY. 113 
 
 shall be thy honour, and thy joy. What an honour, 
 to confess the Lord of Glory for a master ! What 
 a joy, to have an opportunity of testifying towards 
 him a grateful love ! " My little children," saith the 
 loving and beloved John, "let us not love in word, 
 neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And 
 hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall 
 assure our hearts before him." 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 WHY art thou cast down, my soul ? 
 
 Why disquieted within, 
 Like the ocean-waves that roll, 
 
 Tossing with incessant din? 
 
 Wilt thou faint beneath the rod ? 
 
 Wilt thou to despondence yield? 
 Nay, my soul, but hope in God, 
 
 Hear him say " I am thy shield." 
 
 Think of what he is THE LORD ! 
 
 Think of all that he has done; 
 Think, too, he has pledged his word 
 
 To perform what is begun. 
 
 Cheer, my soul, and trust him then; 
 
 He shall grant thee brighter days, 
 Lead thee to his house again, 
 
 "With the voice of joy and praise." 
 
 There thou shalt enraptured sing, 
 
 To the glory of his grace, 
 How he did salvation bring 
 
 In his reconciled face.
 
 114 HYMX. 
 
 my God, to thee I come ; 
 Heavy grief oppresses me ; 
 
 Therefore, wheresoe'er I roam, 
 I will yet remember thee. 
 
 If through Jordan's land I stray, 
 If the Hermonites I tread, 
 
 Or to Mizar bend my way, 
 
 Still my heart on thee is stayed. 
 
 Still my wishes heavenward tend, 
 Still to thee my soul looks up, 
 
 Still my ceaseless prayers ascend, 
 In the confidence of hope. 
 
 1 remember all thy love, 
 Sweetly shewn in seasons past, 
 
 And I trust that grace to prove 
 Which endureth to the last.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 ANTICIPATION. 
 
 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy wa- 
 terspouts : all thy waves and thy billows are gone 
 over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving- 
 kindness in the day-time, and in the night his 
 song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the 
 God of my life. 
 
 PSALM xlii. 7, 8. 
 
 IT IS SOMETIMES THE LOT OF HOLY MEN TO SUFFER VERV 
 AGGRAVATED, AND ALMOST OVERWHELMING TRIALS. 
 
 were the present afflictions of David : 
 and so greatly did he feel them to be so, that he 
 has used the strongest metaphorical language in 
 order to express his sense of their magnitude, and 
 number, and long continuance. The figure which 
 he has employed to represent his accumulated 
 troubles, that of vast and turbulent waters, is one 
 of frequent occurrence in the sacred writings ; and 
 is, certainly, well adapted to convey a lively and 
 impressive idea of the thing intended. " Deep 
 calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts." 
 Here he has conjoined two awful and terrific phe- 
 nomena of nature. It is a fact, well ascertained by 
 the evidence of travellers, that the falling of water- 
 spouts is not uncommon on the coast of Judea. It 
 should seem that they are occasioned by the eddy
 
 116 TEMPEST OF GRIEF. 
 
 of a whirlwind, forming a vacuum, up which the 
 water rushes, until, no longer sustained by the 
 violence of the wind, it descends in a tremendous 
 mass, accompanied witli a roaring noise. Now, 
 the image conceived in the mind of the Psalmist 
 seems to be that of the rushing of this vast water- 
 spout down into the sea, already agitated, and 
 increasing the disorder and turbulence of its waves. 
 An awful picture ! Especially if there be added 
 to it the ideas of a black, tempestuous sky, and the 
 deafening roar occasioned by the tumult. What 
 would be the situation of a vessel in the midst of 
 such a tempest, the deluge pouring down from 
 above, and, all around her, the furious ocean heav- 
 ing its tremendous surges ; how ungovernable, how 
 helpless, how next to impossible that she should 
 escape foundering except by some almost miracu- 
 lous interference ! Yet to such a situation does 
 David here compare the state of his soul when 
 submersed, as it were, under a sea of afflictions ; 
 " all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." 
 How pungent must his sense of grief have been 
 to occasion him to make use of such a comparison, 
 so strongly expressive of the utmost danger and 
 terror ! What could those trials be that should 
 make so terrible an impression on his spirit? It 
 would seem as if all that he had then to endure, 
 though so grievous as well as numerous, were yet 
 insufficient to account for it. It is true that in the 
 18th Psalm he strongly describes what he suffered
 
 HIDING OF THE FACE OF GOD. 117 
 
 from apprehensions occasioned by the pursuit of 
 his blood-thirsty enemies, " The sorrows of death 
 compassed me ; and the floods of ungodly men 
 made me afraid." But the far stronger language 
 here used evidently requires some additional cause. 
 That additional cause will be found, it is conceived, 
 in the dreadful gloom which sometimes overspread 
 his mind from a sense of the hiding of God's face. 
 To express this sorest of trials, the writer of the 
 88th Psalm uses similar metaphorical expressions. 
 " Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast af- 
 flicted me with all thy waves. Lord why castest 
 thou off my soul ? Why hidest thou thy face from 
 me ? Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors 
 have cut me off. They came round about me like 
 water, they compassed me about together." Now, 
 though David does not, as in these verses, expressly 
 name the hiding of God's face, yet it seems neces- 
 sarily to be implied in his words, when, in the 5th 
 verse, he consoles himself with the persuasion that 
 he should yet praise God for the help of his coun- 
 tenance. Note that countenance appears to be 
 turned away from him, but his trust is that it shall 
 yet shine upon him again. It does not seem pro- 
 bable, however, that the great anguish of David 
 arose from a sense of the wrath of God, but from 
 that appalling darkness and gloom which broods on 
 the soul when destitute of all spiritual comfort in a 
 time of deep affliction ; especially when conjoined 
 with the deprivation of all the enjoyments of the 
 house of God. L
 
 118 DEEP TRIALS COMMON TO THE SAINTS. 
 
 They who have had experience of this distress 
 will well understand what David felt when he said, 
 "all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." 
 And it will be a relief to them to find that ' l the 
 same afflictions" have been "accomplished" in 
 others. For it is usually a great aggravation of 
 such sorrows, when he who suffers them supposes 
 that his case is singular, that there neither is, nor 
 has been any sorrow like unto his sorrow. Such a 
 supposition is also a great temptation, commonly 
 attended with much injury to the soul ; as appears 
 to have been the case in the instance of Job. 
 Hence much of the divine wisdom and goodness is 
 to be seen in causing to be recorded the heavy 
 trials and afflictive experience of some of the most 
 eminent saints; that others, in after times, remem- 
 bering them, may not "faint when they are rebuked 
 of the Lord." " For whatsoever things were writ- 
 ten aforetime, were written for our instruction, that 
 we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, 
 might have hope." Romans xv. 4. So the apostle 
 James, " Take, my brethren, the prophets, who 
 have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an exam- 
 ple of suffering affliction, and of patience." They, 
 then, who are called to pass through deep waters, 
 should remember that not even the holy prophets 
 were exempt from the like tribulation ; that so they 
 may not be perplexed and amazed at their lot, but 
 patiently endure it. " Beloved," says the apostle 
 Peter, " think it not strange concerning the fiery
 
 WORLDLY SORROW. 119 
 
 trial which is to try you, as though some strange 
 thing happened to you." As if he would say, So 
 far from wondering, you ought rather to be expect- 
 ing it. Our Lord has said once for all to his dis- 
 ciples, " In the world ye shall have tribulation." 
 Happy are they, who, when he shall come to try, 
 are found in the posture of expectants, "having 
 their loins girded about, and their lights burning, 
 and they themselves like unto men that wait for 
 their Lord ; and if he shall come in the second 
 watch, or come in the third watch, and find them 
 so, blessed are those servants." It was an excel- 
 lent saying of an eminently holy man ' I have al- 
 ways found it profitable to expect the worst, for a 
 temptation foreseen is half overcome.' 
 
 In seasons of affliction, the servants of God 
 will be distinguished from others, by their ready 
 perception and acknowledgment of the hand of 
 God in their trials. 
 
 There is a continual proneness in fallen human 
 nature, to fix its attention on the things which are 
 seen and palpable, so as to forget that power which, 
 though unseen, is the prime mover in the events 
 of life. When visited with affliction, the whole 
 thought and conversation of men is commonly en- 
 grossed with second causes. They will indulge in 
 passionate and fretful complaints of the persons, or 
 even of the things through which their trouble has 
 come, or seemed to come upon them. They will
 
 120 POWER OF FAITH. 
 
 waste their time and lose their tempers in vexing 
 and peevish regrets that such things were done or 
 not done, by the doing or not doing of which they 
 suppose their trouble might have been prevented. 
 God is not in all their thoughts. Though living in 
 a Christian land, the confusion, darkness and folly 
 of their minds differ very little from that of the 
 heathen who regard the varied events of their lives 
 as matters that float at random in a wild chaos ; or 
 as under the impulse of a blind fate. Hence the 
 storm that arises in their minds, made up of dis- 
 appointment, vexation, anger, and complaint. 
 
 But there is a principle, of mighty efficacy to 
 give ballast to the soul, and to steer it through the 
 tempestuous sea of life into a peaceful haven. That 
 principle is FAITH. It beholds in all events the 
 hand of " Him who is invisible !" It was this prin- 
 ciple which now enabled David, even in this sea of 
 griefs, to say " all thy waves and thy billows are 
 gone over me." Though his senses were greatly 
 wrought upon by external circumstances ; though 
 he saw his malicious foes, the instruments of afflict- 
 ing him, though he heard their opprobrious taunts, 
 and though he felt the hardships to which, as a 
 fugitive, he was exposed by their cruelty, yet, walk- 
 ing by faith and not by sense, he realized the hand 
 of the GREAT UNSEEN. So in the 17th Psalm, he 
 prays, " Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is 
 thy sword :" ' They are the sword, the hand is 
 thine.' Wondrous is the power of faith to sustain
 
 SUBMISSION. 121 
 
 the soul in seasons of perplexity and distress ! 
 Without it, how could the soul of David have 
 weathered the frightful storm in which he was now 
 tossed ? Surely it had suffered shipwreck. 
 
 Until the hand of God be seen in any trial, there 
 can be no true submission. While the mind looks 
 only to the instrument, it will be vexed and irri- 
 tated, for it will perceive no sufficient reason for 
 submission : but let God be seen by faith, and the 
 tumult will be hushed. " I was dumb, I opened 
 not my mouth, because thou didst it." That 
 mouth which, at the sight of God, was closed in 
 submissive silence, would, without that sight, have 
 been filled with the bitterness of complaint. So 
 Aaron " held his peace." Lev. x. 3. So Eli, " IT 
 is THE LORD, let him do what seemeth him good." 
 
 But faith leads the soul to submission, by rea- 
 lizing, not merely the almighty power of God, 
 which it is vain to resist ; but also the righteous- 
 ness of his government and proceedings ; the wis- 
 dom of all his arrangements; and the goodness 
 which prompts him in all his dealings with his 
 people. These considerations of the divine cha- 
 racter and conduct sweetly compose the tossings of 
 the mind, and induce an humble and affectionate 
 resignation to the will of God. It bows meekly to 
 the most painful dispensations, and says, "It is 
 well :" and in those which are surprising and per- 
 plexing, it is comforted by remembering that what 
 it knows not now it shall know hereafter. 
 
 L2
 
 122 GOD TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 But " the flesh is weak ;" and too often it occurs, 
 that the keen sense of sorrow overbears for a while 
 the influence of faith. While this remains to be 
 the case, all is turmoil ; " Deep calleth unto deep," 
 one wave seems to invite another, and they follow 
 in quick succession, doubts, fears, regrets, appre- 
 hensions, until the soul is well nigh overwhelmed ; 
 and would be, but for the return of faith which 
 points again to the hand of God. 
 
 It should ever be remembered also, that not to 
 see, acknowledge, and submit to the hand of God 
 in affliction, is to " despise the chastening of the 
 Lord." A state of mind exceedingly to be depre- 
 cated. They, therefore, who believe, should be 
 most watchful, in their trials, that they be not so 
 absorbed in what they suffer, as to be unmindful of 
 him who inflicts it. There is great danger of fall- 
 ing into this sin, especially when the trial is unex- 
 pected as well as grievous. " Ye have forgotten 
 the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto 
 children." Heb. xii. 5. While this forgetfulness 
 remains, it is impossible that the soul should obtain 
 any peace, or any benefit by the affliction. And, 
 worse than this, while it remains, God must be 
 greatly dishonoured : a consideration which ought 
 to weigh more with a renewed mind than any other. 
 But he will have honour from them that are his, 
 and if one trial do not bring them to " glorify God 
 in the day of visitation," he will send another, and 
 another, and another : deep shall call unto deep, at
 
 IN ALL AFFLICTIONS. 123 
 
 the noise of his water-spouts, until they are brought 
 to feel his mighty hand, and with meek acquiescence 
 to acknowledge that they are his waves and his 
 billows that have been caused to pass over them. 
 Whenever affliction comes, God speaks, and com- 
 mands silence that he may be heard with attention, 
 reverence and submission. " The Lord's voice 
 crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall 
 see thy name ; hear ye the rod and who hath ap- 
 pointed it." Micah vi, 9. In other dealings God 
 often speaks " in a still small voice," but in afflic- 
 tive dispensations he speaks aloud, he "crieth." 
 Happy is the man who, in these dispensations, 
 " shall see the name," the power and authority of 
 the Most High, and shall bow before it; he is, in- 
 deed, " the man of wisdom," and having suffered 
 awhile, he " shall understand the loving-kindness 
 of the Lord." Ps. cvii. 43. 
 
 /// their heaviest trials, the faithful servants of 
 God may warrantably expect that he will again 
 bestow on them the tokens of his favour ; and may 
 solace themselves with that expectation. 
 
 Had the mind of David been wholly engrossed 
 with his afflictions or with the instruments of them; 
 had he pored on his complicated troubles, his ima- 
 gination magnifying them to a frightful degree, 
 without viewing the hand of God in them, he would 
 have sunk under their heavy and darkening influ- 
 ence. And of this he appears to have been well
 
 1:24 RELIANCE OF FAITH 
 
 aware, when, rousing himself, he expostulates with 
 his immoderately disquieted soul ; and again, when 
 expressing his poignant sense of his grievous and 
 numerous sorrows by language borrowed from the 
 effects of an awful tempest, he yet reminds himself, 
 in all the waves and billows, of the hand of God. 
 And as, when he expostulated with his soul, the 
 good fruits of his so doing immediately appeared 
 in renewed hope and trust in God : so here, also, 
 his perception of the divine hand, directing the 
 storm, presently leads him to a fresh assurance of 
 the divine favour. " Yet the Lord will command 
 his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the 
 night his song shall be with me, and my prayer 
 unto the God of my life." From these words it 
 appears, that notwithstanding all that he had to suf- 
 fer, he was far from regarding God as turned to be 
 his enemy. On the contrary he was deeply persua- 
 ded that he was still his friend. His state of mind 
 at this time must have been similar to that of Job 
 when he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust 
 in him." ' Though he bids all his waves to go 
 over me yet do I not doubt but that he will bless 
 me again with the tokens of his favour.' But how 
 could he presume on such an expectation ? How 
 could he be certain that God had not cast him off, 
 especially when he seemed at this very time, ac- 
 cording to appearances, to be under his darkest 
 frown ? Because he knew that heavy trials are no 
 proof that God has given up "them that are exer-
 
 AND A GOOD CONSCIENCE. 125 
 
 cised thereby ; " not even when their sins have 
 plainly provoked the chastisement. " If his chil- 
 dren forsake my law and walk not in my judg- 
 ments ; if they break my statutes and keep not my 
 commandments : then will I visit their transgression 
 with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Ne- 
 vertheless, my loving-kindness I will not utterly 
 take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." 
 Ps. Ixxxix. 30, 33. 
 
 But in the present case, David, though, doubt- 
 less, conscious that he was a sinner and defiled 
 with corruption, had yet not fallen into any extra- 
 ordinary sin that provoked this heavy infliction. 
 He makes no allusion to any thing of the kind in 
 these Psalms; on the contrary he seems to have 
 had a remarkably clear testimony of conscience, 
 and is emboldened to call on God to "plead his 
 cause against the unjust man." xliii. 1. Thus, 
 there being no consciousness of " great transgres- 
 sion " to darken his mind and becloud his eviden- 
 ces ; but feeling within him, on the contrary, holy 
 dispositions and fervent desires towards God, his 
 confidence in him surmounted all the darkness and 
 tumult of grief, and enabled him to call upon him 
 and to trust in him as his God. He was too well 
 acquainted with the character and ways of God to 
 argue any thing against his faithfulness from the pre- 
 sent tribulation ; or not to know how he could make 
 it subservient to the highest interests of his soul 
 and to the promotion of his own glory. Remem-
 
 126 PRESENCE OF GOD IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 bering, too, what he had already tasted of the di- 
 vine goodness, how he was supported in the deep 
 waters, and the promises which God had made to 
 him in covenant, he could not doubt, he must be- 
 lieve, that he should again be gladdened with the 
 light of his countenance. Hence his confidence 
 was not presumptuous, but just, and reasonable, 
 and most honourable to God. 
 
 As in the fifth verse he cheers himself with the 
 persuasion that he should " yet praise " God in 
 the public ordinances ; so here he seems to comfort 
 himself with the trust that he shall enjoy the tokens 
 of his favourable presence in the mean while, even 
 during his exile from the worship of his house. 
 Blessed be God ! Though he binds his people to 
 seek him in his house, he has not bound himself to 
 meet with them in no other place. If lawfully pre- 
 vented they may confidently expect that he will not 
 be wanting to them. He can convert the chamber 
 of retirement into a Bethel ; and he will, for those 
 who seek him. This David believed, and, believ- 
 ing it, was led with confidence to say, " He will 
 command his loving-kindness in the day-time." 
 
 "His LOVING-KINDNESS." Well rendered thus; 
 for it is much more than simple kindness that the 
 word means : exuberant goodness ; exceeding grace ; 
 loving-kindness. And here may be perceived the 
 foundation on which this renewed confidence of 
 David rested ; the character, the nature of God : 
 " God is love." While he looked within on his
 
 GOD MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS. 127 
 
 troubles, his grief did but increase and his prospect 
 grow darker ; when he looked around on man for 
 help, he saw a mass of selfishness, cruelty, and 
 hardness of heart, which served only to aggravate 
 his distress ; but when he looked upward, he saw a 
 God "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
 abundant in goodness and truth ;" and on God, 
 thus beheld, his confidence again fixed itself. For 
 he saw in him all that he needed : he was a sinner, 
 and there was mercy with God : friendless and 
 helpless ; there was grace : beset with infirmities, 
 follies, errors ; there was long-suffering : his sins 
 were many, his weakness great, his follies and er- 
 rors numerous ; there was abundant goodness : he 
 was prone to change of feeling, to doubt, to un- 
 faithfulness ; there was truth, abundant truth. And 
 all this he had already experienced God to be. 
 How reasonable then that he should so confidently 
 expect the renewal of his loving-kindness. 
 
 His expression is remarkable ; he does not say 
 simply that the Lord will bestow, but, " COMMAND 
 his loving-kindness." As the gift bestowed is 
 grace, free favour to the unworthy ; so the manner 
 of bestowing it is sovereign. It is given by decree ; 
 it is a royal donative. And if he commands the 
 blessing, who shall hinder its reception ? Notwith- 
 standing, there were enough to hinder David's re- 
 ceiving it now, could they have done so. Without, 
 there were Saul and his cruel followers, and a host 
 of other adversaries, with Satan for their helper ;
 
 128 LOVING-KINDNESS COMMANDED. 
 
 within, there were sorrows, darkness, fears, agitating 
 and weakening. But if God be for him, who can 
 be against him ? And this, doubtless, he felt. ( O 
 my enemies, however numerous, crafty and power- 
 ful, ye cannot, no, ye cannot prevent the blessing. 
 It shall come, ensured to me by the irreversible 
 order of Jehovah. Ye have heaped many sorrows 
 on my head, ye have calumniated my reputation, 
 ye have reproached me for my religion, ye have 
 driven me from my home and the worship of my 
 God ; but know ye, that even in this my disgrace 
 and exile, I shall taste the loving-kindness of the 
 Lord. Of this ye cannot rob me ; it is a com- 
 manded blessing.' 
 
 Oh, the riches of sovereign goodness, confined 
 neither to time nor place ; which, while it " blesses 
 the plentiful provisions of the house," blesses also 
 the scanty fare of the retired chamber, where hum- 
 ble souls, unwillingly absent from the asembly of 
 the saints, wait for the presence of their Lord ! 
 There shall they enjoy the tokens of his loving- 
 kindness ; and no foes shall prevent the commanded 
 blessing ; for " who shall separate them from the 
 love of Christ ?" 
 
 Moreover, David promises himself that the sweet 
 tokens of the divine favour shall again flow to him 
 in a continual stream ; by day and by night. " IN 
 THE DAY-TIME " there should be, even in this ban- 
 ishment, food for the body, protection from his ene- 
 mies, all necessary things supplied, and God seen,
 
 BY DAY AND AT NIGHT. 129 
 
 acknowledged, felt, enjoyed in all, each blessing 
 being the sweeter and the more valued, from the 
 consideration of its being the gift of love. Then, 
 at the close of the day, how delightful to recall 
 the mercies which have crowned it, and make them 
 the theme of grateful praise ! "AND IN THE NIGHT 
 HIS SONG SHALL BE WITH ME." If there were 
 wakeful hours, it should be his happiness to fill 
 them up with the work of praise. What a blessed 
 exchange for the present gloom and anxiety ; and 
 how evidently must it be wrought by the divine 
 hand ! 
 
 The time of sorrow is not a time for songs. 
 Mourners have no ear for the songs of others, for, 
 ' ' as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs 
 to a heavy heart." Mourners have no heart to 
 sing themselves. " By the rivers of Babylon, there 
 we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered 
 Zion. We hanged our harps on the willows in 
 the midst thereof. For there they that carried us 
 away captive required of us a song : and they that 
 wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one 
 of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the 
 Lord's song in a strange land ?" So David, far 
 distant from Zion, in the midst of mockers, had no 
 heart to sing ; he had other and sadder employ- 
 ment; he had to unburden his load of grief, to 
 expostulate with his fainting spirit, to combat with 
 his misgivings and fears, and stir up all that was 
 within him to lay hold on the help of God. But 
 
 M
 
 130 THE SONG OF PRAISE, 
 
 oh, the joyful change which he now doubted not 
 God would work for him, when he should command 
 his loving-kindness by day and his song by night ! 
 Well might it be called " his song," for not only 
 should HE be the theme of it, but the author of it 
 too. For it is God "that giveth songs in the 
 night," and he alone. From him come the mer- 
 cies that are the subject of the song ; and he it is 
 that tunes the heart, and enables it to sing. And 
 to give his song at night, after bestowing his lov- 
 ing-kindness through the day, is to double his 
 favours, to make them to be twice enjoyed ; first in 
 receiving them during the day, and then in rehears- 
 ing them at night in joyful praise. Happy souls, 
 indeed, are they who are so dealt with ! 
 
 David is now speaking of the devotion of his 
 retired hours, of which it is proper that praise 
 should commonly make a considerable part. It is 
 to be feared that this delightful duty, or rather, 
 privilege, is too much neglected in private devo- 
 tion. A voice to sing is a most estimable gift, not 
 merely for its use in public, but also in private 
 worship. Sincere Christians have often reason to 
 mourn over their tendency to formality and cold- 
 ness, and their frequent want of life in their secret 
 devotions. Now, perhaps, there is no means so 
 likely to rouse them, and re-kindle the dull affec- 
 tions of their souls, as the use of the voice lifted up 
 in a song of praise. There are some who can tes- 
 tify that the practice has been greatly blessed to
 
 EDIFYING AND DELIGHTFUL. 131 
 
 their spiritual enjoyment. And those who have 
 not a voice to sing may " speak" to themselves in 
 psalms and hymns. 
 
 How desirable too, where practicable, that it 
 should usually make a part of family worship. 
 How greatly it enlivens it ! No unimportant con- 
 sideration where young persons are present, to 
 whom the family worship should be made to wear 
 as much as possible the aspect of affectionate cheer- 
 fulness. It is remarkable with what minuteness 
 the apostle twice enjoins this edifying practice in 
 the social assembly, and how particularly he con- 
 nects with the singing of hymns, the giving of 
 thanks, thus seeming to intimate that the theme of 
 the song should especially be that of thanksgiving 
 and praise. Eph. v. 19, 20. Col. iii. 16, 17. A 
 consideration that seems to be too often disregarded. 
 For if, instead of a mere description of some doc- 
 trine or duty, a psalm or hymn of adoration, thanks- 
 giving, or praise, directly addressed to the fountain 
 of all good, were sung, it seems scarcely to be 
 doubted, that this delightful part of worship would 
 commonly be more edifying and more enjoyed. 
 Serious observers must have remarked with how 
 much more ardour such hymns are usually sung. 
 However, such, assuredly, was the song of David 
 to be, in that happy time of the lifting up of his 
 head, which he now anticipated. And then, also, 
 he expected to enjoy, and that, it may be supposed, 
 in unusual degree, the spirit of supplication.
 
 132 PRAYERS HINDERED. 
 
 "AND MY PRAYER UNTO THE GOD OF MY LIFE." 
 
 The mention of prayer thus, among the blessings 
 expected to be again enjoyed, is very remarkable. 
 It seems plainly to imply that at present his prayers 
 were hindered, that the spirit of prayer was at a 
 low ebb with him. And this, on reflection, will 
 appear to have been almost necessarily the case. 
 The deep dejection under which he laboured and 
 the hurry and tumult of his mind, must have been 
 most unfriendly to a prayerful spirit. Though he 
 still prayed, he found his prayers interrupted, bro- 
 ken, and scattered, by his fears, and sorrows, and 
 the dismal perturbation of his thoughts. But his 
 comfort was, that it should not always be so. His 
 hope in God realized a time when the storm should 
 subside and the longed-for tranquillity be restored. 
 Then he should enjoy a mind at rest, collected 
 thoughts, calm meditation, and a sweet flow of 
 humble, tender, earnest prayer. For peace is that 
 friendly soil in which all the graces grow and 
 flourish. 
 
 Here, how worthy of observation it is, that Da- 
 vid, in picturing the happy time anticipated, men- 
 tions a spirit of prayer, as constituting an eminent 
 part of the happiness expected. It was to be a 
 time of enjoying the divine loving-kindness, a time 
 of rendering " songs of deliverance" and gratitude ; 
 but also a time of much prayer. This shews the 
 deeply spiritual and experimental character of Da- 
 vid's religion. He could conceive of no prosperity
 
 SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 133 
 
 or happiness of the soul without intimate commu- 
 nion with God, without the " drawing near," the 
 " boldness and access with confidence," through 
 faith. Well would it be if this experience were 
 more common ; if Christians in general were more 
 highly to prize a spirit of prayer, to regard it as 
 one of the choicest of the divine blessings, as a ne- 
 cessary, a chief ingredient in the true prosperity and 
 happiness of the soul, and to seek it accordingly. 
 Many appear to be little sensible of its inestimable 
 worth ; and many are but too well contented to be 
 long without it. Oh, for a revival of the spirit of 
 prayer among professing christians ! 
 
 Here may be seen, too, that David's religion was 
 a religion of prayer after deliverance, as well as 
 before. The selfish who cry out in trouble will 
 have done with their prayers, when the trouble is 
 over. With David it was the very reverse. De- 
 liverance from trouble would strengthen his confi- 
 dence in God, embolden his addresses to him, and 
 furnish him with new arguments. The loving-kind- 
 ness to be experienced would enlarge his heart, 
 and touch all its affections; so that his prayer 
 would have a freedom, a flow, a spontaneousness, 
 of the most tender and delightful kind. It would 
 be the simple, loving breathings of a child, sensibly 
 affected with the goodness of his parent towards 
 him : it would be the cry of " Abba, Father." 
 
 "And my prayer unto the GOD OF MY LIFE." 
 Sweet words ! He would approach to God as the 
 
 M2
 
 134 PRAYER QUICKENED BY DELIVERANCE, 
 
 God of his life ; the author of his being, and its 
 preserver ; the God who had fed him all his life 
 long unto that day, and had redeemed him from 
 all evil : the God who had promised to direct his 
 life, and to overrule all its events for good, having 
 " made with him an everlasting covenant, well-or- 
 dered in all things and sure." To this God he 
 would draw nigh with filial confidence and say, 'As 
 to all the past, thou hast dealt well with thy ser- 
 vant, O Lord, according unto thy word : as to all 
 the future, my times are in thy hand ; Though I 
 walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me, 
 thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the 
 wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall 
 save me. The Lord will perfect that which con- 
 cerneth me; thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever; 
 forsake not the works of thine own hands.' Ps. 
 cxxxviii. 7, 8. 
 
 There is great need of prayer after deliverance ; 
 for a time of deliverance is often a time of tempta- 
 tion, the soul being elated, and thrown off its guard. 
 At such seasons much of the joy that is felt may be 
 merely natural, as David's would probably be when 
 rescued from that corroding care which injures the 
 body as well as distresses the soul. There is dan- 
 ger of mistaking ; of supposing it all to be spiritual, 
 and hence of imagining the soul to be in a higher 
 state of grace than it really is, and so, of being im- 
 perceptibly drawn into a state of false security. 
 There is then especial need of that prayer, " Hold
 
 AND NEEDFUL IN SUCH SEASONS. 135 
 
 thou me up, and I shall be safe." And with some 
 peculiarly, who, being of a sanguine constitution of 
 mind, are, in times of enjoyment, soon puffed up 
 and brought into danger. Such persons, unwilling 
 to shade the present with a suspicion of danger, 
 highly elated, ignorant of the devices of satan, and 
 having very little of the ballast of judgment, are 
 like the gay pleasure-boat that skims the surface 
 of the water swiftly and joyously, but bearing too 
 great a crowd of sail, is exposed to constant peril, 
 and upset by the first gust that blows. 
 
 At such times, " let him that thinketh he stand- 
 eth take heed lest he fall." Let the time of de- 
 liverance, or of renewed joy, be eminently a time 
 of gratitude and praise ; but, as was intended by 
 David, let it be, also, a time of watchfulness and 
 prayer. 
 
 REFLECTION. 
 
 Now let me pause again, and consider. Am I 
 grieved in spirit, much grieved ? And though 
 there be not that dreadful tempest, that calling of 
 deep unto deep which David describes, is there 
 much confusion and tumult within me ? Is all sen- 
 sible comfort withdrawn, and the face of God ap- 
 parently hidden? Then let me beware of the 
 temptation to magnify my sorrows by regarding 
 my case as extraordinary or singular. Whatever I 
 may suffer, it can scarcely approach to, much less 
 equal, the sufferings of David. How much less,
 
 136 REFLECTION. 
 
 then, the sufferings of the Son of God, my Saviour ! 
 Let me, then, beware of counting it a te strange 
 thing," that so I may not be hurried away into 
 impatience and unbelief. If David was the subject 
 of such griefs, so eminent a saint ; if he was pre- 
 vented from attending the house of God, whose 
 example was so important in that time of degene- 
 racy, and whose aid in divine worship was so 
 greatly helpful, being that " sweet Psalmist of 
 Israel," who " by inspiration of God" composed 
 the greater part of the Psalms that were sung and 
 assisted with his own voice in singing them, if 
 he was prevented, what wonder that so obscure an 
 individual as myself should be ! 
 
 But if my state of mind be free from distress and 
 darkness, if there be sweet repose ; let me bless 
 the divine condescension and goodness ; for who am 
 I, that I should be thus favoured ? Yet, it will be 
 well for me to remember that the time of trial, per- 
 haps of great trial, may come, and may come soon : 
 to remember it, indeed, not so as to destroy my 
 present peace and comfort, but only so as to lead 
 me to seek at all times a prepared mind, that when 
 trial comes I may not be overtaken by surprise. 
 
 And now, do I 3 like David, see and acknowledge 
 the hand of God in my trials; especially in the 
 present trial of detention from public ordinances ? 
 Even the distraction of mind occasioned by waves 
 and billows of grief did not prevent him from per- 
 ceiving that they were God's waves and God's
 
 REFLECTION. 137 
 
 billows. Instead of fixing my thoughts on the 
 events or circumstances that have occasioned my 
 detention at home, regretting and vexing at their 
 occurrence, do I at once look up to God, and clearly 
 distinguish his hand, so as to be led humbly to 
 submit, and cheerfully to acquiesce in the dispen- 
 sation ? Is it delightful to me to consider myself 
 the subject of his providential care, his fatherly 
 correction, and his covenant mercy : and hence to 
 be persuaded that unless I rebel against him, even 
 the present trial shall, with the rest that I have suf- 
 fered or may suffer, work together for my good ? 
 Oh, then, that I may be enabled to honour him 
 now, by bowing to his will, kissing his rod, hearken- 
 ing to his voice, receiving meekly his reproofs and 
 instructions, seeking his pardon, and looking for 
 all counsel, help, and consolation in him alone. 
 Let me be encouraged by the cheering words of 
 the apostle, " Behold we count them happy who 
 endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and 
 have seen the end of the Lord : that the Lord is 
 very pitiful and of tender mercy." 
 
 It is certain that I ought to consider my present 
 deprivation of the public means of grace as a chas- 
 tisement, intended by God to bring me to self-re- 
 flection and examination, that so I may remember 
 my past deficiencies, negligences, and misimprove- 
 ment, and humble myself before him on account of 
 them. Yet since he corrects, not as earthly fathers 
 are prone to do, " after their own pleasure," arbi-
 
 138 REFLECTION. 
 
 trarily, and often unreasonably, and with passion, 
 but " for our profit, that we might be partakers of 
 his holiness;" let me entertain the comfortable 
 persuasion that, through his grace, I shall in the 
 end be advantaged by the present dispensation. 
 This, indeed, it would be a great presumption in 
 me to expect, had I wilfully forsaken the assem- 
 bling myself with the saints ; but since, as he well 
 knows, I am absent through necessity, surely I 
 may confidently trust to enjoy his presence and his 
 favour here. 
 
 How wondrous and glorious are his perfections ! 
 In all places present at the same time ; and, in all 
 places where his people are, present to bless ! 
 Where the multitude are assembled to celebrate 
 his praise ; where two or three only are met to- 
 gether in the name of Jesus ; and where but one, 
 without the help, the excitement, the joy of public 
 or of social worship, is found to seek him ! Shall 
 I not then hope in his mercy, yea confidently expect 
 that he will be with me now ? Awake, my soul, 
 and lay hold, by faith, of his " exceeding great and 
 precious promises." " But thou, when thou pray- 
 est, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut 
 thy door, pray to thy father who is in secret, and 
 thy father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee 
 openly." " He that loveth me shall be loved of 
 my father, and I will love him, and will manifest 
 myself unto him. If a man love me he will keep 
 my words : and my father will love him, and we
 
 REFLECTION. 139 
 
 will come unto him : and make our abode with 
 him." Precious promises, indeed, and exceeding 
 great ! Oh, that they may be fulfilled now in my 
 glad experience ! And may I not humbly expect 
 that they will ? But the promise is made to those 
 only who keep his words, his commands. And do 
 I not keep them, at least in the sense intended 1 
 Do I, not only not account them grievous, but love 
 them, " delight in them after the inward man," 
 mourn when I fall short, and breathe after entire 
 conformity to them ? 
 
 That "word" which commands me not to for- 
 sake the assembling myself with his people, I have 
 not broken. I am here, not from disregard of his 
 will, not from contempt of his ordinances, not from 
 want of love to his saints, not to pursue an earthly 
 business, not from slothfulness and to indulge the 
 flesh, not as " doing my own ways, or finding my 
 own pleasure," but plainly from duty, or necessity, 
 plainly by the will of providence. Surely then, I 
 may with humble confidence expect to be favoured 
 with the divine presence. " But will God indeed 
 dwell on the earth ? " Will he dwell with me ? 
 Amazing condescension ! Unspeakable privilege ! 
 Oh, that I better understood its height, and depth, 
 and length, and breadth ; though it passeth know- 
 ledge ! To have the father and the son come to me, 
 manifest themselves unto me, and make their abode 
 with me, is so vast and astonishing a privilege as to 
 be utterly incredible, if not inconceivable, to any
 
 140 REFLECTION. 
 
 who have not a spiritual apprehension of what hath 
 been procured for the redeemed through the price- 
 less sacrifice of Christ. Believing in the purchased 
 fruits of that sacrifice I dare not doubt the fulfil- 
 ment, even to me, of those precious promises. Nay, 
 they have been fulfilled to me in times past. Adored 
 be the grace that enables me to say so ! " Truly," 
 can I dare to say with the beloved John and the 
 whole ransomed church, " Truly our fellowship is 
 with the father and with his son Jesus Christ." 
 
 The " loving-kindness " which David so confi- 
 dently expected, let me also not hesitate to expect 
 in answer to prayer, "for the same Lord over all 
 is rich unto all that call upon him." David ex- 
 pected the favour " in the day time," any day, or 
 every day. Much more then, may I expect it this 
 day, for "this is the day which the Lord hath 
 made," which he hath set apart from common days 
 to holy purposes ; and which in all ages, he hath, 
 in the highest sense, "BLESSED." It is on the 
 sabbath, above all days, that sinners have been 
 converted ; that wanderers have been reclaimed ; 
 that saints have been instructed, edified, and com- 
 forted ; and that God, through Christ, has been 
 glorified. 
 
 I would remember with pleasure how much our 
 Lord, when on earth, was accustomed to heal and 
 do acts of mercy on the sabbath-day, as if he would 
 teach us, among other things, to regard that day as 
 one in which he especially " waiteth to be gracious,
 
 REFLECTION. 141 
 
 and delighteth in mercy," and in which therefore 
 his people may especially hope to receive his fa- 
 vours. The poor impotent man, at the pool of 
 Bethesda, whose infirmity prevented his attendance 
 at the house of prayer, he most compassionately 
 sought out, and healed on the sabbath-day, and 
 enabled again to enjoy the public worship of his 
 God. John v. 14. And this gracious Saviour is 
 "Lord also of the sabbath-day." My soul shall 
 wait at his feet. Unto him will " I direct my 
 prayer, and will look up." He is the same now 
 that he was of old ; as ready to pity, and as pow- 
 erful to heal. O for the tokens of his loving-kind- 
 ness this day ! May I know, of a truth, that he is 
 not confined to the assembly, but present to bless 
 me here. Then at the close of the day, " in the 
 night," shall I be enabled to say, " He hath put a 
 new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God." 
 
 Yes, let praise be remembered. Praise is pe- 
 culiarly " comely " in any time of affliction. To 
 praise the Lord then, is a lively evidence of true 
 gratitude and love. And, if I praise him in my 
 retirement, it will also prove to me that I have a 
 heart to do so, even when deprived of the spirit- 
 stirring influence of social worship ; and that thank- 
 fulness remains, when outward excitements are 
 withdrawn. 
 
 May the sweet sense of the Lord's presence, of 
 his manifested loving-kindness, draw out my soul 
 towards him in ardent prayer also. May I be en- 
 
 N
 
 142 REFLECTIOX. 
 
 abled with humble yet tender and filial confidence 
 to address him as "the God of my life," who 
 (( hath done all things well " for me ; " who hath 
 delivered, and doth deliver, and in whom I trust 
 that he will yet deliver." All the events of my 
 days are under his controuling, over ruling, direct- 
 ing hand. Delightful thought ! Then my present 
 retirement also, ordered by his providence, shall be 
 made, I trust, the means of my spiritual good. 
 
 God of my life, vouchsafe thy gracious presence, 
 command thy loving-kindness ; that so, neither the 
 world, the flesh, nor satan may prevent my enjoy- 
 ment of it. m Fill my heart with gratitude, my lips 
 with praise. Pour upon me the spirit of grace and 
 of supplication, that I may draw near to thee in 
 humble, fervent, and effectual prayer. Thus gra- 
 ciously sanctity to me my present loss ; preparing 
 me again to worship thee with thy people on earth, 
 or with thy saints in glory everlasting. These 
 blessings I would earnestly beg in the name of thy 
 dear son, Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 DEEP to deep, incessant calling, 
 
 Tossed by furious tempests roll, 
 Endless waves and billows falling, 
 
 Overwhelm my fainting soul. 
 Yet I see a power presiding 
 
 Mid the tumult of the storm, 
 Ever ruling, ever guiding, 
 
 Love's intentions to perform.
 
 HYMN. 143 
 
 Yes, mid sorrows most distressing, 
 
 Faith contemplates thy design, 
 Humbly bowing, and confessing 
 
 All the waves and billows THINE : 
 Sees thee smiting, yet protecting, 
 
 God of righteousness and grace ! 
 And through seas of grief directing 
 
 Forth into a wealthy place. 
 
 Nor shall prove the hope fallacious 
 
 That affords my soul relief, 
 For thou still art kind and gracious, 
 
 Though thou causest present grief. 
 And, though tried by great temptations, 
 
 They are happy that endure, 
 Cheer'd with richest consolations, 
 
 Ever to the faithful sure. 
 
 Though denied the joy of meeting 
 
 Where the saints are wont to pray, 
 All adoring, all entreating 
 
 Mercy, on thy holy day ; 
 Yet, thou art not bound to places, 
 
 Thou canst bless me even here, 
 And bestow the help that chases 
 
 Anxious doubt and gloomy fear. 
 
 Thou, thy grace by day affording, 
 
 Loving-kindness wilt command, 
 And at night the song, recording 
 
 All the bounty of thy hand. 
 Then the filial supplication 
 
 Constant shall lo thee ascend, 
 Thee the God of my salvation, 
 
 Thee my everlasting friend.
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 EXPOSTULATION. 
 
 / will say unto God my rock, why hast thou 
 forgotten me ? Why go I mourning because of 
 the oppression of the enemy? As ivith a sword 
 in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while 
 they say unto me daily, Where is thy Ood ? 
 
 PSALM xlii. 9, 10. 
 
 THERK ARE SOME PECULIAR TRIALS WHICH ARE MOST 
 EXQUISITELY PAINFUL TO HOLY MINDS. 
 
 JjAVID now returns to the mention of the mock- 
 ings and upbraidings of his enemies as being espe- 
 cially the cause of suffering to his mind ; of suffering 
 which he describes as exquisitely painful. Not 
 only was their general persecution a burden to his 
 spirit, " the oppression of the enemy ,*" but their 
 cruel taunts put him to a mental torture, they were 
 as "a sword in his bones." Nothing short of very 
 pungent distress could possibly have occasioned 
 him to use language like this : yet that he should 
 suffer such distress merely on account of the insults 
 of the profane, may, certainly, at first sight, appear 
 a matter of surprise : because, it is not uncommon 
 for the servants of God to endure such treatment 
 with firmness and equanimity of mind ; and even 
 with feelings of joy, as being counted worthy to 
 suffer shame for the sake of their divine master.
 
 MINDS DIFFERENTLY CONSTITUTED. 145 
 
 But, it must be considered that, independently 
 of support from God, there is a vast difference in 
 the constitution of men's minds, and more particu- 
 larly in the degree in which the affections are sus- 
 ceptible. Now, it appears that David was a man 
 of exquisite sensibility, his affections being much 
 more quickly and powerfully touched, either pain- 
 fully or joyfully, than many men, or than most men. 
 This is so evident from all his life and writings as 
 to need no particular citation to prove it. Hence 
 it cannot be doubted that many men, good men, of 
 a less susceptible temperament, would not in the 
 same circumstances have suffered so keenly as he 
 did. But such an observation as this, though im- 
 portant to help to a right judgment in distinguish- 
 ing what is genuine in the religious experience of 
 men differently constituted by nature, is yet by no 
 means sufficient of itself to account for that degree 
 of suffering which David endured at this time. 
 Here the observations made on the third verse 
 should be remembered ; to which it may now be 
 desirable to add some others. 
 
 A considerable aggravation of his grief must 
 have been the perpetual irritation to which he was 
 exposed from the "daily" mockings of his adver- 
 saries. He was brought into such near contact 
 with them as to be condemned to the misery of 
 hearing their continual reproaches. Now, many 
 that suffer persecution do not hear the insults cast 
 on them, or, do not daily hear them. They have 
 
 N2
 
 146 INFLUENCE OF LONG IRRITATION, 
 
 at least some intervals of peace in which to recover 
 the tone of their minds and to prepare themselves 
 for fresh assaults. But it was otherwise with him, 
 and he evidently regarded it as a peculiar aggrava- 
 tion of his sorrow. And surely it was so ; for what 
 mind, unless upheld by most extraordinary grace, 
 is able to hold out against uninterrupted scoffing 
 and contempt ? As water, one of the softest bodies 
 in nature, can, by continual dropping, wear away 
 even stone, one of the hardest : so even the stoutest 
 minds have been found to yield to the influence of 
 perpetual irritation. How much more, then, the 
 peculiarly tender and susceptible mind of David. 
 
 And this vexation was not only constant while it 
 lasted, but, it appears that it was also of long con- 
 tinuance ; his piteous interrogations being evidently 
 those of a man grieved, surprised, and almost wea- 
 ried out by his lengthened sorrows. He knew by 
 sad experience the meaning of that saying, " Hope 
 deferred maketh the heart sick." While his hope 
 of deliverance was continually disappointed and 
 his ears continually pained with the derision of the 
 ungodly, his mind would naturally suffer more and 
 more acutely ; being amazed, as well as grieved, 
 at the long and mysterious delay of all help from 
 God. Though that delay was a part of the dealing 
 of infinite wisdom and goodness, excessive disquie- 
 tude greatly unfitted him for observing it ; his eyes, 
 blinded with tears, perceived not the admirable 
 skill which directed the movements of the divine
 
 AND THE HIDING OF THE FACE OF GOD. 147 
 
 hand. Hence he became a prey to grievous sur- 
 prise, and asked " Why" is it so ? 
 
 But these considerations are yet insufficient to 
 account for the extreme anguish of David's spirit. 
 There was another, and that pre-eminently the 
 chief cause ; which was the withdrawment of the 
 light of God's countenance, the want of all sense 
 of his comforting presence. This, as has been 
 shewn, was necessarily implied in some former 
 terms, but here it is expressly mentioned : " Why 
 hast thou forgotten me ? " Not that he supposed 
 he was literally forgotten of God, so as to be given 
 up and abandoned by him; because he had still 
 sufficient trust in his faithfulness to seek him for a 
 refuge and to hope in his mercy. His expression 
 is to be regarded as the language of feeling, not of 
 judgment. He felt, he seemed, as one forgotten 
 by God. Those visits of love, those manifestations 
 of favour with which he had formerly been indulged, 
 and which then seemed to him to be so many tokens 
 of the divine remembrance, were now withheld, now 
 when, on account of his distress, they appeared so 
 unspeakably more needful and desirable : whence 
 it was that he felt as one forgotten. 
 
 The hiding of the face of God then, at such a 
 time, which was evidently the principal cause of 
 his sorrow, will both explain its nature and account 
 for its being so extreme in degree. Had he been 
 favoured with a cheering sense of the divine pre- 
 sence, his trials, though so painful and aggravated,
 
 148 POWER OF CONSOLATION. 
 
 might yet have been well borne ; for what trials 
 conceivable may not, nay, have not, been borne, 
 when God has been graciously present to strengthen 
 and console ? The apostle could say, " I am filled 
 with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tri- 
 bulation. For when we were come into Macedo- 
 nia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on 
 every side; without were fightings, within were 
 fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those 
 that are cast down, comforted us, &c." And in 
 another place, " As the sufferings of Christ abound 
 in us, so also our consolation aboundethby Christ." 
 Where, as in these cases, the support and consola- 
 tion are proportioned to the suffering, there are no 
 trials that can overcome the spirit of the sufferer. 
 But where the reverse is the case, as in the instance 
 of David, the trial will occasion far more distress 
 to the saint, than it could possibly do to a man 
 ignorant of God. A merely worldly man might 
 have passed through the trial of David with far 
 more fortitude. By setting his enemies at defiance, 
 resisting them with their own weapons, returning 
 railing for railing, he would perhaps have silenced 
 them ; at least, the excitement produced by that 
 mode of defending himself would have borne up 
 his spirit and prevented dejection. And being 
 ignorant of any aid or consolation to be derived 
 from God, of course he would neither seek nor 
 expect any, and thus could suffer no disappoint- 
 ment like that of David.
 
 PECULIAR TRIALS. 149 
 
 The anguish of David, then, was such as is pecu- 
 liar to holy minds, and such as they only can feel. 
 When, through a course of open profession, the 
 saint has made his boast in God, has been ac- 
 customed to speak of the joys of communion with 
 him, of the unfailing help and solace which he 
 affords his people, and of the continual satisfaction, 
 peace, and joy of soul which are found in his ser- 
 vice; when, after this, he is brought into deep 
 trials, and the irreligious mock and say " Where is 
 thy God ? " at that very time of great affliction, 
 aggravated by insult, to feel the want of all comfort 
 of God's presence ; this perhaps, of all sorrows that 
 holy minds are ever called to endure, is the most 
 agonizing ; and this it was that wrung from David 
 the piteous enquiry, " Why hast thou forgotten 
 me ?"-r-And it was this same, this greatest of all 
 griefs, that drew from the dying Saviour, the heart- 
 piercing words, " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me ? " Astonishing expressions, when it is 
 considered from WHOM they came ! And to be ade- 
 quately accounted for by no other assignable cause. 
 
 God is the Rock of his people in their titnes 
 of trouble. 
 
 It is the great beauty, observable in the sacred 
 writings, that the appellations given to God, de- 
 scriptive of his attributes or conduct, are in general 
 so admirably suited, in the narrative parts, to the 
 occasion on which they are employed ; and in im-
 
 150 APPELLATIONS OF GOD 
 
 mediate addresses to him, to the circumstances or 
 desires of the person who uses them. Thus, when 
 spoken of, or appealed to, as the judge of the in- 
 jured, he is called the God of Righteousness : 
 when his faithfulness to his word is the subject, the 
 God of Truth. Striking appellations are also bor- 
 rowed from the objects of nature. Considered as 
 the source of unfailing grace, he is called " The 
 Fountain of Living Waters," but, viewed in refer- 
 ence to his righteous anger, " a consuming Fire." 
 
 But of all the appellations, not one, perhaps, is 
 more expressive than that which is here used by 
 David when he speaks of God as his " ROCK." It 
 is immediately obvious how suitable it was, in his 
 present circumstances and state of mind, to regard 
 God, and to address himself to him, in the charac- 
 ter suggested by this term. He was a fugitive, 
 with little means of defence, and continually pur- 
 sued by enemies who were powerful and numerous. 
 The country in which he wandered was mountain- 
 ous, and he often sought and found shelter on the 
 tops of precipitous rocks, or in their natural caves 
 or excavated hollows. Several instances of this are 
 given in the narrative of this part of his life. See 
 1 Sam. xxiii. 25. 1 Chron. xi. 15. Thus the idea 
 of shelter and defence being associated in his mind 
 with that of a rock, how natural that he should 
 apply the term to God, and, when seeking him as 
 his refuge and helper, should address him by that 
 appellation.
 
 SUITED TO CIRCUMSTANCES. 151 
 
 David used every proper means for the preser- 
 vation of his life, and for the effecting his deliverance 
 in times of danger. When persecuted in one place 
 he fled into another ; when exposed to great peril, 
 he hid himself in the fastnesses of the rocks ; and it 
 seems that he was usually attended by a little band 
 of followers. But it is most instructive and delight- 
 ful to perceive that though he constantly made use 
 of what earthly or human aid he could obtain, he 
 always looked beyond it to the power who alone 
 could make such aid effectual. David was a wise 
 man ; he made use of means : but he was also a 
 religious man ; he trusted God in the use of means. 
 
 It is remarkable that though he was often ex- 
 posed to such imminent hazard of his life, as to be 
 led to say on one occasion, <: There is but a step 
 between me and death ;" and on another " I shall 
 now perish one day by the hand of Saul :" yet he 
 was always preserved. Now, a man of this world 
 would, in such cases, have indulged in self-flattery, 
 and have ascribed his deliverances to the wisdom 
 of his plans, or the ingenuity of his stratagems, or 
 the strength of his arms. But the language of Da- 
 vid still continued to be " Truly my soul waiteth 
 upon God, from him cometh my salvation : he 
 only is my rock and my salvation : he is my de- 
 fence." Ps. Ixii. 1, 2. 
 
 What a delightful picture of a spiritual mind 
 trusting in God, is presented to the imagination, if 
 David be conceived of as having taken refuge in
 
 152 GOD TRUSTED IN 
 
 one of those natural fastnesses, where, surrounded 
 by bulwarks of craggy rocks, apparently impreg- 
 nable by human power, he might bid defiance to 
 the assaults of his enemies ; and yet, not relying on 
 them, but looking up to God and saying, " Be thou 
 my strong rock, for a house of defence to save me*; 
 for THOU art my rock and my fortress." Ps. xxxi. 
 2, 3. 
 
 David was too well taught and too well experien- 
 ced, not to know the vanity of all creature-depen- 
 dences. He had seen the curse come on them who 
 had made flesh their arm ; he had seen the hand 
 of him pierced, who had leaned on the "broken 
 reed " of an earthly trust. He could say of such, 
 with the faithful in Israel, of old, " Their rock is 
 not our rock." Deut. xxxii. 31. Wherefore, 
 turning away from all false confidences, he fixed 
 his hope on God alone, the immutable foundation, 
 the " everlasting strength " of his people. All 
 help from man may fail them , the rocks in which 
 they seek a shelter may crumble into dust : but, to 
 the end, their song shall be, " God is our refuge 
 and strength, a very present help in trouble. There- 
 fore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, 
 and though the mountains be carried into the midst 
 of the sea : though the waters thereof roar and be 
 troubled, though the mountains shake with the 
 swelling thereof." And the value of a confidence 
 in the sure foundation, David was at this very time 
 experiencing. For though deep was calling unto
 
 AS THE SURE FOUNDATION. 153 
 
 deep, and incessant waves and billows passed over 
 him ; though " the rain descended, and the floods 
 came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house" 
 that hope which he had built on God, " it fell not, 
 for it was founded upon a ROCK." 
 
 It is the privilege of those who know God 
 as THEIR rock, to have a holy, humble liberty of 
 pleading with him in their trials. 
 
 That God is the rock of ages, and that he is 
 the strength of his people, are great truths which it 
 is important to understand. But the mere know- 
 ledge of them, however clear and correct, will not 
 support the soul in the time of temptation or dis- 
 tress. There is necessary to him that is tried, an 
 experimental acquaintance with God as his rock, 
 or he will not endure. It was such an experimental 
 acquaintance that was the secret of David's bearing 
 up amid his complicated troubles : he could " say 
 unto God, my rock." Nothing short of this could 
 have borne him up. For of what avail for his sup- 
 port would have been a mere notional acquaintance 
 with the doctrines of the unchangeableness of his 
 nature and " the immutability of his counsel," if 
 he had had no experience of God as his strength 
 and stay in the time of tribulation ? David not 
 only understood the truth that God is a rock, but 
 he had known by heart-felt experience that he was 
 his rock ; such divine supports had been adminis- 
 tered to him in seasons of distress, and such faith- 
 o
 
 154 GOD EXPERIENCED TO BE A ROCK. 
 
 fulness to the promises had been manifested. And 
 this experience it was, that emboldened him at this 
 time to use such freedom of address, to venture 
 even to expostulate with God. 
 
 "I WILL SAY UNTO GOD, MY ROCK, WHY HAST 
 THOU FORGOTTEN ME ? WHY GO I MOURNING BE- 
 CAUSE OF THE OPPRESSION OF THE ENEMY?" 
 
 These words contain in them strong pleading, as 
 well as expostulation. ' Behold, O God, thou art 
 the rock of my confidence ; I have renounced all 
 dependence on creature-help, and have trusted alone 
 in thee. Wherefore, then, dost thou suffer me to 
 be thus injured and harassed by my foes ? Oh, 
 wherefore do I thus go mourning because of the 
 oppression of the enemy? Thou hast been my 
 help. In other days I have known thee for a sup- 
 port and a deliverer. But now thou hidest thy 
 face, and I seem as one abandoned. My rock, 
 why hast thou forgotten me ? See how mine ene- 
 mies triumph over me, and insult thy name. Their 
 keen reproaches pierce my soul as with a sword, 
 while they say unto me daily, where is thy God ? 
 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord ; for ever ? 
 how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? How 
 long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow 
 in my heart daily ? how long shall mine enemy be 
 exalted over me ?' Ps. xiii. 1, 2. 
 
 That the great God, the Majesty in the heavens, 
 should permit a worm of the dust, nay a sinful 
 creature, thus to address him, is truly wonderful.
 
 GROUND OF HOLY FREEDOM. 155 
 
 And did the soul that thus approaches him know 
 all its own meanness and vileness, and all his great- 
 ness and purity, it would fail before him, over- 
 whelmed with terrific amazement. But these aw- 
 ful views are but partially discovered ; " for he 
 knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are 
 dust." Still, what surprising condescension to 
 allow such a freedom ? Whence is it ? It is be- 
 cause of "the riches of his grace." Pardoned 
 through the bleeding sacrifice, made accepted in 
 the beloved, having " a merciful and faithful high 
 priest" for his intercessor, the humble, believing, 
 confiding soul is invited to " come boldly unto the 
 throne of grace." Having experienced God to be 
 his rock in times past, he turns to him again and 
 again in every present trouble. And if God hide 
 his face, and seem by his dealings as though he 
 had forsaken him ; he will venture to remind the 
 Lord that he is his rock, and to plead with him. 
 Thus he will relieve the burden of his soul by 
 pouring out his complaint before him ; and if there 
 be weakness, or even some impatience and unbelief 
 mingled with it, the Lord, in the greatness of his 
 compassion, will pass it by ; for " like as a father 
 pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that 
 fear him." What mercy ! 
 
 But though permitted to take an humble free- 
 dom, the poor, frail, and sinful petitioner is ever in 
 danger of presuming too far. Asaph acknowledges 
 this to have been his case. After expostulating
 
 156 DANGER OF PRESUMPTION. 
 
 " Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? Hath he 
 in anger shut up his tender mercies ? " he checks 
 himself; "And I said, this is my infirmity : but I 
 will remember the years of the right hand of the 
 most high." So doubtless it was with David ; for 
 while it was his faith that led him to God as his 
 refuge, it was his infirmity that caused him to re- 
 gard himself as forgotten. Forgotten ! " Why 
 sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my 
 way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is 
 passed over from my God ? Hast thou not known ? 
 Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the 
 LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth fainteth 
 not, neither is weary ? There is no searching of 
 his understanding. He giveth power to the faint ; 
 and to them that have no might he increaseth 
 strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 
 and the young men shall utterly fall : but they 
 that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, 
 they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall 
 run and not be weary, and they shall walk and 
 not faint." Isa. xl. 2731. 
 
 SELF-APPLICATION. 
 
 MAY my cares and my sorrows always be like 
 those of David, chiefly on account of spiritual 
 things. While " there be many that say, who will 
 shew us any good ? " let " my heart's desire and 
 prayer to God " ever be, " Lord, lift thou up the
 
 SELF-APPLICATION. 157 
 
 light of thy countenance upon me." This mani- 
 festation of the divine favour may I esteem above 
 all that this world can afford. And if at any time 
 I am deprived of it, if the Lord shall hide his face, 
 may I go mourning, may I never rest, until he 
 return and shine upon me again. 
 
 Yet let me ever beware of hard thoughts of God. 
 If now, while deprived of the ordinances of his 
 house, my mind should suffer from gloom, all sen- 
 sible comfort being withdrawn ; let me be on the 
 watch against impatience and unbelief. Let me 
 bethink myself, Who am I, that I should look for 
 exemption from trials to which the very chief of the 
 saints have been subjected ? Am I a greater than 
 David ? Oh, that I may ever bear upon my heart 
 the humbling remembrance, how undeserviug, how 
 ill-deserving I am. Surely, may I of a truth say, 
 " It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not con- 
 sumed." But if, notwithstanding even these con- 
 siderations, a discontented or unbelieving spirit 
 should yet arise, let the sight of him that hung 
 upon the cross bring me back to self-abasement and 
 submission. " Looking unto Jesus," the victim of 
 false accusations and an unjust judgment, deserted 
 by his followers, reviled, scorned, mocked by his 
 enemies, and, to complete his " great agony," the 
 light of the father's complacent countenance with- 
 drawn ; let my spirit bow down in submissive si- 
 lence, and lose the remembrance of its own little 
 griefs, in meditation on his unutterable anguish. 
 o2
 
 153 SELF-APPLICATION. 
 
 And this may I learn from him, to count all trials 
 light in comparison with the hiding of the face of 
 God ; and also even under that trial, to hold fast 
 my confidence in him. Though Jesus said " Why 
 hast thou forsaken me ? " He said also, ".J/y God, 
 my God." He well knew the father to be a rock. 
 
 And may not /say unto him " my rock \ " THE 
 ROCK, unquestionably, he ever is. If I doubt then, 
 let it be of myself, but never of him. Were my 
 deprivation of the privileges of his house a matter 
 of no concern to me, were I indifferent to the means 
 of grace and to the comforts of his presence, were 
 my appetite for heavenly food all gone, and I care- 
 less, carnal, increasing in fondness of the world and 
 in negligence of holy duties ; then, not to doubt of 
 myself would be an awful sign, would indicate me 
 to be blinded by the delusions of Satan. The 
 same that is the rock of his people's faith and secu- 
 rity, is a stone of stumbling to the disobedient, to 
 the deceiver and to the deceived. 
 
 To doubt of myself, then, may be for the recov- 
 ery, the quickening, the health of my soul. But 
 while I have the evidences that I am a child of the 
 heavenly father, let me not doubt his faithfulness, 
 neither let me doubt to say unto him, thou art my 
 rock ; mine, for I have renounced sin, myself, and 
 the world, and I build alone on thee. Do I not 
 hate that which thou hatest, and love that which 
 thou lovest ? Is not thy glory the aim and the end 
 of my soul and of my life ? Is not thy service my
 
 SELF-APPLICATION. 159 
 
 business, my freedom, my delight ? Do I not ac- 
 count thy favour and approbation greater riches 
 than all the treasures of the world ? " Lord, thou 
 knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." 
 
 I will, therefore, trust in thee, that thou art the 
 same towards me that thou ever wast. What though 
 thou afflictest me, I will believe that it is " in faith- 
 fulness ; " that thou mayest further purge away the 
 dross, and make me, in a higher degree, a partaker 
 of thy holiness. Let me not say, then, why hast 
 thou forsaken me ? Ordinances may be denied, 
 sensible refreshments withheld, creature-helps with- 
 drawn ; the body may be enfeebled by disease, the 
 mind impaired in its powers, both heart and flesh 
 may fail ; but thou, my rock remainest, the strength 
 of my heart and my portion for ever. Oh, then, 
 if at any time, in my solitude, the cloud should pass 
 over my soul ; say to me, as in tender pity thou 
 saidst to the church of old, when complaining "The 
 Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten 
 me ; " " Can a woman forget her sucking child 
 that she should not have compassion on the son of 
 her womb ? yea, they may forget, yet will I not 
 forget thee." 
 
 "Behold now, I have thus taken upon me to 
 speak unto the Lord. Oh, let not the Lord be 
 angry." He will not. He graciously allows such 
 freedom from those who love him. To plead with 
 him, even with arguments, is the blessed privilege 
 of those who are " followers of God as dear chil- 
 dren." " Such honour have all his saints."
 
 160 SELF-APPLICATION. 
 
 Oh, happy state of those, who, like David, 
 though " perplexed are not in despair, though per- 
 secuted are not forsaken, though cast down are not 
 destroyed." And why? There is a rock, a strength 
 that supports. " Always bearing about the dying 
 of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might 
 be made manifest in their body." All is security ! 
 The Father is a rock ; the Son also is a rock. " Ye 
 believe in God," he said "believe also in ME." 
 
 My saviour, I hear thy voice. I believe in the 
 Father as the rock of everlasting love, and power, 
 and faithfulness, whose purpose endureth for ever. 
 I believe in the Son as the rock of the poor sinner, 
 repenting, believing, relying : and as the rock, too, 
 from whence did issue the all-atoning and all-cleans- 
 ing blood, and from whence doth now issue, and 
 shall eternally, unfailing streams of grace. He, 
 "the same yesterday, to-day and for ever," who is 
 now the fountain of supply to his church, hath been 
 so in all ages. As now, so of old, they " did all 
 eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the 
 same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual 
 rock that followed them ; and THAT ROCK WAS 
 CHRIST." 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 GOD of my life, I cry to thee ; 
 Why hast thou thus forgotten me ? 
 Why do I ever mourning go 
 Because of the oppressing foe ?
 
 HYMN. 161 
 
 Behold, the scoffers, day by day, 
 Where is thy God ? insulting say ; 
 And still repeat the scornful word 
 That wounds me as a piercing sword. 
 
 God, my rock, to thee I cry, 
 Shew me, in pity shew me why 
 Thy saving arm so long delays, 
 
 So long the hoped-for rescue stays. 
 
 But, I forbear, my words restrain, 
 
 1 must not, will not thus complain. 
 Why should I deem myself forgot, 
 When thou art God and changest not? 
 
 What though with care and grief I bow, 
 And impious foes insult me now ; 
 What though no former helps are near, 
 Thy worship, and thy saints to cheer ; 
 
 Yet THOU remainest still the same, 
 The Rock of ages is thy name, 
 And they who build their trust on thee, 
 Shall build it for eteniity.
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 RELIANCE. 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and ichij 
 art thou disquieted wit/tin me? Hope tJiou in 
 God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health 
 of my countenance, and my God. 
 
 PSALM xlii. 11. 
 
 THE SOUL, WHEN ONCE GREATLY DISTURBED, IS, OFTEN, NOT 
 
 SOON CALMED, ON ACCOUNT OF INFIRMITIES 
 
 AND REMAINING CORRUPTIONS. 
 
 JL HE distressing tumult and conflict of his soul 
 which David describes in these psalms, present an 
 affecting and humiliating picture of the weak and 
 fallen state of man. After all allowances have been 
 made on account of his peculiarly painful circum- 
 stances and the complication of his troubles ; when 
 it is considered how highly gifted he was both by 
 nature and grace, what vigorous resistances he had 
 already made against his dejection, what strong 
 arguments he had adduced to quiet it, and how 
 often he seemed for a while to have gained the 
 conquest over it, it is indeed truly affecting and 
 humiliating to see him still struggling and arguing 
 with himself, still sinking and ready to despond. 
 To those who are ignorant of their weakness and 
 depravity, such a conflict in such a man must ap- 
 pear utterly strange and unintelligible. But there
 
 WARFARE, DISCIPLINE. 163 
 
 are some to whom it will seem no mystery ; some 
 who have learned what that meaneth, " The flesh 
 lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the 
 flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; 
 so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 
 
 All regenerate souls are conscious of this warfare; 
 though in some it may be more stormy than in 
 others ; and in all, at some seasons it will be so. 
 They are all patients under the care of the great 
 physician, who with admirable, with perfect skill, 
 adapts his medicine and his regimen to their dif- 
 ferent cases, so as most effectually to produce the 
 cure which he intends. Some, who, like David, 
 have a more ardent temperament and stronger 
 passions, he subjects to a severer discipline ; that 
 what is refractory may be tamed, and that what is 
 high may be brought low. To this end it is that 
 sometimes deep is bidden to call unto deep, that 
 wave follows upon wave, and that the tempest, 
 though so terrible, is yet also of long continuance; 
 for the noise of his water-spouts will still be heard 
 until the storm has effected that purpose for which 
 it was raised. 
 
 To know by deep, abasing experience our ruined 
 and helpless state, is a lesson not soon or easily 
 learned : though, to have a doctrinal notion of it 
 and to be able to talk about it, is indeed a very 
 easy matter. They whom God teaches this lesson 
 are taught in the school of conflict ; sometimes of 
 agonizing conflict, in which, after having been
 
 164 CONFLICT, THROUGH SIN; 
 
 foiled repeatedly, notwithstanding all the skill and 
 wisdom and power by which they expected to 
 overcome, they are at length brought to feel their 
 corruption and utter helplessness in themselves, 
 and to cry " O wretched man that I am ! Who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " 
 
 And must David again say, " Why art thou so 
 heavy O my soul ? And why art thou disquieted 
 within me ? " What ! After all the convincing 
 arguments and powerful motives which he has pre- 
 sented to his soul and which have seemed in their 
 turn to produce effect, is the tumult not yet hushed ! 
 Oh, man, proud man, who thinkest thou hast power 
 to subdue thy will, to regulate thy passions, and to 
 reign the master of thyself without another's aid ; 
 deign thou to turn awhile and to contemplate the 
 wise, the accomplished, the eloquent, the kingly 
 David, and see in the hurry, the fear, the weakness, 
 the conflict of his mind, a true picture of thine own, 
 though thy heart thinketh not so. But " there is 
 no difference ; " all are fallen ; all are " without 
 strength ; " " all have sinned and come short of the 
 glory of God." 
 
 " Oh, that they were wise, that they understood 
 this ! " Then would they betake themselves for 
 help to him that is mighty ; and conscious of their 
 ignorance and weakness and pollution ; renouncing 
 themselves and "having no confidence in the flesh;" 
 they would " rejoice in Christ Jesus," who, " of 
 God, is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
 
 VICTORY THROUGH CHRIST. 165 
 
 and sanctification and redemption." Then, if at 
 any time harassed with the conflict between grace 
 and nature, holiness and sin, they were constrained 
 to cry " O wretched, man that I am ;" they would 
 be enabled with the Apostle to take courage and 
 to add " I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." So, if oppressed and agitated like David, 
 knowing there is recovery as well as ruin, they 
 would chide the dejected spirit and bid it hope in 
 God, the salvation of his confiding people. 
 
 When tumult again arises in the soul, recourse 
 must be had again to the remedies of expostulating 
 icith it, and directing it to God. 
 
 How admirable and wonderful is the power of 
 grace in the soul ! It lives, it combats, and over- 
 comes. Though its mastery is continually disputed 
 by sin, the world, the flesh, and Satan ; and though 
 in its various conflicts with them it meets with many 
 a foil ; yet does it wage an endless war, obtain in- 
 creasing power, and at length " REIGN, through 
 righteousness, unto eternal life." How glorious 
 an example of this is here exhibited in the case of 
 David ! Beset on all sides, fightings outward and 
 fears within, ready to sink into despondency from 
 being so often worsted, he yet girds himself afresh, 
 and returns to the battle. Rousing himself from 
 that sloth which discouragement is prone to beget, 
 and reproving his soul for its weakness and its fears, 
 he leads it on again and again to the charge. And 
 p
 
 166 GRACE TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 these are the actings of the principle of LIFE. He 
 who has it not, may sometimes contend against evil, 
 through the force of occasional convictions and 
 fears ; yet the strife will subside when that transient 
 force is spent. But he in whom there is life, will 
 never yield while there remains one corruption un- 
 subdued : he will live a warrior and die a conqueror. 
 The power of this life David felt ; and he under- 
 stood well the end for which it was implanted 
 within him : as the apostle teaches when he says to 
 Timothy, " Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, 
 that thou stir up the gift of God that is in thee." 
 
 The spiritual wisdom also of David is seen here 
 in the quick, as well as vigorous resistance which 
 he makes against dejection and unbelief. Scarcely 
 has he repulsed them, before they return ; but still 
 he repulses them, and that immediately ; for he well 
 knew that if yielded to, they increase in strength, 
 and that therefore the sooner they are repulsed the 
 more certain the victory. Indulgence in gloomy 
 and unbelieving thoughts is very hurtful and dan- 
 gerous, for when indulged, they continually grow 
 in power until they obtain a frightful ascendancy 
 over the soul, bringing it into a miserable subjection 
 to their tyranny. Hence the numerous exhortations 
 in scripture, to watchfulness, and resistance. "Nei- 
 ther give place to the devil." " Resist the devil 
 and he shall flee from you." But this must be done, 
 as David did it, by directing the soul to God, in 
 the renewed exercise of trust in him. "Above
 
 DEJECTION TO BE RESISTED. 167 
 
 all," says the apostle, "taking the shield of faith, 
 wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
 darts of the wicked one." This shield David now 
 lifted up against the enemy, when he said to his 
 soul, " hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him." 
 
 This powerful exhortation David had already 
 addressed to his soul, Ifut not with complete suc- 
 cess, for though it availed for some relief, the 
 tumult presently returned. In such a case, a natu- 
 ral man who, before the trial, had imagined himself 
 to have faith in God, would, when he found it fail, 
 turn back and seek his consolation in the world. 
 And even one who had some faith, though but weak 
 and in its infancy, would be tempted under such 
 discouragement to seek relief in some other way. 
 But David was too advanced and experienced a 
 believer to be so cheated. He well knew that his 
 help could come from no quarter but from God 
 alone. Hence he continues to repeat to his soul 
 the same exhortation : knowing that a renewed ex- 
 ercise in the power, goodness and faithfulness of 
 God was the only possible way of relief. 
 
 In this concluding verse, however, he introduces 
 some new expressions which contain in them addi- 
 tional and very powerful arguments. " Hope thou 
 in God ; for consider what he is to me, HE is THE 
 
 HEALTH OF MY COUNTENANCE AND MY GOD." The 
 
 human body is, altogether, one of the most won- 
 derful specimens of the power, and wisdom, and 
 skill of its Creator : but the countenance especially.
 
 168 DIVINE SKILL EXHIBITED 
 
 Of what almost infinite expressions it is capable, 
 and what an admirable index of the movements of 
 the soul, representing all its passions and affections, 
 even in their most varied and delicate modifica- 
 tions, with beautiful and surprising fidelity ! In 
 anger, what flashing of the eye, what redness, and 
 distension of all the features ! In complacency, 
 what a calm overspreads them, what a softness and 
 tenderness ! In sorrow, how wan and sunken the 
 cheek, how languid the eye, and how slow and 
 heavy the whole expression ! But in joy, the flush 
 and the quickness return ; and then, what beaming 
 of the eye, what light and animation in all the 
 features ! 
 
 Allusions to these various expressions of the hu- 
 man countenance significant of the affections of the 
 soul, are very frequent in the scripture, and have 
 the double excellence of directing us to consider 
 and admire the workmanship of God, and of giving 
 great animation and vivacity to its descriptions. 
 Thus, when the anger of Cain is described, it is 
 said, " And Cain was very wroth, and his counte- 
 nance fell." When the sullen displeasure of Laban 
 is mentioned by Jacob, he says, " I see your father's 
 countenance, that it is not toward me as before." 
 The description of Nehemiah's sorrow depicted in 
 his countenance, is beautifully pathetic. " Now 
 I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. 
 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy 
 countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick ? This
 
 IN THE HUMAN COUNTENANCE. 169 
 
 is nothing else but sorrow of heart." And so, 
 doubtless, was it now with David : extreme sorrow 
 bowed his head and saddened his countenance. 
 But he charges it on his soul to anticipate a brighter 
 day, when he should exemplify the truth of that 
 saying, " A glad heart maketh a cheerful counte- 
 nance." Prov. xv. 13~ For, notwithstanding his 
 present painful and gloomy circumstances, he still 
 regarded the Lord as " the health of his counte- 
 nance," literally, the salvation of his countenance ; 
 so that by this term he expresses his conviction 
 that God would again appear on his behalf, and 
 effect for him that salvation, or deliverance, which 
 should fill his heart with a joy that would be visible 
 in his reanimated countenance. 
 
 This result was important, not only as it respected 
 his own happiness, but also the honour of God. 
 He was no doubt conscious that his countenance 
 betrayed his grief and even shame. But the head 
 which his enemies now saw bowed down with con- 
 fusion, they should behold lifted up again with joy. 
 Whence the God of his life, whom he here calls 
 " the health of his countenance," he thus addresses 
 in the 3rd Psalm " My glory, and the lifter up 
 of my head." A very striking and beautiful image, 
 which is made use of also by the Saviour when en- 
 couraging his disciples with the prospect of their 
 final salvation, " And when these things begin to 
 come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, 
 for your redemption draweth nigh." Now the 
 p2
 
 170 GOD THE HEALTH 
 
 enemies of David, observing his dejection, trium- 
 phed over him and insulted him as a poor fanatic 
 who had been deluding himself with dreams about 
 God's peculiar favour to him. But the time ap- 
 proached when a manifest deliverance should be 
 wrought for him, and when his joy should be open 
 and conspicuous, as before his grief had been. 
 For thus doth God bring to silence and confusion 
 the triumph of the wicked, while he proves his 
 faithfulness to his people, and vindicates his own 
 honour. Therefore in circumstances like those of 
 David, they may not fear to adopt the language of 
 the church of old, " Rejoice not against me, O mine 
 enemy, when I fall I shall arise." Micah vii. 8. 
 
 But David makes another important addition to 
 the words used before "MY GOD." He had, in- 
 deed, ventured to address God by this term in the 
 sixth verse, but here he is bolder, and affirms to 
 his soul that God is his God, as an argument against 
 distrust, and as a reason for confidence. 'Consider, 
 he is my God, therefore he will bring deliverance, 
 he will make glad my heart and I shall praise him; 
 hope then in him.' This was sound, invincible 
 reasoning ; for they who have God for their God 
 are secure of possessing in him all things that they 
 can need. Such is the reasoning of the apostle, 
 " All things are yours ; and ye are Christ's, and 
 Christ is God's." The saints are God's, by being 
 Christ's. They believe in Christ, who suffered for 
 their sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
 
 OF HIS PEOPLE'S COUNTENANCE. 171 
 
 bring them to God. 1 Pet. iii. 18. It is thus 
 that they become interested in the favour of God, 
 and that their relationship to him originates. For 
 "as many as received him, to them gave he the 
 privilege to become the sons of God, even to them 
 that believe on his name." What then ? If sons, 
 "if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint 
 heirs with Christ." Privilege indeed ! Well 
 might the apostle say to heirs, "All things are 
 yours ; " for the heir is he who has a title to the 
 paternal inheritance. And what an inheritance is 
 that which the heavenly father has prepared for his 
 children, "incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth 
 not away ; reserved in heaven for them who are 
 kept by the power of God, through faith unto sal- 
 vation, ready to be revealed in the last time ! " 
 1 Pet. i. 4, 5. Now if the father has prepared 
 for his children such an inheritance, will he not 
 protect them and provide for them in their way 
 thither ? Assuredly he will ; and with all confi- 
 dence may they who can call God their God rely 
 upon him for all things necessary, whether for the 
 body or the soul. Most just and solid then was 
 the argument of David when he bade his soul to 
 hope in God for deliverance, because that God was 
 his God.
 
 172 MED1TATIOX. 
 
 MEDITATION. 
 
 How important and valuable are opportunities 
 of retirement and solitude, when the soul examines 
 her state, considers her ways, and seeks to get 
 ' farther from sin and nearer to God ! ' Such op- 
 portunities occur but too seldom, it is to be feared, 
 in the religious course of many professed Christians. 
 If they do not often occur, they should be made, if 
 possible ; and they would be made far oftener were 
 they more valued. It is a mercy that God, by his 
 providence, sometimes obliges us to retire and look 
 within ourselves, when we should not have done it 
 of our own accord ; " for if we would judge our- 
 selves we should not be judged." 1 Cor. xi. 31. 
 But we are prone to go on and on in the usual 
 round of attending, and hearing, with some reading 
 and some prayer at home, too well contented with 
 a state of mind bordering on formality and lifeless- 
 ness ; and sadly neglectful of an earnest, anxious 
 enquiry into the state of the soul, before God. 
 Then, in mercy, he comes with some chastisement 
 and lays us aside, saying, " Commune with your 
 own heart upon your bed, and be still." Such an 
 opportunity is now afforded me. O for a mind 
 rightly to improve it ! 
 
 I feel that there is need of help from God. For 
 often has a precious season of retirement been lost 
 to me, or nearly so, owing to the vanity and con- 
 fusion of my mind. A multitude of recollections,
 
 MEDITATION. 173 
 
 earthly, foolish, and distracting, have produced a 
 tumult within. How great is the weakness of my 
 soul ! Over my body I can exercise controul, so 
 that it moves or is still, is in action or at rest, as I 
 bid it. But alas, there are times when the endea- 
 vour to command into peace my turbulent thoughts, 
 is like an attempt to calm the raging of the sea. 
 In vain have I sought to fix my mind on heavenly 
 things, though they be such as " the angels desire 
 to look into." Surely, then, I need no arguments 
 to persuade me that I am a fallen creature ; I know 
 it, I feel it, by sad experience. And what I some- 
 times feel, would drive me to despondency, did I 
 not know that the holiest of God's servants have 
 complained of the same, and that there is the aton- 
 ing blood, and the promise of sufficient grace. 
 
 Thanks be to God for his holy word. How 
 consoling and instructive is the record of David's 
 experience which is now before me. Consoling it 
 is, because it shews me that even he was subject to 
 the same infirmities ; and instructive, because it 
 directs me how to deal with my soul, and whither 
 to look for relief. O for a faith and confidence like 
 his ! O to be able to honour God, as he did, in 
 the time of trouble ! ' Thy experience has under- 
 gone a change, my soul ; but he, none. Once thou 
 wast lifted up with joy, now thou art cast down ; 
 once thou wast calm and happy, now thou art dis- 
 quieted within me : but he is still what he was then, 
 the health of my countenance and my God.' May
 
 174 MEDITATION. 
 
 it be thus with myself. And to that end let me 
 beware of questioning his mercy, and bend all my 
 attention to the improvement of the present dispen- 
 sation, remembering that his people are not " let 
 alone/' that " when we are judged, we are chastened 
 of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with 
 the world." May I then, by the right use of this 
 retirement, learn more of my own weakness and 
 corruption, and more of the excellency and suffici- 
 ency of God. 
 
 David repeats " I shall yet praise him." ' He 
 is my God, and therefore he will not abandon me ; 
 but bring deliverance. He is the health of my 
 countenance and will cause again my face to shine 
 with gladness, and will grant me again to go with 
 the multitude to the house of God, with the voice 
 of joy and praise.' This delightful expectation is 
 still the sweet solace of his soul. How dearly must 
 he have loved the house of God ! Probably he 
 never knew how much he loved it, till he was ban- 
 ished from it. Still more probably did he never 
 fully appreciate the value of its ordinances till 
 deprived of them. ' So blessings brighten as they 
 take their flight.' God grant that my deprivation 
 may be sanctified to call forth the same dispositions. 
 And if permitted to go again to the Lord's house, 
 may it be indeed to praise him, to praise him with 
 a spiritual life and joy unknown before. Let me 
 now, in the strength of God, purpose this, as He- 
 zekiah did of old, when he said " What shall be
 
 MEDITATION. 175 
 
 the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I 
 shall go up into the house of the Lord the third 
 day ? " In his then subdued and grateful state of 
 mind he seemed to anticipate, as the chief joy of 
 his recovery, the opportunity of returning his 
 thanksgiving and praise to the Lord, in his house. 
 And this gracious state of mind, the happy fruit of 
 his trial, continued with him after he was raised 
 up, as appears from what he wrote " when he had 
 been sick, and was recovered of his sickness." 
 " The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I 
 do this day. The father to the children shall make 
 known thy truth. The Lord was ready to save 
 me : therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed 
 instruments, all the days of our life, in the house of 
 the Lord." Isaiah xxxviii. 19, 20. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 WHY art thou still cast down my soul ? 
 
 And why so troubled still ? 
 Behold the power that can controul, 
 
 Behold the love that will. 
 
 Then boldly in the fight engage, 
 
 Stir up that gift within 
 Which God implanted there to wage 
 
 Eternal war with sin. 
 
 Though helpless in thyself and lost, 
 
 Yet yield thee not to fear; 
 Thou goest a warfare at his cost 
 
 Whose help is ever near.
 
 176 HYMN. 
 
 And he shall all thy foes subdue, 
 
 And banish all thy pain ; 
 And thou shalt taste his love anew, 
 
 And praise his name again. 
 
 Then shall I lift my drooping head 
 
 His happy saints among ; 
 And then once more his courts shall tread, 
 
 And raise the grateful song. 
 
 For though awhile I wait and grieve, 
 
 Shall he not set me free? 
 A soul that trusts him will he leave? 
 
 It cannot, cannot be. 
 
 The word in which my hope confides, 
 
 18 faithful and divine ; 
 And he who spake that word abides, 
 
 In Christ, for ever mine.
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 APPEAL. 
 
 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against 
 an ungodly nation ; O deliver me from the deceit- 
 fid and unjust man. For thou art the God of 
 my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why 
 go I mourning because of the oppression of the 
 enemy 9 
 
 PSALM xliii. 1, 2. 
 
 GOD, WHO IS THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH, IS PECU- 
 LIARLY THE DEFENDER OF HIS INJURED PEOPLE. 
 
 WHEN the Psalmist affirms "The Lord reign- 
 eth," it is with good reason that he adds, " Let the 
 earth rejoice." What would be the state of man- 
 kind, proud, selfish, the slaves of sin, but for his 
 overruling and controuling power ! Even now, not- 
 withstanding the restraints which the providence of 
 God interposes, how amazing are the crimes of men ! 
 What falsehood, cruelty, and injustice ; what hard- 
 ness of heart and contempt of God's word and com- 
 mandment ! It can scarcely be doubted by those 
 who believe the representations of the scriptures, 
 that were all the influence of religion withdrawn 
 from the earth, and the restraining power of God 
 withheld, mankind would destroy one another and 
 the world be turned into a frightful wilderness. 
 But "the Lord reigneth," he is "the judge of all 
 Q
 
 178 GOD THE DEFENDER OF HIS PEOPLE. 
 
 the earth ;" the nations are subject to his controul ; 
 " he putteth down one, and setteth up another ; " 
 he doth all things right. " Let the earth rejoice ; " 
 but, especially let his injured people rejoice, "for 
 the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment 
 for all that are oppressed ; " " The Lord will plead 
 their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled 
 them." 
 
 How lovely and attractive is this part of the di- 
 vine character, the judge of the injured, the de- 
 fender of the oppressed ! What astonishing con- 
 descension and unutterable goodness it displays ! 
 And how calculated is the believing apprehension 
 of it to dissipate the fears, assuage the griefs, and 
 calm the minds of his injured servants ! And they 
 have often great need of faith in God in this respect. 
 When they suffer unjustly, and have no means of 
 clearing or delivering themselves, and their enemies 
 triumph ; when they see the righteous brought low 
 and the wicked exalted, and much apparent confu- 
 sion in the government of the world, they have 
 abundant need of trust in the righteous God, as the 
 protector, vindicator and deliverer of his people. 
 For such seasons are times of great temptation, and 
 nothing short of this trust can preserve the soul in 
 faithful allegiance to its divine master. Hence it 
 is that God is so often, and in such various ways, 
 represented in the scriptures as the judge of the 
 oppressed ; for thus a gracious provision is made 
 for their lively confidence and strong consolation.
 
 CONSCIOUSNESS OF INNOCENCE. 179 
 
 Indeed, not only is he frequently thus described, 
 but for their greater assurance he is introduced as 
 himself declaring "For the oppression of the poor, 
 for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise." 
 And this declaration is not like the empty, faithless 
 promises of men ; no, " the words of the Lord are 
 pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, 
 purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O 
 Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation 
 for ever." Ps. xii. 5, 6, 7. Such trust had Da- 
 vid in God at this time, when he appealed to him 
 from his enemies. 
 
 The consciousness of innocence greatly em- 
 boldens the soul to appeal to God as the Judge 
 and defender of his people, and to intercede for 
 his help. 
 
 Such a consciousness of innocence it was undoubt- 
 edly the happiness of David at this time to enjoy. 
 If ever there was a man unjustly persecuted and 
 hated without a cause, surely he was, when driven 
 from his home by the cruelty of Saul. Hence the 
 language of his address to God now, is widely dif- 
 ferent from that which he afterwards used, when 
 recovered from the great sin of his life to deep hu- 
 miliation and repentance. Then lie came before 
 the judge pronouncing his own condemnation, 
 " Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done 
 this evil in thy sight ; that thou mightest be justified 
 when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judg-
 
 180 CONSCIOUSNESS OF INNOCENCE 
 
 est." Ps. li. 4. But now, conscious of his inno- 
 cence, he brings his cause to God, appeals to him 
 as the heart-searching and righteous judge, and 
 pleads for deliverance from his oppressors. How 
 important as well as true are the sayings of the 
 apostle, " If our heart condemn us, God is greater 
 than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, 
 if our heart condemn us not, then have we confi- 
 dence towards God." Oh, the inestimable privi- 
 lege of being able, through grace, to say with holy 
 Paul, " Herein do I exercise myself, to have always 
 a conscience void of offence toward God, and to- 
 ward men." 
 
 It is plain from his history that David's conduct 
 towards Saul had been in all respects worthy of a 
 servant of God. But notwithstanding this and the 
 eminent services which David had rendered to him, 
 with the basest ingratitude, and with implacable 
 malice, excited by envy, he sought his life ; pursu- 
 ing him as though he had been guilty of the highest 
 crimes, and employing every stratagem in order to 
 accomplish his blood-thirsty design. Hence he 
 calls him " a deceitful and unjust man ; " and those 
 who followed him " an ungodly nation." And this 
 consideration of the wickedness of his enemies came, 
 in addition to the consciousness of his innocence, to 
 give him confidence towards God, because he well 
 knew that, independently of the justness of his cause, 
 the righteous governor of the world is engaged to 
 execute punishment on transgressors. Thus, after
 
 A GROUND OF CONFIDENCE. 181 
 
 his deliverance he writes, " Therefore hath the 
 Lord recompensed me according to my righteous- 
 ness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his 
 eye-sight. With the merciful thou wilt show thy- 
 self merciful, with an upright man thou wilt shew 
 thyself upright : with the pure thou wilt shew thy- 
 self pure, and with the froward thou wilt shew thy- 
 self froward. For thou wilt save the afflicted peo- 
 ple ; but wilt bring down high looks." Ps. xviii. 
 24 27. Conscious then of his integrity in this 
 matter, and knowing the malignity and injustice of 
 his enemies, he is bold to appeal to God, who, in 
 his character of a righteous Judge, is no respecter 
 of persons, but renders unto every man according 
 to his work, dealing mercy to the merciful, and 
 judgment to the oppressor. 
 
 He therefore wholly submits his case to him 
 " Judge me, O God, and plead my cause." He 
 is willing, nay desirous, that his case may be in- 
 spected, and examined, not fearing the result, for 
 " the righteous are bold as a lion." He knows 
 that it will bear the severest scrutiny, and that he 
 to whom he commits it is holy, and just, and true. 
 His own words on another occasion, will illustrate 
 his meaning here. " Judge me, O Lord, according 
 to my righteousness, and according to mine integ- 
 rity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the 
 wicked come to an end, but establish the just : 
 for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. 
 My defence is of God, who saveth the upright 
 Q2
 
 182 A GOOD CONSCIENCE, 
 
 in heart. God judgeth the righteous, and God 
 is angry with the wicked every day." Ps. vii. 9, 
 10, 11. Animated with such views of the divine 
 character, he confidently appeals to God, entreating 
 him to plead his cause "against an ungodly nation," 
 to pronounce the sentence of acquittal, and to deliver 
 him " from the deceitful and unjust man." And it 
 is remarkable that in the presence of that unjust 
 man he used almost the same expressions " The 
 Lord, therefore, be judge, and judge between me 
 and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver 
 me out of thine hand." When he thus, by neces- 
 sary implication, asserted his innocence, Saul had 
 an opportunity of disproving that assertion, had he 
 aught to lay to his charge ; but so far was he from 
 even attempting this, that the convictions of his 
 conscience compelled him to acknowledge, " Thou 
 art more righteous than I ; for thou hast rewarded 
 me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil." 1 
 Sam. xxiv. 12, 17. Thus, his greatest enemy himself 
 being judge, he is declared to be an innocent man. 
 In times of affliction arising from a sense of 
 injury from others, how immense is the value of "a 
 good conscience !" It is this that gives freedom to 
 the soul in imploring the help of the great judge ; 
 whereas the consciousness of guilt produces shame, 
 constraint, distance; the soul is darkened, and 
 prayers are hindered. Oh, how free was David, 
 though so greatly distressed, to pour out his com- 
 plaint before God, knowing that his cause was just !
 
 A PRESERVATIVE FROM EVIL. 183 
 
 " For thou art the God of my strength. "Why dost 
 thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of 
 the oppression of the enemy ?" Unfettered by the 
 burden of guilt, he is thus free to expostulate with 
 his God. As though he had said ' My cause 
 thou knowest is a righteous one, and I have left it 
 all with thee. I have not sought to the creature 
 for help, but to thee only have I looked for deliver- 
 ance, for thou art the God of my strength. Oh, 
 why then dost thou delay as though thou hadst cast 
 me off? Why dost thou suffer me still to go 
 mourning because of the oppression of the enemy ? 
 judge me, O God, and plead my cause, and deliv- 
 er me.' 
 
 Had David not possessed those right views of the 
 divine character, had he not had faith in God in 
 this respect, and had he not been enabled wholly to 
 refer his cause to his just arbitration ; he would 
 have been tempted by his great distresses, to seek 
 relief in some forbidden way, or to use some unlaw- 
 ful means for his deliverance. But his trust in God 
 preserved him in steadfastness in the hour of temp- 
 tation. 
 
 So, " Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an 
 example, that we should follow his steps ; who did 
 no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth : who 
 when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he 
 suffered, he threatened not ; but committed himself 
 to him that judgeth righteously." This blessed 
 example his faithful servants were enabled to copy.
 
 184 CONTEMPLATION. 
 
 " Being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, we 
 suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat." They had 
 an eye to the throne of judgment and committed 
 the keeping of their souls to God in well-doing. 
 1 Pet. iv. 9. Hence the dignified calm of the 
 apostle, when falsely aspersed "But with me it is 
 a very small thing that I should be judged of man's 
 judgment : He that judgeth me is the Lord." 
 The soul that can commit its cause into his hands, 
 and rest in his judgment, will possess a peace of 
 which his enemies can never deprive him. God is 
 his strength; his heart is fixed, trusting in the 
 Lord. Though, like David, he may be grieved 
 and agitated for a while, his confidence in his 
 righteous judge shall be as an anchor to his soul, 
 and shall enable him to outride the storm and 
 return into the haven of rest. 
 
 CONTEMPLATION. 
 
 SWEET and blessed are those hours of retirement 
 when the soul is free from the burden of guilt, and, 
 drawing near to God, can lift up its face before his 
 heavenly throne. Whatever it may suffer from a 
 sense of the injustice and unkindness of enemies ; 
 to know that its cause is good, and to be able con- 
 fidently to commit it into the hands of the righteous 
 judge, this makes amends for all. Oh that, if in- 
 jured by men, I may ever enjoy such confidence 
 towards God !
 
 CONTEMPLATION. 185 
 
 Yet I feel that however clear as to man ; as to 
 God, I am still a sinner. When I consider all my 
 unvvorthiness in his holy sight, the meanness of my 
 best services, the weaknesses, and wanderings, and 
 defilements that have attended even my religious 
 duties ; how little I have improved my opportuni- 
 ties of doing and getting good, how often through 
 negligence or earthly-mindedness I have lost, or 
 nearly lost all the benefit of sabbaths and of sab- 
 bath-ordinances ; I am compelled to say, " Enter 
 not into judgment with thy servant," O Lord. 
 
 But what a mercy is it that I can still call myself 
 his servant; knowing that I heartily acknowledge 
 and submit to him as my master, that I love his 
 commandments, and that I w r ould not exchange his 
 service for a world of gold ! True, my obedience 
 is mingled with many infirmities, and stained with 
 many corruptions ; but I allow them not, the law 
 that condemns me I consent unto, as holy, just and 
 good, yea, I delight in it after the inward man, 
 coming freely to its light that my deeds may be re- 
 proved. Surely then I may take comfort from those 
 heart-healing words, " If we walk in the light as he 
 is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, 
 and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
 from all sin." O blessed and most suitable provi- 
 sion for the relief of wounded souls ! I feel its 
 value and its power ; for " having boldness to enter 
 into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new 
 and living way which he hath consecrated for us,
 
 186 CONTEMPLATION. 
 
 through the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; and hav- 
 ing a high priest over the house of God ; I can draw 
 near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, 
 having my heart sprinkled from an evil conscience." 
 
 How wonderful is the power and goodness of 
 God in supporting his people through all their 
 trials ! He is their stay even when they themselves 
 are unconscious of it and deem themselves forsaken. 
 It was so with David. Through the weakness of 
 nature, and the hindrance of sorrow and fear, acting 
 on a mind renewed but in part, he again falls into 
 the doubting and gloomy strain, saying " why dost 
 thou cast me off! " Yet at the very same time he 
 says also, " Thou art the God of my strength :" in 
 which words are contained more than he himself 
 seemed at that moment to have been aware of; for 
 while he then mourned and expostulated, God was 
 present to support him ; of which his addressing 
 himself to God alone, and thus cleaving to him in 
 his distress, was a certain evidence. How should 
 that God who then upheld him, at the same time 
 have cast him off? But this was his infirmity. 
 
 May I be instructed by the lesson which it 
 teaches ; and especially now, under my present de- 
 privation, let me not deem myself forsaken, but, 
 though low in spirit, let me regard the sense of 
 dependence on God, and the disposition to seek 
 my help in him only, which I now feel, as good 
 signs that he is still with me. Let me beware of 
 measuring the degree of God's favour towards me
 
 CONTEMPLATION. 187 
 
 by the sensible comfort which I feel. There may 
 be true divine support where there is no joy ; for 
 God is still the strength of his people even while 
 they " go mourning because of the oppression of 
 the enemy." And far better is it for me that I 
 should be abased in my own eyes, emptied of self, 
 feel my dependence on God and my great need of 
 his help, and breathe after his holy presence, than 
 that I should be lifted up by sensible enjoyments 
 to a forgetfulness of my weakness and depravity. 
 
 GOD is MY STRENGTH. Oh that I may under- 
 stand and feel this truth more and more ! May 
 the present dispensation, by which he withdraws 
 me so much from creature-helps, be sanctified to 
 that end. Ah ! I have reason to know how much 
 I have often been deceived in this matter. I have 
 thought that I was strong when I was only weak. 
 I was strong in plentiful means and ordinances, in 
 pleasant intercourse with Christian friends, in a 
 faithful and affectionate ministry of the word ; but 
 I was not "strong IN THE LORD." Eph. vi. 10. 
 And this I have found to my grief, when these 
 props have been taken away, for then I have sunk 
 miserably low, and seemed as one that was deso- 
 late, when left to God alone. Poor soul ; How 
 hast thou cheated thyself! The means themselves 
 were good, but they were misused ; for I did not 
 always sufficiently remember that they were but 
 means, and could avail me nothing any farther than 
 as they led me to GOD HIMSELF.
 
 188 CONTEMPLATION. 
 
 GOD is MY STRENGTH. Then my enemies shall 
 not prevail against me. Though he suffer me for 
 a season to go mourning because of them, they 
 shall never triumph over me ; for greater is he that 
 is for me than all they that be against me. Are 
 they mighty ? He is almighty. Is their opposi- 
 tion lasting ? His strength is everlasting. Are 
 they numerous ? He is the Lord of Hosts ; thou- 
 sands of thousands " who excel in might," wait 
 on his command and speed at his bidding. And 
 " are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to 
 minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" 
 
 Yes, it is so. But these glorious truths I am 
 prone to lose sight of, when disappointments 
 occur, when hindrances thicken in my path, and my 
 mind is agitated or dejected. And so it seems 
 to have been with David, whose words intimate, 
 1 How is it that thou who art my strength, shouldst 
 thus leave me in the time of grief and peril ? ' Had 
 an answer been returned in words, surely it would 
 have been to this purport, * That thou mayest the 
 more deeply feel thy infirmity, and know me to be 
 thy strength.' 
 
 To this end was given to Paul the " thorn in the 
 flesh," for, after beseeching the Lord Jesus thrice 
 that it might depart from him, he was answered, 
 " My strength is made perfect in weakness." 
 Whence the Apostle takes occasion to say, " Most 
 gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmi- 
 ties, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
 
 CONTEMPLATION. 189 
 
 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in re- 
 proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in dis- 
 tresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, 
 then am I strong." O wondrous provision of grace 
 for every time of need, treasured up in him from 
 whose fulness all his people receive ! Notwith- 
 standing the power and the number of their ene- 
 mies, the glorying Apostle might well ask, " Who 
 shall separate us from the love of Christ ? " And 
 he might well affirm, " I can do all things through 
 Christ who strengtheneth me." 
 
 Almighty Saviour ! Though sinful and helpless 
 in myself, in thee "have I righteousness and 
 strength." Make perfect thy strength in my weak- 
 ness. It is promised that they who wait on thee 
 shall renew their strength ; O Lord, / wait : let 
 me never be confounded. Enable me to overcome 
 all obstacles. " Strengthened with might by thy 
 spirit in the inner-man," may I obtain the victory, 
 to the glory of thy name. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 JUDGE me, O righteous Lord, 
 And plead my injured cause; 
 For ever just is thine award, 
 And equal all thy laws. 
 
 Thou friend of the distressed, 
 Thou guardian of the poor, 
 By cruel enemies oppressed, 
 Thy judgment I implore. 
 R
 
 190 HYMN. 
 
 O save me from the scoff, 
 The insult of the foe. 
 Why do I seem as one cast off, 
 And ever mourning go ? 
 
 My foes, O God, are thine, 
 Ungodly and unjust : 
 Thou wilt not then to shame consign 
 An injured servant's trust. 
 
 No, I will still confide, 
 For thou art still my strength ; 
 And though thou seemest now to chide, 
 Yet thou wilt smile at length. 
 
 Come then and set me free ; 
 O, hasten, Lord, to prove 
 Thy power, thy truth, thy constancy, 
 Thy everlasting love.
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 INTERCESSION. 
 
 O send out thy light and thy truth ; let them 
 lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and 
 to thy tabernacles* Then will I go unto the altar 
 of God, unto God my exceeding joy : yea upon 
 the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God. 
 
 PSALM xliii. 3, 4. 
 
 THEY WHO RIGHTLY APPRECIATE SPIRITUAL PRIVILEGES 
 
 WILL REGARD THEM AS TOKENS OF THE GRACE AND 
 
 FAITHFULNESS OF GOD, AND AS SUCH WILL SEEK THEM 
 AGAIN, WHEN DEPRIVED OF THEM. 
 
 _L HE strong desire of the Psalmist to be restored 
 to the privileges of public worship, is necessarily 
 implied in several of his expressions in the former 
 Psalm ; but here it is explicitly and particularly 
 declared, and that in the language of earnest, fer- 
 vent prayer. In this single desire, all others, 
 whether inferior or even different, seem to have 
 been forgotten ; so that the breathing of his heart 
 was now what he describes it to have been on ano- 
 ther occasion, when he says, " ONE THING have I 
 desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I 
 may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of 
 my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to 
 enquire in his temple." The advantages and en- 
 joyments of home and of friendship, and a restora-
 
 192 THE HOUSE OF GOD 
 
 tion to former honours and comforts, were, doubt- 
 less, as nothing in his view, in comparison with this 
 greatly valued and desired privilege. Still do his 
 heart's warmest affections turn to the holy hill and 
 to the tabernacles of his God. 
 
 The plural, tabernacles, for the one tabernacle, 
 is several times used, in allusion to its different 
 compartments, or to the two grand divisions which 
 the Apostle calls the first and the second taber- 
 nacle. See Heb. ix. 2, 3. Thus the beginning of 
 the 84th Psalm, " How amiable are thy taber- 
 nacles, O Lord of Hosts ! My soul longeth, yea 
 even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." See 
 also Psalm xlvi. 4. and cxxxii. 7. 
 
 The tabernacle was then at Gibeon, and also the 
 altar, which is here mentioned. See 1 Chron. xxi. 
 29. But the ark still remained in " the house of 
 Abinadab in the hill," (1 Sam. vii. 1.) whence it 
 was a " holy hill," consecrated by the presence of 
 the ark, set apart from a common use to the wor- 
 ship of God. During all the time of David, 
 owing to various circumstances, the ark and the 
 altar were in separate places ; but as they were both 
 of divine appointment, no doubt he worshipped 
 sometimes at the one place and sometimes at the 
 other, as opportunity was afforded. Hence, to be 
 restored to both, was now the object of his ardent 
 desire and prayer. 
 
 " O SEN 7 D OUT THY LIGHT AND THY TRUTH ;" that 
 
 is, Manifest again thy favour and thy faithfulness.
 
 AND ITS PRIVILEGES DESIRED. 193 
 
 In his present destitute and melancholy condition 
 he seemed as one to whom God had ceased to be 
 gracious. He was in darkness ; and therefore he 
 prays that God would send out his light, his fa- 
 vour, the light of his countenance, his approving 
 smiles. That light he had heretofore enjoyed and 
 was led to hope for it again, by the divine promise; 
 therefore he begs that God, in the bestowing it 
 again, would manifest his truth, his faithfulness to 
 his word ; and that he would do this, by delivering 
 him from his trials, and restoring him to the enjoy- 
 ment of those religious privileges whose loss he 
 chiefly mourned. A passage in another of his 
 Psalms, written, according to the title, " when he 
 fled from Saul in the cave," will illustrate his 
 meaning here. " I will cry unto God most high : 
 unto God that performeth all things for me. He 
 shall send from heaven, and save me from the re- 
 proach of him that would swallow me up. God 
 shall send forth his mercy and his truth." Ps. 
 Ivii. 2, 3. A confidence which he expresses more 
 strongly in the 10th verse, " For thy mercy is great 
 unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds." 
 
 So here, fixing the eye of faith on the divine 
 goodness and faithfulness, he pleads that they may 
 be manifested towards him again, in leading him 
 and bringing him to the holy hill and to the taber- 
 nacle of God. And thus he evidences again, how 
 greatly he prized, how ardently he loved the privi- 
 leges of God's house; for the being restored to 
 
 R2
 
 194 THE MANIFESTATION OF LIFE AND TRUTH. 
 
 them he mentions alone, passing by all other ad- 
 vantages that would result to him from a deliver- 
 ance ; and shews that he should consider the fulfil- 
 ment of his prayer as a signal token of the favour 
 and truth of God. So when the servant of Abra- 
 ham saw the answer to his petition, "he said, 
 blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, 
 who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy 
 and his truth." Doubtless the favour and the 
 faithfulness of God towards his people are in them- 
 selves unchangeable ; but not so the manifestations 
 of them, which are granted or withheld as seemeth 
 good in his sight. When withheld, the faithful 
 soul still believes in them and grounds its plea on 
 them, but it is when they are granted, when pray- 
 ers are heard, desires gratified, hopes realized, it 
 is then that they are specially apprehended and 
 enjoyed. Hence the petition, " send out thy light 
 and thy truth." 
 
 It was of the divine light, or favour, that David 
 was a native of the land of Israel and not of a hea- 
 then country ; that he had had such frequent oppor- 
 tunities of attending on the public ordinances of 
 the true religion, and that it had been his privilege 
 to assist others in the due observance of them ; but 
 especially that those ordinances had been made the 
 means of life and blessing to his soul ; this indeed 
 was "light." But, after having been deprived of 
 them for a long season, and suffered to mourn their 
 loss in deep gloom of mind ; to be restored to them
 
 UNION OF LIFE AND TRUTH. 195 
 
 by God, in remembrance of his word unto his ser- 
 vant, upon which he had caused him to hope ; this 
 would not only be light, but light and truth. 
 
 " LIGHT AND TRUTH !" Delightful and all-com- 
 prehensive words ! They contain all the salvation 
 and all the desire of a believing, confiding soul. 
 But it is only when thus combined ; separated, they 
 are no longer a ground of trust and joy. For, what 
 would favour avail, without faithfulness ? It would 
 be no more than the uncertain friendship of men, 
 who smile to day and reproach to morrow, who 
 make large promises, but do not perform them. 
 Even the " light " which angels and glorified spi- 
 rits enjoy in heaven would be insufficient to banish 
 all fear and to fill them with satisfaction, were it 
 not for their confidence in the " truth " of God. 
 How much more then must this be the case with 
 erring, sinful mortals on earth. When the humble 
 spirit is bowed down under a sense of its utter un- 
 worthiness and innumerable weaknesses and defile- 
 ments, its negligences, follies, and wanderings, 
 what should save from despair but the confidence 
 that he who has been merciful will also be faithful ; 
 that God is truth as well as light, that he hath said 
 " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," that he 
 "cannot lie," and that therefore "his mercy en- 
 dureth for ever." 
 
 On the other hand, truth without light, faithful- 
 ness without grace, would be only the dreadful 
 execution of terrible but just denunciations on the
 
 196 GOD, IN HIS ORDINANCES, 
 
 transgressors of the holy law. " In the day that 
 thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam 
 eat ; and in that day became the subject of sin and 
 death. This was truth, executing judgment. But 
 light arose amid the darkness ; beams of mercy 
 tempered that heavy cloud. The promise of the 
 great deliverer was given ; then faithfulness was 
 enlisted on the side of grace, and became engaged 
 for its bestowment ; " mercy and truth met toge- 
 ther ; righteousness and peace kissed each other." 
 Since then 3 all humble and trusting souls have be- 
 held them united, and have made their union the 
 ground of their confidence and joy. 
 
 The true end of all religious ordinances is, by 
 means of them to hold communion with, and to 
 enjoy, GOD HIMSELF. 
 
 "THEN WILL i GO UNTO THE ALTAR OF GOD." 
 When God shall have granted him the desire of 
 his heart, then will David repair to his beloved 
 house, and there on the altar will he offer the ap- 
 pointed sacrifices for the atonement of his sin ; and 
 for the expression of gratitude, and love, and praise 
 for his deliverance from his enemies, and for his 
 happy return to the sanctuary of the God of his sal- 
 vation. So the writer of the 66th Ps. " I will go 
 into thy house with burnt-offerings : I will pay tliee 
 my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my 
 mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble. I will 
 offer unto thee burnt-sacrifices of failings, with the
 
 MANIFESTED AND ENJOYED. 197 
 
 incense of rams : I will offer bullocks with goats." 
 So also the writer of the 1 16th Ps. " What shall 
 I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards 
 me ? I will take the cup of salvation and call on 
 the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto 
 the Lord, now in the presence of all his people." 
 A happy time is that when the servant of God, who 
 has been deprived of public ordinances, comes forth 
 to enjoy them again. What a tender and delightful 
 sense is then felt, of thankfulness and love ! What 
 a freshness and a power in all the ordinances ; in 
 the word preached, in the prayers offered, in the 
 praises sung ! They seem valuable and delightful 
 in a degree scarcely known before : for their worth, 
 more precious " than gold, yea than much fine 
 gold ; " for the joy they yield, " sweeter than honey, 
 and the honey-comb." But what is it that makes 
 them so ? The presence of God, felt and enjoyed. 
 Without this, the word is a dead letter ; the preach- 
 ing, a mere sound ; the worship, a ceremony that 
 profiteth nothing. 
 
 This David well understood. " Then will I go 
 unto the altar of God, UNTO GOD," God himself. 
 For of what advantage is it to go to the altar, if 
 God be not met there ? Yet many say, " I will go 
 to the altar," who do not say " I will go unto God." 
 They know him not, "their foolish hearts are dark- 
 ened;" "they draw nigh to him with their lips, 
 but their hearts are far from him." How immensely 
 different is the experience of his people who go to
 
 198 DELIGHT IN GOD, 
 
 his ordinances for the purpose of meeting him, with 
 prayer for his presence, with the expectation of it. 
 Though they have not always that communion and 
 refreshment which their souls desire, yet they never 
 go in vain ; the Lord whom they seek is always 
 present, if not to gladden, to humble them; if not 
 to heal their hearts, to break them ; and if not to 
 do for them either of these things, at least to lead 
 them on, hungering for his blessings, or mourning 
 that they do not hunger for them as they would. 
 
 But there are seasons of especial manifestation, 
 of peculiar grace, when, he, who is always their 
 support, becomes also their joy. Such a season was 
 now implored and anticipated by David. " Then," 
 when thy light and thy truth have led me to thy 
 house, " then will I go unto the altar of God, unto 
 God MY EXCEEDING JOY." God was noiv the God 
 of his life, who upheld and protected him, hearing 
 his prayers and preserving him from despondency : 
 but then he would be his joy, his exceeding joy. 
 This restoration to the Lord's house would be so 
 evident an answer to his many supplications, and 
 so signal a mark of the divine favour, as could not 
 but occasion him greatly to rejoice, to rejoice in 
 God. It would be a bright illustration of the di- 
 vine character. The light and truth of God thus 
 sent out, thus conspicuously displayed, would shine 
 with a new lustre, and occasion him, when he be- 
 held it, to rejoice with an unusual and most elevated 
 
 joy-
 
 WITH EXCEEDING JOY. 199 
 
 And it is ever thus with the saints ; their joy in 
 God being always proportioned to the degree of 
 clearness with which they perceive the glory and 
 the loveliness of the divine character. But this is 
 not a cold and abstract perception of the mind ; it 
 is cordial and affectionate, and connected with a 
 delightful consciousness of being personally inter- 
 ested in the favour of this blessed and glorious being. 
 Thus David after speaking of him as his exceeding 
 joy, immediately adds " I will praise thee O God, 
 my God." To rejoice in him on account of his 
 own transcendant excellencies, and on account of a 
 personal interest in his favour, though separable in 
 idea, are blended into one in the devout contempla- 
 tions or worship of the soul. Indeed the spiritual 
 glory and beauty of the divine attributes are per- 
 ceived by none but those who have tasted that the 
 Lord is gracious ; for it is the self-same influence 
 that effects both that perception and that taste. 
 But it is then especially that the soul has clear and 
 delightful views of the character of God and can 
 greatly rejoice in him, when it has received some 
 personal manifestation, or deliverance, or other fa- 
 vour, which is adapted to display and illustrate the 
 divine excellencies : when, as in the case of David, 
 after long mourning, long intercession, and long 
 waiting, light and truth shine forth with uncommon 
 and glorious splendour. Thus the scriptures con- 
 tinually speak of joy in God in connection with a 
 conscious interest in his favour. So the prophet,
 
 200 GOD PRAISED, 
 
 " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall 
 be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with 
 the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with 
 the robe of righteousness." Isa. Ixi. 10. That 
 very grace which bestows salvation unfolds to the 
 eye of the admiring, adoring soul, the holy and the 
 lovely attributes of the God of grace, and hence 
 arises its joy, its exceeding joy. 
 
 The Psalmist's expression is very emphatic, " my 
 exceeding joy," literally, ' the gladness of my joy ;' 
 by which he might intend to intimate that God 
 himself would be the joy of his joy. Happy as he 
 would be in the restored enjoyment of the ordi- 
 nances of religion, and the fellowship of the saints ; 
 yet God himself, seen, felt, adored, in the display 
 of his grace and faithfulness, would constitute the 
 joy of his joy. A noble and elevating sentiment, 
 exhibiting the power, and dignity, and glory of true 
 religion, consisting in a spiritual apprehension and 
 cordial love of the divine character, which, while 
 it raises the soul, fills and satisfies all its wants and 
 desires, and assimilates it to that glorious image 
 which it contemplates, and loves, and rejoices in. 
 
 Certainly it is one of the highest attainments of 
 grace in this life, when the joy of every mercy, 
 every comfort, is chiefly on account of what is seen 
 and felt in it of God ; when he is perceived, acknow- 
 ledged and enjoyed, not only in religious ordinances 
 and services, but also in the common, daily, hourly 
 gifts of his providence. How beautifully is this
 
 APPROPRIATED. 201 
 
 expressed in the lamentations of the church of 
 old ; " His compassions fail not : they are new 
 every morning. Great is thy faithfulness !" Here 
 in the daily bounty still afforded to them in the 
 time of tribulation, the compassions of God are 
 seen in his pitiful remembrance of them in their 
 low estate ; and his faithfulness, in the constancy 
 with which he continued to supply their wants 
 when they were ready to regard themselves as for- 
 saken and forgotten. The having their necessities 
 supplied was itself a comfort, but the zest of it, 
 the joy of that comfort, was their perception of God 
 in it, affording to them new displays of his good- 
 ness and truth. And even when external comforts 
 are almost or entirely withdrawn, the soul may re- 
 ceive such divine supports and consolations, and 
 thus have such views of the power and grace of 
 God, as to be enabled still to be glad in the Lord. 
 " Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither 
 shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive 
 shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the 
 Hock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall 
 be no herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the 
 Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." 
 Hab. iii. 17, 18. 
 
 David next adverts to the praise which he will 
 render. "YEA, I WILL PRAISE THEE, O GOD." 
 The joy of his heart should flow forth on his lips. 
 The excellencies of God now so illustriously mani- 
 fested, his light and his truth, should be the theme 
 s
 
 202 NATURAL GIFTS 
 
 ot his grateful and adoring song. The God who 
 was become his exceeding joy, should also be his 
 triumph and his praise. And to taste again the 
 happiness of this delightful work, and to honour 
 God in it, were, doubtless, especial reasons for his 
 so ardently entreating to be restored to the holy 
 hill and the tabernacle of God. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that the excellent 
 practice of the church of old, so honourable to 
 God, and so edifying to his people, of returning 
 public acknowledgment for mercies received, espe- 
 cially that great mercy of being restored to the 
 privileges of his house ; should be so often neg- 
 lected. The pious female, preserved in the hour 
 of nature's peril, deems it a duty indispensable, 
 publicly to acknowledge the mercy granted ; but 
 what a multitude of other signal mercies are there 
 which call for the like acknowledgment, but which 
 are very commonly passed by in silence. This 
 subject demands the serious consideration of all 
 devout persons who desire to honour God in his 
 ordinances. " Call upon me in the day of trouble ; 
 I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 
 Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me." Ps. 1. 15, 23. 
 
 But that which would peculiarly touch the heart 
 of David and give life and energy to his praise, 
 was the assurance that this God, whose light and 
 truth he celebrated, was his God. " I will praise 
 thee O God, my God." That sweet, appropri- 
 ating term, how he repeats it ! With what delight
 
 CONSECRATED TO GOD. 203 
 
 he seems to return to it again and again ! " My 
 God." Words, powerful to support, console, and 
 assure the mind in the time of sorrow ; but in the 
 time of lifting up, when light shines forth, and truth 
 is manifested, pregnant with the highest joy ! 
 When the soul, encouraged and elevated by some 
 new tokens of the divine favour, can call God its 
 own God, and praise him as such, then, praise is 
 praise indeed : then it partakes something of that 
 which is rendered by the redeemed who see his 
 face in heaven, and know, without the shadow of a 
 doubt, that he, whose love and glory they cele- 
 brate, is theirs for ever. 
 
 "Upon THE HARP will I praise thee." David 
 was eminently fitted by nature as well as grace for 
 the celebration of the divine praise. He was 
 gifted with uncommon endowments of mind and 
 genius. He was a poet, and a musician. But in 
 both characters he was wholly the servant of the 
 Lord. His poetical talent, under the divine direc- 
 tion, was employed in the composition of those 
 beautiful Psalms which have ministered to the 
 edification and comfort of the church in every age 
 since they were written : and his skill in music was 
 equally devoted to the honour of God, whether in 
 his private devotions, or in the public worship. 
 Unlike those wretched panders to pride, and sen- 
 sual pleasure, and impure passions, who use the 
 gifts of God to the dishonour of the giver, and, in 
 their perversion of them, debase and corrupt their
 
 204 NATURAL GIFTS CONSECRATED TO GOD. 
 
 own and others' minds : " the harp and the viol, 
 the tabret and pipe, and wine are in their feasts ; 
 but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither 
 consider the operation of his hands." Isa. v. 12. 
 To glorify God with his body and his spirit, which 
 were God's, was ever the exalted aim of the Psalm- 
 ist in the use which he made of his endowments. 
 " Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and all that is within 
 me" all the faculties of my understanding, all the 
 affections of my heart, every power of mind and 
 genius " bless his holy name." 
 
 To have an ear and a voice for psalmody, and 
 thus to be able to assist in praising God, is indeed 
 a delightful privilege ; and one for which they who 
 possess it and have grace to use it aright, have 
 reason for gratitude to the giver of every good gift. 
 Yet, if any are tempted to regret their want of it, 
 let them remember their advantage in being free 
 from the danger of the awful but common sin of 
 many, who, sing to their own glory, while they 
 profess to sing to the glory of God. Let them 
 remember also that the richest harmony of music 
 and of voices in his worship, is an abomination to 
 God, while there is no offering from the heart. 
 " The true worshippers" saith our Lord, " shall 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for such 
 are the worshippers whom the Father requireth. 
 God is a Spirit, and they who worship him, must 
 worship him in spirit and in truth," or, they, in- 
 deed, worship him not at all ; but must expect to
 
 REFLECTION. 205 
 
 hear from him the indignant enquiry, " Who hath 
 required this at your hand ? " Sounds, inharmo- 
 nious in the ears of worldly taste, yet, arising from 
 the lips of true worshippers, shall be heard with 
 acceptance by him who is infinitely above being 
 moved by that which men call music. And even 
 the silent offering of the soul from those who have 
 not a voice to raise, is vocal to him in whose ears 
 all is discord save "the melody of the heart." 
 
 REFLECTION. 
 
 How admirable and exemplary was the ardent 
 and impassioned love which David bore to the 
 public ordinances of religion ! How greatly does 
 it reprove the coldness and formalism of some, and 
 the lukewarmness and indifference of others. I 
 feel myself reproved by it. Though I trust, through 
 the divine grace, that I know something of the 
 power as well as the form of godliness, I am con- 
 scious that there has been a great difference be- 
 tween my own feelings and those that animated 
 him. 
 
 I have been highly privileged with the opportu- 
 nity of attending on the preaching of the gospel, 
 and of joining with the saints in worship ; have I 
 seen in these mercies the favour of God in bestow- 
 ing them, and his truth in their long continuance ? 
 And now that he has interrupted my enjoyment of 
 s2
 
 206 REFLECTION. 
 
 them, do I so value them, so long after them, so 
 pray for them, as that I should regard their resto- 
 ration to me, as a signal manifestation of the divine 
 goodness and faithfulness? Is the voice of my 
 heart, ( O send out thy light and thy truth, let 
 them lead me, let them bring me to thy house 
 again ? ' Oh, if favoured to return thither, may I 
 clearly perceive the grace and the faithfulness that 
 will lead me ! 
 
 Then shall the God to whom I go become my 
 exceeding joy. Especially will he be so when I 
 consider that " we have an altar whereof they have 
 no right to eat who serve the tabernacle." The 
 altar on which David presented his sacrifices was 
 but the shadow of that which is now come. There 
 needs no more to offer " oftentimes the same sacri- 
 fices which could never take away sins ', " " for by 
 one offering he hath perfected for ever them that 
 are sanctified." In Jesus, altar, sacrifice, and priest, 
 are all united. Precious truth ! Should I be again 
 indulged to approach the table of the Lord, where, 
 "before our eyes Jesus Christ is evidently set 
 forth, crucified amongst us," may I more clearly 
 perceive it, more deeply feel it, and more greatly 
 delight in it. When, in grateful remembrance of 
 his death, I take into my hands " the cup of bless- 
 ing," may the thank-offerings of my heart freely 
 ascend to the Father, acceptable through HIM, and 
 may my soul be glad in his salvation, with a glad- 
 ness far above that which I have known before.
 
 REFLECTION. 207 
 
 The blessed attributes of goodness and faithful- 
 ness which David saw as through a glass darkly, 
 we behold with open face. " The law came by 
 Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ." In 
 his person and work are displayed the glory of the 
 divine name ; all that can invite a sinner's hope, 
 attract his love, or establish his confidence. "And 
 not only so, but we also joy in God, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received 
 the atonement." "Reconciled to God by the 
 death of his Son," we draw nigh to him with filial 
 love, and while we behold his excellencies and his 
 grace towards us, exhibited in Christ, we rejoice 
 in him as our "exceeding joy." Then our mouth 
 is opened to celebrate his name ; then, by our great 
 high priest, we " offer the sacrifice of praise to God 
 continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving 
 thanks to his name." Heb. xiii. 15. 
 
 What a beauty and glory is there in Christian 
 worship when thus contemplated ! Oh, that I 
 prized it more ! What a means of joy, too, when 
 thus engaged in ! Let me consider that. Have I 
 not been too contented to have but little of this joy ? 
 It is not the blessedness of heaven of which the 
 Psalmist speaks, but a joy on earth. Alas ! how 
 little of this have I experienced. How ready have 
 I been to be satisfied with that poor measure of 
 happiness in God which seems to content a multi- 
 tude who profess, but who seem as if but half 
 awakened from the slumbers of a natural condition.
 
 208 REFLECTION. 
 
 How false as well as injurious, is the base-bom 
 notion, that we must wait for this gladness of soul 
 until Christ is beheld in heaven, face to face. Nay, 
 but the holy Apostle saith, and saith it to them 
 who were " in heavines through manifold tempta- 
 tions, " " Whom having not seen, ye love ; in 
 whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 
 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 1 Pet. i. 8. Have not / as much reason to rejoice, 
 and so to rejoice as they ? Is that Saviour in whom 
 they believed and in whom I also believe, less pow- 
 erful, or gracious, or glorious, than in their days / 
 Is the grace which enabled them so to rejoice, 
 straitened, is the fountain no longer full ? Is the 
 Lord less willing to bestow ? Is the promise become 
 of no effect " And I say unto you, ask, and it 
 shall be given you : seek, and ye shall find : knock, 
 and it shall be opened unto you. For every one 
 that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; 
 and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If 
 ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
 your children ; how much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.'" 
 Henceforth let me continually say with the 
 Apostle " THIS ONE THING I do, forgetting those 
 things which are behind, I reach forth unto those 
 things which are before." Henceforth let it be the 
 constant aim of my soul to possess, in increasingly 
 higher degrees, the happiness provided by the gos- 
 pel. In particular, let me earnestly and habitually
 
 REFLECTION. 209 
 
 seek, and expect, in faith, to find, a far greater de- 
 light in the worship of God than I have ever yet 
 experienced. And let me ever bear in recollection 
 the ample foundation for such delight which is fur- 
 nished in the blessed, and glorious excellencies of 
 God, as they are exhibited in Christ, and as they 
 are manifested to my soul in those new displays of 
 them by which I am led and brought " unto God," 
 whether in his public ordinances, or, as now, in my 
 secret retirement. 
 
 May I abound in the work of praise; for in 
 praise it is, especially, that I may expect to delight 
 myself in God ; for then the soul sets itself to re- 
 member, recount, and celebrate the grace and glo- 
 ries of his name. And when thus employed, what 
 should hinder my joying in God, in my God, as 
 " my exceeding joy ? " Nothing, surely, but what 
 is evil and earthly in myself, for in him I am not 
 straitened, but have enough, have all. Tome, then, 
 be the shame ; but to him THE GLORY. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 O SEND thy light, thy truth, my God, 
 Thy grace bestow, thy word fulfil, 
 
 And let them lead me in thy road, 
 And bring me to thy holy hill ; 
 
 Where happy saints, a chosen band, 
 
 Exulting in thy presence stand.
 
 210 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Then to thine altar will 1 go, 
 
 And pay my destined offerings there, 
 
 And freely from my heart shall flow 
 The fervent, interceding prayer 
 
 A prayer effectual, that shall rise 
 
 Accepted through THE SACRIFICE. 
 
 And I will take salvation's cup, 
 And call upon thy blessed name, 
 
 My thankful heart to thee lift up, 
 
 Saviour from death, and guilt, and shame ! 
 
 Restored in mercy to thy house 
 
 To render all my grateful vows. 
 
 There in thy truth will I rejoice, 
 And hymn thy goodness in my lays, 
 
 And mind, and heart, and soul, and voice, 
 Shall join to magnify thy praise, 
 
 And triumph in the blest employ, 
 
 My God, and my exceeding joy !
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 CONQUEST. 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and ichij 
 art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, 
 for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my 
 countenance, and my God. 
 
 PSALM xliii. 5. 
 
 THE SOUL IS A BEING OF WONDROUS FACULTIES, REFLECT- 
 ING THE GLORIOUS WISDOM AND SKILL OF ITS CREATOR. 
 
 J_ HE Psalmist's return to expostulation, while it 
 affords a melancholy proof of the deeply injured 
 state into which the soul has fallen, shews, at the 
 same time, that it is still capable of high things, 
 and is still the noblest of the works of God in this 
 lower world. How wonderful are its intellectual 
 faculties ! It can survey all the ideas of things 
 which it obtains by means of the senses, and com- 
 pare, and distinguish, and pass judgment on them. 
 It can perceive and detect the illusions to which it 
 is liable from impressions made by external objects. 
 Nay, of things beyond the sphere of sense, things 
 morally beautiful or deformed, good or evil, it can 
 take cognizance, and from its judgment. It can 
 look in upon itself, as the Psalmist here, and ob- 
 serve all that passes within ; its own movements, 
 workings, and inclinations. It can present to itself 
 reasons, motives, arguments ; can ponder or deter- 
 mine concerning them, approve or reject them.
 
 212 NOBLE ENDOWMENTS 
 
 By its power of imagining things absent from 
 the senses, or that have even never been beheld, it 
 can rise above terrestrial objects, and penetrate 
 into worlds unseen ; whence it is capable of being 
 influenced by the principle of faith, which is op- 
 posed to sight ; as David here apprehends the pre- 
 sence and the protection of "Him who is invisible." 
 By this power, also, it can recal the past, and bid 
 its scenes pass in review beneath its eye ; as David 
 does the house of God, the holy day, the multitude 
 with whom he kept it, and their voice of joy and 
 praise. Moreover, it can anticipate the future, and 
 realize the things that are not, as though they were. 
 So David realizes the expected deliverance, the 
 praise that he shall render, and the happiness that 
 he shall enjoy. 
 
 But how admirable also are the passions and 
 affections of the soul : love and aversion, fear and 
 hope, grief and joy. And what an exquisitely 
 beautiful specimen of them do these Psalms exhi- 
 bit ! What alternations, rising and falling by turns, 
 conflicting or at rest ; the one appearing while the 
 other recedes, or the one yielding to the victorious 
 efforts of the other. Possessed of these passions 
 and affections, its noble endowments, the soul of 
 David was capable of love of that which is good ; 
 hatred of that which is evil ; fear of danger ; hope 
 of deliverance ; grief for sin, or trouble the effect 
 of sin ; and joy in God, the God of his salvation. 
 
 READER, thou hast such a soul. Pause and re-
 
 OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 213 
 
 fleet on its marvellous, admirable powers, bearing 
 on them an image of the divine intelligence, until 
 thou art constrained to say " I am fearfully and 
 \vonderfully made." Add also the thought of its 
 immortal nature, its high destination, the happiness 
 and honour of which it is capable; and, remember- 
 ing the price at which it has been redeemed, while 
 you adore the Redeemer, forget not to render unto 
 the CREATOR also, the glory due unto his name. 
 
 It is the privilege, as well as duty, of a rational 
 being much more of a Christian to hold converse 
 with his own soul. 
 
 That man is possessed of a soul capable of self- 
 reflection, is his dignity as a rational being : and, 
 as it is by this endowment especially that he is 
 distinguished from the lower creation, it is his privi- 
 lege and his glory to use it for the purpose for 
 which it was given. The Psalmist evidently con- 
 sidered it to be so. He was accustomed to look 
 within, to acquaint himself with the capacities of 
 his soul, to consider the end for which they were 
 bestowed, and to use them in accordance with that 
 end. He who does not this, voluntarily degrades 
 himself, and makes a descent towards the inferior, 
 unreasoning animals. And yet, this voluntary de- 
 gradation is common to mankind at large. The 
 most cursory survey of their dispositions and pur- 
 suits may collect the proof of this. To provide for 
 the wants or gratifications of the bodily appetites,
 
 214 SENSUALITY OF MANKIND. 
 
 for indulgences in sensual pleasures, is their all- 
 absorbing care. To reflect on the powers of the 
 soul with which God has endowed them, and to 
 consider for what end they are thus gifted, is an 
 employment for which they have no inclination, and 
 about which they have scarcely ever, if ever, a 
 thought. Thus, as far as in them lies, they come 
 down from their high scale of being, and assimilate 
 themselves to the brute creation ; living only for the 
 body and for the present world, the slaves of animal 
 passion, regardless of their noble capacities, and of 
 a life to come. 
 
 The admonitory sentence, ' Know thyself, ' was 
 so highly esteemed among the philosophers of the 
 heathen that they were accustomed to ascribe its 
 origin to the gods. And some of them, retiring 
 from the lower pursuits and grosser pleasures of the 
 multitude, set themselves to look within and to 
 contemplate the capacities of the soul. In this study 
 some few of them made surprising progress. But, 
 ignorant of sin, ignorant of God, they perceived 
 not the ruin into which the soul was fallen, or very 
 faintly perceived it, and hence their discoveries 
 served but to inflate them with mental pride. They 
 were " vain in their imaginations, and their fool- 
 ish heart was darkened ; professing themselves to 
 be wise, they became fools." Yet the industrious 
 search which they made into the powers and endow- 
 ments of the mind was worthy of rational and intel- 
 ligent beings, and may well put to shame the indif-
 
 HEATHEN PHILOSOPHERS. 215 
 
 ference and indolence of those who call themselves 
 Christians, and who, with the light of revelation to 
 guide them and the promise of the Holy Spirit, are 
 furnished with the amplest means of arriving to a 
 right knowledge of themselves. 
 
 " Know ye not your own selves ? " exclaims the 
 Apostle, with indignant surprise. He that is ig- 
 norant of himself, knows not what God has made 
 him ; nor does he know the end of his creation, 
 nor how he has fallen short of it, nor how he may 
 be restored. Such persons dream rather than live; 
 they are intoxicated rather than in their sober sen- 
 ses ; and the very commencement of the life which 
 alone is worthy of an intelligent and an immortal 
 being, is the awaking from that besotted state, to a 
 solemn reflection on their true condition. So our 
 Lord describes the change of mind which took place 
 in the prodigal, " he came to himself." Hitherto 
 he had been " beside himself." His conduct had 
 been opposed not only to wisdom and religion, but 
 also to conscience and to reason. His life, as is 
 the life of thousands, was nearly assimilated to that 
 of brute animals, who follow the guidance of pas- 
 sion, without any reflection on themselves, or their 
 condition. But when restored, it was by means 
 of thought; consideration arousing him from the 
 drunkenness of passion and sin, and leading him to 
 a penitent and abasing view of the past, to hopes of 
 forgiveness and of restoration, and to a return to 
 his injured but merciful parent.
 
 216 SELF-EXAMINATION A DUTY 
 
 And as a life of true religion begins, so must it 
 be carried on in the way of habitual, diligent self- 
 enquiry. He that would walk worthy of his high 
 vocation must hold frequent communion with him- 
 self; he must look in upon his soul and mark what 
 passes there; for in this way only can he know how 
 it is with him, so as to " pray with the understand- 
 ing," to watch against and resist temptation, to 
 avoid danger, and prevent declension. The ear 
 must ever be open to the divine injunctions, " Ex- 
 amine yourselves : Prove your own selves." For 
 they who do not regard them, will either backslide 
 into disgraceful sin, or will sink into a state of for- 
 mal profession, having a name that they live while 
 they are dead. " All are not Israel, that are of 
 Israel." And God will eventually treat as his 
 enemies those who profess his name, but neglect 
 the means of his appointment in direct disobedience 
 to his express commands. 
 
 But to hold converse with his soul is the privilege 
 of the humble, earnest, spiritually-minded Christian. 
 If he sees that which abases him and makes him 
 sorrowful, he sees also that which confirms his faith, 
 enlivens his hope, and enlarges his love and joy. 
 Who shall tell his adoring wonder, when he traces 
 within him the marks of the divine hand, the new 
 creation, the workmanship of God ; when he con- 
 templates the admirable power and skill with which 
 the wojk of grace is carried on, " the inward man 
 renewed day by day ; " and when he anticipates
 
 AND A PRIVELEGE. 217 
 
 the time of perfection, " the glory which shall be 
 revealed in" him, a glory on which his soul, then 
 ransomed from death, the flesh, and sin, shall gaze 
 and gaze, with still increasing admiration and ever- 
 new delight ! 
 
 The varied conflicts of the soul afford occasion 
 for the exercise of the graces, and thus, through 
 the divine wisdom and goodness, are made the 
 means of eventual good. 
 
 " The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 temperance." The exercise of these and other 
 graces of the Holy Spirit tends greatly to the be- 
 liever's advancement in holiness and happiness, 
 and, consequently, to the glory of God. Hence, 
 as it is certain that God, in all his dealings with 
 his people, intends the promotion of his own honour 
 and of their benefit ; it might safely be taken for 
 granted, previously to the consideration of the fact, 
 that he would so order the events and circumstances 
 of their lives as to give occasion for the exercise of 
 those holy dispositions by means of which these two 
 great ends are accomplished. Viewed in this light, 
 the conflicts which the Christian is often called to 
 endure, are seen with a new and bright aspect, so 
 that they are even enjoined not to despond on ac- 
 count of them, but rather to be glad. " My breth- 
 ren," writes the Apostle James, " count it all joy 
 when ye fall into divers temptations ; knowing this, .
 
 218 THE GRACES PROMOTED 
 
 that the trying of your faith worketh patience." In 
 like manner writes the Apostle Peter, "Wherein ye 
 greatly rejoice, though now for a season, (if need 
 be,) ye are in heaviness through manifold tempta- 
 tions ; that the trial of your faith, being much more 
 precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be 
 tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and 
 honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 
 So their " beloved brother Paul also, according to 
 the wisdom given unto him, hath written," in his 
 epistle to the Romans. " And not only so, but we 
 glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation 
 worketh patience ; and patience, experience ; and 
 experience, hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed, 
 because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
 hearts, by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." 
 
 Of the truth contained in these important decla- 
 rations of scripture, the experience of David, as it 
 is delineated in these Psalms, is a most instructive 
 illustration. Almost all those dispositions which 
 the Apostles in the above passages have noted as 
 the genuine fruit of divine influence, are here exhi- 
 bited, and that too with remarkable life and vigour. 
 A review of them, as they appear in succession, 
 will, it may be trusted, be edifying and delightful. 
 
 A right knowledge of God, such as assimilates 
 those who possess it to the divine likeness, is an 
 essential characteristic of the true saint. For such, 
 says the Apostle " have put on the new man, which 
 is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him
 
 BY MEAN'S OF TRIALS. 219 
 
 that created him." Now, deep conflict of soul is a 
 test for him that is tried, and will prove whether he 
 possesses this genuine knowledge or not ; and if he 
 possesses it, will afford occasion for its exercise and 
 increase. See this in David ; he had professed to 
 know God before, but now he proves that he knows 
 him indeed, knows him as the living God, the life 
 of his soul, his support and refuge. And here is seen 
 the advantage resulting from his conflict, in obliging 
 him to bring his knowledge of God to the proof, to 
 make a practical use of it, in betaking himself to 
 him for shelter and aid. Arid in this way his know- 
 ledge of God was increased also. By thus draw- 
 ing nigh to him, and pleading with him, and resting 
 on him, and receiving from him, he probably learned 
 more of God, his character and his ways, in a short 
 time, than he had done all his life before, when in 
 untroubled circumstances. 
 
 Holy DESIRE after God, known and experienced 
 as the chief good, was thus remarkably brought 
 into exercise during' this trial of David's. His in- 
 tense longing, thirsting after the light and comfort 
 of the divine presence, was, doubtless, far beyond 
 what he had been wont to experience in ordinary, 
 peaceful times. Never, probably, before, had he 
 felt so deep a conviction of the inestimable value of 
 the divine favour, nor of the absolute necessity of 
 some sense of it in order to the support, and happi- 
 ness, and prosperity of his soul. 
 
 His tribulation gave rise also to godly MOURN-
 
 220 GODLY MOURNING. 
 
 ING. Mourning on his own account ; that he should 
 suffer the deprivation of religious privileges, and of 
 God's refreshing presence ; and, especially, that he 
 should be a sharer in that natural defilement, and 
 those actual sins, which rendered his chastisement 
 necessary. On account of others also lie mourned. 
 He " beheld the transgressors and was grieved : " 
 grieved for themselves, for their baseness and ma- 
 lignity, which, while they were the cause of sorrow 
 to him, were far more injurious to themselves, in 
 destroying their own peace through the indulgence 
 of evil, turbulent passions ; in farther darkening 
 their minds and hardening their hearts ; in increas- 
 ing their guilt and condemnation ; and in pro- 
 voking the anger of God. Now, the exercise of 
 this godly mourning must have been very healthful 
 and beneficial in its effects on the mind of David ; 
 but without the trial it would not have been called 
 forth. 
 
 When the soul is in a thriving state, there is a 
 lively sense of the value of religious ordinances and 
 spiritual privileges ; and a grateful and adoring 
 sense of the goodness of God in bestowing and 
 continuing them. But there is too often a sad de- 
 ficiency in this respect. Many professors come to 
 the provisions of God's house with feelings little 
 short of indifference, and some, it is to be feared, 
 with a state of mind not far removed from surfeit. 
 How far this had at any time, or in any measure, 
 been the case with David, we cannot know ; but
 
 RETROSPECTION. 221 
 
 this is certain, that the dispositions of heart which 
 were brought into exercise by his trying deprivation, 
 when he cast the sad eye of RETROSPECTION on the 
 past, were highly adapted to promote the welfare 
 of his soul. For, by this review, he was led to per- 
 ceive, as in a new light, the great value of divine 
 institutions, and the great disadvantage of being 
 deprived of them ; and to lament them as his chief 
 loss. Must he not also have remembered, in this 
 review, all his past negligences and failures con- 
 cerning them, the sins of his holy duties ? And 
 must not the remembrance of them have given rise 
 to that holy lamentation and self-abasement; and 
 to those holy resolutions of amendment, through 
 the divine aid, which conduce so highly to growth 
 in grace, and to the lively, vigorous, and perse- 
 vering practice of the commands of God respecting 
 the right observance of his worship and of all his 
 sacred institutions ? 
 
 In order to a right knowledge of the infinite va- 
 lue of that remedy which God has provided for 
 ruined men, and that sincere and earnest applica- 
 tion for it may be made to him ; there is necessary, 
 a deep,experimental conviction of the soul's natural 
 depravity and weakness ; but that conviction is ob- 
 tained only in the school of CONFLICT. There Da- 
 vid learned it. They were happy days when he 
 went with the multitude to the house of God with 
 the voice of joy and praise; but who, that knows 
 any thing of his own heart, can doubt that he was
 
 222 CONFLICT, ANTICIPATION. 
 
 then comparatively ignorant of those lessons which 
 he was afterwards taught, when his soul was cast 
 down within him. Then he learned his helplessness, 
 when all his reasoning, and chiding, and remon- 
 strances with his soul were not sufficient to quell 
 the tumult. And probably the discovery that was 
 then made to him tended very considerably to in- 
 crease his depression. But still the knowledge of 
 himself which he then acquired was highly valuable ; 
 and though acquired in so painful a way, was most 
 salutary in the end, leading him to the balm in 
 Gilead, and to the physician there. 
 
 The spiritual benefit of which this great trial was 
 the occasion to David, was farther, and still more 
 remarkably, shown, by the confident ANTICIPATION 
 which he was enabled to entertain, even while deep 
 was calling unto deep and the waves of trouble 
 were rolling over him, that God would yet com- 
 mand his loving-kindness for him. His looking 
 away from all instruments to him who was unseen, 
 from the reproach of his enemies to the hand of 
 God, acknowledging the heavy billows of his afflic- 
 tion to be of divine ordering; and, while he keenly 
 felt the trial, his looking forward to a happy season, 
 which he believed assuredly would come, when 
 praise and prayer should be his constant and de- 
 lightful employment; this was a state of soul as 
 honourable to God, as it was beneficial to himself, 
 and such as not only would not, but could not have 
 been exercised, except in the time of great tribu- 
 lation.
 
 EXPOSTULATION. 223 
 
 And how near to God was David driven by this 
 trial, when, notwithstanding he felt as one " for- 
 gotten," he was free to draw nigh to him with the 
 voice of EXPOSTULATION. Nearness of access to 
 the throne of grace : most precious and enviable 
 privilege ! How few, even of them who are called 
 by his name, either possess it, or understand its 
 worth. And how much mistake there is respecting 
 it. Lively feelings and fluent words are no certain 
 signs of a near approach ; they are often merely na- 
 tural, and are usually most enjoyed by some, when 
 things go prosperously. But in deepest sorrow, 
 when seemingly forsaken, when all around and all 
 within looks dark ; should the soul still betake itself 
 to God as its rock, with a subdued mind, a broken 
 spirit, uttering its feeble uninterrupted petitions and 
 pleadings, this is to draw nigh ; Oh, how nigh ! 
 Such was the approach of David at this time ; the 
 fruit of sanctified tribulation. 
 
 Yet still his soul is cast down, still it is dis- 
 quieted within him : neither his remonstrances with 
 himself, nor the hope of happier days, nor prayer 
 to the God of his life, have availed to calm the tu- 
 mult. What a time of temptation was this. How 
 opportunely now did the enemy suggest, " Where 
 is thy God;" and how favourable a time for ad- 
 ding, ' " What profit " is there in praying to 
 him ? ' But no ; grace survives, resists, overcomes. 
 Faith realizes his interest in covenant favour ; ( He 
 is my God.' Hence RELIANCE, " I shall yet praise
 
 224 RELIANCE APPEAL. 
 
 him, who is the health of my countenance." This 
 was trust indeed ! Can it be supposed that David 
 ever exercised such in the time of ease and com- 
 fort ? Surely never. Behold then how "tribula- 
 tion worketh patience, and patience experience, and 
 experience hope," that hope which " maketh not 
 ashamed ;" as the false, delusive hope of the self- 
 righteous, the wordling, the hypocrite, and the 
 painted professor will. 
 
 But David w r as hated and pursued by a deceitful 
 and unjust man, and by an ungodly people. Now 
 then occurred the opportunity for knowing by expe- 
 rience the value of having a just cause, a good con- 
 science, and above all, a righteous judge to whom 
 he may make his APPEAL. He had before known 
 God in the sublime and awful character of Judge 
 of all the earth, and in the lovely and attractive one 
 of defender of his innocent and oppressed people ; 
 but he knew him thus, only, as it were, " by the 
 hearing of the ear :" but now his eye saw him ; 
 faith realized him on the judgment -seat ; and he 
 drew near to present his cause, and to beg for help 
 and deliverance. There was a time when he was 
 high in favour, smiled on and courted by all, his 
 exploits celebrated in the songs of Israel. But 
 surely he had not then such vivid perceptions of 
 God as the righteous judge and almighty defender, 
 as now he had. The soul must first suffer from 
 oppression or injury, and feel its need of that judge 
 and of that helper, before it can realize him in those
 
 INTERCESSION ALSO THE FRUIT OF TRIAL. 225 
 
 characters as David now did : for it is such a tri- 
 bulation that worketh such an experience. 
 
 But there are yet more delightful views of the 
 divine character to be taken. There are other 
 attributes of his name still more encouraging and 
 consoling to a troubled soul; mercy and truth. 
 Faith fixes its eye on these, and prompts the fer- 
 vent INTERCESSION, " O send out thy light and thy 
 truth." And what would he that mercy and truth 
 shall perform for him ? Shall they restore him to 
 civil honours, to the favour and the praise of man ; 
 shall they lead him to the royal palace, shall they 
 bring him to the throne of Israel ? No, no ; " let 
 them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill 
 and to thy tabernacles." And then, when this 
 should be accomplished, that God whose name he 
 had served, whose institutions he had kept, whose 
 worship he had loved, and whom he had before 
 enjoyed in these, would become his "exceeding 
 joy ; " having now known him, by deep experience 
 in the hour of trial, to be indeed the God of his 
 life, the God of his strength, his rock, defender, 
 and deliverer, in a way that incomparably surpassed 
 all his former knowledge and all his former expe- 
 rience. If a right judgment may be formed of the 
 state of a man's soul from the things that he desires 
 and the prayers that he offers ; how favourable a 
 judgment must be passed on David's spiritual state 
 at this time. The things that he desires and prays 
 for, are not wealth, nor honour, nor influence, nor
 
 226 INTERCESSION ALSO THE FRUIT OF TRIAL. 
 
 even earthly comforts, but they are spiritual things, 
 divine blessings, God himself, enjoyed in his house, 
 in his ordinances ; for which he longs with an ap- 
 petite intensely sharpened by his lengthened absti- 
 nence. Behold again the fruit of sanctified trial ; 
 tribulation wrought also this experience. 
 
 And now that faith has so greatly prevailed and 
 has prompted such free and ardent interceding, 
 surely now the tumult must be hushed and the con- 
 flict ended. But what means the again repeated 
 expostulation, " Why art thou so heavy O my soul? " 
 It is only the last heaving of the waves when just 
 about to subside into rest ; as the ocean continues 
 to rock awhile, even after the storm is spent, and 
 the winds are still. Yes, the conflict is ended. 
 Sorrow, and fear, and doubt, have all been contend- 
 ing, and with long perseverance, against faith alone; 
 but she has resisted them all, she has overcome 
 them all, she has silenced them all ; affirming, with 
 a last, triumphant word, " I shall yet praise him, 
 who is the health of my countenance, and my God." 
 Here then is CONQUEST. " This is the victory that 
 overcometh the world, even our faith." Glory, 
 thanksgiving, and honour, and praise, be unto " the 
 author and finisher of our faith ! " 
 
 What devout mind can now survey this record of 
 David's experience, wrought in the school of tribu- 
 lation, and not admire and adore the power, and 
 wisdom, and goodness, which made that tribulation 
 effectual to so blessed an end ? Who does not now
 
 CONQUEST. 227 
 
 perceive a deeper and a fuller meaning in the de- 
 claration that " the trial of our faith is much more 
 precious than of gold that perisheth ? " Who does 
 not now feel that for some, at least, it is a warrant- 
 able boast, " we glory in tribulations ? " 
 
 The believer's conflicts and trials in this life, 
 and especially his deprivation of sabbath-ordi- 
 nances, should lead him to look away to that rest 
 which remains for the people of God. 
 
 It is certain that God could lead his people 
 through the present world in the way of continual 
 peacefulness and comfort ; he could prevent all sor- 
 rows and all conflicts whatever : but it is equally 
 certain that such is not the method of his dealings 
 with them. For that method, then, which it is his 
 good pleasure to pursue, he has doubtless the wisest, 
 most righteous, and most gracious reasons. Of this, 
 the case of David, as here recorded, is a highly in- 
 structive proof and illustration ; for here we see 
 what excellent fruits the trials of his servants may 
 be made the means of producing, under his direct- 
 ing and sanctifying influence. 
 
 But the trials of the faithful are intended not 
 merely to shew them their own corruption, and 
 weakness, and dependence, their absolute need of 
 divine help, and a great remedy answerable to their 
 great ruin ; and to give occasion for the exercise of 
 the graces of the spirit ; but also to teach them the 
 vanity of earthly good, the unsatisfactory nature of
 
 228 DESIGN OF GOD IN TRIALS. 
 
 this world's pursuits and gratifications, the impos- 
 sibility of enjoying a solid, continual, holy happi- 
 ness in this life, so that they may despair of finding 
 it here, may give up the vain expectation of it, 
 may die to the world, set their affections on things 
 above, lay up their treasure in heaven, and have 
 their hearts there also. As God, having provided 
 a complete and glorious method of recovery for lost 
 sinners, will bring his people to understand and 
 feel how absolute is their need of it, how inestima- 
 ble its worth is, and how unutterably great that 
 grace is which provided it ; so, also, having pre- 
 pared for them a place of final, perfect, eternal 
 blessedness, he will assuredly cause them to appre- 
 hend, in some good measure, its unspeakable value 
 and desirableness, and to look towards it, and long 
 for it, and hasten to it. But as he produces the 
 former effect by means of trials and sorrows ; so he 
 produces the latter also in the same way. This is 
 expressly declared by the apostle Paul, when he 
 says, " Our light affliction, which is but for a mo- 
 ment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eter- 
 nal weight of glory." But how can affliction effect 
 such an end, how can it work for us the eternal 
 glory ? It does it as a means. Affliction checks 
 earthly desires and pursuits ; deadens to the flesh 
 and the world ; mortifies the deeds of the body, 
 through the spirit ; begets an experience of the 
 vanity of human life ; sickens the corrupt appetite 
 after its wealth, honours and pleasures ; drives the
 
 FRUITS OF AFFLICTION*. 229 
 
 soul to God for healing, help, consolation and 
 sanctifying grace ; and thus meetens it for the in- 
 heritance of the saints in light. But in another way 
 also it works for us the glory to be revealed. 
 Sanctified affliction brings the subjects of it within 
 the promise of that gracious recompense which 
 the Lord will bestow on all his suffering people. 
 f Blessed is the man that endureth temptation ; for 
 when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life 
 which the Lord hath promised to them that love 
 him.' 
 
 Since then it is the intention of God, by means of 
 their trials, to wean the affections of his people from 
 this evil and dying world, and to draw them hea- 
 venward ; how important it is that they should keep 
 this in view in the time of tribulation, " giving all 
 diligence," in the use of the prescribed means, to 
 obtain this deadness to the present life, and this 
 living desire after, and preparation for, that holy 
 and eternal mansion for which it is one great end 
 of all their trials to make them fit. And if trials 
 in general should awaken them to this duty, much 
 more should that particular trial of deprivation of 
 the public ordinances of the sabbath. 
 
 The sabbath was designed to be, what indeed 
 its very name signifies, a rest. It was the gift of 
 mercy to wretched and weary man. Condemned 
 to labour for his subsistence, as the penalty of dis- 
 obedience, to eat his bread " in the sweat of his 
 face-, all the days of his life ; " how merciful was 
 u2
 
 230 THE SABBATH, DESIGNED TO BE A REST. 
 
 the undeserved boon of a rest from his bodily toils, 
 every seventh day ! Considered too, which is a 
 far more important view of it, as a respite from the 
 sorrows of the mind, which are the fruit of sin ; a 
 pause not only for ease, but for reflection ; an op- 
 portunity for seeking in an especial manner the 
 knowledge of God, his will, and the way in which 
 his forfeited favour may be recovered, and the gate 
 of heaven unbarred to ruined sinners : considered 
 thus, how immensely great does its value appear, 
 and how magnified the grace of the bestower ! 
 The sabbath, then, was designed to be a day of 
 spiritual rest ; and it is eminently adapted to ac- 
 complish this design ; not only by the freedom 
 which it affords from earthly occupations, but also, 
 and especially, by its institutions of public worship 
 and instruction in the house of God ; where the ig- 
 norant are taught, the perplexed directed, the be- 
 lieving edified, and the afflicted comforted. In the 
 use of these ordinances, the people of God have in 
 all ages actually found, and do still find, that the 
 design of the sabbath is accomplished, accomplished 
 in themselves; they find repose for their souls. 
 " For we who have believed," says the apostle, 
 " do enter into rest." And surely if ever on earth 
 the true believer is released from his cares ; if ever 
 he loses the burdensome remembrance of earth's 
 toilsome business ; if ever he enjoys that sweet and 
 holy calm of spirit that is a foretaste of the peace 
 of heaven, it is on the sabbath of the Lord, it is in
 
 THE SABBATH, FOUND TO BE A REST ', 231 
 
 waiting on him in his house, hearing his blessed 
 word, and joining in his delightful worship. 
 
 And such a result is to be expected ; for unques- 
 tionably, the sabbath was intended to be not only a 
 day of rest from bodily labours, a day of repose for 
 the soul, a day of spiritual instruction and worship, 
 but also to be " a sign," a type, a pledge of the 
 heavenly and eternal sabbath. " There remaineth 
 a rest for the people of God." Heb. iv. 9. Of 
 that rest, or sabbath-keeping (for such is the literal 
 meaning of the word), that good thing to come, 
 the earthly sabbath is the shadow. But the shadow 
 represents the substance ; so the sabbath below is a 
 representation of the sabbath above ; in its being a 
 resting-time from the labours of the body and the 
 cares and griefs of the mind ; in its employments 
 being spiritual, relating to the soul and to God ; 
 and, above all, in its being a season especially de- 
 voted to worship, when the saints joining together 
 their glad offerings of praise and honour to the God 
 of their salvation, make the nearest approach pos- 
 sible in this world, to the blessed occupations of 
 the redeemed in heaven. 
 
 The sabbath, then, is the appointed season of 
 rest for the souls of the faithful, while in this life ; 
 and, in every age they have found it to be so, ac- 
 cording to their expectation, founded on the word 
 of God. On this account they have greatly prized 
 it, regarding it as a most encouraging and delight- 
 ful token of God's tender mercy and care for their
 
 232 A TYPE OF THE HEAVENLY REST. 
 
 souls ; and as a lively emblem of that sabbath 
 which they trust to spend with him in ' the bright 
 world to which they go.' But what if they lose 
 the benefit and privilege of its ordinances ; what 
 if they are prevented from attending on the faith- 
 ful word, that "preaching, by which it pleases 
 God to save them that believe ; " and from par- 
 taking of the refreshment and joy of the united wor- 
 ship of those that love him ? What should be the 
 thoughts and experience of those who are visited 
 with this trial ? In the foregoing pages, this im- 
 portant question, it is hoped, has been answered ; 
 at least, principally, though not entirely, for there 
 remains to be mentioned one more disposition of 
 mind which should be experienced by those who 
 are thus tried ; and that is, a looking away from 
 earth, an anticipation of, and a breathing after the 
 rest of heaven. If they are deprived of those 
 sabbath-ordinances, in the enjoyment of which 
 they are taught to expect, and have heretofore 
 found, their chief rest on earth ; what a call is this 
 to look towards, and to long for, that rest which 
 shall never be broken, that sabbath which shall 
 never end. 
 
 Should the servant of God who suffers this de- 
 privation, be brought by means of it into this state 
 of mind, he will find it to be no small compensation 
 for his loss. Such a temper of soul, such a con- 
 templation of the heavenly world, such a fixedness 
 of the affection on things above, such a desire after
 
 DEPRIVATION OF SABBATH-ORDINANCES. 233 
 
 the possession and enjoyment of them, is a good, of 
 great price. For, in the degree in which this spi- 
 ritual-mindedness prevails, will the prosperity of 
 the soul be greater or less. It is this which enables 
 to bear trials with patience, yea, with rejoicing. 
 The apostle could call the uncommon and almost 
 overwhelming trials of himself and his brethren, a 
 " light affliction." But at what times had he this 
 experience ? He says, " While we look not at the 
 things which are seen, but at the things which are 
 not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal, 
 but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
 This looking towards heaven, this realizing expec- 
 tation of it, this constant aiming at it, is the great 
 instrument, in the hand of the Spirit, of raising and 
 purifying the soul ; enabling it to die to the allure- 
 ments of the world, and to look down with a holy 
 indifference on its riches, its honours, and its plea- 
 sures ; to resist temptations, to fight against and 
 mortify corruptions, to overcome obstacles, tread 
 down Satan under its feet, and to meet trials and 
 even death itself with resignation and fortitude. 
 
 Who are they that abide in a " patient continuance 
 in well doing ? " They that " seek for glory, hon- 
 our and immortality." What enabled the Hebrew 
 Christians to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods? 
 They knew that they had " in heaven a better and 
 an enduring substance." What influenced Moses 
 to choose " rather to suffer affliction with the people 
 of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
 
 234 HEAVEN HABITUALLY ANTICIPATED, 
 
 season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater 
 riches than the treasures of Egypt ? " " He had re- 
 spect unto the recompense of the reward." What 
 led the holy Patriarchs to confess " that they were 
 strangers and pilgrims on the earth ? " They re- 
 ceived the promises ; they sought, they desired " a 
 better country, that is a heavenly." Nay ; what 
 was it that led the Son of God himself to endure 
 the cross and to despise the shame ? " The joy 
 that was set before him." And in this respect the 
 apostle points to him as the example of all his fol- 
 lowers, while pressing through unnumbered hin- 
 drances and sorrows to the heavenly city. As he 
 endured, through the prospect of his exaltation 
 and glory ; so they, by " looking unto Jesus," and 
 considering as he did the blessedness on high, shall 
 be enabled to lay aside every weight, and the sin 
 which doth most easily beset them, and to run with 
 patience the race that is set before them. 
 
 Such are the important and blessed effects of an 
 habitual aspiring after heaven ; and without doubt 
 they are thus particularly described in the scriptures 
 in order to teach us the great value of such a temper 
 of mind, and to incite us to seek after it. In truth, 
 it is this temper that in a remarkable degree dis- 
 tinguishes the renewed from the natural man ; and 
 that distinguishes also the advanced, the apostolic, 
 the Christ-like believer, from the herd of cold- 
 hearted, worldly-minded professors. The scriptures 
 in general, and the llth chapter of the Epistle to
 
 A MARK OF EMINENT GRACE. 235 
 
 the Hebrews in particular, shew that the eminent 
 saints of God, in every age of the world, have been 
 characterized, by their faith in unseen realities, and 
 by their fervent breathings after the holy happiness 
 of heaven. And the history of the church of Christ, 
 since the time of the apostles, has confirmed the 
 same truth. 
 
 But is it not to be feared that there is a great 
 deficiency in this respect, in the professors of the 
 present day ? Amidst all the wide-spreading zeal 
 that has arisen, and the aboundings of religious 
 activity, is there not perceivable, in the most, a 
 lamentable want of this heavenly disposition ? And 
 is not this to be traced to the great neglect of retire- 
 ment, self-enquiry, meditation, and secret prayer ? 
 Oh, let not any deceive themselves by their activity 
 and apparent zeal ! Every man is really, what he 
 is in secret, in the sight of God. And he that neg- 
 lects to make frequent approaches to God by hum- 
 ble, fervent prayer, under the plausible excuse of 
 religious business, is not only treading in a perilous 
 path, but he is not likely to be the instrument of 
 much good to the souls of others. A great deal of 
 stir may be made, and there may be a great shew 
 of operations, and even of apparent good, but it 
 is the final issue alone that can decide how much 
 real good has been done. Shall the zealous, 
 then, quench their zeal? Shall the active cease 
 their exertions ? By no means. But let the two 
 be blended; secret intercession and public activity:
 
 236 SABBATHS AT HOME 
 
 as they were in the example of the apostles, and of 
 the Lord of all. See Mark i. 3445. But this, 
 by the way. 
 
 Seeing, then, that the having " our conversation 
 in heaven," is a state of mind so immensely benefi- 
 cial to the believer, so conducive to his own fruit- 
 fulness and happiness, as well as to the honour of 
 God ; how earnestly should every opportunity of 
 increasing it be seized on and improved. And 
 surely no opportunity more favourable can well 
 occur, than that which is afforded by sabbaths at 
 home ; nor any which shall bring with it so urgent 
 an admonition thus to employ it. For amid all the 
 cares and perplexities of life, and all the interrup- 
 tions and hindrances of his earthly occupations, the 
 Christian that breathes after God, still consoles 
 himself with the thought that the blessed sabbath 
 remains to him. All is not toil and hurry ; every 
 day is not a day of labour ; there is yet one on 
 which he has rest, one which he can call his own, 
 and dedicate to the welfare of his soul, and to the 
 honour of his Lord. Then, in the ordinances of his 
 house, in waiting on the word, in communion with 
 the saints, in the heart-reviving, heart-rejoicing 
 worship he can lose the remembrance of earth and 
 earthly things, and taste of that stream which is 
 a sweet prelibation of the fountain. But if tlii* 
 be denied him, if God by his providence, prevents 
 his attendance, shuts him up in his closet, and thus 
 withholds the dearest refreshment of his soul in
 
 A CALL TO HEAVEN LY-MIXDEDXESS. 237 
 
 this weary world ; what reason has he then to say 
 " This is not my rest." And it is welHhat he should 
 say so ; for doubtless God designs not only that he 
 should make those uses of his deprivation which 
 have been already described, but also that he should 
 be reminded that even the sabbath, the rest itself, 
 has no rest, in comparison of that which remains. 
 That so he may turn from the shadow to the sub- 
 stance, from the representation to the perfect and 
 glorious reality represented : and that thus, by re- 
 flection meditating on it, by faith realizing it, by 
 hope anticipating it, by desire breathing after it ; 
 he may be led into that spiritual and heavenly dis- 
 position of mind, which shall prepare him for a more 
 holy, useful, and happy life in this present world ; 
 or meeten him for the possession and enjoyment of 
 the rest eternal in the world to come. 
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 
 
 OXCE more, O my soul, yet once more, let me 
 confer with thee. With what solemn awe and 
 adoring admiration should I contemplate the power 
 and skill and goodness of thy Creator, in the won- 
 drous nature and capacities with which he has en- 
 dowed thee ! Once thou wast not now thou art. 
 From nothing, he has called thee into being and 
 oh, into what a being ! He has made thee but " a 
 little lower than the angels." Can they know him ? 
 So canst thou. Can they serve him ? So canst 
 v
 
 238 SELF-CONFERENCE. 
 
 tliou. Can they love and enjoy him ? So canst 
 thou. He has gifted thee with the like capacities, 
 differing from theirs only in degree. 
 
 But, oh, my soul, thou art not what once thou 
 wast. Thou art no longer pure as was the soul 
 of thy first parent, when created in the image of its 
 Maker, in righteousness and true holiness. Thou 
 art a fallen being, a subject of sin ! The harmony 
 of thy faculties and affections with the mind of God 
 is gone ; and thou art become a prey to strange 
 disorder. How deep is thy ruin ! There is within 
 thee a continual proneness to evil and to folly. Thy 
 judgment is perverted ; thine estimate of things 
 frequently opposite to the estimate of God : ever 
 ready to see some value or desirableness in that 
 which He has commanded thee to renounce as vile 
 or hurtful ; and to esteem that lightly which He has 
 bidden thee to seek with all thy heart, as excellent 
 in itself, and promotive of thy greatest good. How 
 deplorable is thy weakness ! Contrary to thy reason, 
 thine approval, thy efforts to prevent it, what tumult 
 often reigns within thee. Like the uproar of con- 
 flicting winds and waves, thy powers and affections 
 become the sport of wild confusion. Thou knowest 
 it, thou seest and lamentest it ; but thy attempts to 
 restore order are often unavailing, and thou art left 
 to be the helpless spectator of thy own misery, the 
 victim of thyself. Thy fears, and doubts, and anxie- 
 ties, and agitations, are often contrary to thy reason, 
 thy judgment, thy belief, and even thy experience,
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 239 
 
 and yet thine arguing and expostulating avail not 
 to quell the storm. When such a state of mind is 
 compared with that which Adam must have pos- 
 sessed and enjoyed, when he walked in uprightness 
 before God in paradise ; holding his powers in holy 
 and delightful subjection to his commanding judg- 
 ment, enlightened by the knowledge and influenced 
 by the love of the divine will ; when every faculty 
 and every affection moved together in harmonious 
 concert, unpolluted and undisturbed by sin, an- 
 swering the end of their creation, in being ever 
 employed to the glory of their Creator : when this 
 blessed state is compared with that which I now feel 
 to be my own, what reason have I to exclaim, " How 
 is the gold become dim ! How is the most fine gold 
 changed ! The crown is fallen from our head : woe 
 unto us, that we have sinned ! " 
 
 Yes, tee have sinned, "all are gone out of the 
 way." But all do not know it, or rather they will 
 not : they avert the head, they shut the eyes that 
 they may not see it, the ears that they may not hear 
 it : they drown the thought of it in business, or 
 folly, or pleasure : they will not retire, examine, 
 and question their souls, saying " What art thou, for 
 what purpose created, of what capable, what will 
 thy end be?" They will not so scrutinize what 
 passes within as to be led to alarm, and to the en- 
 quiry " Whence this disorder, this weakness, this 
 degradation ? Oh, wretched soul, where shall thy 
 cure be found ? " How great the mercy then to
 
 240 SELF-CONFERENCE. 
 
 me ; that my aversion to this necessary knowledge of 
 myself has been overcome, that I have been led to 
 examine and to prove my condition, and that I have 
 thus been brought acquainted with my ruin, and 
 with the help that is laid on Him that is mighty ! 
 
 Wondrous and glorious new creation in Christ 
 Jesus ! The renovation of the soul by the holy 
 spirit ! The renewing of the mind, the putting on 
 the new man, which, after God, is created in right- 
 eousness and true holiness ! * O my soul, art thou a 
 partaker of this grace, a subject of this transforming 
 influence? When thou lookest within on thyself 
 and surveyest what passes there, what dost thou 
 behold ? Is there sin ? And is there not also the 
 hatred of sin ? Is there weakness ? And is there 
 not also a strength which is often " made perfect in 
 weakness ? " Is it thy grief to behold there the 
 remains of "the old man ? " But is it not also thy 
 joy to behold the growing stature of "the new man," 
 which " is renewed day by day? " Hast thou some- 
 times to mourn over the disorder of thine affections, 
 their immoderate dejection and disquietude ? But 
 hast thou not sometimes to rejoice over the triumph 
 of sufficient grace, in calming the tumult, and in 
 giving thee to repose in a heavenly peace ? 
 
 Surely, my soul, " it shall be said " by thee, 
 " What hath God wrought ! " Has not that word 
 been accomplished in thy experience, " I will bring 
 
 John iii. 3, 5. Roin. viii. 116. Eph. iv. 2224. 
 Tit. iii. 5.
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 241 
 
 the blind by a way that they knew not ; I will lead 
 them in paths that they have not known ; I will make 
 darkness light before them, and crooked things 
 straight. These things will I do unto them, and 
 not forsake them." How wonderfully has He caused 
 thy most painful trials to work together for thy good ! 
 Though his chastisements have sometimes pierced 
 thee to the quick, have brought thee very low, have 
 caused thee to feel deeply thy unworthiness in his 
 holy sight ; yet he has not dealt with thee after thy 
 sins, nor rewarded thee according to thine iniquities. 
 The hand that smote thee was the hand of fatherly 
 correction, intending thy greatest benefit, and 
 bringing good out of evil. Thus, through infinite 
 wisdom and love, thy trials have been the occasion 
 of calling into vigorous exercise those holy disposi- 
 sitions of heart which have greatly promoted thy 
 spiritual progress, and the honour of their divine 
 author. 
 
 Again the disposer of my ways is pleased to try 
 me. It is his will, made known to me by his pro- 
 vidence, that I should be deprived of the benefit and 
 enjoyment of the ordinances of his house. I have 
 seen his hand in the appointment, and, I trust, do 
 humbly submit to it. I have set myself to consider 
 what is my duty in my present circumstances ; I have 
 endeavoured to recal the past ; that, in the light of 
 his word, I might behold what has been amiss, might 
 abase myself on account of it, and seek his forgive- 
 ness. I have anticipated the future; with hope,
 
 242 SELF-CONFERENCE. 
 
 that it shall be better with my soul than it has been ; 
 with prayer, that the God of mercy would perfect 
 in me that which is deficient, enabling me by his 
 grace to " pay my vows, which my lips have uttered 
 and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble." 
 
 But I may never return to the house of the Lord 
 again : or, my future opportunities there may be very 
 few. And, though they were to be many, yet the 
 longest life is but short : it is only a brief pilgrimage. 
 \\hat then? There is another house, "not made 
 with hands, eternal, in the heavens ! " Aye, I have 
 much reason to think of that house. The trials and 
 disappointments I have met with here, have been so 
 many admonitions to me to be loose from earthly 
 ties, to look upward, to prepare for and to anticipate 
 that other and better world. Alas, I have but too 
 little attended to them ! Hence, I am again visited 
 with a providential call to die to earth, and to aspire 
 after heaven. And it is a loud call ; for if that 
 which is my chief rest below, which God himself 
 has called by that name, his sabbath, which he has 
 instituted for the repose and refreshment of his 
 people if that be disturbed, be withheld then 
 well may I hear the voice crying " Arise, for this is 
 not your rest." My soul, obey the call, rise thou 
 on the wings of faith, and love, and adoring con- 
 templation ; rise thou from this dark and miserable 
 world, and hold converse with the blessed and glo- 
 rious realities of the life to come. 
 
 Ah ! it is easier for me to command than for thee
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 243 
 
 to obey. I feel, I feel that there are still many ties 
 that bind thee here. Thou hast not yet laid aside 
 " every weight;" thou art still too heavy, and canst 
 not rise when thou wouldest, O for the he.lp of 
 Him who came to bring "deliverance to the captives, 
 and to set at liberty them that are bruised ! " 
 
 But, "these things ought not so to be." Am I 
 not an heir of life eternal ? Is not this my humble 
 trust, my soul-sustaining hope ? Has not the Spirit 
 of God convinced me of sin, led me to look on him 
 whom I pierced and to mourn ; has he not enlight- 
 ened me in the knowledge of all necessary truth, 
 especially in the knowledge of Christ ; has he not 
 enabled me to mortify evil ; has he not led me into 
 the practice of holy duties, to the exercise of holy 
 graces, to the enjoyment of holy liberty, and to 
 some blessed fellowship with the Father and with 
 his Son Jesus Christ ? * And what is the end of 
 all this work, these renewing and sanctifying influ- 
 ences ? Is it not to fit me for the presence of a 
 holy God, and the society of holy angels and " the 
 spirits of just men made perfect," in a holy heaven ? 
 Whence is it then that this end is not constantly in 
 my view, in my meditations, my prayers, my de- 
 sires ? Ah ! whence indeed ? Whence, but be- 
 cause I am too fond of earth, and too low in grace. 
 
 It was not thus with the first Christians. It was 
 far otherwise. The apostle describing to the 
 
 John xvi. 8, 13, 14. Zecb. xii. 10. Rom. viii. 1, 2, 13. 
 Ps. cxliii. 10. Gal. v. 2225. Eph. v. 9.
 
 244 SELF-CONFERENCE, 
 
 Philippians, " even weeping," the earthly-minded- 
 ness and sensuality of some professors of that day, 
 contrasts with them the experience of himself and 
 of his beloved brethren to whom he wrote ; saying, 
 " But our conversation is in heaven." They were 
 far removed from the licentiousness of others, not 
 only in the general external consistency of their 
 conduct, but in the habitual temper and bent of 
 their spirits, which had continually a direction 
 towards heaven ; whence there was a spirituality of 
 mind that conduced in an eminent degree to purify 
 their hearts, as well as to impart a marked and ele- 
 vated sanctity to their lives. In writing to the 
 Colossians, the apostle says, " If ye then be risen 
 with Christ, seek those things which are above." 
 As though he had said, ' Heavenly-mindedness is 
 the great mark of a Christian ; if ye then be really 
 what ye profess to be, crucified to the world, and 
 risen from the death of sin to a life of holiness with 
 Christ, give this proof of it ; seek those things 
 which are above ; set your affection on things above, 
 not on things on the earth.' And how affecting the 
 motive suggested, " Seek those things which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of 
 God ! " Is not this thought enough to draw the 
 heart of a Christian towards heaven, that there his 
 Saviour is ? That Saviour who was once " a man 
 of sorrows and acquainted with grief;" but who is 
 now " highly exalted," " crowned with glory and 
 honour ! " Can any soul that has been redeemed
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 245 
 
 from the guilt and dominion of sin by this Saviour, 
 who bore all those unknown sorrows for his church's 
 sake ; can such a soul think of him, exalted and 
 glorified, without rejoicing at the thought, without 
 longing to be where he is, to see his glory, and to 
 join in his triumph ? 
 
 My soul, what sayest thou 9 Is this thy expe- 
 rience ? Are such thy thoughts of Christ, is such 
 thy breathing after the place of his abode ? Some- 
 thing of it thou hast : but, oh, how faintly does it 
 influence thee ! What hinders thee, my soul ? 
 Awake, and consider. Are thine earthly attach- 
 ments still so strong as to keep thee down when 
 thou wouldest rise ? But ought not thy heavenly 
 attractives to be far stronger ? 
 
 " Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing 
 it is for the eyes to behold the sun." It is even so. 
 But how incomparably sweeter is the light of the 
 heavenly glory ! The sun, so bright and beautiful, 
 and so pleasant to thine eyes, is altogether too mean 
 a luminary for heaven. It hath "no need of the 
 sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory 
 of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
 thereof." Remember the intercession of Jesus, 
 " Father I will that they also whom thou hast given 
 me, be with me where I am ; that they may behold 
 my glory which thou hast given me." Canst thou 
 now think with indifference of that glory, which he 
 hath even prayed the Father that thou mightest 
 have the joy of beholding ?
 
 246 SELF-CONFERENCE. 
 
 Thy friends and kindred are dear to thee. But 
 how much dearer should thy Lord be ? " He that 
 loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy 
 of me." What! canst thou not be willing to quit 
 them that thou mayest go to Him ? " Having a 
 desire," says the holy Paul, " to depart and to be 
 with Christ, which is far better." His supreme 
 joy, his heaven was " to be with Christ ; " and to 
 possess it was the "desire" of his soul ; for he 
 accounted it "far better," 'better beyond all com- 
 parison and expression ' than any joy, or than all 
 the joys, that this world can afford. Art thou not 
 persuaded of this ? Dost thou still shrink ? Dost 
 thou fear the transit ; is the article of death awful 
 to thy thought? Mark how calmly and sweetly 
 the apostle speaks of death, it is only a " depar- 
 ture ; " and often he calls it a " sleep." And so it 
 has proved in unnumbered instances where its ap- 
 proach had been feared. Nay, some of the feeble 
 of the flock have wondered, with delightful surprize, 
 to find how soft a thing it was to die. Think too, 
 my soul, that thy Lord himself hath passed "through 
 the valley and shadow of death," and, rising from 
 its power, hath led the way into the heavenly city 
 for all his followers. 
 
 ' Jesus ! blessed mediator ! 
 
 Thou the airy path hast trod ! 
 Thou the judge and consummator! 
 
 Shepherd of the fold of God ! '
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 247 
 
 Often, blessed be the name of the Lord ! often 
 have the ordinances of his house been refreshing and 
 delightful to me. But these are only the streams ; 
 and sometimes the waters have been low, and some- 
 times even dried up ; and at other times, as now, I 
 have been cut off from approach even to these 
 streams. What then must the joy of the ransomed 
 be, when " the Lamb shall lead them unto living 
 FOUNTAINS of waters ! " Oh, my soul, think of this, 
 and say ' I thirst.' 
 
 Yes, I bless God for his ordinances ; for in them 
 I have seen somewhat of the power and glory of my 
 Redeemer ; and have felt his gracious presence. 
 But, too often, it has been otherwise ; clouds have 
 hung upon my mind and darkened my view of him; 
 and there has been a distressing sense of his ab- 
 sence, his distance from me. But the hour cometh, 
 when I shall " ever be with the Lord" 
 
 Then, never more, my soul, shalt thou pant after 
 him with a painful and restless DESIRE ! never more 
 shalt thou ask " When shall I come and appear be- 
 fore God ? " for he will always be present, and thou 
 always before him, and thy satisfaction shall be 
 perfect. Then, also, "the days of thy MOURNING 
 shall be ended." " God shall wipe away all tears 
 from thine eyes." No enemies shall again molest 
 thee ; and ' sin, thy worst enemy before, shall vex 
 thine eyes and ears no more.' Thy RETROSPECTION 
 on the past will not there be grievous, but delight- 
 ful ; causing thee to adore the goodness and mercy
 
 248 SELF-CONFERENCE. 
 
 that followed thee all the days of thy life ; and that 
 have now banished all thy regrets of earthly ordi- 
 nances, by bringing thee to " dwell in the house of 
 the Lord for ever/' there with the ransomed " mul- 
 titude " to keep an eternal " holy day/' and " with 
 the voice of joy and praise " to sing the everlasting 
 song, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." Ne- 
 ver then shall I say to thee " Why art thou cast 
 down, O my soul ? " Thy CONFLICT will be over ; 
 thy hope absorbed in fruition ; and God will " lift 
 up upon thee the light of his countenance" for ever- 
 more. While all that on earth was grievous to 
 thee shall be done away, all that was delightful 
 shall remain. Hence ANTICIPATION shall be still 
 thy joy ; for a boundless increase of thy knowledge 
 and thy happiness shall lie before thee. No more 
 for ever shalt thou seem as one forgotten ; no more 
 shalt thou approach to God with the voice of EX- 
 POSTULATION. Thou shalt see him to be thy eternal 
 rock ; and the consciousness of thine everlasting 
 security in him shall cause thy joy to be full. Thus 
 thy RELIANCE shall be perfect : no longer exercised 
 in painful contention with dejection and disquietude; 
 but, seeing all thy hope fulfilled, for ever thou shalt 
 lift up thy face, shining with brightness, the reflec- 
 tion of thy Saviour's glory. Never again shalt 
 thou have occasion to make thine APPEAL to the 
 great judge against reviling foes. Justified by 
 God, through faith in his Son ; none shall condemn 
 thee. Sanctified by his grace, made perfectly holy
 
 SELF-CONFERENCE. 249 
 
 by his Spirit, thou shalt be " holy still." The God 
 of thy strength shall keep thee stedfast for ever. 
 All need of INTERCESSION that ordinances may be 
 restored will then be ended. Thy prayer will be 
 answered "exceeding abundantly above all that" 
 thou didst "ask or think:" divine mercy and faith- 
 fulness having brought thee, not to the earthly 
 tabernacle, but to the heavenly temple ; not to the 
 altar below, but to the throne above. Then will 
 God become thine "exceeding joy," in a sense 
 beyond all that it ever entered into thy heart to 
 conceive. Then shall thy CONQUEST over sin, and 
 weakness, and fear, and care, be complete and 
 eternal. Then wilt thou know the value and 
 blessedness of having God for thy God, so as thou 
 never knewest it before. Then wilt thou under- 
 stand the full meaning of that saying, " He that 
 overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be 
 his God, and he shall be my son." 
 
 Such shall be the eternal REST, for which thine 
 earthly sabbaths are given to prepare thee ; and of 
 which they are a sign, an earnest, and a pledge. 
 And when thou art entered into this rest, that 
 which is now the occasion of sorrow to thee, shall 
 become a cause of joy. Now thou mournest that 
 thy sabbu'hs should be spent at home, in absence 
 from the 'louse of the Lord; but then thy home 
 shall be ,iis house, from whence thou shalt "go no 
 more ou. :" thy sabbaths in heaven, shall be SAB- 
 BATHS AT HOME. 
 
 w
 
 250 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 WHY art thou still cast down, ray soul ? 
 
 Why still disquieted within ? 
 Yield thee to reason's just controul, 
 
 To grace, the conqueror of sin. 
 
 Oh, rouse thee from thy grief and fear, 
 The wisdom and the goodness see 
 
 That plainly in thy lot appear 
 A lot, the best, my soul, for thee. 
 
 Thy strong desire, thy faith and love, 
 Thy mourning for the Saviour's face, 
 
 An interest in his favour prove 
 Exalt the glory of his grace. 
 
 And praise shall yet my lips employ, 
 For he, who hears me now complain, 
 
 Shall bring me with the voice of joy 
 To bless him in his house again. 
 
 But what if God this hope deny 
 To praise him in his house below ? 
 
 There is another house on high, 
 Where its fruition I shall know. 
 
 There sin, and grief, and doubt, and care, 
 Disturb no more for all are blest : 
 
 The wicked cease from troubling there, 
 And there the weary are at rest. 
 
 Now rising wishes thither bend : 
 My God, the work of grace fulfil ; 
 
 And then thy truth and mercy send, 
 And lead me to that holy hill. 
 
 O for the blessedness to come ! 
 
 O for eternal holy days ! 
 For endless SABBA.THS spent AT HOME, 
 
 In perfect love, and joy, and praise. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 J. BLACKBT, PRINTER, N1WBURY.
 
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