THE PSALMS, TO ΠΝΕΥΜΑ-ΠΟΔΟ-ΜΕΤΡΟΝ OF OUR WALK. PSALM 1. 1. 1. BLESSED is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. TEXT. " AND you, EVEN a heathen could say, None doth suddenly become the most vile. But we must that were somelet the Word of GOD search deeper into time alienated the heart, if we would be made wiser than and enemies in such teachers. Life and death are now set your mind by before us. David's experience of happiness wicked works, and misery can only profit us as we look yet now hath on Jesus, the Anointed One, and, as we he reconciled in look, find an increasing desire to have the body of his more of that mind which was in Him flesh through breathed into our spirit. death, to pre The Creator hath, as it were, placed sent you holy Himself in the hands of his creatures, and & unblameable we have done unto him whatsoever we and unreprovein his "By faith listed. Again, He hath ascended up on able Moses, when he high, leading captivity captive, having sight."-Col. i. was come to obtained precious gifts for the children of 21. years, refused men. He now calls on us to judge for to be called the ourselves betwixt the blessings He hath son of Phara- purchased for us, and the things the world oh's daughter; hath to offer in their stead. Bearing in choosing rather mind, however, that to judge of them is to suffer afflic-one thing, and to make the choice another. tion with the The contrast of these two gifts is not here people of God, set before us in their continuance, but in than to enjoy their inherent nature. So long as we are in the pleasure of the flesh, the natural man will give his vote sin for a sea- in favour of sin; but man's choice cannot son; esteeming alter the nature of things-God's grace 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Man's apos the reproach of can alter the nature of man. TEXT. "But now in Christ Jesus ye us to see the things which were once "That at that "For ye looked upon as our gain; now to be our time ye were were sometimes loss; and the only token of GOD's favour without Christ, darkness, but which can now satisfy us, is, that we may being aliens now are ye light be found of Him in Christ. The joy of from the comin the Lord : one who is thus found of Christ is, that monwealth of Iswalk as chil-in Him he hath found GOD,-the fear-lest rael, and strandren of light." by any means he lose Him. That there is gers from the -Eph. viii. 5. pleasure in sin is not denied; the only covenants of "For the drawback to its full enjoyment-the con- promise, havtime past of our sciousness that its nature is opposed to ing no hope, & life may suffice the love of God. He who hath lost this without God in us to have consciousness hath lost caste in the scale of the world: wrought the will his being. Is it nothing to believe that we of the Gentiles, are under the tuition of our Maker? Have when we walk- we forgotten His patience, His forbearance? who sometimes ed in lascivious- Have we dealt with our children in their were far off are ness, lusts, ex-lunes and rebellions, as He hath borne made nigh by of wine, with us in ours towards Himself, the maker the blood revellings, ban- of heaven and earth? Have we never in our Christ."—Eph. quettings, and hearts called Him a hard taskmaster? ii. 12, 13. abominable ido- strewing pleasures in our path which He latries: where- forbad our looking upon, much less to touch, honestly, as in in they think it and be blameless? Have we not envied the day; not in strange that ye the prosperity of the wicked? Have we rioting & drunrun not with not put on their indifference? The good kenness, not in them to the Lord pardon His servant in these so great chambering & same excess of sins. He that in all sincerity and thank- wantonness, not riot, speaking fulness can say, "I know that in very faith-in strife and enevil of you."fulness Thou hast afflicted me," will also of vying. His grace be enabled to offer the sacrifice "But put ye of praise in that He left him not to perish on the Lord Jenor to prosper in his sins. Let us be sus Christ, and honest with ourselves, and in this spirit make not prosay before the searcher of hearts and vision for the trier of the reins, Lord, if thy servant sub-flesh to fulfil cess 1 Pet. iv. 3, 5. of "Let us walk 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 66 TEXT. They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof." Prov. i. 30. MEDITATION. mit not to the guidance of Thine eye, TEXT. the lust there- 13, 14. through a window, & saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; He who can unreservedly confess that he hath tasted of the good word of GOD, and of the powers of the world to come, sinners will as unequivocally declare that for him thee, consent to return to the world and follow its ways thou not." were death, his own deliberate choice. Prov. i. 10. "And when The power to choose becometh a very "And as the the woman saw secondary consideration with one whose ark of the Lord that the tree eyes have been opened to see the danger came into the was good for he hath escaped; whose nostrils have been city of David, food, & that it filled with the choking stench of hell's Michal Saul's was pleasant to sulphurous flame; whose flesh hath been daughter looked the eyes, and a made to creep at the very thought of the tree to be de- worm which dieth not; and to know that sired to make whilst he thus was standing on the edge of one wise, she the bottomless pit a hand was put forth to took of the fruit save!!! Say, O my soul, whose hand thereof, and did was this? Whose face didst thou behold and she deseat, and gave when turning round to see? I saw Jesus pised him in also unto her the mediator between GOD and man, and her heart."-2 husband with I heard Him say, Why wilt thou die? Sam. vi. 16. her; and he did Turn, turn from the evil of thy ways, and eat."-Genesis drink of the waters of life freely, that thou iii. 6. mayest have life in ME, and live henceforth for me, and so be with me for evermore. Amen." Men encourage each other in sin, and at first they require this encouragement, though ultimately they themselves may be found amongst those who hound their victims on to perdition. 66 He who is enabled to say, “I can no longer keep company with you, O ye sons At a certain meeting of those who laugh 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. the wine, whose redness of eyes is not When once we have seated ourselves amongst the scoffers, we are in a fearful position. The actual cautery must be used; then, if this fail, we become as the clod which the fire hardeneth, but never can melt. Were it not for the actual misery we see-the positive evil that is continually witnessing against a world's lost state the pain, sorrow, privations, which so many are called on to endurethe physical and moral ills which appear to be co-ordinate with our nature, and which is indeed the common lot of our humanity, we might join with our poet in saying, "All the world's a stage, and men and women merely players." We might treat the history of the Fall as a myth, and those who brought death into the world as mythological personages. But a fable will not quiet a conscience ill at ease, nor will the stoic's lesson teach his disciple to walk the porch, with measured pace and slow, upon a gouty limb; when the burnt bone exudes its marrow from the kiln-dried joints, calcined into chalk by inward fires kindled at the altars of Epicurus or what sardonic grin or ribald jest (even though it glare in the lurid blaze of wit, such as disgraces a Rabelais or a Sterne,) can change the emerods of lust into jewels fit for the TEXT. 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Temple of the living GOD? Fools may now But even in the present day the Chris- TEXT. |