4. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

TEXT.

MEDITATION.

TEXT.

"Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God,

us our folly, and awaken us to such a
sense of our danger as to arrest us in the
downward course, and turn us off the
broad road to destruction. But is it so ?
GOD knoweth, and the heart which
knoweth its own bitterness knoweth,
that neither the fear of punishment; nor
the known and acknowledged vengeance of
an offended Creator, is that which worketh and not that he
in the believer's soul the change of life, and should return
hatred of sin. The dread of wrath, of from his ways
judgment to come, may make us tremble, and live?"
and may put a momentary restraint upon Ezek. xviii. 23.
us, whilst the sound of some word is yet

fresh on the ear; but it is the love of
Jesus alone which can fix that word in the
heart. True, His fear must first restrain,
but, equally true, 'tis His love must con-
strain. The patience, the meekness, the per-
severing importunities of the Son of GOD;
the bowels of His mercy and His love,—
these are they which win the soul back to
Himself, and by which we are created
anew in the image of God's dear Son, seen
and known among us as the Son of man.
Thy gentleness hath made me great."-
2 Sam. xxii. 36.

5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

"Blessed is CONCISE as is this Psalm, it appears he that waiteth to embrace the whole scheme of redempand cometh to tion. The need of the purchase-we being the thousand sold under sin; the price to be paidthree hundred the blood of Emmanuel, the alone righ& five & thirty teous One; and the sure and lasting effect days. of faith in that blood upon the soul of "But go thou every believer in the name of Jesus. The thy way till the mode of the Lord's dealing is seen, as by end be: for thou Moses from Mount Pisgah, from the beshalt rest, and ginning to the end, including the first and stand in thy lot second resurrection. The process of judgat the end of the ment during the millennium; the governdays."-Daniel ance of the King of Israel during that xii. 12, 13. period, and the final overthrow of the

wicked.

It also shows the eternal severance betwixt good and evil, as an immutable decree, which time cannot alter, nor any circumstances whatsoever blend and amalgamate, into one common nature.

TEXT.

Man's love of sin cannot change the "And the character of his Creator, and make Him King shall ana partner in our enjoyment of sin, swer and say though His love toward man hath con- unto them, Vestrained Him to take part in our humanity; rily, I say unto to the end, that in His sufferings for our you, Inasmuch sins and in the shedding of His blood, He might purchase for us a release from the bondage of corruption, and so establish the peace of GOD in the heart, and reunite us unto the FATHER in Himself. Be it remembered, however, that two cannot walk together except they be at one with each other. The promise to the believer in Jesus is, "Sin shall not have the dominion over you." Are we, then, walking in the light and faith of this promise? Let us be honest with ourselves. Say, if we

"But the rest of the dead lived not again until could escape the doom of the devil, would the thousand we much care about his having the domiyears were fin- nion over us? Do we care to know, and ished. This is to keep the distinction clear between the the first resur- devil as the Evil One, and the devil as rection."-Rev. Satan? the adversary? in short, can we xx. 5. call him our adversary? Should we like to hear him claim us as his own in that

as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."-Matt. xxv. 40.

5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

I

day when Jesus, as the Son of man, shall
sit on His throne, and, by his silence, set
His seal to the validity of the claim?
trow not. Why not now let Jesus cease
from being our Adversary,-why not agree
with Him quickly, whilst we

are in
the way
with Him? Must it still be
said of us also, "Ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost?" Is there no fear lest this
stiffness of neck become chronic-a sinew
of brass? We have no security but in
Him; He is our Goel. He can make us
partakers of His righteousness. By this
righteousness we stand or fall; by it we
must now judge ourselves, for by it only
can Satan be silenced in that day. If, in
that great and terrible day, when GOD
shall arise to shake terribly the earth, we
would not be shaken off from the presence
of the Lord and the company of his saints,
tion on such we must not only shake off old and worldly
the second death habits and companions, but must suffer
hath no power, ourselves to be shaken out of every other
but they shall be confidence but that which is based on the
priests of God righteousness of Christ. Thus we shall
and of Christ, stand in the judgment, not only pardoned,
and shall reign but acquitted, and thus are we admitted
with him athou- into free communion with the
sand years."-
Rev. xx. 6.

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first

resurrec

con

gregation of the righteous, we shall
hear the sentence of acquittal from
the lips of Jesus Himself, saying, Well
done, good and faithful servant, enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord. This is no fabled
Elysium; it is the rich endowment of the
Father's love bestowed on His only begot-
ten Son; the heavenly inheritance; it is
that joy which enabled Jesus to set His
face as a flint when going to Jerusalem to
be lifted up from the earth, and so to draw
all men unto Himself: with this hope, which
in Him was full assurance, set before Him
as His joy, He endured the cross, and
despised the shame thereof. His sufferings
were real, and alone ;-He suffered
once for all. The agony of His soul and
spirit were such as no created being could
have sustained: they were voluntary,

TEXT.

5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

TEXT.

"And cast

-

xxv. 30.

MEDITATION.

though not self-inflicted. The pain and
agony were positive, though the cause
thereof was relative. Now there is enough
in the world and in ourselves to show us
that pain of body and agony of mind are
substantial miseries; and believing that
the stinging cause of such sufferings hath
been taken away, we can the more readily,
yea, cheerfully, submit to the discipline
they are purposed to subserve. Since
then, the sufferings of our Lord were sub-
stantial, so also must be His joy; there is
this heart-touching distinction, however,
between His sufferings and His joy:-
These, in their substance, He endured
alone; That-By His Spirit, the Com-
forter, He communicates to all His breth-
ren. Be it remembered, the converse
is equally obvious, though as yet but seen
and felt in the shadow. A shadow which
goeth before hath a substance which must
follow.

TEXT.

There is, in such a scheme for the reco- "And He ye the unprofit- very of man from the bitter effects of said unto me, I able servant in- his fall, much love in exercise; but do am Alpha and to outer dark- we not also perceive in it the wisdom of Omega, the beness: there shall foreknowledge made manifest? Doth not ginning and the be weeping and the whole plan so bear upon our present end. I will gnashing of condition as to call into action the highest give unto him teeth." Matt. faculties of the reasoning power of the that is athirst mind and spirit of an intelligent being, of the fountain who, as a creature endued with reason, of the water of cannot but feel himself subjected to One life freely. He higher, and, he fain would believe, better that overcomthan himself, or than any he hath heard of, eth shall inherit or with his own eyes seen, amongst the all things, and I mere children of men. GOD the Holy will be his God, Ghost vouchsafeth to be our teacher,—it and he shall be is He which maketh the simple wise unto my son."-Rev. salvation, through the faith which is xxi. 6, 7.

in Christ Jesus. But a time will come
when this faith will cease, and unaided
reason herself shall be made to subscribe
to the truth as it is in this same Jesus.
But then is the time of this world's woe.

6. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

"Then I was Now let us reason together on this great by him, as one concern, seeing that Christ vouchsafeth to brought up with be our teacher; as GOD, in wisdom, in him and I was righteousness, in sanctification, in redempdaily his de- tion; as the Son of man, in all the sympalight, rejoicing thies of a brother, in all the affections of a always before sinless man. He layeth aside His glory, him; rejoicing He hideth His power, so that we may in the habita- retain our presence of mind, and not be ble part of his troubled at His presence, but receive His earth; and my words, and understand that we now need delights were no other Mediator between us and the with the sons of Father than Jesus, the GOD-man. men." Prov. viii. 30, 31.

TEXT.

The mind is capable of being awakened to such a perception of goodness as to see that therein is something to be found worthy of all acceptation; and though there be a struggle to obtain the mastery over the evil that is in ourselves, so that that goodness should have the pre-eminence, yea, though our efforts be so far crowned with success, as to make it plain that our warfare is but begun, and that this earnest of the Spirit is a token to us of a renewed life. For we have to hold fast that which we have got, and, in proportion as we value the possession, the more clearly shall we perceive how easily it might be lost; added to this, the judgment and discretion is my beloved needed in the use of the blessing; the Son, in whom I singlemindedness, the singleheartedness, the am well pleaintegrity, the zeal, the patience, in persuad- sed."-Matt. iii. ing others of the goodness of GOD; above all, 17.

*

All

the careful watchings to keep down self, and exalt Christ. For He only is good. "That I may these, doubtless, are difficulties, and are win Christ, and not pleasing to the flesh, yet do they not be found in serve to the removing of the veil from him, not having before the eyes of our understanding, mine own right-making us acknowledge that the deadness eousness, which could not have been in the Giver of Life, is of the law, nor the deficiency in the gift itself? Are but that which we not then bound, as creatures capable of

"And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This

* Words, such as Regeneration, which have given rise to endless controversy, are carefully avoided. An unmistakeable sign of new life is of far greater moment than a knowledge of the time when that life began in any of us. May we not think with Calvin, and act with Arminius ?