soul, can He not preserve your children? He who has shown you so great mercy as to bring you to peace in Christ, will He not also give you peace about all things? He has heard He has heard your prayer for your soul, He does hear your prayers continually, and every day as you lie on your bed it is your greatest comfort to pray and to believe that He hears you. Pray for those whom you must soon leave, those most dependent on you, your nearest and dearest. Pray for them in faith. Commit them to God. In humble faith place them under His protection, in His hand.

He bids you do so. He says, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in Me." You see, He claims the charge of them. He does not bid you cast in your mind, what earthly friend you can commit them to, or what means you can take beforehand for their good. Do all you can in this way. That is but right. But when you have

done all in your power, or if you find that nothing whatever is in your power, then commit them to God Himself. "I will preserve them alive," He says; "let thy widows trust in Me." You cannot see what friends He will raise up for them when

you are gone, or what provision He will make for them. You cannot see. If you could, what room would there be for faith? And these words are addressed to faith. Be not anxious, then.

Cast all your care upon

God, for He careth for you. He has compassion upon you now in your anxiety for those so dear. He will extend the same pity towards them when you are gone. Trust them to Him; to His love, His wisdom, His power. Trust them fully. He can do more for them than ever you could have done. He will not fail them. Let no anxious fears for them disturb your mind. "I know in whom I have believed," said the Apostle, "and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Be you persuaded of the same. Commit your soul to His mercy in Christ Jesus; commit wife, children, and all to Him also. Do not doubt His word.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

NO BANDS IN THEIR DEATH.

PSALM LXXIII. 1—6.

1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

3. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.

5. They are not in trouble as other men ; neither are they plagued like other men.

6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

THERE are many lessons to be learnt from this psalm, and several even from these few verses of it; but I wish now to draw attention to one point only, the easy death of the ungodly.

"For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm." The Psalmist says this of the wicked. But he does not mean that it is

so with all the wicked. Only he had observed it to be so with some; and His mind had been perplexed by it.

"There are no bands in their death." They die easily, without pain of body or distress of mind. 'Their strength is firm." They have enjoyed good health, and even to the last their strength is beyond their years. So they have lived, and so they die.

The Psalmist had known such cases, and most of us must have known such too.

Yet these are wicked people; he calls them so : wicked and foolish. Not loving or serving God; not seeking His mercy in earnest even in death ; careless, ungodly people. Can such die in peace? We know that many such enjoy health and prosperity through life; but can they die without fear?

Yes. It is so sometimes. It was so in the Psalmist's time, and it is so still. "There are no bands in their death." There is no distress of mind, and no violent bodily struggle; they pass away quietly.

What does this arise from? Remember, it is the wicked and foolish who are spoken of. Not from a sense of pardon; for they have never sought pardon in earnest. Not from a desire "to depart and to be with Christ," for they would gladly stay here if they could. Not from the peace of God, not from a good hope through grace, not from faith in the Lord Jesus, not from the witness of the Spirit. Alas! faith, and grace, and hope, and the peace of God, and the work of the Spirit-they have heard of them doubtless, but they have never experienced them.

How is it, then, that they are so calm? How can they face death as they do? Why are they not afraid?

Because they have no sense of guilt, no knowledge of themselves as sinners, no view of God as just and holy; their heart is hardened, their conscience is asleep. A person asleep may be close to the greatest danger, and yet not fear. And