us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.' And with reference to both classes of sin, and to our twofold need of justification and sanctification, 'let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.' 'Then shall I be unpunishable' (not guilty), 'and justified' (declared absolved) 'from the great transgression.' And with an humble prayer for acceptance of this spiritual sacrifice of lips and hearts (the terms being sacrificial) closes this truly evangelical Psalm.

I. 'O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer ;' what fulness of hope and experience are embodied in these words! This indeed is prayer which closes in accents of such confidence. It is New Testament language in Old Testament times. And why should we, to whom fuller light has been granted, be unwilling or unable to rise to this height of believing conviction? That He is a Rock and a Redeemer, is His revelation in grace; that He is my Rock and my Redeemer, is my application in faith. For faith dares to write the personal pronoun into God's promises, and it does so on the warrant of God's invitation. Hence the joyous characters of true faith. To Thee do I flee; Thou hast purchased me with Thy precious blood. Is there anything less that in deepest humility I could say of myself, or anything more that in highest praise I could say of Him? And thus meet these two in Christ : justice, which has condemned me, and mercy, which has absolved me. Grace can descend no further, and ascend no higher; all is in Christ, and all is for me.

2. Confession and prayer, not morbid self-seeking nor self-righteous effort, for all is from Thee and in Thee. 'Beloved, if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things.' 'Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults.' Yet this refers to the constantly renewed pardon granted to His people. With reference to our justification, and the pardon of our sins generally, we have Ps. xxxii. and li. Yea, and 'the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.' But justification and sanctification are closely united in our experience and in our prayers (see Rom. viii.); and both spring from our union to Christ. Much of our unrest arises from those numberless and continuous failings which are due to our ignorance, our weakness, and our forgetfulness. But 'he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.' Another cause of our anxiety is our inability to cope even with high-handed, especially with besetting sin. Here we pray and believe, 'Keep back Thy servant;' 'Lead us not into temptation.' 'He will with the temptation also make a way to escape.' Therefore, we rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice alway. Let us seek to realize our privileges. Lord, have mercy upon me; Lord, heal me; Lord, save me; I flee to Thee!

3. God's works and God's Word: both perfect, both showing forth the praises of Him who brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light. The one the unspoken, the other the spoken revelation of Him who is our Father in Christ. We know little of heaven, save what is associated with God. But this sufficeth us. There must be abundant employment

and constant enjoyment there. And if such is the brightness of what we now see dimly, what must it be in the full light of His countenance? Meanwhile, let us neither be inattentive nor undevout observers; let us learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart, and connecting what we see of His works with what we know of His Word, let us go on in the name of God the Lord, from strength to strength, till we all appear in Zion before God. Why stand ye idle all the day? Is there nothing to admire, nothing for which to plead, nothing to do for Him? And still among the lilies of Thy promises will we feed, until the day break and the shadows flee away.

LORD, Thy Word abideth,
And our footsteps guideth;
Who its truth believeth
Light and joy receiveth.
When our foes are near us,

Then Thy Word doth cheer us:

Voice of consolation,

Message of salvation.

Word of Mercy, giving

Succour to the living;

Word of life, supplying
Comfort to the dying!
O that we, discerning
Its most holy learning,

Lord, may love and fear Thee,

XXVIII.

STRONG CRYING.

I THE LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob

defend thee.

2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion. 3 Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Selah.

PSALM XX.

THIS is a Psalm of very joyous confidence, such as well befits the experience of Ps. xix. For 'this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.' So strongly is this confidence here expressed that prayer seems almost swallowed up in praise. Indeed, as Luther remarks, it is a shout of triumph before the victory, and a cry of joy before the help. Another peculiarity, closely connected with the former, is the exclusive character of such faith. It is not shutting our eyes, as it were, to the things that are seen, but deliberately looking at them, and then away from them to much higher realities. A faith like this implies a deep sense of Christ's presence and sufficiency. For the sufficiency of a present Christ is

ever the ground of our joy. He fills all, so that nothing is left empty; no want unsupplied; no fear unallayed; no request unanswered; no desire unmet. And in such joy we know not whether most to exult or most to tremble, for it is holy joy, wrought in us by the Spirit of God. Hence it is ever best and most appropriate that our joy should assume the form of prayer, and pour itself forth in fellowship with God, and in petitions for things agreeable to His will.

In its fullest sense the Psalm applies to Christ the King, and to the establishment of His kingdom. Whatever the primary or immediate occasion of its composition may have been, it reached far beyond David, and is a prayer of the Church, in which every individual believer may find his title to an expected answer. In the victory of our exalted Head over all His enemies our victory is included. Full of sweet comfort to every afflicted child of God, it is also very precious as being capable of application to our distressed brethren. And the optative form in which the verbs are couched in our authorized version, is in the original expressed by the future tense. This is most significant to the eye of faith, for 'we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.' 'Jehovah hear thee' (or, will hear thee) 'in the day of trouble' (literally, sorrow, anguish, pressure); ‘the name of the God of Jacob set thee on high' (or, will set thee on high, and so forth in the four opening verses). There are days of pressure and anguish, of loneliness and desertion. Nor can any stranger bring his own standard to bear upon what I feel as my anguish. We have even more propriety in our sorrows than in our joys. In such circumstances, what is