you; he watches you very narrowly. You find that not a hair of their heads was singed; neither was there the smell of fire upon them: they lost nothing but the bands that tied them. 66 "I will "I will go before thee." Ah! my brethren, let your trials be what they may, the Lord says, "I will go before thee." If the Lord goes before thee, what is there to fear? Not all the fiery darts of Satan or of hell can pluck the weakest saint out of his hand. thee, and make crooked things straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." There is nothing in the way with our God. go before "And I will give thee the treasure of darkness." By these trials— temptations-with which he exercises his church and people, we are shown that "through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom." You and I are very often making God a liar, by trying for an easier path. He holds the reins in Zion. The believer is brought to see his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. They individually are led to look to him, that they might know this truth-"I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places." Mind, it is a gift; we cannot merit it. These are treasures and hidden riches that the world knows not of; they are hidden from the world and from the professor, for he is as dead as the world. Am I blessed with these hidden riches? That you may know-you find it is personal-that you may knowknow what? That "I the Lord, which called thee by thy name, am the God of Israel: I know thee by name." He knows where you dwell. "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name, though thou hast not known me. You find what is the end of these things: it is to bring them into a straight path, that they may know that they are the chosen of God. Is this your desire? It is an essential point. "I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives-not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts." He was made willing. What for? To "let go my captives." This alludes to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is spoken of most blessedly. The church were in sin and bondage- slaves to sin and Satan. "I have raised him up in righteousness." He gave him a body like our own, yet without sin. By this means Christ hath redeemed us, that by this very means he might be a glorious Redeemer to ransom you. "You are not your own, but ye are bought with a price." If you know anything of the teaching of the Holy Ghost, you are, like Israel here, slaves to sin, to Satan, and to the world. By faith Abel offered up a lamb, and was accepted. He did not look at the lamb as his salvation; he looked through it to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. When Noah offered up a sacrifice, the Lord smelt a sweet savour; and he smells a sweet savour to all your prayers when they come up through faith in Christ. Is this your case? Has the Holy Spirit led you out of self to behold the sin-atoning Lamb? "I will direct all his ways.' his Spirit without measure. The Lord was pleased to give him of You will find that the purpose of God through Christ led him forth to look at the work-all that the Father gave him to do. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. "Now if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." If you know nothing of the teaching of the Spirit, the word is plain-you are none of his. You that know the Lord will find the promise true— "I will direct thee in all thy ways." "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths.' "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." The Lord directs us to plead his promise. Don't run away, and say I am preaching a doctrine that leads to a licentious life. Where grace is planted in the soul, that man is a renewed man; he cannot roll sin, as a sweet morsel, under his tongue. Christ shall build it-the "He shall let go my cap "I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city." Christ Jesus is exalted here in a most glorious manner. The Lord hath chosen Zion. "Here will I dwell, for I have desired it." city-whose foundations are like himself. tives." Cannot sin hold you? Cannot the devil hold you? Cannot the world hold you? Cannot your own heart hold you? No! sin, the world, or the devil shall not hold you when Christ builds the hope of salvation in your souls: you will find what the prophet says made good"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel! and because I will do this unto thee," the devil shall give up his prey, like the fish gave up Jonah: he will have his own. "Let go my captives-not for price, nor yet for reward, saith the Lord of hosts." We cannot pay a single mite but wretchedness, misery, and woe. and die for his people; he will bring them through fire and water. "All things shall work together for good to them that love God." His people are let go free; they are brought to triumph in faith; they are brought to see that God is faithful to his word; "He will never leave thee nor forsake thee." This I can speak by heartfelt experience. May the Lord, in his infinite mercy, bless the few hints dropt in his great name, and he shall have the praise, now and ever. Amen. Jesus was determined to live THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD'S WORD. But the word of our God endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.-1 Peter, i. 29. THE apostle in the verses before the above text, has been treating of the frailty of man under the figure of grass, saying, "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away;" and Isaiah addeth, "because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass." This is spoken of the bodies of men and the things they glory in, such as wealth, beauty, honour, worldly pleasure; when the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon them they wither to the world, with all its pleasures, profits, honours, and vanities. But the word of our God abideth for ever; and in the twenty-third verse he saith, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." There is something exceedingly comforting in these verses, when rightly understood and applied. Take a poor, empty, insensible sinner, dead in sins and blinded. by the god of this world, puffed up with a vain mind, glorying in the flesh and fleshly vanities, and living as if there were no God, no heaven, no hell, no future reckoning; indeed he knows of none. Now, being an elect sinner, the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon him, and he withers to all these earthly, vain pursuits, and he can no longer put the evil day afar off, and cause the seat of violence to come near; but terrors beset him around, his heart meditates on death, hell, judgment; an angry God in a broken law is before his eyes, and the wrath to come sounds in his ears. But the Holy and Blessed Spirit does not leave him here—he is in spiritual labour, and these birth-throes will, through the kind and powerful management of the Holy Spirit, in due time produce a spiritual birth, by and through the word of God. The Holy Comforter leads the poor convinced sinner under the powerful preaching of some servant of Jesus Christ, and he hears the Gospel of free salvation; the Saviour of poor lost sinners is clearly set before him; he is invited to believe that this Saviour came to seek and to save lost, ruined sinners from sin, wrath, hell, and eternal judgment; and that He ever lives in heaven to make intercession for such sinners as he is. The word comes home with power-it points to his case, and compels him to exclaim, “ I am that lost, ruined, helpless, needy sinner ; I sorely feel the fall, and sorely feel my need of salvation, and such an almighty, able, willing Saviour as the word holds forth." The promises, the kind invitations, seem to draw his heart and affections out towards the Saviour; he begins to feel hope rising within him, "that we through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Now the poor soul is begotten to hope by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever, and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto us. The poor sinner follows on to know the Lord, and he finds a little faith in the Saviour working in him; sometimes almost rising to an assurance that Christ is his. Faith begins to work by love; but this heavenly fire is a fire which enfolds itself or catches itself in, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" But Jesus withdraws himself-Satan comes and tells us it is all a delusion-we are fools enough to believe him, and we droop, sink, weep and mourn, cry and call, and cannot give up crying after him, although we have a thousand fears that he never will return. But he has sown the seed in thy heart, poor sinner, and it is not corruptible, but incorruptible seed-the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever. Mark that, it liveth and abideth for ever; and this is the word that hath quickened thy soul. This word was from the beginning-it was busy from all eternity musing about thy salvation-it was given forth by the Father to the Son about receiving thee, redeeming and saving thee. In the fulness of time the eternal Son of God took upon him our nature-he was made of a woman, made under the law, and redeemed them that were under the law; and now the set time is come to favour thee, poor sinner, he hath sent his word, the incorruptible seed, and lodged it in thy heart to live and abide for ever, and to let thee know that thou art one of those poor elected sinners, in whose souls this word shall be settled in heaven in thy salvation; for truth shall be built up for ever on thy word-it shall be settled in heaven. What ground of comfort is here for us at all times to find that the word of God, in the hand of the Spirit, hath quickened our dead souls unto life; that its coming home to the heart through preaching hath begotten us to a lively hope, and that however weak or simple it may appear to us or others |