contrast of those who are of the world with those who are of God. The Lord would have no fellowship with these. He says, I will have no communion with the things with which they have communion. "Drink-offerings of blood"

is the character of their holy things. They "hasten after another god;" no matter what the measure of their departure, their faces are set another way.

And then, verse 5, we find his own happy relation to God -"The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance." But this was not more true of Him than it is of us. I would, dear friends, that we should meditate much on the precious thought. Our joy is in God; there are many joys and sympathies, but there is no real happiness except in God. If all the affections and joys of heaven were the portion of the soul, it would be still unhappy without God. There would be misery in heaven except God were the portion of each there. I do not attempt to explain how this will be realized; but still, if the soul be occupied with coming glory, it needs to connect this thought of God being its portion and its joy with it, otherwise the very glory itself would burthen it too much, for glory is a strange thing to us.

"And of my cup." The cup is a present thing, a present blessing. Jesus proved this because He walked in practical, present fellowship with God; and we shall prove it too in proportion as we seek to walk thus. We shall not lose blessing ultimately, but we shall lose present blessing; all will fail if we seek happiness in any other way than in knowing the LORD to be the "portion of our cup." We may mingle many a cup for ourselves, we may seek for blessing in this thing or in that, but all will fail to promote our comfort and joy; we shall never find a full portion of blessing unless the LORD Himself be the "portion of our cup." Nothing but God can satisfy the soul.

"Thou maintainest (i.e. sustainest) my lot." Preserving, sustaining care, is that which the soul feels it chiefly needs when looking at the danger that surrounds it. The exercised soul almost trembles at receiving any joy or blessing if it does not know that it comes from God, and is sustained for it by Him, because as the grass of the field, so it withereth. But if any soul is able to say, "This is not a cup without God, but from Him," then there is strength and joy, and it can add, "Thou sustainest my lot." So that whatever blessing we may receive from God-is it salvation, or the power of

service, or any earthly good or blessing coming through Jesus —it is our privilege to be able to say, “Thou maintainest my lot."

And then, just in proportion as we see the LORD to be the portion of our inheritance and of our cup, our preserver and sustainer, shall we be able to say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." The saints seldom say this now. Pleasantness is little known now, and why? because the LORD is not thus realised. But just in proportion as we know, as we cleave to God, do we find our true joy, and the "lines to have fallen" to us in "pleasant places."

Blessed are those who seek to realise this experience; but it is here, I repeat, the saints so frequently fail, even in the practical acknowledgment of God in their ways.

And when the soul is able to say, "I have waited on the Lord, and sought counsel," it will also be able to "bless Him, as here, "I will bless the LORD who hath given me counsel." Now this is a happy thing. But it is only when the soul waits on God that we can expect to trace happy results in what we undertake. If we have chosen our own path, we shall find estrangement and sorrow, and we shall not be able to "bless the Lord" in the sense of this verse; for it describes the harvest springing up joyfully, in consequence of our having walked in the counsels of the LORD. We are often so wayward, so hasty, and so careless, that we do the thing for which we need direction first, and ask counsel afterwards; then we cannot "bless the Lord," who has given us counsel, though we may have to bless Him perhaps for delivering us from the folly of our own ways.

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Having the LORD to counsel-not only the word of God, but also the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, to counsel and direct, to give us His own feelings and desires-we can go forward. The saint has a secret power of judgment within himself, and often "in the night seasons," when circumstances of excitement are still, we are instructed and admonished by the Holy Spirit. 'My reins (i.e. my secret thoughts) instruct me in the night seasons." This is really a present positive blessing. The Holy Ghost dwelleth in us, the Spirit of Christ is in us, and if there were more attention to these secret admonitions, to this secret power of judgment (of course guided by the Word) we should find that we have a power of action that the world can never know.

We have seen our blessed Lord as knowing the path of sorrow, but here we see the end of it—"Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Now, in order to understand this, we must mark the contrast between death and life, as it is said, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruptior. Thou wilt show me," &c. It was after knowing separation from God that he was to be shown "the path of life" and the "fulness of joy" at God's right hand. Now we cannot follow Jesus in His path of suffering, dear brethren, here; we can never know what He knew; for He knew wrath, and wrath is that which we have never known, can never know. We may know affliction, we may know suffering and sorrow, yet the end is sure and certain. Or we may know something of what the "path of life" is, by contrasting it with ›ur knowledge of the path of death. None but the saints can do this. If the Spirit dwelling in us has led us to krow what the path of death is, because He is the "living Spirit,” we are able to distinguish how everything fair and lovely goes to corruption, and is marked with death.

Well, all the sorrows and hindrances which we now so ofen know shall be done away, and we shall know what it is to see and to enter upon the "path of life” with the same felings of joy which our blessed Lord describes in John xvii. Jesus knew it, even when here, and He has left this chapter (John xvii.) to us, that we might be comforted by knowing the blessedness of His service and His ways, to share with Him in their circumstances, as well as in the glory hereafter. And as we shall surely know this end of blessing, we should desire not to shrink from, but to be placed in those circunstances now in which we may know something of the blessedness of walking in the ways of Jesus. The soul that is not careless, but, on the contrary, is an exercised soul, knovs that the place in which Jesus walked here is the place on which the blessing of God can rest, therefore it will desire it. It is thy hand, my God!

My sorrow comes from thee;

I bow beneath thy chastening rod,
'Tis love that bruises me.

I would not murmur, Lord;

Before thee I am dumb;

Lest I should breathe one murmuring thought,
To thee for help I come.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

HEB. xi. 23-29.

We have in these verses a little picture, drawn by the Spirit of God, of the ways of God in bringing up His people out of Egypt by the hand of Moses. And, we may say, it is just a picture of the deliverance of the Church from the power of Satan, of the salvation of God, and the means by which it is brought about.

Verse 23. God had taken the tenderest care of Moses in his infancy. So in the days of our unregeneracy, God's care has been over us in a thousand ways.

Verse 24-26. A word here as to guidance through the providences of God. Many cling to providences as though they were to be the guide for faith. Nothing could be a more remarkable providence than that which placed Moses in the court of Pharaoh, but it was not the guide for the faith of Moses. Brought up as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, mighty in words and in deeds, there "Providence had placed him. If ever there was a remarkable providence, it was in the case of Moses. After having been hid three months of his parents, till they could hide him no longer, he is put in an ark of bulrushes, among the flags by the river's brink. Thus exposed, and crying, the babe attracts the attention of Pharaoh's daughter, who, with her maidens, is brought down to the place just at the moment. She has compassion on him; listens to the suggestion of the young woman, his sister, gives him in charge to his own mother, to be nursed for her, and he becomes her son. The first thing he does, when come to years, is to give it all up. Had Moses reasoned, his reasoning might have had great scope of argument, he might have said, "God's providence has placed me here," "I can use all this influence for God's people," and the like. But he never thought of such a thing. His place was with God's people. He did not act for God's people merely; he did not patronize God's people; his place was with and amongst God's people. God's "Providence" had given him a position, which he might relinquish, but it was no guide

for conscience. There may be the most plausible reasoning about a thing, but when the " eye is single," the "whole body will be full of light." Moses saw in his brethren (though a feeble people) "the people of God," and he identified them, as such, with the glory of God. That is what faith always does. They may be in a feeble and failing position, or they may be in a blessed position, that is not the question, faith identifies the people of God with the glory of God, and acts accordingly.

The children of Israel were in a very bad condition, still, they were "the people of God;" and the first thing recorded of the faith of Moses is, that he took his place amongst the afflicted people of God. If reproach was on them, it was "the reproach of Christ," and he "esteemed it greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." He reckoned with God, and this kept his soul clear of every other influence, he looked right on- "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee," &c. The light cannot shine down along another path.

Verse 27. Faith had brought Moses into a straight line with "the recompence of the reward," and, when in that path, faith enabled him to identify himself with God, to look up to God as his power. At once came the "wrath of the king." But the same faith that saw glory for him at the end of the path, saw God for him all through the path. That is the secret of real strength. What unbelief does, is to compare ourselves and our own strength with circumstances. What faith does, is to compare God with circumstances. Take the case of the spies. (Num. xiii. and xiv.) They said, “All the people of the land are of a great stature; and we saw the giants there, the sons of Anak, that come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight." If the Israelites compared their stature with that of the Anakims, they had no business there. What said Caleb and Joshua? They stilled the people, saying, "They are as bread to us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not." That is, they compared these sons of Anak with God-what matter, then, whether they were giants or grasshoppers. They spoke the language of faith. It was no reasoning about circumstances; it was just simply saying, "Greater is He that is for us, than all that can be against us.' ." God was there. That is what makes the path of faith so simple. How did David reason? He