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In the stormy wind and tempest His is the 'still small voice' which is heard above it all, saying, 'Peace, be still.' Oh, beloved friends, see to it that you trust in Him at all times.' Never for one moment doubt Him; doubt everything else if you will; but, oh! doubt not His willingness, doubt not His love, doubt not His power. 'Trust in Him at all times.' You cannot trust Him too much; and nothing, nothing shall ever separate you from His love. Only trust in Him with your whole heart, without one single reservation, He is well worthy of your entire trust and confidence, Hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?' He hath said, 'I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,' or 'age.' Yes, He is with us at all times. He is with us in the morning as the first faint rays steal over the east; He is with us amid the noontide brightness, and in the still quiet of the evening; He is with us in the dark day, with us in the bright day, with us in tribulation, with us in gladness, with us in life, with us in death, with us in the night of weeping, with us in the morning of joy, with us in time, and with us for all eternity.

Have you difficulties, dear friends, have you perplexities? then Trust in Him at all times,' pour out your heart before Him, God is a refuge for us. Who is there that does not know what it is to pour into the ear of an earthly friend some tale of suffering and sorrow? and oh, how infinitely more sweet to pour it all out before Him whose eye never slumbers nor sleeps, whose 'ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, neither His arm shortened that it cannot save; nay, who loves to be entreated by His people. Beloved, did ever any one go

and pour out his heart to Him, in the fullness of childlike confidence and faith, only to be sent empty away? Nay, surely, and why then should you? Oh, believe Him, trust Him, only trust Him, and you shall find in

your blessed experience, that for you behind the darkest cloud of sorrow, the Sun of Righteousness is shining still. And at length, when the days of the years of your pilgrimage here are ended, when the day, the everlasting day begins to break upon the mountains, and the shadows flee away for ever, you shall exclaim with praise and thanksgiving in your heart, Lo, this is our God. We have trusted in Him, we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.'

Thanks be to God, beloved, if we can truly say that our expectation is from Him.' If we have learnt this most blessed of all lessons, then let us praise Him with joyful lips, and pour into His ear our song of gratitude and praise for all His mercies, ' for He that is mighty hath done to us great things, and holy is His name.' Still we can never fully praise Him here below. We must say in the beautiful language of the 65th Psalm, 'Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion.' Praise does rise to Thee from Thy servants even here, but to a certain extent we must say, as it is in the margin, Praise is silent.' Here in this body of sin and death, we cannot praise Him as we desire, we can only lisp His praises. The full volume of praise which God ought to have, Thee, O God, in Zion.'

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waits for

When He comes again the second time, without sin unto salvation;' when all shall be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth; when the last stone is built into the spiritual temple, and the history of the prodigal son is complete, then when the King comes in to see the guests, shall break out the triumphant hallelujah of praise, ascending from ten thousand times ten thousand. Not one note out of tune, not one voice silent, all joining in the one eternal song of praise to Him which is, and which was, and which is to come.' For unto Him shall the vow be performed, the tongue shall

then be loosed to praise and magnify His name, and all the powers of the ransomed soul shall be given up to Him in a new and happy service. True, beloved, the whole body, soul, and spirit, must be working for Him here; we must be willing to sow in tears perhaps just now, but a little longer and the vow shall be performed,' 'God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.' We trusted in Him and we were helped; He has been our rock, our salvation, and our defence. He has been a refuge for us;' He is the hearer and the answerer of prayers,' and unto Him shall all flesh come. Beloved friends, let our prayer go up to Him. Let our expectation be from Him, and then we shall one day join in the song of praise which 'waits for Him in Zion;' the new song which only the redeemed can sing, 'Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.'

I cannot praise Thee now, Lord;

I cannot praise Thee now;

For my heart is sorely riven,

And a cloud is on my brow;
But praise is waiting for Thee
In the glorious future time,
Amid the bright revealings
When Zion's hill we climb.

I cannot praise Thee here, Lord;
I cannot praise Thee here;

For my pathway lies through shadows,

And my heart is lone and drear;

But praise is waiting for Thee,
When the pilgrimage is past,

And at our home in glory,
We gather in at last.

And I will praise Thee there, Lord,
When Zion's heights I gain!

But might I not be tuning

A prelude to the strain?

Z

While praise is waiting for Thee,
Thou'lt lend a listening ear
To its low and faint rehearsal
In faltering accents here.

Then let me praise Thee now, Lord,
In the dark and cloudy day;
Though sad, and sore disquieted
By reason of the way.

For the praise that's waiting for Thee
Good cause shall yet appear;

And I'll wake the golden harpstrings

Beneath the falling tear.

VAUGHAN'S 'SONGS IN THE Night.'

PSALM LXVIII. 1-4.

THE TRIUMPHS OF MESSIAH.

'Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him.

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

'But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.

Sing unto God, sing praises to His name: extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His name JAH, and rejoice before Him.'

DID this Psalm not contain within itself evidence of being a Messianic Psalm, the quotation from it in the Epistle to the Ephesians (iv. 8), would at once settle this point. In reading over the Psalm and musing upon it, I came upon the words of a modern writer, one of our best divines, so very good and so satisfactory, that I cannot do better than quote them. He says, 'The Psalm is a song of triumph which was sung on the occasion of the bringing up of the Ark to the hill of Zion. It is therefore a Messianic Psalm. Every part of that Ark, every stone of that hill, was full of spiritual meaning. Every note struck on the lyre of the sweet singer of Israel, was but part of a chord, deep and world wide,

sounding from the golden harps of Redemption. The partial triumphs of David and Solomon only prefigured, as in a prophetic mirror, the universal and eternal triumph of the Incarnate Son of God. Those who do not understand this, have yet their first lesson in the Old Testament history to learn.'

At once, then, we see the great scope and bearing of the Psalm to be the things of Messiah: His mission and kingdom. And that not in a secondary, but in a primary sense. The great theme which filled the mind of the inspired Psalmist was nothing less than the Messiah; His days, His kingdom, His glory. Every thing in surrounding objects and local events which could be made to illustrate this, the sacred writer was enabled to perceive the analogy in order to give more point and clearness to his one all-absorbing subject. In the opening verses of this Psalm we are met by an interesting point of difference between our English translation an the Hebrew original. The verbs arise,'' scattered,' etc. are all in the future tense, not in the present. It is not, ‘Let God arise!' but God shall arise; His enemies shall be scattered; they that hate Him, shall flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so shall they be driven away: as wax melteth before the fire, so shall the wicked perish at the presence of God.'

This is a wonderful series of predictions concerning Messiah's then future kingdom, beginning with the time of His first Advent, to which the first verse may be taken as referring. 'God shall arise:' in the fulness of time' He shall appear! He shall come! He shall arise! Then, at the close, the Psalmist points to the time when that wondrous history of His life and sufferings and death shall be closed, and the present dispensation ended, and when He shall come again the second time in His glory, with all the holy Angels with Him, to take unto Himself His great power and reign for ever.