the Most High?' Thus, through the weakness of our faith, too often the cause of Christ suffers, and we bring contempt upon His Name.

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'Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.' Is not this one result of such rebellion as that which I have described? Darkness of soul! that darkness which may be felt;' darkness because our Lord's face is hidden from us; darkness as regards all His precepts and promises; darkness and the shadow of death,' or, as it may be emphatically rendered, 'the death shade.' Who does not know by experience something of this 'death shade,' when the soul has lost sight for a time of all that Christ has done for it, and feels in its agony that there is nothing left but to lie down and die? Ah, many of us must have known the deep bitterness which overwhelms us when the death shade seems drawing round our soul, and when, for a time, every ray of hope, and light, and joy seems fled away for ever! Not only so, but 'bound in affliction. and iron; the soul fettered and chained, as by fetters of iron; even the law of sin in our members.' Truly we are tied and bound with the chain of our sins,' so fast bound that nothing but the hand of God can deliver us.

'Therefore He brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.' Here was God's reason for thus 'visiting their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges." It was 'because they had rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High.' It is pride which makes us rebels against the law of God; and by bringing us into bondage in affliction and iron,' He desires to bring us down; to lay us low, and to destroy the natural pride of our hearts; to teach us that His way is always the right way, and that it is

'Sweet to lie passive in His hand,

And know no will but His.'

He exercises us to the very utmost; He brings down our

heart with labour,' even until we fall down,' and find that there is none to help.' When thus brought down, the soul often struggles long and painfully, putting forth all its strength in the vain effort to arise again. But it is of no avail; God waits until we have proved our own strength to be weakness; until we are ready to cry to Him for help; until refuge fails us, and we learn to 'cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.' And then, when we cry unto the Lord in our trouble,' He saves us out of our distresses.' Beloved, even the bonds and fetters become blessed to us, if out of the midst of them there is a cry, or even a groan rising from the prison house and entering into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. And He saved them out of their distresses,' or out of their straits.' Now the dark clouds roll away, and the sun shines forth, bright and glorious, as the light of seven days; when, notwithstanding all our coldness and indifference, the Lord comes and, with His Almighty arm, 'saves us out of our distresses.' Nor is that all; 'He brought them out of darkness and out of the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.' The sins, the iron bonds, must be left behind ere He can deliver us out of darkness and the shadow of death.' He does not love to afflict us, beloved, but sin must be subdued; and therefore the tears must fall, and the shadows must come, ere He can sever the chains which have so long bound us to earth, that so the bosom sins which we have been cherishing may be cast off for ever, and the prisoners set free.

'Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men,' or rather, Let men praise the Lord for His goodness.' Let us do this, beloved, we who have been delivered from the bondage of corruption, who are 'prisoners of hope.' Did we not feel the 'goodness of the Lord' when He came and delivered us; when perhaps we were sleeping

for sorrow, and when, like Peter in the prison, we awoke to find the fetters broken, and our souls set free? When the Lord turned again the captivity of His people, we were like unto them that dream;' but, thank God, this was no vision; the chains are snapped and we are escaped. Shall we not then 'praise Him for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men?' Shall we not sing a song of deliverance, a song of praise and love and joy, even now which shall teach us to join in the full and glorious notes of the anthem which shall yet ring throughout the courts of heaven, 'For He was slain, and hath redeemed us?' 'He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.' He has shattered them in pieces, leaving not one link of the iron chain which bound us. He has 'broken our bands in sunder.'

And so, beloved, when the end comes and we are free for ever from the galling chains which have so long enthralled us, what a heaven will that be from whence we shall never more need to be cast into the prison house, to learn our appointed lesson! Prisoners of hope, look upwards, look onwards, trust all to Him, expect all from Him; believe in Him, wait for Him, rest in Him, and He will bring you at last through the dark valley, safe home to the 'sunny side of Jordan,' to rejoice in His blessed presence for ever.

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Shall bloom again for us in yon dear land,
And we shall wander amid sweetest bowers,
For evermore!

'A little while!'

And parted hands

Shall clasp again upon the heavenly shore,
Where she 'Jerusalem the Golden'-stands

For evermore !

'A little while!'

And every star

Shall pale and fade before His matchless light,
Whose unveiled glory fills that city fair

For evermore !

'A little while!'

And then!—the song

Of 'Hallelujah!' to our Saviour King!

The glad hosannas of heaven's ransomed throng, For evermore.

H. E. B. D.

PSALM CVII. 17–22.

DEATH THE GATE OF GLORY.

'Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their distresses.

'He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

'Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing.'

We now come to the third picture presented before us in this very interesting Psalm. We have seen the people of God as wanderers in the wilderness; then as prisoners, fast bound in affliction and iron,' and now a totally different view is opened up to us. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.' This is not the folly of the man who says 'in his heart, there is no God; it is that of those who have accepted Christ as their salvation, and who, though in great weakness and shortcoming, are yet His people. Because of their transgression' they are afflicted. The people of God, beloved, are, alas, not free from many sins of omission and commission, of thought and word and deed; they are not ready at all times, and in every place, to shew forth His praise; in many things we offend all. And this verse, I think, is intended to point to the ordinary everyday life of the believer; to the many occasions when he fails to fulfil his Master's commands, when he does not let his light shine as he ought, and when he comes short of the high and holy life, which as a professed servant of God he ought to lead. In a greater or less degree,

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