OUR SUNDAY EVENINGS IN JULY. First Sunday. GOD'S WAY THE RIGHT WAY. "And He led them forth by the right way."--PSALM cvii. 7. GOD's way must ever be the right way. He Nor may the right way be the easiest way. cannot err, and He cannot deceive. If we had Rivers, sands, and rocks, the spear of Amalek, and implicit confidence in God, such confidence as is the sword of Midian met the old Hebrew emiwarranted by His character and the history of all grants. It was a toilsome journey, often without His dealings, we should never doubt and never apparent aim or progress-and yet the country challenge His wisdom or goodness. But men often would not have been a land of rest without the forget this great truth, that the way selected by previous pilgrimage. Oh, how would the wearied God is the right way; for they sometimes dispute and harassed pilgrim, so long accustomed to burnit, nay, occasionally deny it. Had the Jewish na-ing crags and precipices, nestle amidst the fair tion been polled before they crossed the Red Sea, landscapes and green pastures of the new country! or after the spies came back with their evil report, Ease is often ruinous. Necessity is the mother of or at any of those crises when trial met them, civilisation. Where labour is not needed, there is and hunger or thirst assailed them, they would savagism. Nor is the path to heaven without many have been ready, all but unanimously, to declare a hill of difficulty and valley of humiliation. What that the way on which they were journeying was terrific convictions of sin ere one grasps the cross; the wrong way, and that a far better might have what rackings of soul ere it find peace in the Lord's been chosen for them. Alas! left to their own bosom; what wrestlings night-long with the Angel wisdom, they should soon have wandered, lost of the covenant ere the blessing yearned after is their way, been entangled in the ravines, and conferred; what sighs and struggles after the nobler fallen an easy prey to the Egyptians who chased nature, when inferior motives in some dark moment them, or to any of the Arab tribes that watched re-assert their mastery! What prolonged contest their march. We must not, therefore, judge of with evil, with paganism and superstition, ere the God's procedure hastily, or in a spirit of unbelief. Church attain universal dominion! The little For the right way may not be the shortest. We leaven does not leaven the lump with a rapidity naturally press to a direct point, and wish to see the visible to the eye, but by an insensible process. end before us. A few days might have brought Such is God's way. Assured that God's way is the Hebrew hosts out of Egypt into Palestine, but right, why should we faint and hesitate? Faith is they wandered forty years in the desert. The first omnipotent-"I can do all things through Christ, generation of emancipated slaves were not fitted to which strengtheneth me." If, O my God, this is fight and conquer, and the nation must wait till a Thy path, I shall pursue it. If I am to climb this new and hardier race rise up. So that the long and mountain that lies across my path, I shall dare it. monotonous abode in the desert was indispensable. If Excelsior is to be my motto, I shall venture Many a one might shake his head and question and win, and not be found dead of exhaustion the geographical knowledge of Moses, and many a when I have gained the summit; for Thou shalt base motive might be assigned for his procrastina-"give thine angels charge concerning me, and in tion. Knots of discontented men might talk of what they surmised, nay, some one, presuming on a journey he had taken northward on some Egyptian expedition, might declare, that were it left to him they should in very brief time arrive in safety at the land of promise. But they came to Palestine as soon as they were prepared to possess it, and no Their journey, every mile of it, from Goshen to Shittim, opposite Jericho, was a right way. The right way still may not be the shortest. It is not faith for the first time to-day, and translation to heaven to-morrow. Many a year may intervene; many a year of prayer, discipline, and self-denial. It is not the new birth on this Sabbath, and the kingdom of heaven entered ere next Sabbath revolve; but the "new-born" babe is nursed with "the sincere milk of the Word," and passes on through infancy and youth amid much work and trial to "a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." sooner. their hands they shall bear me up, lest at any time I dash my foot against a stone:" and I will ever wait on Thee; for "they that wait on the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles," and speedily soar above every obstacle. 66 Nor may the right way be apparently the safest way. The chariots of Pharaoh pursued with hot haste the escaped Hebrews, and they were sore afraid," and clamoured, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?" Amalek met them and thought to conquer and spoil them. The prospect of cities walled up to heaven, and guarded by Anakim, distressed them. Scorpions were in their path; Moabites and Amorites resisted them. There was a Red Sea at the beginning of their pilgrimage, and how were they to cross it? and a Jordan at the end of it, and how could they bridge it? But the Divine Presence was always with them-the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. 66 Manna fell when they hungered; a stream burst from the rock when they thirsted. The rod of Moses achieved deliverance at every crisis. A safe path, therefore, is ever marked out by God. If we do not know when to take the next step, the Interpreter is with us, one among a thousand," and the oracle says, "Go forward." Is the enemy preparing, the Captain of the Lord's host is on our side, and His sword is drawn. Are we to cross the last dark river, is not this the solace, "When thou passest through the waters, I shall be with thee." May not each one say this-" I will go in the strength of the Lord." God's way may thus not be the shortest, the easiest, or apparently the safest; but it is ever right! It is His way. Would you set your judgment against His? Nay more, His way proves itself to be right, for it leads to the right end-a "city of habitation ;" a pleasant, serene, and permanent abode. He may lead you in a path you have not known— through fears and dangers-through sickness and adversity-through the slough of despond, where you are nigh swallowed up-through the valley of the shadow of death, where your heart is gloomy as the scene around you; but the result is peace, a chastened soul, a praising tongue, and, in the end, the presence of God and the Lamb-in the company of myriads who dwell in the New Jerusalem. "We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.' Why then doubt Him? He knew the whole Sinaitic wilderness; and the Hebrew hosts who murmured against Him had not even surveyed it. "Father," says the child, "I was never here before. I don't know where I am." It may be true, but the parent knows it all, and he brings his child to his blessed home. And thus in the end God's way shall be felt and acknowledged to be the right way. It may be hard, as we travel so wearily upon it, to make this acknowledgment; for we see only a small part, and we are apt to misunderstand what is around us, to forget what is behind us, and to exaggerate what is before us. But when we have come to the termination, and look back from the heights of eternity, and the whole path lies spread out before us, we shall feel that it was indeed a right path-wisdom in its most intricate steps, and love in its darkest defiles. What stuns and startles us now, shall then excite fervent gratitude; what vexes us as a problem now, shall then enfold itself in clearest light. Why was I permitted to stumble at one point? Why did I lose my way and grope about in darkness at another point? Why did this reverse fall upon me, and wellnigh crush me? Why was this child taken away, and that other and tender relationship broken up? Why did that special temptation assail me, and that spiritual enemy lie in wait for me? These questions, dark now, shall then meet with a satisfactory reply. It was a right way by which He led me to a city of habitation. Amen; "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." Second Sunday. GOD ALONE. | YES, we have many a one in heaven besides God. There are the angels, clothed in immortal youth and beauty, bowing their lofty heads in profound adoration-the pillars of the great temple vibrating with the music of their thunder-psalm. And we "have" them-they are ours, we command their services-for they are commissioned as "ministering spirits to them who shall be heirs of salvation." As we look up to heaven, we cannot but rejoice that we have angels there, serving Christ, and serving us in Him and for His sake. And saints are there too, pure, perfect, and happy, bearing the Divine image, chanting the perpetual hallelujah, clothed in white robes never again to be sullied, and carrying palms in their hands, the symbol of final victory. We "have" them--ours are they still; Yet the saint, with so many in heaven to attract for they wear our nature, and rejoice in the "com- him, can truly say, "Whom have I in heaven but mon salvation." Ours are they; for though they thee?" I have no one else in heaven to pray to. have gone before us, they still sympathize with us. Gabriel I dare not invoke, and I can make suppliThey are above us, but yet with us; for though cation neither to Isaiah nor Paul. They know me they have entered the rest, they have not forgotten not, and cannot supply my wants. To God alonethose who are behind them on the journey. We to Him on the throne do I pray, and ask for copious "have" them in heaven, and we are "followers and continued supplies of grace out of His inexof them, who, through faith and patience, inherit haustible fulness. He knows me, loves me, and the promises." The pastor has in heaven many a individualizes me among thronging myriads of soul saved under his ministry. The father has in suppliants. "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" heaven the babe that left him so early-the child-there is no one else in heaven to save me. Angels has the mother that nursed him, and taught him, and saints may guard the saved, but they cannot "Whom have I in heaven but Thee?"-PSALM lxxiii. 25. me. bring salvation. The self guided are misguided, and they come short of glory. We are preserved in the Divine path only by the Divine hand. The first step toward glory is prompted by His grace, and the last step into it leads to welcome from Him-guidance first, and glory next-" and afterwards receive me to glory." Angels may congratulate, and saints may welcome, but the right of reception into His own dwellingplace belongs to God alone. With gracious condescension will He award it; and His Son in His name shall say, "Come, ye blessed of My Father." "Whom have I in heaven but thee?"-for, in fine, He alone can be the "portion for ever." He alone fills the soul and satisfies it. May not each reader then exclaim, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" and, surely, he ought to add, "and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Third Sunday. GOOD AND EVIL. "What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"—JOB ii. 10. STRANGE doctrine apparently, that evil comes from a Being of infinite good. Job's wife spoke perversely; and many, stung with bereavement, or maddened by grief, have adopted similar language. Yet we are never to blame God, even though we receive evil from Him. His character is never to be impeached, though we suffer at His hands. The sun has not set, though he disappear behind a cloud. How sin came into the world at first, and why it was permitted to come into it, we know not. The solution of such a problem is "too high" for us; “we cannot attain unto it." Theory after theory has risen and been exploded. Our practical question is, not how sin has come in, but how it is to go out; not how it originated, but how it is to be subdued. We need not plague ourselves by asking why we are sinners; our great concern should be, how we are to become saints. And so long as evil is continued in the world, the words of the patriarch befit us, and afford us comfort. and may therefore be punished! Ever conscious of our shortcomings, the language of confession fits us-not that of complaint. God has done us no wrong. Some people seem to think that in their resignation they are magnanimous in forgiving God some injury He has done them. Ah no! Yea, are we not taught that evil as well as good comes from God? In the widest sense, evil came at first with His knowledge; it remains by His permission; it is ever under His control; and it works out His gracious purposes. It is no dark and dominant usurper and rival, having an independent existence or co-ordinate power. He "cannot be tempted with evil." It is no necessity of God's universe; no shadow flung from the back of His throne. He allows it, He wields it, and He makes it promotive of good—a proof of His own uncontrolled sovereign sway. Still further, in a special and personal sense, if evil come upon us, we have merited it. It is not sent without purpose to us. The sovereignty of God in such dark dispensations is not caprice; for God has reasons, and the best of reasons, for all He does, though He does not disclose them. Highest sovereignty is only highest equity. If Job had not needed the trial, it would not have been sent; it had never come upon him in this sudden and singular form. We have sinned, and are still sinning, Father, I have sinned." This being the case, we have no ground of complaint under the evil. "Wherefore doth a living man complain; a man for the punishment of his sins?" So long as life and reason are granted, these are elements of thankfulness. So long as we have life, we have hope that the evil may pass away, as it did in Job's history. The storm may not rage all day, but there may be a peaceful evening; or, as the Psalmist sings, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Besides, the good far more than counterbalances the evil. "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." It is not the awful sentence of death which He is inflicting, it is something very much less. We have life and its blessings, the means of grace, an inspired Bible, an opened sanctuary, a throne of grace with free access to it; and why then should we not be thankful amidst a few days of evil? And what did not Christ endure for us! What anguish of soul in Gethsemane and on Calvary! If the Blessed Substitute bore it without repining, what resignation should characterize the original transgressor! And lastly, the evil sent upon us by God is the means of working out good for us. The evil of physical pain is a blessed agency, not only teaching the value of health, but pointing to disease and injury to seek for remedy. Affliction reveals our helplessness, and bids us prepare for death. Bereavement, while it is bruising the spirit, is opening up an entrance for the true consolation, and leading the soul to look forward to reunion with our kindred fallen asleep in Christ. Discipline is ever productive of the "peaceable fruit of righteousness;" a sky never clouded would cause a barren earth. |