shall set us in the way of his steps." The image is that of God coming down the course of His own ordination, and our being placed in His pathway, ready to receive Him, found expectant of Him, prepared for Him.

The end of God's rule is to bring us into harmony with His purpose and prepare us for all that He has intended for us. Reverence for God's order, the knowledge of the way in which He works, will fit us for life; there will be no shock in sorrow, no temptation in gladness, when for either we are already prepared. There are wondrous indications of what God will do in the life of every one of us if only we will be on the outlook for them; and many a premonition, true as instinct, comes to the spirit in sympathy with His rule.

To stand "in the way of God's steps;" is not this to reap all the blessedness of life? to be saved from error and confusion? Reverence and submission are our true blessedness. O, that you all would learn how true and tender is God's rule of you, and that righteousness and love are at one; that you would come to the blessedness of loving the rule because it is the rule of love; of trusting the tenderness because it is faithful, based on eternal right. Then might we welcome you to the labour and temptations of this life, assured that you would stand safe amidst its trials, and that your work would be earnest and helpful and glorious; or we might say farewell to you when dying, and bid you out into the unknown future, assured that for all that might meet you there you were prepared. To know the tenderness of God's rule, and the truthfulness of His love, is to be fit for this or any world; for God is supreme in all; and His " righteousness goes before him to set us in the way of his steps." Amen.

Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in

TRY

innocency.

RUST in God our support amid the perplexing problems of human life-this is the subject I purpose illustrating from this Psalm. I say, our support amid the perplexing problems of life rather than our answer to them; for, as you will see, the question which troubled Asaph-the prosperity of the wicked and the tribulation of the righteous-is not really answered here at all. The very thing he saw when he entered the sanctuary, the swift and sure destruction of the wicked, does but increase our perplexity. With our affections quickened by the gospel; with a love for all men breathed into us by the Spirit of Christ, a love that under His inspiration rises to sacrifice, so that we "could wish ourselves accursed for the sake of our brethren according to the flesh;" taught in the gospel, how deeply, how truly God loves them, that for them He could even give His Son to die; it is to us a baffling mystery that He

should "set the wicked in slippery places," that the very prosperity He gives them should but prepare them for desolation, and that they should at length be "utterly consumed with terrors."

Nor even in the Gospel are all the mysteries of human life explained to us. I think, indeed, that Asaph's question is answered for us, as it was not answered for him. In the 19th century of the Christian faith, we are not quite so perplexed as was he, when we see the righteous often troubled and the wicked often prosperous. The gospel redeems us from selfishness; it makes us unwilling, because we are the sons of God, to be merely happy; it impels us rather, because we "know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," to take our share of the common woes of a sinful world. It tells us that God is not "slack" concerning judgment and promise, as some men count slackness, but is "long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God suspends the doom of the ungodly and the reward of the just, for He "would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." The innocent suffer with the guilty, often suffer for them, that so the guilty, spared, may be led by God's goodness to repentance; to be helpful in such a ministry is an abundant recompense for all its pain. This the gospel teaches us; it tells us that we have not "cleansed our hearts in vain, and washed our hands in innocency;" for that the fellowship of the righteous Saviour is the fellowship of the Man of Sorrows. But it brings us face to face with deeper mysteries than those which it solves. If we ask the reason of this-why God has so constituted the world as that all this is true; if

we are not content with seeing how God acts, but go on to inquire why He acts thus; then there is no voice, nor any that answers us. This is all we get for response; so hath God willed it, and so it is.

What then is God doing for us in the gospel? If, as every mystery of life is solved, we are brought face to face with a deeper mystery, is not the burden of life made more insupportable, the gospel itself most intolerable of all? My brethren, God is doing for us in the gospel what He did for Asaph in the sanctuary; He is bringing us to trust in Him. He is confirming our faith, enlarging our conceptions of His righteousness, calling us to a broader view of His counsel, deepening our confidence that He is good. Every answer He gives to our questionings is a blessed answer; every fact He explains to us, every truth He reveals, makes us feel more and more that His love is fuller, and His purpose profounder, and His righteousness vaster than we had thought. And thus, though the answer to every mystery is itself a deeper mystery; it is also a fuller revelation of His goodness and His grace. And so we can trust Him although we cannot comprehend Him. We are patient in our ignorance; we can bear the unsolved problem, assured that when that is made clear to us, the answer will, like all the other answers He has given us, shew us that He is "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders."

God does not explain everything to us as we should wish it explained; but He is continually shewing us, that He has good and wise reasons for all He does. The question, which it is profanity to ask, but which we are sometimes impelled to ask, "How doth God know?

and is there knowledge in the most High?" is answered for us. We see a purpose though we cannot comprehend it. There is knowledge in God, God does know, and that is enough for us. There is no mystery in life so dark, but we can bear it, if only we are persuaded that God is pursuing His purpose in it. It was the suggestion that God could not be discerning between the righteous and the wicked, which grieved Asaph to the heart, and pricked his veins. When he learnt that God was taking note of all; then he said, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."

I dwell for a moment on these things, because I am quite aware that in attempting to support souls despondent under the mystery of trouble, I may be leaving unsolved even weightier questions than I may answer; I may seem to be answering one mystery by a mystery yet darker. But our meditation will not be in vain, if any one of you can but be led to a firmer trust in God. We cannot understand all that God is doing; enough for us if we can recognise that He is doing all things, can be assured that He is doing all things well. God answered Asaph's difficulty by showing him that he was not taking account of all the problem. It is thus He answers us. The gospel has revealed many facts in human life which we forget when we say, just because we are not comfortable, " Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed mine hands in innocency." There are reasons in what is perplexing us. Though we may not understand them all, God knows them, and that is our support.

Notice I. how forgetfulness of God leads us to chafe under the painful dispensations of human life; and