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SERMON II.

TRUE HAPPINESS.

PSALM CXVI, 7.

"Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."

THE psalmist, it is evident from the context, had encountered deep affliction. So severe were his sufferings, that he almost despaired of life! But having learnt to prize the throne of grace;-knowing that His arm, who sat thereon, was not shortened, that it could not save, nor His ear heavy that it could not hear;-he availed himself of the privilege of access, to invoke relief and deliverance! "This

poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." And now, he counsels his spirit no longer to remain a captive in the gloomy chambers of fear and apprehension; to cease from its disquiet; and to seek the inviting shelter of serenity and repose. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."

And this inspiring charge will find a response in the hearts of all who "have tasted that the Lord is gracious;" who have proved Him to be the hearer and answerer of prayer. For without asserting that in every minute particular the experience of all Christians universally accords—it is yet true that in the great leading elements of a life of faith, there is entire uniformity. For has not each one to pursue the same journey? to encounter the same foes? Are not all taught by the same Spirit, furnished with the same rule of faith, and directed to the same sources of consolation?

Thus, in the mental and spiritual exercises and sorrows of ancient believers preserved in the sacred records, Christians now discover their own cases depicted, and are encouraged to adopt the very words of those who have preceded them in the vale of tears, in the field of conflict, or on the mount of deliverance.

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Privileged indeed are they who are enabled to appreciate the psalmist's counsel; Return unto THY rest, O my soul; for the Lord dealt bountifully with thee." In considering the passage, we have to notice

I. The claim-"Thy rest, O my soul."

II. The invitation-"Return unto thy rest, O my soul."

III. The plea-"for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."

First-The claim-"Thy rest, O my

soul."

The expression rest denotes a cessation

from labour-tranquillity of mind—a secure and peaceable habitation-as Canaan was designed to be to Israel. In the text it is evidently employed to describe a place of quietness and repose. And this, in the impressive and figurative language of Scripture, the ever blessed God is represented to be to his children.

Thus they are counselled by the psalmist to "rest in the Lord;" in Him, who is celebrated as their dwelling place in all generations; that divine and spiritual abode, realized by faith, though undiscerned by the eye of sense, wherein safety, rest, comfort, are to be found. In every perfection of his nature, His children find rest, not only in his goodness, but in His holiness! His holiness, though pregnant with terror to the wicked, the finally impenitent, the rejecters of the gospel, because to them it will prove a consuming fire that majestic and awful attribute constitutes the believer's refuge. For

he beholds God, glorious in holiness, and yet a Saviour in Christ Jesus!

In the intense anguish, the mysterious sufferings of the Son of God, he marks the fulfilment of the prophetic declaration "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." He sees in the Redeemer's victorious egress from the tomb, that by His obedience unto death He expiated the guilt of men-magnified the law and made it honourable; and that in pardoning iniquity-blotting out the transgressions of the sinner who believes in Jesus-God is no less righteous-pre-eminent in holiness-than he is pre-eminent in grace!

But not only in the method of his acceptance with God does the Christian recognize holiness triumphant, he learns that the Eternal Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is bestowed in the covenant of redemption in the plenitude of his sanctifying power, to create him anew, to emancipate him from the dark

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