not full, your temptations not removed, your corruptions not extinct, your path in Providence not cleared, your measure of grace not equal to your desires. And why does the Lord delay to do all you ask? It is to call out faith: to quicken its exercise to make you more urgent, more persevering, more importunate in prayer, and then to do for you at last exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. Then, "wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."

:

One word to a very different class those I mean, who are strangers to any anxiety about answers to prayer. They pray in their way. They say their prayers. At home, at Church, they utter words of prayer. But as to an answer, an answer of peace and grace, they look not for it, they wait not for it: they receive no answer, but this gives them no concern.

Brethren, are such here? Men who pray, but so pray as not to care for a reply ? Is this prayer? To ask with the lip, what the heart heeds not to have? What mockery! Lord awaken such! How plain that they are dead in sin. The Spirit of supplication teach them to pray!

The

SERMON XV.

PSALM XXXI. 14, 15.

I SAID, THOU ART MY GOD: MY TIMES ARE IN THY

HAND.

HAPPY, thrice happy, the man, who may thus speak. Beloved brethren, I invite you this morning to the contemplation of his blessedness and I pray God to grant you all to be partakers of it.

The words of our text, were David's words: and we have in them

I. A CONFESSION MADE; HE ADDRESSES THE LORD JEHOVAH, AND DECLARES "THOU ART MY GOD."

It contains two disThe Psalmist affirms "Thou art God;

I. Let us observe THE CONFESSION MADE; "THOU ART MY GOD." tinct acknowledgments. in reference to Jehovah, and then, beyond this, "Thou art my God."

1. David confesses the Lord Jehovah to be God as elsewhere, "from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God."

St. Paul said, "there be gods many, and lords many: 99 that is, in the world at large, "but," he added, " to us there is but one God." So David lived in a day when idol gods abounded on every side, in the nations of the earth around him. He often speaks of it. "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands:" and he adds, "they that make them, are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them. But, thou, house of Israel, trust thou in the Lord." He, and He only, is the true and living God.

In like manner, our text is a declaration of this great first truth of religion. There is but one God, and Jehovah is He. "I am the Lord, and there is none else." "Thou art God alone."

But now it is needful, in order that we may understand the Psalmist's confession, to consider well what is meant under that great and terrible name. "Thou art God." What does this imply? What did David himself understand thereby ?

We shall best answer the question by just recalling to our minds a few of those places, in the book of Psalms, in which we hear the pious writer setting forth the nature and attributes of the God he adored; places wherein, in truth, God Himself, by his Spirit in the Psalmist, tells who, and what, He is. Our only difficulty is how to select these places of holy writ, for the book of Psalms is full of attestations to the character and perfections of the Almighty God. Let us glance at but a few, in which we shall

hear how the Psalmist sets forth that majesty and supremacy, that universal dominion, that goodness, holiness, righteousness, and truth, and that special favor and constant faithfulness toward his own people, which David identified with the name of the Lord Jehovah.

Thus, eternal majesty and might, he testifies, belong to God. "The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty: the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith He hath girded Himself. Thy throne is established of old; Thou art from everlasting." Again, we read: "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee: They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom: thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.' David's God was "King of all the earth," One who in his providence exercised a rule of unlimited dominion.

Eternal majesty however, and boundless control, were not the only subjects to be celebrated. Alas! these alone would leave us far from happy in the contemplation of the Almighty. The Psalmist, therefore, loves to dwell on other points, and especially those attributes of goodness, holiness and righteousness, wherewith the majesty of God is adorned, and the rule of his omnipotence endeared.

Mark how these are introduced, in connection with the supremacy and sovereignty of Jeho

vah. "Great is the Lord: his greatness is unsearchable men shall speak of the might of thine acts I will declare thy greatness: " and then it follows, "they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy; the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works; the eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." What an assemblage of attributes! Goodness, and righteousness, and grace, and compassion, and forbearance, and holiness, and tender watchful care; all combined with greatness, majesty, and might; greatness with goodness; majesty with mercy; might with love!

In like manner, in another Psalm, we read : "All nations, whom Thou hast made, shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name : for Thou art great, and doest wondrous things, Thou art God alone: and then immediately, "Thou, O Lord God, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." How beautiful the transition, from the vastness of Almighty power, to the plenteousness of infinite mercy and of eternal truth; and how precious the union!

Similiar passages soon crowd upon us. We