But

forward for heaven. A sinner though you were, yet convinced of sin, and longing for pardon and salvation, you heard of Jesus the Saviour of sinners, and you believed: you said, this Saviour is for me.' You laid hold on Christ; and in so doing you laid claim to heaven. Thenceforward you became a traveller towards the heavenly city. A wilderness lay between the region you had left, and the land you had in view that wilderness you must traverse. how? you needed sustenance: you needed guidance: you needed defence. Whence should you receive them? The Lord undertook to provide for all. Food for your souls, direction in your way, protection to the end, all that you required He pledged Himself to supply. "Jehovah Jireh," you said, "The Lord will provide." And thus far you are become like Israel. You are spiritually, what they were literally, pilgrims, under God's defence, journeying toward a promised land.

II. Observe, WHAT IT WAS THAT JOSHUA AFFIRMED. It was this, that all which God had undertaken He had fulfilled. Not one thing had failed, all was come to pass.

See then, believer, what ground you have for confidence. Israel's God is your God. The faithfulness He shewed toward them is the same that He will shew toward you. You behold them in possession of the promises. All the good things which the Lord had spoken they had realized. So shall it be with So shall it be with you.

God

saith to each of you, as he said to Jacob, “I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

Now, Christian brethren, I desire that you should take and enjoy the comfort of this truth. St. Paul sums it all up in few words when he writes to the Hebrews, "He is faithful that hath promised:" I wish you to rest upon that rock, a faithful God. And in order that you may do so, you must bear in mind what it is that God hath promised: what those good things are which the Lord hath spoken concerning you.

You are, as we have said, pilgrims in a desert land. And you are "journeying unto the place, of which the Lord hath said, I will give it you. Now, what the Lord hath promised you is, as it was with Israel, all that you shall need by the way, sustenance, direction, defence, and safe conduct to your eternal home.

Alas,

Sustenance:-your souls require it. this is a land which yields no food for souls: souls, I mean, who know what it is to "hunger and thirst after righteousness." Truly do such continually cry out as David did, "My soul thirsteth in a barren and dry land." "Husks which the swine do eat," are to be had in abundance; but "bread of life" there is none.

Then now behold God's provision. "My flesh," said Jesus, "is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed: he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." This is the sustenance, believer, for your soul: Christ as revealed in his

word Christ as set forth in his ordinances : Christ as manifested by the Lord the Holy Spirit to your hearts: it is on this live herein you you : do find food day by day you take of Christ into your souls, that is, the truths you know concerning Christ you meditate upon, and enjoy in their power and application to yourselves. The life I now live in the flesh," said St. Paul, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. O yes, there is life in that truth, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me.' Here is the personal appropriation of the Saviour. This is to "feed on Him by faith in our hearts." And this is the nourishment provided for the souls of the people of God on their pilgrimage. Let them but have Christ in their hearts by faith, and their spirits are strengthened and refreshed, and they go forward on their journey heavenward, rejoicing in God their Saviour.

Again, guidance is another blessing Christian pilgrims want. Our God promises it therefore to them. "If any of you lack wisdom," saith St. James," let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. God undertakes to instruct his people, and He will do it. By his word He maps out their path. By his Holy Spirit He lightens their eyes to see the good and the right way. By his providence too He often indicates his will. And humble, praying saints, who only wish to know and keep that will, the Lord never forsakes. "The meek," it is said, "will He

guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach And Christians find that the Lord

his way.
does teach them.

He opens their path before them. He makes their discernment of truth and duty to grow more clear. Sometimes they have to wait awhile, but at length the cloudy pillar moves; they follow, and are safe.

Ye who are pilgrims indeed, think often of the promise of direction which God has given you. Frequently you know not what is the course that you shall have to take. But the Lord foresees your path and He promises to guide you. What is your prayer? "Shew Thou me the way that I should walk in, for I lift up my soul unto Thee." And what is the Lord's promise in reply? "I will instruct thee,

and teach thee, in the way that thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye.

And

Once more, defence is what you need. Your road lies through an enemy's land. The world has ten thousand traps laid for your feet. hosts of evil spirits, under the command of the devil, are leagued against your souls. How shall you make your way? The Lord hath said, "Fear not; greater is He that is in you than all that are against you." It is written, "God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." The Israel of God may still take to themselves those animating words, spoken to his people of ancient days, "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the ever

lasting arms, and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy them."

Thrice happy, then, indeed, is the people who have the Lord for their God. There is nothing they need which He does not promise to provide. He undertakes all for them, to feed, to guide, and to defend them, all their journey through, yea, until He shall have carried them safely over the Jordan of death's dark flood, and landed them on the shores of heavenly and eternal peace and blessedness.

Christian, we repeat it, all this God has pledged Himself to do for you. And now the thought I want you to enjoy is this, that such is his faithfulness, He cannot but fulfil to you all that He has promised. Just as the Israelites experienced that faithfulness, so shall you. Not one good thing failed them, of all the Lord their God spoke concerning them. Nor shall one blessing, which Jehovah has bound Himself in covenant, an everlasting covenant, a covenant made in Christ for you, not one blessing which He has thus bound Himself to give you, will He fail to grant.

Yet, your own enjoyment is not the only end I would have in view. The glory of God, his honor and praise, this also is concerned. For if your souls are stayed, as they should be, on the faithfulness of God, then will you trust in Him, and repose upon Him, and bear witness to Him before the Church, by your faith, and holy reliance upon his word, that, like one of old, you