more and more of His grace, to enable us so to shine. If we have seen His excellency, His beauty, His glory, let us be prepared to shun all that is evil, and carnal, and deadly; let us be ready to labour at home and abroad for Him; let us depart from evil and do good; let us ‘seek peace and pursue it.' Thus, like John, leaning on the Master's breast and following in His steps, we shall find in Him quietness and assurance for ever.

Verses 15, 16. The believer rejoices to know that, wherever he may be, the eye of Jehovah is upon him, and His ear open unto his cry. Sometimes that eye may be bent upon us with such a look of tender, loving rebuke as once it gave to Peter; or it may find us out with the irresistible power of attracting grace; but it is still His eye. It is 'upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.' We all know the power there is in the single glance of an eye. How a single look has sometimes severed the friendship of a lifetime; or how it has sealed two hearts into one for ever. 'The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.' He sees the desire of the heart, almost before it is shaped into words: before they call He answers,' and 'while they are yet speaking He hears.' What can we possibly desire more than that, beloved? That for our portion now, and the new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, prepared for us hereafter. No sin, no pain, no death; Satan cast out for ever. it not seem to us, beloved friends, as we look back, like a long dream, whose memory will rise before us with a feeling of unreality, amid the shadows of the past, as we bask in the blessed sunshine of His presence, and enter into His joy for evermore?

Oh! to be over yonder

In that land of wonder,

Where the angel voices mingle, and the angel harpers sing;

To be free from pain and sorrow,

And the anxious dread to-morrow,

To rest in light and sunshine in the presence of the King.

Will

Oh! to be over yonder,

My yearning heart grows fonder

Of looking to the East, to see the day-star bring
Some tidings of the waking,

The cloudless pure day breaking;

My heart is yearning, yearning for the coming of the King.

Oh! to be over yonder,

The longing groweth stronger

When I see the wild doves cleave the air on rapid wing;
I long for their fleet pinions

To reach my Lord's dominions,

And rest my weary spirit in the presence of the King.

6

PSALM XXXIV. 17-22.

THE BROKEN HEART.

The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

'Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

'He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

'Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

'The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.'

THESE last few verses continue to illustrate the leading subject of this Psalm, viz. the fear of the Lord. Verse 15 gives us a beautiful idea of God's ever-watchful care over His people: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry.' Yes, beloved brethren, it is literally true that His eye is ever upon us, that He never ceases for one moment to watch over us for good.

Verse 17. "The righteous cry.' The word 'cry' is emphatic did you ever, beloved friends, try to speak to God and find that you could not? Perhaps when the

heart is labouring most and is most desirous of help, then it cannot speak, and its utterance (if such it may be called) becomes simply a cry. Blessed at such time is it to know that His ears are open,' not only to the prayer of His people, but to their cry, to the utterance of a heart too full to speak. Lam. iii. 55, 56: 'I called upon Thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.' The breathing out of the heart when it can only groan. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks.' Such panting and crying the ears of the Lord are open to hear. He hears, and that with acceptance. He delights to hear the cries of His people, whom He is waiting to bless. He loves to hear the groaning of the soul which is in trouble and sorrow, for He will deliver him out of all. Just as the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt: they were in a great strait, for before them was the Red Sea and behind them the host of Pharaoh, while on either side the way of escape was barred also; what could they do? They cried unto the Lord, and He heard them and delivered them, and brought them through the sea as on dry ground. ground. what an encouraging lesson for the child of God! Whatever be his troubles, 'He delivers him out of them all.'

Oh,

Verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.' 'A broken heart!' Yes, there are such in this world of ours; hearts which have become so overcharged with sorrow as to be no longer able to contain themselves; hearts like the heart of Jesus on the Cross, for, said He, Reproach hath broken My heart.' Ah, yes, there are many such broken hearts in the world; in some cases broken, by reason of disappointment, because the love of some one to whom they had clung has passed away for ever, and taken with it all their brightness and all their joy.

But the broken heart' spoken of here is something different from this. It is a heart broken off or weaned from the world and sin and Satan, and made Christ's for ever. Such is the state of heart of every true child of God united to Christ his living Head; he is severed for ever from the world and from all that formerly ensnared him, and made free with the glorious freedom 'wherewith Christ hath made us free.' See Isa. lvii. 15: ‘I dwell... with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit.' Ah, the Lord is nigh to such. Is He not brought very nigh to us, my beloved friends, in the covenant of peace, having become our reconciled Father in Christ Jesus? Through His death on the Cross it may be said by all who put their trust in Him, 'Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.'

'He saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.' It was an evil and a bitter thing for David to have loved the world and gone after it. Long will he have to prove this, for he must bear about with him from henceforth this contrite spirit. Outwardly he had broken with the world, but he must continue to bear the marks of his sin in this his only becoming spirit at the remembrance thereof. Well for us, dear friends, if God has taught us this lesson, first of the evil consequences which must ever follow upon sin, and secondly, of the necessity of the 'contrite spirit.'

Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.' These are

not the ordinary afflictions which are common to all men, though sometimes the child of God thinks that of these also he has more than his share. The Psalmist in another Psalm tells us that he thought so at one time; Ps. lxxiii compare vv. 1-14 with vv. 15-18. There are afflictions which are peculiar to the people of God above and beyond these altogether; afflictions, for example,

which come to them from an ungodly world. The world hates them, for it hated their Master before them. If they were of the world, the world would love his own.' Do not fear the hatred of the world. Look at it fairly, face it manfully and boldly. Be true to your Master, and then fear nothing. We all know how hard it is to bear the sneers and contempt of the world; and perhaps it is never so trying as when it comes to us in a disguised form. The open enmity is more tolerable to us than the hidden sneers; these are often sore afflictions' to the child of God. In his own house, in his family, often the trial assumes its most painful aspect; not perhaps so much by showing open hatred and dislike, as by holding aloof from him and making, him feel that as regards earthly companionship he stands alone.

Is it so, dear child of God, with you? Then be assured the Lord is nigh unto you and He will deliver you. Set the world on one side, in its dark and frowning aspect, and then turn to the other and see your Father's eye resting upon you and beaming with love and tender compassion as He says, 'My child, it is for Me that you bear this. Be strong; fear not.' I ask you, beloved friends, is not one such smile from Him worth any amount of sorrow or suffering or reproach? Out of all these afflictions the Lord will deliver you. Every heart has its own peculiar burden, its own special affliction. Sometimes the soul is clad in darkness by reason of the sin that is in it and the feebleness of its love. Out of this affliction too the Lord will assuredly deliver His people, with a strong hand and a stretched out arm.'

Many are the afflictions of the righteous.' The processes through which He is putting us-compared to a refiner's fire, a fuller's soap, etc. are painful, doubtless, but out of all He will in His own good time and way deliver us. Like David when pursued, let us encourage

ourselves in the Lord our God.' Dear friends, if He thus