■[I Yesterday I preached at Kiel (one of the parish churches of Morven). It was a strange thing to preach there. As I went to the church hardly a stone or knoll but spoke of " something which was gone," and past days crowded upon me like the ghosts of Ossian, and seemed, like them, to ride even on the passing wind and along the mountain-tops. And then to preach in the same pulpit where once stood a revered grandfather and father ! What a marvellous, mysterious world is this, that I, in this pulpit, the third generation, should now, by the grace of God, be keeping the truth alive on the earth, and telling how faithful has been the God of our fathers ! How few faces around me did I recognize ! In that seat once sat familiar faces — the faces of a happy family ; they are all now, a few paces off, in a quiet grave. How soon shall their ever having existed be unknown ? And it shall be so with myself ! ^ ^ J. Thew. ^ James Martineau. ^ Memoir of Norman MacLeod, i. 111.
PSALM IX. lo 259
3. If we have had experience of God's goodness for ourselves, and if we really believe that He will not forsake us, we shall not forsake Him ; we shall trust Him at all times. When the day is bright, and we live in the sunshine, it is easy enough to trust then. But wait until the sun is hid, the child is sick, work scarce, and we walk through the valley of pain and weariness. How do we act then ? When the light goes out in our home, and those fingers whose touch was once our joy are cold and stiff, and that voice, once our inspiration, is silent, never more to be heard, save in those dreams of other days which will come to us, do we trust then? Yes, even then the child of God who knows his Father's name, and has learned to spell the word " Saviour," can and does trust. When the way is dark, and we cannot see, we shall put our hand in His, and with the poet say —
Thy way, not mine, 0 Lord,
However dark it be ! Lead me by Thine own hand;
Choose out the path for me.
Smooth let it be or rough,
It will be still the best; Winding or straight, it leads
Right onward to Thy rest.
^ I saw a picture in Birmingham which interested me a good deal. It represented a house through the window of which a beautiful figure was departing. At the other side of the picture the door was open, and a poor dejected, ragged figure was entering. There was a strong cold wind outside the door, which blew in the dead leaves, and straws, and rubbish. The picture was intended to illustrate the somewhat pithy saying — " Love flies out of the window when Adversity comes in at the door." But I pick up the old Bible, and it tells me that " God has not forsaken any that trust Him." Hear this sweet word : " When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." ^
^ Dr. MacDonald of North Leith told some of us lately of a man who went to a distant part of the country to see a woman who was known as " the woman of great faith." He found her in a humble cottage, and on asking if she was the woman of great faith, she replied, " No, I am the woman of little faith in a great Saviour." ^
^ C. Leach, Sermons to Working Men, 123. - J. Wells, Life of James Hood IFilson, 105.
A Goodly Heritage.
Literature.
Bruce (W. S.), Our Heritage, 143.
Duff (R. S.), Pleasant Places, 11.
Durward (P. C), Our Protestant Heritage, 1.
Maclaren (A.), A Yearns Ministry, 1st Ser., 205.
Mayor (J. E. B.), Sermons, 201.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iv. 193.
Skrine (J. H.), A Goodly Heritage, 2.
Voysey (C), Sermons, v. (1882) No. 32.
Christian World Pulpit, v. 289 (Baldwin Brown) ; xxv. 180 (Statliam).
Church of England Magazine, xiv. (1843) 80 (Newnham).
Ex])ositor's Library : The Psalms, i. 433.
A Goodly Heritage.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup :
Thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places ;
Yea, I have a goodly heritage. — Ps. xvi. 5, 6.
Wfjtten in time of urgent need, this Psalm opens in the form of a prayer, which is, however, shortly changed into a pious meditation. The Psalmist declares that he has vowed allegiance to God, fellowship with the holy, self-severance from idolaters (2-4). Jehovah is his possession, and with such an inheritance he is all contentment (5, 6). Jehovah inspires him with wisdom, more especially with moral discrimination ; and Jehovah is before him a,nd about him, so that lie may confidently expect to show an unswerving front to fortune (7, 8). And therefore his heart and soul rejoice; and therefore, too, in spite of present dangers, his whole man has confidence that he shall not be numbered with the inhabitants of Sheol, but shall experience life and happiness, the happiness which God continually showers with liberal hand on those He loves (9-11).