^ William Law.
PSALM XVI. 5. 6 279
bread, and the heavens in shedding their sweet influences on our path. For us the morning will dawn and the evening descend. For us " the winds will blow, earth rest, heavens move, and fountains flow." We shall be able to claim a peculiar property in the works of our Father's hand, and the bounties of our Father's providence.
^ The love of nature, wherever it has existed, has been a faithful and sacred element of human feeling; that is to say, supposing all circumstances otherwise the same with respect to two individuals, the one who loves nature most will be always found to have more faith in God than the other. It is intensely diflicult, owing to the confusion and counter influences which always mingle in the data of the problem, to make this abstraction fairly; but so far as we can do it, so far, I boldly assert, the result is constantly the same : the nature-worship will be found to bring with it such a sense of the presence and power of a Great Spirit as no mere reasoning can either induce or controvert ; and where that nature-worship is innocently pursued, — i.e., with due respect to other claims on time, feeling, and exertion, and associated with the higher principles of religion, — it becomes the channel of certain sacred truths, which by no other means can be conveyed.^
3. We enter into fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. He is the true Joshua, who puts us in possession of the inheritance. He brings God to us — to our knowledge, to our love, to our will. He brings us to God, making it possible for our poor sinful souls to enter His presence by His blood ; and for our spirits to possess that Divine Guest. " He that hath the Son, hath the Father ; " and if we trust our souls to Him that died for us, and cling to Him as our delight and our joy, we will find that both the Father and the Son come to us and make Their home in us. Through Christ the Son, we will receive power to become sons of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, because joint-heirs with Christ.
^ During the great Durbar at the time of the late King's coronation, the Maharajah of Nabha did a beautiful action, which illustrates this truth. As he went away after the celebration he paid a great sum into the Treasury, in order that the land on which his encampment had been spread might be free of taxation * Ruskin, Modern Painters ( Works, v. 378).
28o A GOODLY HERITAGE
for ever, for he said : " I, the king, have rested here, therefore the land shall be free from burdens for ever." And so to-day the King unfolds before us a wondrous inheritance, a priceless possession, the power that gives us new hope, and sets before us possibilities where we have hitherto found closed doors ; and as He offers gifts, for the price paid was beyond man's calculation, He says : " The King has lived down here on earth, knowing our temptations, weaknesses, and sorrows ; therefore, man's daily, earthly life shall be free from the oppression of the burden for evermore if he will have it." ^
0 Christ our All in each, our All in all !
Others have this or that, a love, a friend, A trusted teacher, a long worked for end : But what to me were Peter or were Paul
Without Thee ? fame or friend if such might be ? Thee wholly will I love, Thee wholly seek, Follow Thy foot-track, hearken for Thy call.
0 Christ mine All in all, my flesh is weak, A trembling fawning tyrant unto me :
Turn, look upon me, let me hear Thee speak: Tho' bitter billows of Thine utmost sea Swathe me, and darkness build around its wall, Yet will I rise, Thou lifting when I fall,
And if Thou hold me fast, yet cleave to Thee.^ 1 Hanincton C. Lees. ^ Christina G. Rossetti.
The Vision of God Here and Hereafter.
?8i
Literature.
Adams (J.), Sermons in Syntax, 148.
Banks (L. A.), The Great Promises of the Bible, 234.
Cottam (S. E.), New Sermons for a New Century, 61.
Jupp (W. J.), in Sermons by Unitarian Ministers, 1st Ser., 77.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., i. 298,
Maclaren (A.), Sermons, ii. 1.
„ „ Expositions ; Psalms i.-xlix., 52.
Matheson (G.), Moments on the Mount, 39. Molyneux (C), in Penny Pulpit, New Ser., ii. 129. Park (E. A.), Discourses, 356. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iii. 161 ; v. 369. Purves (P. C), The Divine Cure for Heart Trouhle, 310. Raleigh (A.), The Little Sanctuary, 257. Simeon (C), Works, v. 82. Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 208. Snell (H. H.), Through Study Windows, 42. Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, i. (1855) No. 25. Stanford (C), Symbols of Christ, 323. Trumbull (H. C), Our Misunderstood Bible, 268. Vauglian (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit) iv. (1865) No. 490 ; xi. (1874)
No. 835. Voysey (C), Sermons, vi. (1883) No. 13. Christian World Pulpit, i. 120 (Binney); xli. 371 (Hocking); Ivi. 75
(Dawson) ; Iviii. 40 (Sheldon), 65 (Pearse) ; Ixvi. 360 (Home). Church of England Marjazine^ xxviii. 210 (Pearson) ; Ixvii. 256 (Harding).