PSALM cxxi. 8 59
upon the eyes of our race ; it is impossible for any field of righteous battle, any flood of suffering to unroll, without the vision of Christ upon it. He dominates our highest aspirations, and is felt by our side in our deepest sorrows. There is no loneli- ness, whether of height or of depth, which He does not enter by the side of His own.
Who has assumed responsibility for our life as Christ has ? Who has taken upon himself the safety and the honour, not of the little tribe for whom this psalm was first sung, but of the whole of the children of men? He took upon Himself our weariness. He lifted our sorrow, He disposed of our sin — as only God can call or lift or dispose. Nothing exhausted His pity, or His confidence to deal with us ; nothing ever betrayed a fault in His character, or belied the trust His people put in Him. He suffers not thy foot to be moved ; He neither slumbers nor sleeps.
^ Christ will keep us as a shepherd doth his flock. What a possession those of us have who can say, " The Lord is my shepherd," not " the " or " our," but " my " own, even should there be thousands of other sheep besides. Why is He called "the great Shepherd of the sheep " ? Because surely He is Intercessor, High Priest, Mediator, Surety, Captain of Salvation, Author and Finisher of Faith, Forerunner, King of Eighteousness, King of Peace : He is all these, and all else His sheep need ; for see our provision, " I shall not want." I should think not ; with such a Shepherd, how can we ? Our position, " He maketh me to lie down." No sheep lies down until it is satisfied — so our position as kept is just " to lie down," to rest on His bosom, secure in His care from all attacks from without or within. . . . Being kept by such a Shepherd, " surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life." The meaning of this is that in the East the head shepherd goes in front and two under-shepherds follow behind the sheep, to pick up any who become lame, or are prone to wander. Our Shepherd, who is to keep us, has commissioned Goodness and Mercy to thus follow us. We " shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck us out of his hand," and " we shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Having been kept all the way by His own power, for He will not give this work to another ; we are so precious to Him that we are to be kept by the power that created heaven and earth. " Keep them in thine own name," He prays. The very name of the Lord is at stake.^ * G. Clarke, The Keeper and (he Kept, 56.
6o GUARDIANSHIP IN DAILY LIFE
4. The help and protection of the Lord accommodate themselves to all our individually varying states and circumstances. Help on our " right hand " is help for our whole sphere of life ; help " by day and by night " is help under all changes ; help which subdues the fierce power of the light and also protects from the evils which " walk in darkness " is help in all our conditions ; " preserva- tion for our soul " is help for our whole nature from its centre, help for body, soul, and spirit; help in our "going out and coming in " is help watchful and perpetual.
^ I do not know how these words were interpreted when very literal meanings were attached to the parabolic words about the streets of gold and the endless song. But they present no difficulty to us. Indeed, they confirm that view of the future which is ever taking firmer hold of men's minds, and which is based on the growing sense of the continuity of life. To offer a man an eternity of music-laden rest is to offer him a poor thing. He would rather have his going out and his coming in. Yes, and he shall have them. All that is purest and best in them shall remain. Hereafter he shall still go out to find deeper joys of living and wider visions of life ; still come in to greater and ever greater thoughts of God.^
^ I know of a " going out " and a " coming in " when we shall specially need the preserving care of God; and to these, as to every other, may the promise be extended. There is a " going out " from this world ; there is a " coming in " to the next world ; the departure from the present scene of existence on the unknown futurity. But the Lord shall "preserve thy going out and thy coming in." Christ Jesus, according to His own declaration, has the keys of death and the invisible world ; and therefore, it must be He who dismisses the spirit from the flesh, and opens to it the separate state.^
^ The last day dawned, bringing a busy morning with corre- spondence and future plans. At a quarter to five letters and cheques were brought to him to sign, and he dictated two other letters. Soon after he fell asleep, and awoke at a quarter to six and partook of a light meal. During the progress of the meal he said to his wife, " My head is so heavy, let me rest it on your face." He appeared to have no pain but a slight choking sensa- tion. Then he leaned back in his chair and passed away. He was not afraid of death. " I have looked," he had written not long previously in sympathizing with a dear friend on the loss of