Give him, then, the glory of all that your either are or have ; and live dependent on him even to the end ; for it is he, and he alone, who can uphold you: and as " he is able to keep you from falling, so he will present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy ^."]
1 Jude, ver. 24.
Ps. Ixv. 3. Iniquities prevail agaijist me : as for our transgres- sions, thou shalt purge them away.
FROM reading the experience of the saints, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, we derive not only comfort and encouragement, but the most refined instruction that can be conveyed to the mind of man. As in light there is a combination of widely different rays, and it is that combination, together with their simultaneous action, which gives to light its peculiar sweetness ; so it is a combination of widely different views and feelings that gives to the Christian his divinely-tempered experience in the things of God. In the passage before us, we behold the man after God's own heart bewailing his sinfulness, yet not discouraged ; and sweetly comforted in his soul, without any abatement of his contrition. It is this mixture of feeling which so greatly elevates the Christian character. His graces, by means of it, shine with a subdued lustre ; and being thus tem- pered, they are " pleasing to the eyes both of God and man^" Let us notice, I. His complaint —
What are we to understand by this expression, " Iniquities prevail against me ?"
[It cannot be meant that he indulged in sin of any kind ; for " one who is born of God doth not commit sin; nor indeed can he commit sin (willingly and habitually), because he is born of God." " Whoso committeth sin in this way, is of the devil''." Indeed the very terms here used suppose a conflict. David hated and resisted sin in the daily habit of his mind :
^ Eccl. xi. 7. ''I John iii. 8, 9.