ever; for with the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength1." St. Paul maintained to the uttermost the fear of which we have been speaking ; for he " kept under his body, and brought it into subjection ; lest that by any means, after he had preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away k." But his confi- dence in God was entire. He defied all the powers in the
universe to separate him from the love of God1 And
you, also, may possess the same blessed hope, "knowing in whom }rou have believed"1," and assured that none shall ever pluck you out of the Saviour's hands ".]
1 Isai. xxvi. 3, 4. k 1 Cor. ix. 27. l Rom. viii. 33 — 39.
m 2 Tim. i. 12. n j0hn x. 28.
Ps. xci. 9, 10. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee.
IT is scarcely possible to conceive any terms more strong, or any images more lively, than those in which the Scripture represents the privileges of believers. We need look no further than to the psalm before us for a confirmation of this truth. Indeed, according to the view given of this psalm by a learned prelate, there is, in the first verses of it, an emphasis which cannot be surpassed a. And the whole may be con- sidered as the believer's charter, in which all his pri- vileges are contained, from his first acceptance with God to the consummation of his happiness in glory.
We have in the words of our text a just description of the believer :
I. His experience —
The true Christian is one who has been " turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Being once brought to God, he " makes the Most High his habitation." He regards God, not
a Bishop Home reads the two first verses thus : " He that dwelleth &c. who abideth under &c. who saith of the Lord," &c. Then at the end of ver. 2, he supposes the Psalmist to hreak off ahruptly, and, instead of continuing his description, to address himself to the person before described ; " Surely he shall deliver thee.'''