God as you expect your fellow-creature to be of you. And think how long God has waited upon you; calling, but ye would not hear ; entreating, but ye would not regard him. Shall you then be impatient, if he come not at the first moment that you call ; and that too when you are urged by nothing but a fear of his wrath, which you have so richly merited ? Know, every one of you, that it becomes you to wait his appointed time ; and to be satisfied if the morning never arrive till the very moment of your departure from this world of woe.]
2. What honour it does to God —
[A meek, patient, and submissive spirit honours every perfection of the Deity. It expresses a confidence in his wisdom, as alone discerning the fittest time to appear in your behalf. It shews a persuasion of his goodness, that does not willingly afflict you, but orders every thing for your greatest good, even to humble you the more deeply, and thereby to prepare you for a richer improvement of his mercy whensoever it shall be vouchsafed unto you. It honours also his power, as able to impart relief, whensoever his wisdom and goodness shall judge it expedient to confer the blessing. Above all, it glorifies God's truth and faithfulness, in that it makes the written word a ground of hope, yea, and of an assured hope, that whatsoever God has promised he will perform.
I ask then, Is it not desirable that you should be found in a posture by which God is so honoured, and with which he cannot but be pleased ? Let every one of you, therefore, be able to make that appeal to God, " I have waited for thy salvation, O LordV]
3. What benefit it ensures to the waiting soul — [Justly is it said, " The Lord is good unto them that wait
for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord1." But let us hear the Psalmist's own experience: " I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and esta- blished my goings: and he hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto our God111." And who is there, even though he should not have been delivered to the same extent, that must not yet say, " It is good for me to draw near to God11?" I entreat you, then, to adopt the resolution of the Psalmist, " I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints0." If at any time your mind be disquieted by reason of delay, check and chide your soul even as David did : " Why art thou cast
* Gen. xlix. 18. ' Lam. hi. 25, 26. m Ps. xl. 1—3.
* Ps. lxxiii. 28. ° Ps. lii. 9.