"When my <lim reason won hi demand Why that or this thou dost ordain, Dy some VBJ!t deep I seem to stand, Whose secrets I must uk in vaiu. "When doubts disturb my troubled bree.st, And all is dark as night to me, Here as on solid rock I rest- That so it seemeth good to thee. De this my joy, that evermore Thou rulest all things at thy will Thy sovereign wisdom I adore- And ealmly, sweetly trust thee still.n lI. THE FIRM ASSERTION BEFORE THE NATION OF WHAT IT IS THAT GIFTS AlJY WORK OF MAN WITH TRUE DIGNITY, WITH GENUINE IMPORTANCE. .. The palace is . . . for the Lord God." This is to put things in their right places-God, heaven, immortality the unperishing first of all. 1. .A. sound religious principle is bravely upheld before au: There is none of the bated breath and the semi-suppression offered to it which are so oft~~ offered ~ ~be principles o~ revealed_ religion. 2. .A. most neglected aspect ol religious practice 1s her~ brought mto pr?mmenc~. Trut~s and principles of religion, acknowledged by the lip, are too often ignored m practice. The prayers we say, the praise we sing, the adoration we ejaculate, are not unfrequently dishonoured to the degree of being rendered worthless through the next deed we do or fail to do. It is not the tender, the immature, the inexperienced, the incompetent who, untrusted in statesmanship, untrusted in the professions of human life, are to be indifferently or recklessly trusted with the affairs of "the kingdom." And even when God calls such, man, both prince and people, the skilled and the experienced, are only to hear more practically the call to rally round the Lord's choice. 3. The non-performance of human work for God is sufficiently guarded from confusion with the non-meritoriousness ol human work for God. The distinction, abundantly plain to all who have eyes to see, is often treated as though it were among the inscrutabie mysteries. To such an extent is this pretence carried that the neglect of a high and conscientious performance of works for God is assumed. to be warranted by the mere fact that no merit lives in them in their aspects Godward. Yet the less of meritoriousness the more peremptory may be the deruand that that humble quotum of duty be punctiliously and as heartily performed. How healthy, hc,w natural to an unsophisticated conscience and judgment, 1;onnds the tone of David's language now, "The work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God" I Will anything in modern days pass muster to be given to God, to the Church of Christ, to his work? Yet this is the spirit of much language we hear, of much more conduct we witness. In the gifts of the band, in the gifts of the mind, and in the gifts of the heart, the weak and poor, the blind and blemished and lame, are too frequently presented to the temple of the Lord, to the Church of Christ, to the highest office of the ministry of Christ's gospel. The work is not held great, just because it is of an ecclesiastical cast. It would have enlisted tenfold to an hundred- fold interest or enthusiasm if it bad been of a civic, of a patriotic, or of a domestic sort. So David thought not, did not, whether now in the last hours of mortal life or in the days when youth glowed, strength abounded, and the heart loved to sing of" Jerusalem as its chief joy" and God as its" Strength and Portion for evermore."
Vers. 2-9.-..A. pattern/or religious devotion. There is much religious feeling that fails of fruitfulness. It resembleR often the fragrant blossom of the early spring on the fruit tree, and which promi6es well even beyond the time of the setting, but still fails most disappointingly of bringing fruit to perfection. 'l'hese failures are generally easily traceable in each successive instance to their proper cause. But when so traced the DJischief is doue, the forfeiture is suffered, and the wisdom comes all too late. The real composition of genuine religious devotion, the elements necessary to practical religious devotion, are well illustrat€d in this series of verses. 'fhey have much in common with the characteristic marks of Christian compassion. Either of these principles is very often found to pine, just as though for want of stan1ina. To prevent this disappoint- 0lt. ttix. 1-3O.J 'l'iiE F'IRS'r BOOK: 0:1!' THF! CllRON1CL~S. 441