by entering folly into the sonship which is based on affection. There is no fear ot love-rela~ions with Go?. Love may h~ve its fad_ed times. Other interests may seem to come m, and for a time push love aside, It will never consent to be pushed asido very !oug; it will soon say, " Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul I "-R. T. Vers. 7, 8.-God WO'l'ks in our human lives. It seems as if God had not done some- thing for the psalmist which he wanted him to do; and this troubled the psalmist0 and filled him with doubts. He found consolation in thinking how much God had done for him. If he could not see God in a particular circumstance, he could see God in his life. The varied movements in a factory are quite bewildering to us, but the master knows, and guides them all to ends of his fashioning. I. GoD's DELIVERANCE FROM BODILY PERILS. "Soul from death." The "soul" here is the animal life. Spiritual need is not, here, in the psalmist's mind. We all have had perils of death-from drowning, accident., or disease. Illust.: Hezekiah. Man walking in the dark, stopped at very edge of quarry. Do we keep the memory of God's restorations of imperilled life? In this God has "dealt bountifully with us." .A.nd we are bound to God by the claims (1) of life given; and (2) of life restored, II.. GoD's DELIVERANCE FBO'M HU~ SORROWS. "Eyes from tears." The thought here 1s of the trouble that causes gnef-tears. We can look back over trials that were distresses, anxieties. Illustrate by the pathetic picture of David going up Olivet weeping, when fleeing before his wilful son Absalom. Cannot bear to see a man dis- heartened unto tears. It is always a sad sight. It has been such to God. For us he has "wiped the tears away." illustrate by the fact that, in our family discipline, we let the child cry; but it is very hard to us to see it cry; and all the while we mean to wipe the tears away. See the bountifulness of God in dealing with us thus. IIL GoD'B DELIVERANCE FROM 'MORAL TEMPTATIONS. "Feet from stumbling." Who can look over life and fail to see times when the "feet were almost gone, the steps had well-nigh slipped"? We are liable to fall. "Prone to wander." Exposed to temptation. We may learn a lesson from the spread of infectious diseases. Every- thing depends on the measure of inward susceptibility. Then, should it not be our unceasing wonder that we have not fallen? Why have we not? There can be but one answer: "The Lord hath dealt bountifully with us." There is, then, a threefold memory-bond binding us to God, and ever setting us upon asking, "What shall we render unto the Loni for all his mercy to us?" There is one fitting answer: "I will pay thee my vows." We can just be God's servants, in all holy love and obedience. -R.T. Ver. 11.-Hasty thought and hasty speech. "I said in my haste, All men are a lie" (Revised Version). The idea is not simply that all men tell lies. It is that men con- stantly disappoint our expectations; and no security can come by reliance upon men, This kind of feeling comes to the good man still at times, especially when friends fail, and human reliances prove as broken reeds. It is so easy for a despondent soul to argue that since one trusted friend has failed, all must be untrustworthy. But the argument is a hasty one, and is quite unfounded, since one instance can never suffice to establish a rule. This also has to be taken into account-men are constantly ready to undertake and promise more than they can possibly perform. Then their failure ought not to surprise us; it is a natural and necessary failure. The fault, indeed, is in part ours, seeing that we put an unreasonable trust in them. Before we complain of men's lisappointing us, we should question and criticize our trust in them. Dr. Barry explains the term, "in my haste," thus: "in that sweeping and precipitate generaliza- tion of bitter experience, despairing of humanity, which is e. sign of our own human frailty." We are all liable to hasty thinking; but it is a special temptation to those who like the Apostle Peter, are of an impulsive disposition. They form ideas on first imp:eesions • and before there is any opportunity of weighing them and criticizing them, they speak 'them out, and act them out. Only the discipline of life cultivates wise self-restraint and careful reserve. l. HASTY THOUGHT 18 BEST KEPT AS THOUGIIT, It is not always clearly recognized that suggestions made to the mind are not sin. They may be made by circumste.nces, or made by our fellow-men, or made by the spirit of evil. So far as they only awaken PS, CXVI. 1-Hl,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 81
thought in us, no sin has been committed; 01.l/r wi1l has not been concerned in the matter. There is no more than response to suggestion a.ccording to the ordinary work- ing of mental laws. So far there is something which we cannot help. If left alone it will soon pass away. Only that is kept in memory on which the attention is fixed'. Passing thought passes into oblivion. And this is the best fate for such a hasty thought as this of the psalmist. II. HASTY THOUGHT DOES MISCHIEF WHEN IT GETS INTO SPEECH. So our Lord taught that the things which come out of a man defile him. It takes an act of will to give expression to a thought. That aot of will makes the thought our own. If it is a bad thought, it must do a bad work by getting expression; for that expression starts bad thoughts in others. The psalmist's hasty word sowed the seed of mistrust which spoils the relations of human society.-R. T. '