when what they really need is Divine hdp; not that God should do for them, but should enable them to do. Apply this to the deliverance of the soul from sin. Here man is helpless. "God must save, and God alone." But usually the saved man must unite his labour and h_is dependence on God in every endeavour to live out the godly life. Only very occas1onally bas he to put down his tools and absolutely wait while God works for him. Bunyan's pilgrim only once in his journey had to put down his weapons, and betake himself to "All-Prayer," It is weak sectarian feeling that exag- gerates self-helplessness, and thinks thus to honour God. Here the psalmist shows his anxiety by two petitions. L "CoNSIDER MY AFFLICTION." He wants God to consider it, estimate it, see what it really is, involves, and needs, because he feels how easily he might misapprehend it. It might not really be as serious as he thought it was. He might so easily read it through his feeling rather than through his judgment. So he wants God to take it into his consideration, and so find out what could best be done with it. Was not this what St. Paul wanted when he prayed about his " thorn " P II. "DELIVER ME." If God would give the matter consideration, he felt sure he would invent the wisest way of deliverance. He would be well content whichever way of deliverance God thought to be best. "Help me to do it, Lord, or do it altogether thyself."-R. T. Ver. 155.-Salvation for the obediently disposed. "Salvation is far from the wicked." Why cannot God save tbe wicked man against his will? Because (1) such a salvation would do the wicked man no good; and (2) because when God eaves a roan, what he saves is his bad will. Therefore the absolute first condition of salvation must neces- sarily be "repentance." And this truth has its further application in the life of the saved man, who is ever needing God's further salvations. He cannot have them if he is self-willed and rebellious. They can only come as he keeps the spirit of son.hip, and is "obediently disposed.'' I. SALVATION IS FAR FROM THE WILFUL. It is, and it must necessarily be. Illustrate by the paper which is to receive the photographic picture-it must be in a prepared state. '!'he wilful man does not want the salvation. He has no intention of respond- ing to it. God's salvation is always a work in the man himself, not in his circumstances. 'l'he father, in the parable of the prodigal son, could do nothing for his boy so long RB he kept in hie wilful mind. Hope for him dawned when "he came to himself." So penitence is the door of salvation. No man can ever have God's soul-salvation until he feds that he both needs it and wants it. There can be no waste in God's spiritual dealings; and it would be waste to give salvation to a man who did not care for the gift, and would make no return for it. II. SALVATION IS NEAR TO THE WILLING AND OBEDIENT. These represent the atti- tude and mood of mind with which God can work. Let a man want to obey, God will help him to obey. Let a man want to get free from sin, and God will deliver and save him from sin. Let a man be in any kind of disability and distress, if he be a son of God, and cherishing the spirit of sonship, he may be sure of the Father's deliverance. So the preservation of right attitudes and moods of soul bears direct relation to the workings of the Divine Deliverer in our lives.-R. T. Ver. 159.-Love-inspired obedience. The psalmist "loved the precepts of God. Many there are who have a warm side towards the promises, but as for the precepts they cannot endure them. The psalmist so loved everything that was good and excel- lent that he loved all God had commanded. The precepts are all of them wise and holy therefore the man of God loved them extremely, loved to know them, to think of the~, to proclaim them, and princjpally ~ prac~ise them.". Aij_a matt_er of fact, what may and what actually doe@ inspire obedience in the relat10nsh1ps of hfe? I. 'PATRIOTISM MAY INBPl~E OBEDIENCE. There is a sentiment which possesses the soldiers of an army, which we call "patriotism," th?ugh it but poor!}'. r~presents that term and which makes the soldier a model of strict, exact, unquestlonmg, but, to a great extent, unintelligent, obedience. '!'here are ans)veri~~ sentime_nts, in the religious sphere, which have similar and no higher powers of mspmng obed1enco, They carry WI over into obedience as a big wave carries a boat over the bar. PS, OXlX, 1--176.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS, 173
II. FEAn MAY INSPIRE OBEDIENCE, On this principle animals are, for the most part, trained to obey. And fear is effective on men just in the measure in which the animal in them is trained and the spiritual undeveloped. Fear bas its moral influc1,ce -at least in its coarser forms--on those who occupy low and servile positions in society. Culture a man, and one thing you do is deliver him from fear. III. DUTY MAY INBPIR& OBEDIENCE. Relationship involves duty; and obligation creates duty. And man is a higher being as the sense of duty grows in him. But a. certain hardness, self-restraint, characterizes all obedience that is ins!)ired only by duty. The man does what he must. IV. LOVE MAY INSPIRE OBEDIENCE. Then the man is in the obedience. His feel- ing runs with it as well as his will. The whole man is borne into the service. There are no resistances to occasion distress. In obeying the man bas the joy of doing just what he wishes to do.-R. T.