llevil has planted pride in all men's hearts, as he has, God has so ordered the world that every man's hand shall be against such pride. 2. It isfr~from ambition. "Nor mine eyes lofty." The man's eyes are not for ever fixed on and hankering after something higher up in the world than it has yet reached. Blessed is the man who is content with the lot God bath ordered for him, and is solicitous only to be found faithful there. 3. .And from presumption. "Neither do I exercise myself," etc. (ver. 1). But how many there are who are for ever doing that which the psalmist here disclaims I David's brothers accused him of this, though wrongly, and blamed him for leaving his sheep to come to the battle-field. But though David was innocent of such fault, many are guilty of it. They want to know all mysteries, to be able to explain all that they see around them in God's providence, and all that they meet with in the Scriptures: they want to undertake work which is beyond them, whilst that which is within their power they refuse. They could sweep a crossing, but they want to rule a kingdom; they could manage the one talent, but because they have not the five, the one they have they bury, to their infinite shame and loss. IL HE TELLS us WHAT IT IS. To have one's soul "as a child that is weaned from its mother." Therefore : 1. it is separation fro,m what it once loved. It is a terrible time for the child when this separation has to be made: the metai,hor is as touching and beautiful as it is powerfully expressive. And the soul knows how it once loved the world, not so much, perhaps, the evil things of the world as those that were not evil ; but it has come to give them all up, aud to be content with what the Lord orders for him. Yet more is it separated from the sinful ways of the world. Once it loved them, but that time is past. 2. And it is not ooly separated from them, but has ceased to desire them. The child is happy and at rest., though no longer allowed that in which it once so delighted. The very desire is gone. 3. .And this is not through any disap- pointment, chagrin, o,r disgust with the world. Some men rush from the world in anger because of the way it has treated them. But this is not the motive here: such are wrenched from the world rather than weaned from it. 4. Nor either is it the relinquishment which comes from satiety with the world's pleasures ;-from having had so much that the soul has come to care no more for it, its sweets clog and nauseate rather than give pleasure. 5. Nor from want of capacity to enjoy what the world has to offer. But it is a willing abandonment of that which once it delighted in-the world's pleasures, profits, honours, comforts, as well as its more questionable belongings. III. How WAS THIS BROUGI.IT ADOUT? 1. It was 11ot self-produced. No child ever weaned itself. 2. It has been the Lord's work. By his Holy Spirit and his providence he has wrought this wondrous change. Hence we have come to find that what once delighterl us so much fails to do so now. The world has become embittered to our taste. Our Go,! has separated us from what we loved and clung to; there wns no chance of our voluntarily giving it up, and so God took it away. And he has given us what is better far than that which we have lost (cf. P:1. !xiii.). Higher, purer joys are ours. Also he has biassed our own endeavours o.[ter self-denial o.ud renun- ciation ; he ho.s "worked in us to will and to do," etc. 3. .And the result ·is most blessed. The calm quiet and stillness of the soul; its freedom from fret; its heavenly peace. IV. WHAT THIS EXPEnIENCE LEADS TO. A delight in God, nnd a conviction of his love and faithfulness, which make him co.II upon all his countrymen to hopo in the Lord. When the soul has this experience, it cannot but commend the Lord to others. It must bear its testimony.-S. C. Ver. 1.-The sense of what is acceptable with God. This psnl m ex presses the meek humility of the pardoned and restored sinner. But taken as expressing the sentiment of the restored nation, it suggests the mood of cherished feeling that keeps us in right relations with God. It is not a mood of submission, or ev<ln of submissive obedience only. It is a mood of willing submission, of delighted obedience; of submission that has ceased to be o. strain, and hae become the free, natural, joyous expression of the self. 'l'he "heart is not haughty;" so there is no resistance to what i:i felt tu be the duty. I. SUBMISSION THAT IS STILL A STRAIN CAN 0:SLY BE PARTIALLY ACCEPTADLE WITH Gon. And very much that is called submiBl1iun is really only submission in 256 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. CXXXI, 1-3.
the making. Indeed, if we speak with absolute precision, we must say that sub- mission wholly free from strain can never be the experience of men while they are uuder human cond_it!ons and limitations. We have no instance of perfect submission save that of the D1vmo Man, the Lord Jesus Christ; and even in his case we have to notice that ~train and struggle continued up to Gethsemane, and that absolute entire- ness of obedience was won only on Calvary, where even the very life was surrendered. We can, therefore, while we are on earth, never gain more than a qualified Divine acceptance. 'l'here is peace, and promise, and power, and joy in the measure of acceptance we can gain; but it is always an inspiration, not a satisfaction. Very many good people never get above or beyond this apprehension of Christian life• "they submit because they must." They never can rise to get duty glorified. Indeed: there ar~ 1:1any who try to persuade themselves that their submission cannot really b~ su\Jm1ss10n unle~s ~hey feel the strain of it. But it is with this grace as with the d1gest1ve process-it 1s only healthy when we know nothing about it. • II. SUBMISSION THAT HAS CEASED TO BE A STRAIN IS FULLY ACCEPTABLE TO Goo. The will may persistently force attitudes and acts of submission. Then man is but a dual being. The goodness is forced. The man may submit with a reserve. He is willing to go so far. The man is wholly willing to submit sometimes and in some things. It is clear that none of these cases can be fully acceptable to God. When a man's heart is in the submission, then the man's will is rightly swa_yed, and a man's conduct is in harmonious order. The man is a unity in his submission; strain of resistance is gone, and the full Divine smile can rest upon him.-R. T.