of David's life, when he was persecuted by Saul. The point of his sadness was that nobody seemed to care for him. That was likely to make him restless. If he had further said, "and even God does not care for me," he would have grown desperate and exclaimed, "Why should I care for myself? Why should I try to be true and good and faithful?" By his word" soul" David meant" life;" but we mean spiritual e.nd eternal interests. I. CARING FOR SOULS IS NOT THE WORLD'S WORK. We use the term "world" in many senses. Sometimes for the evil element in the midst of which we are set. So far as men come together in mutual interest and service, men as men, apart from any such distinctions as godly men, their interest in each other is limited to morals. There is such a thing as the welfare of the race. There is an "enthusiasm of humanity." But see what it embraces, and where are its limits. Trace through an ascending scale. 1. Physical well-being; bodily development, conditions of health. 2. Social well-being; all that pertains to the relation8hips which men sustain. 3. National well-being; the attainment of the highest civil liberty consistent with stable government. 4. Intellectual well-being; education in elementary, middle, and advanced stages. 6. Moral well-being; the general conception of virtue as the moderate and harmonious use of all faculties, or emotional culture. But there the world stops. Even the best men who earn for the race seem to recognize no souls, no spiritual natures. (The spirit of modern philosophy may be thus expressed: Dismiss noumena, and deal only with phenomena.) And if men did recognize souls, they would be incompetent to render the care that souls need. They have not the suitable powers or agencies at their command. Chemistry, electricity, and education will not touch souls. So far as men are souls, they may look abroad over the world and say, "I can get much for body and mind, but 'no man careth for my soul.'" And yet the part that men miss caring for is the chief part. They care for the box and the setting, but they neglect the jewel. Consciousness testifies that we are souls. Revelation deals with us as souls. God cares for souls. Christ cares for souls. 'l'he true care for man is care for his soul; and this includes care for all lesser things that aro interesting to him. II. CARING FOR SOULS IS PRECISELY THE WORK OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. Physical, intellectual, and moral good is not the Church's first work. The Christian is, of necessity, also a philanthropist. 1. The Church exists to give testimony to the worth of souls in the sight of God. 2. The Church exists to devise and carry out schemes for the salvation of souls. This is indeed the work of every regenerate individual; but it is especially the duty of the Church as an organization. In it men a.re banded together for the care of souls. Ill. 1N MANIFESTING ITS CARE FOO SOULS, TIIE CHUIICII WILL HA VE A SPECIAL CARE FOO THE YOUNG. Why? 1. Apprehending the peril of souls, the Church will want to keep the young from temptation, rather than to deliver them when overcome by it. 2. Apprehending the hardening influence of sin, the Church will try to deal with it in its initial stages. Youth is the plastic time when men may be fitterl to good life- moulds. 3. Apprehending the nobler possibilities or a godly life, the Church seeks to secure for it the earliest possible beginning. Every godly life is rich in blessing; but those who servo their generation best as Christ's servants are those who began the service in early youth.-R. T.
Ver. 6.-The soul's rights in God. "Thou art my Refuge, my Portion in the land of the living." This apprehension of God's relations belongs too. man who was placed in distressing circumstances, which were all the moro distressing because he looked this way and that for human helpers, and fou 1d none. It is not that, disappoia ted in man, the psalmist turned to God. It is that, having linked together God's help and man's, he has had to learn that there are times in life when a man must turn from tho help of brother man, and use for his entire help his soul's rights in God. For the soul has rights in God which God will acknowledge, l. THE SOUL'S RIGHTS IN Gon ARISING OUT OF ITS VERY BEING, We speak of me.n as a spark from God, the Eternal Fire; of man, the spiritual being, as made in God's hnage. The relation is absolute. ln God we "live, and move, and have our being." If, ill a sense, ma.,i is a soul put forth from God in somo sort of separateness, that 350 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, OXLII,-1-7,
separnteness involves no independence. "All souls are mine." God never puts from himself his rights in souls, and souls can never put from themselves their ricrhts in God. He is, by virtue of their very being, the Refuge and Portion of souls ,;hether they know it or not. ' II. THE SOUL'S RIGHTS IN GOD ARE RECOGNIZKD IN TIIE DIVINE 0OVENANT, This psalmist speaks _within the covenant, and bases his confidence on covenant pledges. It may seem as 1f the formal .A.brahamic covenant concerne'cl. only a particular people, and pledged, on either side, merely material things. But we must always regard the covenant as representative of the spiritual covenant into which God enters with all men. It is picture-teaching of spiritual things. God makes covenant with souls, pledging himself to be, what they feel him to be, their "Refucrc" 0 and " Portion." Our rights in God are secured by bis covenant. III. THE SOUL'S RIGHTS IN GoD ARE RECOGNIZED IN THE DIVINE REDEMPTION. It should never be lost from view that, however formal 11nd outward was its settincr, the redemption wrought by Christ was a spiritual redemption-a redemption of soul~. It was really the response of Divine love to the soul's rights in God as its Refuge, when that soul had come into conditions of disaster and distress. Souls never can lose their rights in God.-R. 'I'.