and whon heart and flesh fail-as sooner or later they will-then the need of God is felt and confessed as it ought always to have been; then it is seen that" happy is he that hath the God," etc. And it is seen by him who bath such Help not in dark hours only, but at all times. Who can tell the quiet of mind, the holy strength, the calm patience, the unquenchable hope, the unfaltering trust, that are begotten of this most blessed Help? And as he was willing to reveal himself to Jacob, so will he to us; and in Jesus Christ our Lord he has revealed himself, and promised to be with us always. "God made us for himself, and our heart has no rest until it finds rest in him." II. NO'l' ONLY MAY WE KNOW HIM, BUT HE 18 ONE WII0 KNOWS us. "He knoweth the way that I take." With what constant interest does God appear to have watched over all the way along which Jacob had to go l When Jacob did not think God was near him, he was so, a.s at Bethel. And at the end of his life he tells of God as " the God who fed me all my life long ••• the Angel which redeemed me from all evil." He was not to Jacob, he need not be to us, any mere abstract, far-away Being, but one God. It is true of us who trust him that he interests himself in our concerns. In all that affects his people he takes a living and a loving interest-not alone in their religious life, but in their secular, business, everyday life as well. Do let us believe this. We are very apt to forget it, if not question and almost deny it. But God is called the God of Jacob for this very reason, that we may joyfully know him as the God who careth for us at all times. III. AND BECAUSE JACOB 80 REPRESENTS us ALL. God is often spoken of as the God of Abraham and of Isaac. And so he was; but they li'l'ed on so lofty a plane-were, especially Abraham, such heroes of faith, that we, poor, feeble, imperfect, stumbling, falling people that we are, fail to get much consolation out of that name. But when we are told that he is the God of Jacob, then we come to see that he is just the God such ae we all need. We want a God who will be gracious, and will not cast us off and throw us over because of our sine. He will punish us for them, as he did Jacob, and hold us down to the punishment until we will let the sin go; but he will not cast ue off. No; he is the God of Jacob, and we are all of us far more Jacobs than we are Abrahams. And he will ever keep before us bright hope. All along through the weary way that the patriarch had to take be was cheered by the promise of God wliich he had received at Bethel. He never forgot it; it shone like a beacon-light before him, and its good cheer never left him. The opened heavens, the throne of God, the ladder uniting earth and heaven, the angels ascending and descending,-this vision, ratilied with repeated promise, was the mainstay of his soul, and enabled him to go forward on the way God had appointed for him. l V. .Alln IT IS THUS Gon DEALS WITII us. We have "the hopo set before us," nnd, "looking unto Jesus," we are strong to run the race set before us . .And meanwhile we have given to us blessed instalments of what hereafter we shall abumlantly receive. Wo have, or may have, the sense of God's forgiveness, the blessedness of the puro in hellrt, the joy of God's presence, llnd the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; and each of thefo precious gifts serves but to confirm and intensify our hope. But the all-important question is-Have we the God of Jacob for our Help? We may not have, but yet we may have, very much that is good and fair. God may fill your veins with health, your coITers with gold, your rooms with all things of beauty, and your whole life with comfort and outward ease. "Dut you are like io such case to those trees which in tho winter-time are called Christmas-trees. One feels a kind of pang at the firdt sight uf such a tree. No doubt it is beautiful io its way, with the littlo lights twinkling among the branches, and the sweet gifts of affection hanging from every spray. Dut tbo I reti itself-are you not sorry for it.? Rooted no longer, b'Towing no more. No more circu- lation of the living sap, no more sweet discoursing by its means betw~on air a.nd soil, between soil and air. 'l'he last waves of its life are sinking, aad the moro you hang upon it and the more you gather round it, the faster it will die" (Dr. A. R.\leigh). And if our hope ho not rooted in tho God of Jacob, we aro like one of thoso trees. Loaded, it may be, with nil manner of pleasant things, aml surrounded with alfocl-ion, but dying all the while. Let it not be so with us, for it need not.-S. C.
Vor. 3.-Tlie vanity of human trusts. "Rely not even on pioas princes, they are but men, :\nd many princes will be arrayed against you; but tru8t God, This sentiment 396 THE DOOK OF PSALMS. [PS. CXLVI. 1-10.