them under four heads. 1. Fret not. 2. Trust. 3. Wait patiently. 4. Do right. These four may be reduced to two: trusting and trying; or, in other words, lo restin"' e.nd working. Both are included in the verse already qnoted. "Trust in the Lord~ e.nd do right." While these duties in corn bination make up "the whole d.uty of man," they are so connected together that neither can be discharged without the other. IJ we do not trust in God, we cannot do the right, and if we do not desire to do right, we have no right to trust in God. What, then, is the relation between them? At least a fourfold one. 1. Trust in God ensures the peace of mind which fits a man J or worlc. E.g. take a tradesman in business, whose affairs are going down, and who will soon find himself on the wrong side of the balance-sheet. It is impossible for him to go about his business with the energy it requires, especially in these times. But put the man's affairs straight; tell him that everything is set right, and that by-and- by he will find himself in a better position than at present,-and you put new life into the man. When he knows that all is right, he can set about his work with all tbe zest that is needed. So it is here. There once were two burdens pressing on the heart. '£he one, of his spiritual interests, the other, of his temporal care. What has become of these? The first, the burden of guilt, he has laid at the foot of the cross. The second, tbe load of earthly care, he brings day by day, and casts it upon his God. fhus he has nothing left to care for, nothing left to be anxious a.bout. Hence, the yeace of God passing all understanding keeps his heart and mind in Christ Jesus; and, consequently, with unburdened heart, he can go about the work his Father has given him to do. 2. Trusting in God ensures the reception of strength for the discharge of work. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; " " As thy days, so shall thy strength be." So runs the promise, and so runs experience too. Strength according to the days ; strength sure as the days ; strength to the end of the days. Such will be the uniform result of" waiting on God a.II the day." 3. Trusting in God supplies a man with motives to perform his work. If I e.m permitted to trust in God, then honour requi~s that I shall do right; for I trust in God for strength to perform his will; hence wb~ nsk for strength there is a tacit pledge that the strength received from God shall be spent in obedience to God. And not only so, but gratitude also requires that I should do right. If I receive of God's strength, how can I but grate- fully spend it for him? And the honour of religion requires that I should do right. For if I tell the world I am trusting in God, and yet fail to do right, what will the worldling say ? What can he say, but this?-" Either your God is not the God you say he is, or else you have not tbe trust in him which you profess to have." If we want the world to believe in God, if we want them to give us credit for sincerity, we must show that, while we trust in God, we also do right. 4-. '!'rusting in God gives a man a guarantee of the succeseful issue of his work. l! it mine to trust in God? Can I, umler all circumstances, repose in him? Then I know that, to the very last, all shall be well. He bath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Trustin~ in him, we will dare to work, to suffer, or to die. 6. Trusting in God will ensure a blessing to those on whom our work may afterwards full. (Ver. 37, Hebrew and Revised Version mnrgin, compared with ver. 38, Hebrew.) 'l'he good man leaveth an inboritnnce to his children's children. "The generation of the upright shall be blessed." The Old Testa- ment does not project our thought into our own future life after death ns tho New Testament does, but it lays very much stress on the effect of a mnn's life on the genera- tions which will follow him on earth: this is In accordance with Deut. vii. 9. And there can be no manner of doubt that t.ho posterity of a mnn of trained righteousness, integrity, and piety, even though he be a poor man, will have the best of all legncies- pious poverty, God's blessing, and a father'a prayers. We do not sny that young people are now taught too much to look to their future lifo, but we do venture to affirm that far too little stress is laid upon, and mention is far too seldom made of, the thought of the effect of parental character upon posterity. The law of heredity is stronger than that of environment; or, to put the same truth in somewhat antique form, "Grace does not run in the blood, but it purifies it." 6. Trusting in God ensures a man of a horrwi in God when the earthly work is over. Even when flesh and heart fail, God is the Strength of our heart, and our Portion/or ever /-C.
Ver11. l-40.-Two pictures. The psalmist says,at ver. 2:5, "I have been young, and 2!H THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS. XXXVII, 1-40.