Ver. 13.-God's way in the sanctuary. This verse is capable of different renderinus. We take the one here given, as in the main true, and rich in sacred suguestion. 0 God's way is in the sanctuary because- I. IT IS BEEN TUEnE. Tho character, mind, and heart of God are revealed there. His holiness, that nothing unclean may approach him; yet also his mercy and com- passion, as seen in the forgiveness through sacrifice proclaimed there; the worship ho delights in and demands; the surrcnd('r of the self to him, symbolized by the shedding of the blood of the sacrifices, for " the blood is the life." So must the heart, the will, the real self, of the worshipper be presented to God; the transforming power of the Holy Spirit which he will give to us who thus come in full =render to him, for the fire which consumed the sacrifice was no man-enkindled flame, but came down from heaven, and set forth how the blessed Holy Spirit of God would take hold of our poor dead fleshly nature, and transform it and uplift it heavenward, God ward, as did the fire the sacrifice, Thus was God's way of saving sin[ul men set forth and shown, II. LEADS THERE. All his dealings with us are to lead us to his own presence, to bring us back to himseif, We have got away into the far country, poor sinful ones that we are, and God's way with us is all to lead us to turn and say, "I will arise and go to my Father, and will say," etc. III. Is LIKE WIIAT IS THERE-holy, just, and good. God can ask, "Are not my ways holy?" 'l'hey are in harmony with the spirit of the sanctuary, He is holy in all his ways, One rendering of the text is, "0 God, thy way is holy." The records of history, of experience, of conscience, all assert the righteousness and holiness of God. IV. Is UNDERSTOOD THERE. (Cf. Ps. lxxiiL 17.) 'l'here we get light sufficient, and, better still, the acquiescent, submissive mind, that learns to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him ( cf. Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 13; Luke xviii. 10). Ah! how often has the wearied., much-tried child of God found in the holy sanctuary that there have come such messages from God to his soul, through prayer, or psalm, or hymn, or God-inspired word, that he has gone down to his home comforted I V. Is TRANSFIGURED THERE, It may have been a terribly hard, difficult, rough way; the man's lot in life may be heavily burdened with care, but" in the sanctuary," as he waits upon God and pours out his soul before the Lord, lo, these very trials and cares become transfigured and changed in fashion, so that they become as wings on which his soul mounts up nearer to God than ever be had attained to before, and he comes to confess, " It was good for me that I was afflicted." CoNCLUSION, Then do we know the way of the sanctuary? Would we enter there? The path leads by the altar. The soul that would enter in and know the blesseduess of the sanctuary of God, must come along that path, the path of lowly penitence and trust and heart-surrender, so that on him may come the blessed fire of the Holy Spirit, bringing him into the presence of God.-S. C. Ver. 19.-17ie mysteries of Providence. "We know not., Israel knew not, by what precise means their deliverance from the hosts of Pharaoh was wrought; we know not by what precise track through the gulf the pnssage was effected. We know not, and we need not know; the obscurity, the mystery here, as elsewhere, was part of the lesson.. , . All that we see distinctly is that through this dark and terrible night, with the enemy pressing close behind, and the driving sea on either side, he led his people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Stanley). And that great event of the Exodus, the mercy and mystery of which were so alike conspicuous, bas often been lakcn as the symbol of those manifold and often mysterious dealings of God with his people in which we can do nothing but believe and tru~t that, through these deep waters and by these unknown ways, he will bring us out into a full deliven.nce from all that oppresses us. And for those who trust hiin this is assuredly what he will do. But the mind cannot keep, and, indeed, it need not, from reverently asking why God's providence is often so full of mystery as well as of pain to men? Calamities frightful 1n their nature, desolations terrible and widespread, so that human life at times becomes 116 THE DOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, LXXVll, 1-20,
like the prophet's scroll, which W68 full, both within &nd without, of mourning, lrimen• tat.ion, and woe. Wb&t is to be said of these things? Certainly they are instrumont&l in much t.hat is good. HUMAN LIFE OWES MORE TO 1TB PAINS THAN TO 1TB PLEASURES. 1. How wouTd faith be educated and developed but for the demands made upon it by the trials of life? Trust in God is an absolute essential t-o the strength, the joy, the power, and the per• manence of the Christian life. There must, then, be occasions &nd demands for its exercise, and the trials of life supply them. 2. What a spur to invention earthly calamities are 1 Perhaps there is no one single safeguard against such calamities in which we now rejoice, but owed its existence to their occurrence, and the pressure they put upon men to discover such safeguard. Is there a lighthouse anywhere along our coasts but where some gallant ship hl\S, for want ofit, gone down with many precious lives? 3. What power there is in life's sorrows to bind together hearts that other- wise would have remained apart 1 There is a blessed uniting power in sorrow. 4. The rol,amitiu <?f life, when death seems to reign in terrible power, servo to startle the con- science of sinful men, and, as it were, force them to think of God and things eternal (Isa. xxvi. 9). 5. They strengthen the argument for the future life. The justice and goodness of God could not be maintained, if" in this life only we have hope." 6. The good man is by them drawn nearer to God, and hides the more closely within the blessed shelter of God's never-failing love. 7. They serve as revelations of cha,racter to the self- deceived, and show such how far other than they have thought they really are. 8. They tea,ch us to sympathize with the sorrowful. Even Christ learned through the things that he suffered. 9. Suffering is the way to life. "Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom." 10. They show, what men are apt to forget, that" hers we have '120 cuntinuing city."-S. C.