Yer. 23.-The praise of piety. What could be said more than is so.id here in praise of piC't_v? What more or better could anything do for us than- I. E~sunE OUR SAFETY. So that we shall not be visited with evil. But is not the good man visited with evil? Do not his crops fail, his vessels sink, his shares fall bi,; difficulties gather, his children die? Does not his health decline, his hope depart' his life lessen? Ycs; but: 1. From the worst evils his piety secures him. Th; "fear of the Lord," that Holy One before whom he stands and with whom he walks keeps him from folly, from fraud, from vice, from moral contamination, from that "death in life " which is the thing to be dreaded and avoided. 2. And the troubles and sorrows which do assail him lose all their bitterness as they wear the aspect of a heavenly Father's discipline, who, in all that he sends or suffers, is seeking the truest and the la.sting well-being of his children. The man who is living in the fear of God, and in the love of Jesus Christ, may go on his homeward way with no anxiety in his heart, for be has the promise of his Saviour that all things shall work together for good-tbose things that are the least pleasant as well as those that a.re the most ill~~ • IL SATISFY OUR SOUL. "Shall abide satlsfied." Certainly it is only the man of real piety of whom this word ca.n be used. Discontent is the merk which" the world and the things which are ill the world" leave on the countenance and write on the heart of man. Nothing that is less than the Divine gives rest to the human spirit. Mirth, enjoyment, temporary happiness, may be commanded, but not a.biding satis- faction. That, however, is found in the devoted service of a Divine Redeemer. Let a. man yield himself, his whole powers and all his life, to the Saviour who loved him unto death, and in following and serving him he will "find rest unto his soul." Not half-hearted but whole-hearted service brings the joy which no accident can remove and which time does not efface or even lessen. '!'he secret of lifelong blessedness is found, not in the assertion of an impossible freedom from obligation, but in an open, practicable, elevating service of the living God, our Divine Saviour. !II. CONSTITUTE OUR LIFE A:ND CONDUCT TO A STILL IIIGHER FORM OF IT. "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life." It is not merely that a regard for God's will conduces to health and leads to long life (Ps. xcL 16); it is not only that it tends to secure to its possessor an honourable and estimable life among men. It is much more than this; it is that it oonstitutes human life. "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God." For man to live in ignorance or in forgetfulness of his Divine Father is to miss or to lose his life while he has it (or Eeems to have it). On the other hand, to live a life of reverence, of trustfulness in God, of love to him, of filial obedience and submission, of cheerful and devoted co-operation with him in the great redemptive work he is outworking, to be attaining more and more to his own spiritual likeness,- this u life itself, life in its excellency, its fulness, its beauty. Moreover, it itself, with all its worth, is but the prelude of that which is to come. It is the "fair beginning" of that which shall realize a glorious consummation a little further on. With all that hinders a.nd hampers taken away, and with all that fa.cilito.tes and enlarges bestowed upou us, we enter upon the nobler life beyond, which we have no language to describe because we have no faculty that can conceive its blessedness or its glory. 1. Let the 1,crils of human life point to a Divine Refuge. 2 • .i.,;~ the weariness of earthly good (III. XX. 1-30.] 'l'HE PROVEitB8. 383
lr.nd to the Divina Source of rest and joy. 8. In the midst of the deathfulness of sin, lay hold on eternal life.-C.
EXPOSITION.