I. THE SUPREME ACT OF Gon's GOODNESS. "God is my Salvation." He has been wonderfully gracious to us in bestowal-in the gifts of our being, of our spiritual nature with its nricd capacities, of our phy~ical nature with .all its organs of activity and enjoyment, of our human relationships, of a rich and beautiful dwelling-place, etc. But his greatest kindness is felt by us to be in deliverance, in that which is called "salvation." Here, again, there is an ascent in the scale of Divine goodness ;.for higher than salvation from trouble, from sickness, from death, from perso11aJ captivity or political servitude, stands salvation from sin; and in the Me:Ssianic era.this spir.itual deliverance reaches its highest point; for it includes not only the negative side of rescue from present evil, but also the positive side of enrichment with corresponding good, . :It embraces: L Redemption from sin-its penalty and its power (its thral<lom and its defilement). 2. Restoration to God-to hisfavour and to. his likeness, 3.. The hope of a higher and endless life in another world. Il. THE CONTTh'lJANCE OF ms GREATEST GIPT IN IMPARTING SPIRITUAL STRENGTH, He " forsakes not the work of his own hands." Having redeemed us from the power and condemnation of sin, and lifted us up into the state of sonship and ,heitship, he snstains us in our new and olessed life. "The Lord Jehovah .is our Strength." • He imparts the needful strength for maintenance in our course by (1) the privileges of the gospel; (2) the discipline of his holy providence; (3) the direct influences of his own Spirit. III. THE RESPONSE OF OUR HEABTB TO THE DIVINE LOVE. 1. The gratitude which '/i,11ds utterance in sacred song. "The Lord . , . is my Song" (see Ps. cxix. 54). The Christian man should carry in his heart such a sense of God's redeeming love that ;,e should be arways ready to break forth into praise; his life should be a song of grati- tude for the salvation of the Lord. 2. T/;,e confidence which ezcludes anxiety. "I will trust, and not be afraid." (1) Many are the occasioDB of human fear and anxiety-the honourable mainteuance of the family; the preservation of our personal integrity, both moral and spiritual; the faithful discharge of duty in the post we have undertaken to fill; the adorning of our Christian profession; our passage through the gateway of death, et<:. (2) We are whc,lly insufficient of ourselves to meet these, and to triu!Dph over them (2 Cor. iii. 5). (3) But, confiding in God, we may go ~orth without anx1e~r.• BMured of his Divine help (Ps. :xxvii. 1; lvi. 11-13; cxvili. 6-8; Heh, xm. 6, 6).-C.
Ver, 3,-Thejoy of <Jhrilf• ealvation, Theao words of propheoy muat qve be11D Oil, XII, 1--41.] 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' ISAIAH. 223