66 lowing it I often turned aside, often wandered, and erred, and strayed. "I will arise, and go to my FATHER!” I know He will hear. Nay, even as I turn to Him, He hears me. He has already heard,"The LORD hath heard my petition, the LORD will receive my prayer." of GOD, that takest away the world, have mercy upon me! GOD, that takest away the sins of the world, grant me Thy Peace: Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive my prayer." "O Lamb sins of the O Lamb of "Away from me, all ye that work vanity, away from me, all ye that deal treacherously, for the LORD has heard the voice of my calling." Even if His "rebuke" hath well nigh "broken my heart," yet "He will turn again and refresh me," and "show me the light of His countenance again." I will say unto Him, "Turn Thee, O LORD, and deliver my soul: O save me for Thy mercy's sake." "Take away from me the rebuke that I am afraid of, and Thy loving correction shall make me great. Turn Thee, O LORD, at the last, and be gracious unto me." "And all mine enemies shall be confounded and sore vexed; they shall be turned back, All my and put to shame suddenly.” trouble and sorrow, all my sins shall be driven away, even as the sun dispels the darkness of night, and puts to flight the mists of the early morning! THE WILL OF GOD OUR SALVATION. "All that the FATHER giveth Me shall come to Me and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the FATHER'S will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."-S. John vi. 37–40. ALL whom the Heavenly FATHER gives to His beloved SON shall come unto Him. And again, of all whom the Heavenly FATHER gives to the beloved Son, that SON will lose nothing, lose none, lose not one. And once more, all who come to the SON, He will in no wise, under no circumstances cast out, but will raise up again at the last day. What a glorious, comforting, loving, consoling promise both for ourselves, and for those whom we love. The blessed LORD came down from Heaven, not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him, that is the Heavenly FATHER'S will. And the will of the Heavenly FATHER is that none should perish, but that all should come to the SON, that is, to Eternal Life; "for he that hath the SON, hath life." And that SON laid down His life for all. No one took it from Him. He laid it down of His own will, and because it was the will of Him that sent Him, that so salvation should be purchased for fallen man, and that so fallen man should be redeemed. "Of all whom Thou hast given Me," He says elsewhere in this same Gospel, "have I lost none.” Each soul of man is infinitely dear in the Heavenly FATHER'S sight, not only as the work of His creation, but as the price of the precious Blood of the beloved SON. The Heavenly FATHER hates nothing that He has made. He hates only the sin by which the work of His hands is polluted, and the sheep of His pasture made to go astray. But the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep. And they re-enter the fold from which they had strayed, and the Heavenly FATHER looks again with love and favour upon them. He loved them even when they strayed, but how much more now when they have returned, how much more when He sees them sprinkled with the Blood of Him Who died for them; how much more when He sees His own likeness reproduced in them, when He sees in them the face of His Anointed, His CHRIST, His Messiah, the face of Him Whom He Himself had sent ; how much more when He hears the SON saying in the living Union of His will Divine and of His human will with the will of the FATHER, "FATHER, I WILL that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." If then all these wills are at work upon us, who are we that we should resist His will? Nay, and on the contrary how fully, absolutely and entirely, how brightly, lovingly and cheerfully we should rest upon, and accept, and be conformed to, and unite ourselves with the will of the Heavenly FATHER and the will of the beloved SON, with the Divine will of JESUS and with His human will. And this in order to teach us not to do our own will, not to love our own will, not to repine at His will, but to do the will of Him that called us, and made us members of His Son, and took us for His adopted sons, His own children, and gave us the promise of the inheritance of Heaven, and made us heirs of the heavenly home; to which He of His mercy and tender pity bring us, for JESUS CHRIST's sake. Amen. TROUBLE. "It is good for me that I have been in trouble." -Ps. cxix. 71. A 66 HARD, and yet a "good" lesson to learn! It is the utterance of a man who had learned his lesson by bitter experience. But he found the bitter sweet. He had lost what men most prize. But by his loss he had found GOD. In his "prosperity" he had thought that he would never be removed;" GOD, in His infinite Love, turned His "Face from him," and he 66 was troubled." "Then," he says, "I cried unto the LORD; and gat me to my LORD right humbly." He never knew what humility was until he was "troubled." The "lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," had had full sway over him. He had loved the crea |