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upon the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be,-there shall they be in a good fold, and in a rich pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah." The Psalmist, most probably, in the peculiarly rich and glowing imagery of this second verse, referred to the peculiar circumstances of peace and prosperity,-the overflow of temporal enjoyments and spiritual satisfactions with which he was surrounded at the particular period of his composing this sacred ode. And so there are particular occasions in the history of most believers when the care of their heavenly Shepherd has been more conspicuously displayed than usual on their behalf,when he has lavished on them, with all "the pomp and prodigality of heaven," the tokens of his kindness, when he has turned their life into a banquet of bliss, and made their cup run over with enjoyment—“ renewing their youth as the eagle's, and crowning them with loving-kindness and with tender mercies," when, as they stir up their hearts, and all that is within them, to magnify his holy name, their gratitude may more spontaneously and readily than in ordinary circumstances, pour itself forth in such luxuriant strains as those of the Psalmist in the text. Yet, without confining the applica

tion of his words to such rare and singular occasions, there is, we apprehend, enough in the character of that permanent and unchanging portion which belongs to every child of God, whenever he actually and realizingly enjoys it,-which will justify in his esteem the expressions of the text as descriptive of that solid and abiding fund of happiness to which in all circumstances he can have recourse. In that pasture he finds, in the first place, spiritual food and spiritual drink," He goes in and out, and finds pasture," that is, what shall make him happy and strong,-what, on the one hand, shall abun dantly gratify the thirst and hunger of the soul,the desire of happiness,-the appetite for enjoyment,-what, on the other hand, shall nourish, and strengthen, and mature, the spiritual life within,preparing it for the duties of the present world, and the felicities of the world to come. We have often had occasion to set before you the nature of that food with which the Christian's spiritual taste is regaled and satisfied, and the situation of those pastures in which this spiritual food is to be gathered. The pastures are the ordinances of God's grace, and especially the oracles of his truth, and the ever-satisfying and delicious nourishment which this rich pasturage supplies to the believer's soul, is the assurance which the Bible addresses to him that Jehovah is his friend. In the great fact that God has become his God through Jesus Christ,-that in the

Infinite and Everlasting One he has a Father and a Friend,-a Guide and a Guardian,-a portion and an inheritance, and an exceeding great reward,—the Christian finds enough, and justly, as every one perceives,-when firmly believed and duly realized, to fill and overflow all his soul with profound and tranquil enjoyment,-to pervade it with sensations of a "peace which passeth understanding,"—" a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,”—so that with the Psalmist he can say, "Thy word was found of me, and I did eat it; and it was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." The spiritual repasts, however, which our Saviour has provided for his people on their pilgrimage to Zion were meant to be the source, not only of a certain passive, present, and transitory enjoyment,-but of gradual nourishment towards the maturity of the celestial life,-of abiding strength for the discharge of duty, and the endurance of trial, and the fulfilment of the course set before them. And so we find that the same precious and all-sufficient Word in which the believer finds his spiritual luxuries and satisfactions, is that in which he finds at the same time the means of his spiritual nourishment and growth in grace,-the bounteous pasture which exhilarates and refreshes, at the same time quickens and invigorates the soul. To this effect the enjoyment itself which the Word of God supplies most powerfully contributes,-the joy of the Lord is his people's strength, animating

and encouraging them in the path of duty, and teaching them to run with enlarged hearts in the way of Jehovah's testimonies; while, independently of those portions of the Holy Word which minister directly to their delight and consolation, they find it amply stored with all that can contribute directly to their sanctification and improvement, with warning and motive, and impulse and principle,—with "doctrine and reproof, and correction and instruction in righteousness," by the use of which their soul's health is sensibly promoted, and their spiritual nature is developed, and their capacities for holy action are confirmed, and their susceptibilities of holy feeling are quickened, and the promise is fulfilled in their experience, "To you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as heifers of the stall."

But with the general idea thus expressed in the text, of appropriate pasture provided for believers, as the flock of Jehovah's heritage, by their great Shepherd's pastoral care, there are two collateral ideas associated, which are worthy of being noticed, though with all possible brevity, before we close; and these are the ideas, first, of abundance, and then of repose. First, we have the idea, not merely of appropriate but of abundant sustenance and refreshment provided for the flock of God, suggested by the greenness of the pastures, as well as by the

ease and quiet with which the reposing flocks are presented to our view, browsing the enamelled verdure on the margin of the living streams. This is the figurative representation of what the Good Shepherd has himself declared,-"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Consider what the portion of the Christian is, the fulness of the Godhead spread out before him as his own, from which to derive exhaustless satisfaction for every power and principle of his being,-developed into ten thousand different forms, and set in ten thousand different lights, suited to the variety of circumstances in which he may be placed, and moods of feeling in which he may be involved,-and say, whether any images of richness and luxuriance are sufficient adequately to set forth the immeasurable greatness and the inexhaustible copiousness of the believer's heritage of bliss, or to represent what the apostle has so loftily described in plain and literal expressions, when he describes it as the Christian's distinction to "comprehend with all saints what is the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, until he is filled up with all the fulness of God."

But there is a second superadded idea suggested the text besides that of abundance,-the idea of repose. The most striking feature, indeed, of the whole scene which, by one or two expressive touches,

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