are in a labyrinth, but the clue, the thread, is in the hand of Omniscience, Omnipresence, Infinite Wisdom. And the promise is not only, "I will be with thee;" not only, "I have graven thee on the palms of my hands;" but, "I will lead the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known." Now, I say these facts, these views of God, ought to inspire us with confidence in him, when appended to the views which we have already given in our previous remarks upon this very beautiful text. And how

consolatory it is to us also at this moment that the God that has arranged the past of our life sees and comprehends all its future. To God your future is better known than your past is to yourselves; and he sees it all; nothing occurs that he did not foresee, nothing that he did not calculate on, nothing that he does not in some way work into your destiny. The very fact, then, that God is over us—a love that never falters, a wisdom that never errs, a power that never fails, an omniscience that ever envelops us; and all these concentrated about us to do us good-this fact will surely prevent us from saying, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me."

And then notice, too, the individuality of all this. When God makes promises to comfort his people, you will see how personal they are. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee." "Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child? They may forget, yet will I not forget thee." It is not addressed to the mass; what is addressed to a multitude very

often each constituent of that multitude dissipates, and fails to draw encouragement, comfort, and instruction from. But God takes each individual Christian apart, and he says to each Christian, "I am with thee; I will not forget thee; I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." You may be very insignificant in human estimate; you may occupy a very lowly place in this world; you may be very deep in its subterranean places; you may be immersed in poverty, in sickness, in sorrow, in want; but yet God just as clearly sees thee, if a Christian, as he sees the highest angel in heaven; he as truly remembers thee as if thou wert the only individual in the universe; he as completely comprehends thy anxieties, thy sorrows, thy fears, thy difficulties, thy doubts, thy suspicions, as if he had nothing else to do but to attend to thee and to thy case, and do thee good. We lose so much of the comfort of God's presence by spreading it over myriads of living beings, but if we can only just realize this blessed thought, that all that God is he is to me as intensely and as really as if I and he were the only twain in the whole universe; that God sees me, comprehends me, understands, provides for me, takes care of me, as really, as closely, with as deep a sympathy, with as ceaseless a care, as if he had nothing else to do but to take care of me, and I were completely entrusted to him as his only charge in infinitude. What a blessed thought is the individuality, if I may use the word, or the personality, that is in each of these most precious promises! Then if God be thus the ruler of all; if he be ruler in minute as well as in magnifi

cent things; if he be arranging all for the good of his chosen and for the prosperity of his people; if the least and lowliest believer is thus transparent to his eye, thus tended by his care, thus enfolded in his paternal love, then we will cease to exclaim, however much things may seem to warrant the exclamation, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." We will recollect his appeal to that which is deepest and dearest in the human heart: "Can a mother forget or forsake her infant?" he says. "She may forget her infant, her babe; she may forget." Reason may totter, her health may give way, and she may forget. Instances of the violation of this deepest of all instincts do occasionally, but rarely, occur. She may forget: it is barely possible; it is not probable. But even should the laws of nature fail, should the deep instincts of humanity wither at their very roots, should streams rush backward to their fountains, yet I, who am Lord of all, Fountain of all, will not forget or forsake thee.

How complete then is our God as our Guardian, our Protector, our Friend. Were he Omniscience only, he might see our sufferings, but be unable to help, or unwilling to pity. Were he all love only, he might long to help us, but might not be able. But he has omniscience, to see exactly what we need; he has love, to give what we need; and he has omnipotent power, boundless resources, out of which to supply our least and our loftiest necessities.

Let me notice, in the next place, from the whole of this passage, it is God's desire that his people should be happy as well as that they should be saved. We are very apt to think of Christianity

as a religion that will help us to heaven, and get us over the world as quickly as possible, and land us safely in a better; and we think it has nothing to do with this world, but only to do with a better. Now the truth is, our religion is made and meant to make us happy in the way to heaven, as well as to make us happy when we have entered into heaven. And you will see spread throughout the whole of these promises so many, so earnest, and so persuasive appeals of God to his people not to pain themselves by doubts, by suspicions, by fears, by perplexities, where there is really no ground for them at all. If I may judge of God from what he says in the Bible, he is as anxious to make his people happy now as he is to make them happy for ever and ever. And if we fail to be happy, it is not because the elements of happiness are wanting in the fountain, but because we either drink at the wrong cistern, or that we mingle with the streams of life streams, polluted streams, from the broken cisterns of this world.

This presence of God as our Friend, our Father, our Preserver, is courage, is confidence, is energy. The consciousness that we are sure to succeed does not generate indolence and apathy, but energy, and effort, and success. The hope of victory is the next thing to victory. The certainty of success is one of the elements of attaining success. To be sure then that we never can be forsaken, that God is with us, will enable us to exclaim, in the face of the greatest difficulties, "If God be with us, who can be against us?" "God is our refuge and our strength; therefore will we not fear." Distrust leads

to delay, to apathy, to indifference; trust in God leads to exertion, to usefulness, to success. The Christian who is sure he cannot fail is just the man who will not fail; the man who lives all his life long under the fear of failing is just the man that is almost sure to fail. But let us not look for success from ourselves, but from him who is with us, and over us, and around us; and who has remonstrated with us, and complained of the dishonour that we do him, and the grief we give him, when for one moment we venture to say, "God hath forsaken us, and our God hath forgotten us."

Are we, in conclusion, Christians? Have we any right to this promise? Do we read it as part of our inventory? Are we his children, bearing his likeness, loving him, seeking to honour him? Or does he say of us, "If I be a father, where is my honour? I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." All that I have said assumes that you are Christians; it assumes that you have accepted Christ as the only Saviour; that earnestly, and from the heart, you have done so; and that you go forth in his strength, and resting upon this blessed promise, to live soberly, and righteously, and godly; looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour, who loved us, and gave himself for us, that he might redeem us to himself as a peculiar people, zealous of good works.