If you receive the due reward of their deeds. Reader, if you should be one of them! should! Is it possible? Can you bear the thought? Can you endure the idea? Oh, make sure work of it fly, fly to Jesus at once, believe in his dear name, confess thy sins at his feet, get his blood sprinkled on thy conscience, and his Spirit imparted to thy soul, then, then thou art safe, and safe for ever! And am I only born to die ? And must I suddenly comply No room for mirth or trifling here, If now the Judge is at the door, Nothing is worth a thought beneath, OUR PROSPECT AND PROVISION. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."-DEUT. xxxiii. 25. THIS is part of the blessing of Asher, the descendants of the son of Bilhah. When he was born, Leah considered herself happy, and therefore called him "Asher," or "Happy." But it is now the common property of all the Lord's people, who are happy in state, whatever may be their experience; for, "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, and whose hope the Lord is." Jacob's God is the help of all Jacob's spiritual seed, and the hope of every believer in Jesus, therefore they are happy. Are they corrected? "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth." Are they reproached for the name of Christ? "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." Do they trust in the Lord? "Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he." Of the whole church of Jesus, however poor, tried, tempted, or troubled they may be, we may exclaim with Moses: Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the 66 shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places." Let us now consider the text as the property of every true believer in the Lord Jesus. Here is First, THE PROSPECT SET BEFORE US, trying days, which will require strength, and such strength as only God can supply. We shall have days of trouble, for we are born to trouble, and our Lord has very graciously informed us, that "in the world we shall have tribulation." Our troubles may be external, or internal, or both. We may have trouble in the business, in the family, or in the church. The winds of trouble may come down suddenly upon us, as the storm on the lake. So they came on Job: one day, the greatest man in the east; the next, a poor, afflicted, forsaken one, sitting in ashes. Some of our troubles come directly from sin, our own sin or the sin of others. One rogue often brings trouble on many honest men; or, error may bring us into trouble by entering the church or the family, or entangling our own unwary minds. Or changes in the dispensations of Divine Providence may plunge us in difficulty or sorrow. Or death may bereave us; the wife may lose her husband, or the husband the desire of his eyes; the parents may lose their children, or children may be bereaved of their parents. The staff of the aged may be suddenly broken, or the adviser of youth may be silenced for ever. Days of bereavement are the days of trouble. We may have to pass through much darkness. 66 Remember," said Solomon, "the days of darkness, for they shall be many." Many of the Lord's people have to walk in darkness, and have no light. Then they cannot read their evidences, trace their path, see their Father's face, or enjoy holy fellowship with spiritual brethren. The consolations of God are small with them. The streams of comfort run very low. It is a day of darkness and gloominess; they cannot sing in the ways of the Lord, for they see not the glory of the Lord. We shall be sure to have conflicts. The world is no friend to grace, and if you act in character, opposition will be manifested. Satan is a roaring lion still, and the enemy of all righteousness. He hates us perfectly, he watches us intently, in order to injure us if possible. He will oppose us, and just in proportion to our zeal in God's cause, and devotedness to the Saviour's praise. The law in the members will war against the law of the mind, and at times will bring us into captivity to the law of sin that is in our members. The opposite principles within will struggle, oppose each other, and make us feel with Paul, that the good that we would, we do not; but the evil that we would not, that we do; so that at times we shall be ready to cry out: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" As Pharaoh said to Israel, "Evil is before us." The days will come, for the years draw nigh in which we shall say, "I have no pleasure in them." Even days of prosperity are days of trial, and often present a severer test to our principles and profession than adversity itself. Happy is the man who can heartily pray, "Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." Our immediate prospect, then, is not the most pleasant, but here lies our comfort-that let our trouble come from what quarter it may, the Lord says " "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.' Turn we now to notice Secondly, THE PROVISION MADE FOR US; "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." God foresees, because he appoints our days. The nature and the number of our days are in God's decree. Therefore said Job: "He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with him." His eye has surveyed the whole path, fixed the route we are to take, and arranged all the toils, troubles, and trials we are to meet with. It is a sweet thought, that all comes according to our Father's arrangement. |