So also was it with David, the king of Israel. Usually he was so strong in faith, courage, and sterling loyalty, that he would dare anything for the Lord and the honour of his name; yet even he had his seasons of such deep despondency that for the time he seemed feebler than the feeblest. Such experiences of buffeting temptation are not only needful for believers themselves, to keep them humble and trustfully dependent, but the very record of them has been made specially helpful to the Church of Christ in every age. In afflictive seasons, they have not only comforted many, by showing them that they are not singular in being sorely tried and depressed, even as it is written, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man," but they have shown them also, by revealing the weakness even of the strongest, the necessity of leaning at all times, not on mere creature instrumentalities, but on their Lord alone. Of the strong, in his day, Martin Luther seemed preeminently the strongest, and very signally did the Lord use and honour him; yet there were times even with him when faith seemed wholly lacking. Once, when nothing apparently availed to comfort him, he was induced to leave home for a few days, in the hope that he might recover his cheerfulness; but he returned with a cloudy and dejected countenance. How great was his surprise on entering the house to find his wife seated in the middle of the room attired in black garments, and with a mourning cloak thrown over her, while she pressed to her eyes her handkerchief, as if weeping bitterly. He eagerly inquired the cause of her distress, which she seemed loath at first to communicate; but on again imploring her to speak, she exclaimed, “Only think, dear doctor, our Father in heaven is dead. Judge if I have not cause for my grief." Upon this, immediately comprehending her riddle, he laughed and, embracing her, said, "You are right, dear Kate; I am acting as if there were no God in heaven." And from that hour his melancholy greatly abated. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.-JONAH ii. 7. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.-Ps. lvi. 3. June 3. GOD'S PROMISES, THOUGH OFTEN FORGOTTEN ON EARTH, ARE NEVER FORGOTTEN IN HEAVEN. HEN Joshua became old and stricken in years, he uttered these memorable words: "Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof." This was a remarkable statement, not merely because of Joshua's peculiar circumstances at the time, but specially because it was true to the very letter; for though the good things promised were many, and the obstacles in the way great, yet not even in one thing was there any failure. And so in the main has it been with all in every age who have lived near the Lord, and pleaded his promises in confiding trustfulness. Ever and again their grateful song has been, Verily God hath heard me; he hath kept his word and fulfilled his promise." "Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" "The solvency of a bank," says one, "or of a government, gives the value to its notes; so it is the everlasting faithfulness of God that makes his every promise exceeding great and precious." There may often be a lengthened interval between the giving of a promise and the fulfilling of it, but neither promise nor prayer is ever forgotten by the Lord. The saintly Judson, whose abounding labours among the Burmese were so greatly blessed, once said, that though one soul purchased by the blood of Christ is as valuable as another, he should deem it a peculiar privilege to lead one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel to the Lord Jesus. He made various efforts towards establishing a mission in Palestine, all of which proved unavailing; yet the earnest wish was granted in an unlooked-for way. It was eighteen years afterwards, and only a few days before his death, that tidings reached him of the conversion of some Jews through one of his own tracts. On hearing this his eyes filled with tears, and then he said, with great solemnity: "I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time, no matter at how distant a day-somehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have thought of, it came; and yet I have always had so little faith. May God forgive me, and while he condescends to use me, wipe away the sin of unbelief from my heart!" There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.-JOSHUA xxi. 45. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.LUKE xxi. 33. All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.-2 Cor. i. 20. W June 4. EVERY SAINT IS THE SAVIOUR'S, AND A HEN we remember all their worthlessness, it may well surprise us to be told that the Lord's portion is his people; yet so it is. All thine are mine," said our Lord, when speaking of them; "and I am glorified in them." "Any man," says Luther, "may say, 'What is mine is Thine,' but only the Saviour can say, 'What is Thine is mine."" They become the Lord's in many ways. They are his by divine gift. "I have manifested thy name," he says, “unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me." "Watch thou over thine own gift," he would seem to say; "in becoming mine they have not ceased to belong to thee, but have even become more than ever thine." This fact is full of comfort; for whatever may befall other gifts, nothing can imperil gifts of the Father to the Son. They will never be withdrawn, and can never be lost. Moreover, they are his by purchase. As their loving Saviour and Substitute, he has paid to the full all that law and justice could possibly demand at his hands for their sakes. Becoming thereby the redeemed of the Lord, they are his, too, by conquest. Till their conversion, instead of bewailing their bondage and giving to the great Deliverer a grateful welcome, they say, like the Gadarenes of old, "Depart from us." There is thus need of subduing as well as of redeeming—of a day of power as well as of a day of mercy—of a conquering King as well as of an aton ing Priest; and all this they find to the full in and through the Lord Jesus. To the praise of his grace it may also be added, they are his by deliberate and hearty choice. The unbelief of their hearts being taken away, they now see his beauty and prize his love, and joyously say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth whom I desire beside thee." Oh," said Samuel Rutherford," what pains and charges it costeth Christ ere he get us! and when all is done, we are not worth the having; but love overlooketh blackness and feebleness. I have been a wretched, sinful man, but I stand at the best pass that ever a man did-'Christ is mine, and I am his.'" Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. —ROM. xiv. 8. The Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.-GAL. ii. 20. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.-1 Cor. vi. 20. June 5. WHEN GOD IS ABOUT TO WORK GREATLY BY US, HE FIRST WORKS GREATLY IN US. AS S an instrumentality, nothing apparently could have been simpler or feebler than that of the fishermen of Galilee; and yet the moral transformations thereby accomplished were strikingly great. It is all important to note, however, that before the Lord did great things by these men, he first did great things in them. For this end he said-" Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye |