I. GOODNESS IS NOT SO MUCH SPECIFIC DEEDS AS A FAITHFUL HEART: it is being, rather than doing, though sure to lead to right doing. If the principle is true, what is often called passive goodness is the necessary condition, nay, the interior fountain of active goodness. A man, that is, must, be a silent believer in his heart before he can be a powerful Christian worker with his arms, or speaker with his lips. He must pray in his closet before he can honour his Maker in the multitude or shop, in pulpit or street.

II. COMPARE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VIRTUES, AND SEE WHAT EACH REQUIRES TO RESTRAIN IT.

1. Submission — if there be any distinction between these virtues — would fall on the side of the passive graces. But in all the compass of human achievements there is not one that more tasks the stoutest energies of the soul, not one that demands a more resolute gathering up of all the resolution left. And yet men speak of it, of this resting in the Lord, as one of your passive, secondary, ignoble virtues.

2. So, too, with gentleness of temper and of speech. There is natural amiability, but that has cost no struggle. But do we not know some persons that need all the weapons in the Christian armoury, and all the watchfulness of the camp, to reach that plain achievement, the "soft answer" that "turneth away wrath"? So, then, the passive virtues, as they are called, are those that require the greatest effort, and, according to Christ, are therefore of the greatest worth. All the nine beatitudes, with, perhaps, one exception, pronounce their blessing on what the world would call tame and passive traits. So does Christianity turn upside down the vulgar vanity of our ambition, and empty our worldliness of blessedness. But the subject reaches on to wider applications yet. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," is —

III. A COUNSEL ADDRESSED TO THE HABIT AND TENDENCY OF THESE TIMES; and no time perhaps ever needed to listen to it more; a time more eager to conquer the world by putting girdles of intelligence and bonds of travel about it, than to feel its dependence on Heaven; readier to run, to work, to build, to ask questions, to yoke the elements, than to kneel, to believe, to have patience and to pray. But the strength of a community is not in its enterprising, self-confident, profane or prayer-less great men, but in the men, be they few or many, who while they are "diligent in business," and faithful in public spirit, "rest" secretly "in the Lord," and "wait patiently" every day "for Him."

IV. See again, WHAT BESIDES RIGHTEOUS LABOUR SUCH A STILLNESS SUPPOSES. To wait patiently for God is to hold the heart open for what God gives. Subjection, then, it implies. It is to expect His love; and so it implies file penitence that goes before pardon. It is to believe He will give and guide; and so it implies faith. And it implies, too, self-restraint, self-renunciation, prayer, thanksgiving; and these are not the elements of man's infirmity. We must not be surprised that men are so slow to learn this lesson. When it is learnt, then will Christ's kingdom have come. Let us help it forward as we best can. Meanwhile, we must rest and wait. So, too, in regard to the manifold sins and sorrows of human life: the slowness of our own growth in goodness; the secret sorrows of our homes — in regard to all them, and every other like to them, take the precept of our text. Let one subject regulate our judgments of one another: save us from morbid discontents, and cause to abide ever "in the Lord," that we may rest in Him.

(S. T. Huntingdon, D. D.)

1. It may not appear at first sight evident that the demand for rest is an interior feeling in every one. Yet very little reflection will make it plain.(1) Under the restless garb of the busiest of mankind abides the constant desire to procure a sufficiency. Look at the energetic tradesman; he seems incessantly active; he labours early and late; nothing seems so foreign to him as rest. Yet let him unbosom himself, and you will find all this activity arises from a wish to secure the means of attain. ins a secure rest in his declining years. He believes he can only be satisfied in the gratification of his desires, and when he has won all that his wishes require, he will recline in peace and enjoy rest.(2) The rest, which is the inward aim of the soul, and to which every man may attain, is foreshadowed by the contentment of little children, though theirs is the peace of ignorance, not the peace of wisdom. They find their wants supplied, and they have no cares. They have full confidence in the love of their parents, and no doubt as to their power.

2. We may be assured that rest is intended to be enjoyed by us in this world from the circumstance that restlessness disturbs and destroys the health of both mind and body, and is therefore in contrariety to the laws which build up both. Opposites cannot come from God.

3. We are invited, by frequent calls in the Word, to rest on the Divine love and wisdom.

(J. Bailey, Ph. D.)

I. THIS SPIRIT OF PATIENT WAITING IS IN ITSELF A HIGH ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. In religion all means are ends, and all ends only means to some larger end. Repentance is not only a condition of salvation, but also a part of the work; it is an indication of a deep change which God works within the heart. To wait patiently upon the Lord is a means of grace, but it is also a feature of a lofty spirit. Our God is the "God of patience." How patiently He waits as Creator — not at once, but slowly have order and beauty emerged from chaos; how patiently He stands as the World Redeemer, while men scourge and revile and spit at Him, and crown Him with thorns, and smite Him with their hands! He waits patiently "to see of the travail of His soul," and is able to breathe the spirit of calm, fearless, hopeful endurance into all His people.

II. THIS SPIRIT OF milder afflictions which we at times are called on to suffer.

2. Whilst remembering the judgment that is coming upon the wicked if they do not repent, we are to pray for them that they may.

3. Lay to heart the truth that God, as surely as lie lives, is on the side of right. You are not in the devil's world. lie neither made nor governs it. Therefore keep to the right and the true, to religious faith and the side of God.

(T. Binney.)

1. In His all-sufficiency for reasonable and sufficient supplies.

2. In His wisdom for counsel and guidance.

3. In His power for protection.

4. In His truth and faithfulness for the fulfilment of His promises.

5. In His gracious love for all.

II. THE PRAYERFUL ENDURANCE AND EXPECTATION.

1. "Wait patiently for" the Lord, for this is the only way of keeping our minds calm.

2. For His arrangements concerning our afflictions.

(R. M. Wilcox.)

I. GOODNESS IS NOT SO MUCH SPECIFIC DEEDS AS A FAITHFUL HEART: it is being, rather than doing, though sure to lead to right doing. If the principle is true, what is often called passive goodness is the necessary condition, nay, the interior fountain of active goodness. A man, that is, must be a silent believer in his heart before he call be a powerful Christian worker with his arms, or speaker with his lips. He, must pray in his closet before he can honour his Maker in the multitude or shop, in pulpit or street,

II. COMPARE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VIRTUES, AND SEE WHAT EACH REQUIRES TO RESTRAIN IT.

1. Submission — if there be any distinction between these virtues — would fall on the side of the passive graces. But in all the compass of human achievements there is not one that more tasks the stoutest energies of the soul, not one that demands a more resolute gathering up of all the resolution left. And yet men speak of it, of this resting in the Lord, as one of your passive, secondary, ignoble virtues.

2. So, too, with gentleness of temper and of speech. There is natural amiability, but that has cost no struggle. But do we not know some persons that need all the weapons in the Christian armoury, and all the watchfulness of the camp, to reach that plain achievement, the "soft answer" that "turneth away wrath"? So, then, the passive virtues, as they are called, are those that require the greatest effort, and, according to Christ, are therefore of the greatest worth. All the nine beatitudes, with, perhaps, one exception, pronounce their blessing on what the world would call tame and passive traits. So does Christianity turn upside down the vulgar vanity of our ambition, and empty our worldliness of blessedness. But the subject reaches on to wider applications yet. "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," is —

III. A COUNSEL ADDRESSED TO THE HABIT AND TENDENCY OF THESE TIMES; and no time perhaps ever needed to listen to it more; a time more eager to conquer the world by putting girdles of intelligence and bonds of travel about it, than to feel its dependence on Heaven; readier to run, to work, to build, to ask questions, to yoke the elements, than to kneel, to believe, to have patience and to pray. But the strength of a community is not in its enterprising, self-confident, profane or prayer-less great men, but in the men, be they few or many, who while they are "diligent in business," and faithful in public spirit, "rest" secretly "in the Lord," and "wait patiently" every day "for Him."

IV. See again, WHAT BESIDES RIGHTEOUS LABOUR SUCH A STILLNESS SUPPOSES. To wait patiently for God is to hold the heart open for what God gives. Subjection, then, it implies. It is to expect His love; and so it implies the penitence that goes before pardon. It is to believe He will give and guide; and so it implies faith. And it implies, too, self-restraint, self-renunciation, prayer, thanksgiving; and these are not the elements of man's infirmity. We must not be surprised that men are so slow to learn this lesson. When it is learnt, then will Christ's kingdom have come. Let us help it forward as we best can. Meanwhile, we must rest and wait. So, too, in regard to the manifold sins and sorrows of human life: the slowness of our own growth in goodness; the secret sorrows of our homes — in regard to all them, and every other like to them, take the precept of our text. Let one subject regulate our judgments of one another: save us from morbid discontents, and cause to abide ever "in the Lord," that we may rest in Him.

(S. T. Huntingdon, D. D.)

1. It may not appear at first sight evident that the demand for rest is an interior feeling in every one. Yet very little reflection will make it plain.(1) Under the restless garb of the busiest of mankind abides the constant desire to procure a sufficiency. Look at the energetic tradesman; he seems incessantly active; he labours early and late; nothing seems so foreign to him as rest. Yet let him unbosom himself, and you will find all this activity arises from a wish to secure the means of attaining a secure rest' in his declining years. He believes he can only be satisfied in the gratification of his desires, and when he has won all that his wishes require, he will recline in peace and enjoy rest.(2) The rest, which is the inward aim of the soul, and to which every man may attain, is foreshadowed by the contentment of little children, though theirs is the peace of ignorance, not the peace of wisdom. They find their wants supplied, and they have no cares. They have full confidence in the love of their parents, and no doubt as to their power.

2. We may be assured that rest is intended to be enjoyed by us in this world from the circumstance that restlessness disturbs and destroys the health of both mind and body, and is therefore in contrariety to the laws which build up both. Opposites cannot come from God.

3. We are invited, by frequent calls in the Word, to rest on the Divine love and wisdom.

(J. Bailey, Ph. D.)

I. THIS SPIRIT OF PATIENT WAITING IS IN ITSELF A HIGH ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. In religion all means are ends, and all ends only means to some larger end. Repentance is not only a condition of salvation, but also a part of the work; it is an indication of a deep change which God works within the heart. To wait patiently upon the Lord is a means of grace, but it is also a feature of a lofty spirit. Our God is the "God of patience." How patiently He waits as Creator — not at once, but slowly have order and beauty emerged from chaos; how patiently He stands as the World Redeemer, while men scourge and revile and spit at Him, and crown Him with thorns, and smite Him with their hands! He waits patiently "to see of the travail of His soul," and is able to breathe the spirit of calm, fearless, hopeful endurance into all His people.

II. THIS SPIRIT OF PATIENT WAITING IS NECESSARY FOR THE HIGHEST AND MOST PERMANENT SERVICE. In Mr. Winston Churchill's Life of his father we have the story of one who had it in him to be one of the most influential workers of his age, but who failed because he was all impulse, impatience, restlessness, and left little behind save the memory of a most pathetic career. After his conspicuous blunder he wrote to his wife from Mafeking: "Well, I have had quite enough of it all. I have waited with patience for the tide to turn, but it has not turned, and will not now turn in time. All confirms me in my decision to have done with politics and try to make a little money for the boys and ourselves." That is the secret of impermanent service — "the tide has not turned, and will not turn now in time." In whose time? Man has no right to fix the time. Of the hour knoweth no man, but only the Father. Our times are in His hand. How patiently Christ waited; for thirty years He waited in obscurity for the ministry to begin. He remained hopeful in the presence of the cross, the symbol, it would seem, to others, of everlasting defeat and shame.

III. THIS SHOULD BE A MESSAGE OF COMFORT TO US AMID LIFE'S PAINFUL PERPLEXITIES, One night Henry Drummond sat up with a young man who had lost himself in philosophical speculations. "I seem to be walking round and round and arriving nowhere," he said sadly, "and I am thoroughly tired of it all." "True," said Drummond, "but you are not too tired to lie down." The psalmist had been wandering in the same bewildering way. He had fretted himself because of the prosperity of evildoers; all his theological ideas had been disturbed by the "little that the righteous hath and the abundance of many wicked." But he was not too tired to lie down, and to the weary in every age he proclaims the glad restfulness of the soul in God. There are times when reason fails us.

(Trevor H. Davies.)

I. THY REST OF WEARINESS. The body rests; it is this rest which "knits up the ravelled sleeve of care," which is "sore labour's bath," "balm of hurt minds," "great nature's second course," "chief nourisher in life's feast." All life is submitted to this law. The leafless winter, the hushed songsters of the forest, the infant slumbering on its mother's breast, the sealed eyes of the shipboy cradled on the surge, and all the "magic of night as she moves from land to land and touches all with her opiate wand," tell the same story. Work demands rest, and rest is the stimulus of work. The intellect itself must have its quiet places and still retreats, where holy calm, and unconscious growth, and secret renovation, repairs its losses. Further, weariness comes at times even to the relief of the spiritual faculty, and gives the half-awakened spirit its first lessons in the mighty art of faith,. Perhaps we have been eagerly seeking to reconcile God's truth to our own standards; to adjust Jehovah's attributes for Him; to enter the kingdom of heaven like a man, with violence, and not as "a little child." Perhaps we have been striving to fill up the bottomless abyss of need in our hearts with our own merits, and we find the undertaking impossible. Now, at length, beaten with the struggle, and ceasing our efforts, we may be taking an enforced rest; we may just lie quiet for a time, and this may seem to be "a rest in God"; while, on the contrary, it is only an inevitable pause in our fruitless endeavour, a hall of energy by which the mind recovers its power of self-infliction. But if, on the other hand, we will go simply, humbly, trustingly to God as our Father, then rest may be found. Better far to learn the lesson of faith, and so be filled with peace, resting in the Lord.

II. THE REST OF STRENGTH. This is a far higher thing than that we have now considered. It is a voluntary rest, which is to some extent within our own power; it is a sign of vigour rather than weakness, of strong will rather than of over-taxed effort. This rest of conscious strength is closely associated with every Christian grace, and is as necessary to our success in the conflicts of the divine life, as it is to the culture of our higher nature. Neither faith, nor hope, nor love can be maintained within us without the rest of faith, the rest of hope, and the rest of love. Faith fights a good fight, which requires, however, that it rest in God. And hope, too, needs to rest in the fruition of that which God has given. And love is quickened by quiet hours of patient waiting for the Lord. Prayer, also, and work depend on resting in the Lord. It often requires all our strength "to sit still" and believe in the love of God, and even to augment our confidence in that love, when what we think to be our proper interests are disregarded, and apparently trifled with, and perhaps in our view utterly sacrificed. The philosopher maunders to us about "general laws," and "the good of the whole"; the unafflicted Christian does what .is little better, he suggests a few of the commonplaces of consolation. "Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust!"

III. I have now briefly to allude to a third form of this great duty and privilege — THE REST OF VICTORY WHICH FLOWS OUT OF DEEP FAITH; that peace with God which Jesus gives, which passes all understanding. Here patience has her perfect work, and is entire, wanting nothing. "The Lord is my Shepherd," says the holy psalmist, "I shall want nothing."

(H. Reynolds, D. D.)

I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN HOLDING OURSELVES STILL IN GOD. The word "still" means "hold thee in stillness upon God." It is the quality of mind which is the opposite of restlessness. And we are to "hold still in God" in reference both to things temporal and things spiritual. Restlessness has a twofold sort of bitterness which trust in God must extirpate.

1. It springs from dissatisfaction with the present, or from anxiety about the future. There is a deep melancholy in the heart of every man, bound up in the very bundle of his life, which, like the breath of myrrh, is ever ready to spread itself over all his being; and in spirits of the deepest tone there is most of this: it is the yearning after our true portion, but it will make all life restless unless we learn to lean upon God, believing that He is Truth and Love, and is ours through Christ Jesus. In common life this must be our rest; and in great sorrow too. Then we must learn to be at rest, not indeed by striving unnaturally not to feel sorrow, but by our taking the sorrow from God. It is not being sanguine, but being trustful, that is required of us.

2. And in things spiritual the precept is just the same. Stillness the very opposite of self-trust, which is the common root of these two false schemes — seemingly so opposite — of the spiritual life — the life of the mere formalist, and that of him who is engaged in a heart-eating searching into his own frame and feelings. For both are building on self, not on God. It is not that silence of spirit, that meditation and stillness, that uniting upon God which are so closely connected with true religion. And this stillness is, perhaps, that feature of religion which is most seldom to be met with in our day. It is a busy age, and we love activity. We need to be silent before God in order to realize our personal reconciliation with Him through the blood of Atonement, to walk in His Spirit, to spend our lives as His obedient, trusting children. Now, this is the essence of Christianity.

II. IT IS MOST BLESSED, both in regard to our temporal life and that which is spiritual. For in it we become transformed and bear God's impress. All growth is silent. It is not in the lordly storm, or in the over-mastering hurricane that Nature puts forth her powers of growth and increase. It is amidst the drenching dews, in the still dawning of the spring-time, that the leaf unfolds itself, and the tender shoot steals upwards. And these works of nature are all symbols of the inner growth. In times of quietness the heart unfolds itself before God. If you would grow in grace, enter into thy closet and shut to thy door upon the world; shut it most of all upon thy busy unresting self, and then God shall speak to thee. How silent, surely, is an angel's heart when God is nigh; how is self hushed there; how, as some earthly vapour by the sun, is every power of His mighty being drawn up into adoration! And this truly is to know Him.

III. How ARE WE TO GROW IN THIS GREAT GRACE? And, first, need I say, that such growth must be the work of His grace. That it is not natural to us; that nothing is, indeed, less natural. Only the Spirit brooding over our hearts can secure this. He renews, calms, cools, purifies them. He who said to the waves, "Peace, be still," must create this great calm. Therefore must we draw near to God if we would win so great a blessing. This must be our rule. Draw near to Him in the covenant of His Son's blood: to Him as the Loving, the True, the Great: as Love, as Truth, as Holiness, as Power, gathered into one adorable Person; one real Being; and that Being your portion, your friend, your rest: for "this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."

(Bishop S. Wilberforce.)

I. THE STEPS TO THIS ROYAL CHAMBER OF REPOSE. They are shown in this psalm —

1. "Fret not thyself." You are not in the fields among the wild beasts; cease to hunt them: Come within doors into your Father's house. Come away from contact with worldlings. The griefs which make the ungodly pine are not for you. Then —

2. When you have thus come out of the field into the palace of love, the first staircase is described as "trust and do." "Trust in the Lord and do good." Not a dead faith which will not serve you at all, but one which will "do" as well as receive. It is through the exercise of faith that comfort comes to the heart. When thou hast learned this lesson, thou wilt have ascended a noble staircase of the royal palace, and it will land thee in the King's dining-room, where it is written, "Verily thou shalt be fed." If thou hast a living, active faith, thou shalt be provided for. Leave the fields, and thy brethren sowing there, who are complaining that their Father never gave them a kid to make merry with their friends — leave them and come up this first staircase of active faith, and sit down where a feast is spread. Then —

3. Ascend higher, and climb the next staircase, which is marked "Delight and desire." "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Think what a good God thou hast; yea, what a blessed God He is. We have mounted now to the royal treasury, the King's almonry. Here He bids you open all your heart, and pour forth your desires, for He will satisfy them. But you are not up to the royal rest-chamber yet.

4. Climb another stair, marked, "Commit thy way and trust." All the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. What hast thou to do in ordering thine own way? Now, this brings us into the undressing-room, which stands side by side with the royal bedchamber. Take off the dusty garments of thy cares and commit them to the Lord. Strip thyself of all thy anxieties, and leave thy worn and travel-stained raiment. Then enter the quiet chamber and take your rest; "Rest in the Lord."

II. THE REST.

1. It is a rest of mind, a sense of security and fixedness;

2. Contentment.

3. Immovable confidence.

4. Submission to all God's will. The Hebrew is, "Be silent to God." One of the old versions reads it, "Hold thou still before God."

5. Patient waiting. Feel that you can waive your desires, and tarry the Lord's leisure.

6. Peace, unmixed calm.

7. Expectation, especially in regard to the Kingdom of God. Do not fret about that.

III. THE ROYAL CHAMBER. "Rest in the Lord," in Himself.

1. As your covenant God.

2. As your Father.

3. In His attributes.

4. His word.

5. His will. So that, we can say, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt."

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. The meaning here is implied by contrast — see the beginning of the psalm, as to fretting; anxious, worldly care; the unrest of the wicked, of which sin is the great cause.

2. Then think of the Lord Himself, and we see that to rest in Him is to trust in Him, and to be still and silent in our trust: resting, we wait in patient hope and in the assurance of love.

II. THEIR APPLICATION. This fitting when —

1. We are troubled about the slow progress of the Gospel. Or, 2, about the general dispensations of God's providence. The wicked prosper. Our own personal trials, temporal and spiritual. But resting in the Lord is the secret of the highest life, the truest strength and the richest blessedness.

(G. L. Jarman.)

2. But, assuredly, it should be a hopeful waiting. Let not the stillness be mere torpor. Let not the dumbness be numbness. "Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him," says the psalmist; and that word "yet" is the keynote of the whole psalm. Perhaps the highest and most difficult thing of all, however, is that it be a patient waiting. Hope may be deferred, the dawn may seem never to be coming, and yet be patient — patient. "All will come right," are the words put on the tombstone of President Brand, a late President of the Orange Free State. It was a remark he was in the habit of making in his lifetime. If our trust be in God, may we not take them up too?

(J. S. Maver, M. A.)

II. REST FROM ALL OUR FOES.

III. REST IN THE SENSE OF CONFIDENCE. In this meaning of the word we do really "rest in the Lord." We are not Christians if we do not, for the very first mark of a believer is that he rests in Christ for everything. Whatever need thou hast, rest thou on the bare arm of God to supply it.

IV. REST IN THE SENSE OF SAFETY.

V. PERFECT REST FROM WEARINESS. We read in Isaiah's prophecy, "This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest;" and I know there are some weary ones here. You are not weary of God's work, but you are weary of bearing Christ's cross, you have had so much shame and so much sorrow; well, "rest in the Lord."

VI. THE REST OF ACCOMPLISHMENT. Either Christ completed all that was necessary for your salvation, or He did not. If He did finish it, then rest in Him, and be glad.

VII. THE REST OF COMPLETE SATISFACTION. Having Christ, we want nothing more. If we go up or down, to the right or to the left, we can find nothing beyond our Lord.

VIII. THE REST OF CONSCIOUS ENJOYMENT.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. This implies that we are the Lord's people.

(1)By the enlightenment of our minds, the forgiveness of our sins, the regeneration of our nature, and adoption into the family of God.

(2)By separation from the unclean, by self-dedication to God, and by solemn covenant engagements.

2. Being the Lord's, we should rest in Him.

3. To rest in the Lord is to be silent in the Lord. Be still; and think not hard thoughts of God, because He permits thee to suffer. Be still; and murmur not against the Lord, because He does not deliver thee at once out of thy distresses.

II. WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM.

1. "Wait" signifies to be strong, firm, stable; to wait, stay, delay: to wait for, to await, from the notion of enduring, holding out, which is kindred with that of strength. It signifies to wait upon God in prayer, with faith and patience.

2. "Wait patiently" — however long.

3. "For Him." To wait for the Lord is to wait for His promised help, and to hope in Him for deliverance out of all our troubles. Hope in God maketh not ashamed. His help will come, if we wait; His help will be sufficient when it does come.

(H. O. Crofts, D. D.)

1. We are to wait unwaveringly (ver. 84). God brings men to His consummations only by His own road. And this is often a severe trial of faith. It is as when one has been travelling for long hours over a rough road, amid storm and mist, with night drawing on, looking, as he gains the top of every successive hill, for the spires of the city to which he is going, and seeing instead only a new stretch of dreary road, and a new hill to be climbed — he is tempted to think his guide has lost the way, and to take matters into his own hands. To the man who waits on God it is indispensable that he trust his guide.

2. To wait on the Lord rightly is to wait cheerfully. "Fret not thyself," says the psalmist (ver. 1), "because of evil-doers;" and again (ver 8), "fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." You have seen two children bidden by their parent to wait in a certain place for an hour, until he should return, or until some promised pleasure should be prepared: and you have seen the one cheerfully occupy himself with a book or with some object at hand, while the other, though he obeyed the command to remain, fretted, and watched the clock, and wondered when father would return, and was angry because he did not come sooner, and began to fear that he would not come at all, and so made himself generally miserable until the hour had expired. Thus, obedience is not always cheerful; and just in proportion to its lack of this element, it is defective. For obedience is of the very nature of faith.

3. We may wait confidently. The psalm backs its exhortations by numerous promises (vers. 8, 4, 6, 29). Look especially at verse 23. We have been watching the course of a man in God's way — a traveller who is long in coming to the end — on whom God's providence imposes various and trying delays. To the eye of reason it seems as though the man were walking aimlessly; as though his life, with its continual interruption, and confusion, and stumbling, and baffling, were an utter, irredeemable failure. And so it seems not only to reason, but to weak faith. There have come times to most of us when we have lost out of our lives all sense of plan or order, and have just gone on from day to day, doing and taking what the day brought with it. We have thought, I say, that those were disordered periods. They were not. Did you ever study the waves of the ocean? If so, you have noticed that each wave was full of little, irregular swirlings and eddies, moving in all possible directions. And if you could fasten your eyes upon a square foot. of that water and shut out all the rest, you might say that it was a mere watery chaos; but when your eye takes in the whole wave, you see that a common movement propels its whole mass, and takes up into itself all these minor movements, and bears them on with the regularity of a marching host. So these spaces of apparent confusion in our lives are not out of order. They are carried on in the larger order of God's plan. Perhaps we cannot see the whole movement, but it bears steadily and continuously onward, every incident, every crossing and confusion of incidents swept on at God's own rate, and in nice adjustment with God's own plan. Mark, too, that the "steps" are ordered. The whole way is ordered, it is true, but ordered through the steps. Just as gravitation acts upon each separate particle of the stone which rolls down the mountain-side, so God's general providence reaches its result through the special providences. The philosopher sneers at the marking of the sparrow's fall; but it is in the ordering of just such details that God fulfils Himself in history. So our lives are what their details are. The only thing we are to be careful about is that we step each time in God's track.

(March: R. Vincent, D. D.)

(J. Jenkyn Brown.)

II. WITH REGARD TO THE PERSONS SAID TO BE THUS PROSPEROUS. Would we allow ourselves leisure to view the precipice which the most exalted sinner stands upon, how unsure his footing, how liable to be shaken by opposition from below, or the hand of vengeance from above, and how much more fatal a fall may be from so dangerous an height; we should find nothing so tempting in it as to raise our discontent, or provoke one wish to change an innocent inglorious safety for so hazardous an eminence.

III. WITH REGARD TO OURSELVES. We come all into the world alike naked and defenceless; and it is to the same bountiful hand, which clothes the lilies of the field, we owe our food and raiment. Now, if these are sufficient for our support and even well-being, and all beyond what is requisite for our comfort and convenience, be allowed to be more than what is strictly necessary; why should we quarrel with Providence for not loading us with what, by our own confession, is superfluous, and therefore insignificant to any useful purpose? Do we do well to be angry, if, having a proper competency, we want only what would be a clog and incumbrance? Nay, even though the Almighty should reduce, instead of exalting us, and assign us trouble and disgrace, where perhaps we might hope for a better lot; yet will it not be difficult to find a lenitive for this grievance. Add to this, that a contented deportment, under adversity or distress, is the most probable means of engaging the Almighty to withdraw His scourge.

(J. Roe, M. A.)

1. It inflicts an injury on the soul of its possessor. Malign passions are to the soul what the legions of locusts are to the vegetation of the East — they eat up the life. Aye, worse than locusts, they are fiends, kindling fires that burn down to the very centre of being, and reduce to ashes the better parts of human nature.

2. It stimulates to the infliction of injury upon others. "Anger stirreth up strife." Men, under the influence of anger, are ever disposed to mischief; their tongues deal out slander, their hands are lifted in battle, and their feet are "swift to shed blood."

II. THE CONNECTION OF THE WICKED WITH THE EARTH IS NOT ENVIABLE.

1. It is exposed to a violent termination. "Evil-doers shall be cut off." It is said the "wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness." He does not leave the world with a free will. All his sympathies, interests, hopes, are rooted in the earth, and he will hold on to the last with the energy of desperation; still he must go.

2. It is utterly unsatisfying,

III. THEIR OPPOSITION BRINGS ON THEM TERRIBLE MISERY.

1. The seed of the serpent has from the beginning had a venomous animosity to the good. This animosity is here represented(1) As cunning, it "plotteth against the just"; it is fertile in schemes of ruin.(2) As raging. It "gnasheth upon him." Like the hidden fire of the volcano, it reveals itself by terrible vibrations.(3) As practical. Plan and passion will not satisfy it, it must work, and work with more implements than one — "sword and bow." In how many ways the wicked labour to beat down the ideas, thwart the plans, and wound the feelings of the righteous!

2. But all this opposition only brings ruin on themselves. The ruin involves(1) The contempt of Jehovah. Can the boldest imagination create a figure to give a more terrible representation of misery than this — the "laugh" of the Infinite? Sooner let Him hurl His thunders at me, and rain down His fires on my spirit than laugh at me.(2) The recoil of their own purposes. "Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken." A remarkable instance of the kind may be found in Esther (chaps. 5.-7.) in the case of Haman. A straightforward course is easy, and men are safe in it; but it requires more skill than most men are endowed with to manage a crooked and crafty policy safely, or so as to be safe themselves in pursuing such a course.

(Homilist.)

     5058   rest, spiritual
     5883   impatience
     6186   evil scheming
     8318   patience
     8328   quietness
     8613   prayer, persistence
     8627   worship, elements
     8678   waiting on God

Psalm 37:1-7

     5945   self-pity

April 11. "Commit Thy Way unto the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 5).
"Commit thy way unto the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 5). Seldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in one of our meetings by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help. In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with great emphasis: "You've just got to believe that He's done it, and it's done." The great danger with most of us is, that after we ask Him to do it, we do not believe that it's …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

April 19. "Rest in the Lord and Wait Patiently for Him" (Ps. xxxvii. 7).
"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Ps. xxxvii. 7). It is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is the Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, "Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." God wants rested workers. There is an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as the ocean's depth, with the peace of God, which passes all understanding. The two deepest secrets of rest are, first, to be in harmony with the …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

April 24. "Fret not Thyself in any Wise" (Ps. xxxvii. 8).
"Fret not thyself in any wise" (Ps. xxxvii. 8). A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent to steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough way, but they touched God's work presumptuously, and they fell paralyzed and lifeless. Much of the life of faith consists in letting things alone. If we wholly trust an interest to God we can keep our hands off it, and He will guard it …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

February 5. "Rest in the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. ).
"Rest in the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii.). In the old creation the week began with work and ended with Sabbath rest. The resurrection week begins with the first day--first rest, then labor. So we must first cease from our own works as God did from His, and enter into His rest, and then we will work, with rested hearts, His works with effectual power. But why "labor to enter into rest"? See that ship--how restfully she sails over the waters, her sails swelling with the gale; and borne without an effort! And …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Secret of Tranquillity
'Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord.... 7. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.'--PSALM xxxvii. 4, 5, 7. 'I have been young, and now am old,' says the writer of this psalm. Its whole tone speaks the ripened wisdom and autumnal calm of age. The dim eyes have seen and survived so much, that it seems scarcely worth while to be agitated by what ceases so soon. He has known so many bad men blasted in all their leafy …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Heart's Desire Given to Help Mission Work in China.
"Sept. 30 [1869].--From Yorkshire L50.--Received also One Thousand Pounds to-day for the Lord's work in China. About this donation it is especially to be noticed, that for months it had been my earnest desire to do more than ever for Mission Work in China, and I had already taken steps to carry out this desire, when this donation of One Thousand Pounds came to hand. This precious answer to prayer for means should be a particular encouragement to all who are engaged in the Lord's work, and who may …
George Müller—Answers to Prayer

Of the Zealous Amendment of Our Whole Life
Be thou watchful and diligent in God's service, and bethink thee often why thou hast renounced the world. Was it not that thou mightest live to God and become a spiritual man? Be zealous, therefore, for thy spiritual profit, for thou shalt receive shortly the reward of thy labours, and neither fear nor sorrow shall come any more into thy borders. Now shalt thou labour a little, and thou shalt find great rest, yea everlasting joy. If thou shalt remain faithful and zealous in labour, doubt not …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Of the Inward Growth of Patience, and of the Struggle against Evil Desires
O Lord God, I see that patience is very necessary unto me; for many things in this life fall out contrary. For howsoever I may have contrived for my peace, my life cannot go on without strife and trouble. 2. "Thou speakest truly, My Son. For I will not that thou seek such a peace as is without trials, and knoweth no adversities; but rather that thou shouldest judge thyself to have found peace, when thou art tried with manifold tribulations, and proved by many adversities. If thou shalt say that …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Columban.
THE wild districts of Ireland were occupied with convents, after the example of Patrick, and cultivated by the hard labour of the monks. The Irish convents were distinguished by their strict Christian discipline, their diligence and their zeal in the study of the Scriptures, and of science in general, as far as they had the means of acquiring it. Irish monks brought learning from Britain and Gaul, they treasured up this learning and elaborated it in the solitude of the convent, and they are said …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places

The Fourth Continental Journey.
1842-3. In the journey which now lay before them, John and Martha Yeardley were about to explore a part of Europe hitherto untried,--the province of Languedoc, conspicuous in past ages for its superior enlightenment, but now, owing to the temporary mastery of error, wrapt in ignorance and gloom. In this mission, the opportunities which they found for reviving and gathering together the scattered embers of truth, were nearly confined to social intercourse; in seeking occasions for which, they availed …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

Christian Devotion to God's Will.
I into God's own heart and mind My heart and mind deliver, What evil seems, a gain I find, E'en death is life for ever. I am His son, Who spread the throne Of heaven high above me. Tho' I bend low Beneath His blow, Yet still His heart doth love me. He ne'er can prove untrue to me, My Father aye must love me, And tho' He cast me in the sea, He only thus would prove me; In what He good Doth count, He would My heart establish ever. And if I stand, His mighty hand Will raise me, and deliver. Vain had …
Paul Gerhardt—Paul GerhardtÆs Spiritual Songs

Biographical Sketch.
Paul Gerhardt was born in Graefenhainichen in Electoral Saxony, where his father, Christian Gerhardt, was Burgomaster. There is some doubt as to the precise year of his birth, owing to the destruction of the church books when the place was burnt by the Swedes on the 16th of April, 1637. According to some, the event took place in the year 1606; according to others, in 1607. The probability is in favour of the former date, for General Superintendent Goltlob Stolze, of Luebben,[1] says that he died, …
Paul Gerhardt—Paul GerhardtÆs Spiritual Songs

The Exile.
David's first years at the court of Saul in Gibeah do not appear to have produced any psalms which still survive. "The sweetest songs are those Which tell of saddest thought." It was natural, then, that a period full of novelty and of prosperous activity, very unlike the quiet days at Bethlehem, should rather accumulate materials for future use than be fruitful in actual production. The old life shut to behind him for ever, like some enchanted door in a hill-side, and an unexplored land lay beckoning …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

A Condensed Guide for Life
'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. 16. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17. Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. 18. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. 20. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Fret not Thyself
To fret means to chafe, to be irritated, to be uneasy, to be troubled and bothered. It is just the opposite of peaceful, trustful rest. Jesus has promised us rest to our souls, and we may have this rest. We can not have it, however, if we give place to worrying and fretting. God's purpose for us is that we shall have calmness and soul-quietness, even in the midst of tribulation. He has said, "My peace I give unto you." He followed this by saying, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be …
Charles Wesley Naylor—Heart Talks

Grace and Holiness.
"Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."--1 THESS. iii. 11-13. There are few more precious subjects for meditation and imitation than the prayers and intercessions of the great Apostle. …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul

The Perfect Heart.
For the eyes of the Lord ran to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him--2 CHRON. xvi. 9. This passage occurs in the history of Asa, one of the most godly and devoted kings that ever sat upon the throne of Judah. We are told in the fourteenth chapter that he commenced his reign by setting himself to destroy the idolatry into which the whole nation had been betrayed by its former ruler, and to restore the worship and service …
Catherine Booth—Godliness

Exegetic.
(i) As of the De Spiritu Sancto, so of the Hexæmeron, no further account need be given here. It may, however, be noted that the Ninth Homily ends abruptly, and the latter, and apparently more important, portion of the subject is treated of at less length than the former. Jerome [472] and Cassiodorus [473] speak of nine homilies only on the creation. Socrates [474] says the Hexæmeron was completed by Gregory of Nyssa. Three orations are published among Basil's works, two on the creation …
Basil—Basil: Letters and Select Works

Love
The rule of obedience being the moral law, comprehended in the Ten Commandments, the next question is: What is the sum of the Ten Commandments? The sum of the Ten Commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, and our neighbour as ourselves. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' Deut 6: 5. The duty called for is love, yea, the strength of love, with all …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

"Nunc Dimittis"
We shall note, this morning, first, that every believer may be assured of departing in peace; but that, secondly, some believers feel a special readiness to depart now: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace;" and, thirdly, that there are words of encouragement to produce in us the like readiness: "according to thy word." There are words of Holy Writ which afford richest consolation in prospect of departure. I. First, then, let us start with the great general principle, which is full of comfort; …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Another Wonderful Record of 25.
A Christian minister, living in Northern Indiana, was in want, and knelt in prayer again and again before his Father in heaven. His quarterly allowance had been withheld, and want stared him in the face. Constrained by urgent need, and shut up to God for help, he pleaded repeatedly for a supply of his temporal wants. Now see how extraordinary was the plan of the Lord to send relief. "In one of the lovely homes of Massachusetts, while the snow was falling and the winds were howling without, a lady …
Various—The Wonders of Prayer

Introduction. These Two Books were Written against the Novatian Heresy...
These two books were written against the Novatian heresy, which took its name, and to a considerable extent its form, from Novatus, a priest of the Church of Carthage, and Novatian, schismatically consecrated bishop at Rome. It was the outcome of a struggle which had long existed in the Church upon the question of the restitution to Church privileges of those who had fallen into grievous sin, and the possibility of their repentance. The severest ground was taken by the Novatians, who were condemned …
St. Ambrose—Works and Letters of St. Ambrose

Thou Shalt not Steal.
This Commandment also has a work, which embraces very many good works, and is opposed to many vices, and is called in German Mildigkeit, "benevolence;" which is a work ready to help and serve every one with one's goods. And it fights not only against theft and robbery, but against all stinting in temporal goods which men may practise toward one another: such as greed, usury, overcharging and plating wares that sell as solid, counterfeit wares, short measures and weights, and who could tell all the …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works