in God-even as the One true God, as the Creator. .. Many vitally wanting thus far. . But there are no bounds to "His power to us-ward who believe." “Believe in ME," God in His Son. This includes His spotless righteousness, and every testimony concerning Him-the lame healed-the dead raised. Your life, portion, and all, is in Him-too good for us! but not for Him! Did He come and die, rise, ascend, and prepare a place for you? Then believe; ask and receive.

SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 16, 1873. "He kindeth the flood from overflowing, and the thing that is hid bringeth He forth to light."-JOB Xxviii. 11.

I HAVE sometimes felt encouraged, from a feeling springing up in my heart, of concern to have to do with Him so frequently spoken of in the Scriptures as "Him"no name given, no description, but it is said "He" doeth this, "He" doeth that. Now, if there is a rising spring of desire to know that He doeth these things, it is evident that it is no work of nature. This is the wonderful "I am," the glorious foundation. The church prays in the beginning of the Song of Solomon, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, for Thy love is better than wine." It might well be asked, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? But there was something within that showed her-she seemed so sure of it-that the kisses of His mouth would win her heart and secure her soul. "Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased." What do you and I know of this going out of the soul, this longing after the kisses of His mouth, those embraces which are sweeter than honey, and most sweet? And oh when He is graciously pleased to come forth and pour a little of it into our hearts, we feel the sweetness, and can say, "Thy lips drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under Thy tongue; and the smell of Thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon."

In the testimony preceding the text the writer, by the Holy Ghost, views some of the wonders of God in providence. There may be some here this morning who have no will to acknowledge the ordination of God in these things, or even in giving them understanding. He might have let us be born idiots, or have deprived us of our faculties; and in such an age as the present, when there is so much of the power of Satan, such an increase of the love of pleasure more than the love of God, and that railroad haste in everything-contrary to the counsel of Godwe need not wonder that so many minds are overthrown, but rather that so many are preserved. No one creature of God inherits the use of his frame or faculties, or anything he enjoys, but by the goodness of God; hence we have always to thank Him for granting us those reliefs and blessings which at times are withheld.

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Yet the

Surely there is a vein for the silver. Iron is taken out of the earth, . . and it hath dust of gold." Has it never appeared wonderful to you that God has created in the bowels of the earth so many minerals, which in God's time have been discovered? discovery and use of them is often ascribed to the wonderful skill and invention of this or that person, and few acknowledge that it is of the goodness of God. Hence the importance of learning rightly of Him, that we may acknowledge Him in all our ways, and feeling dependent upon Him for that wisdom which we want, wait for Him to direct our steps.

"He bindeth the floods from overflowing," He hath set a bound for the sea by a perpetual decree. "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Hence, though they war, and storms and tempests rage with great power, how wonderfully the bound is maintained in spite of all! Partial inbreakings of the sea and floods occur, but still "He bindeth the floods from overflowing" and while this is the prerogative, and the sole prerogative, of Him, and it is manifest in the general course of providence, yet we are not to limit the Holy One of Israel, whose judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out. Hence

the important room there is for all His creatures to acknowledge His rule. "The Lord sitteth upon the floods; the Lord sitteth King for ever; the Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace."

But this portion sets forth not only the wonderful wisdom and goodness of God in providence, but the wonderful wisdom and goodness of God in grace. We know

that afflictions and troubles are set forth in the Scriptures as floods-floods known and felt by those who are the subjects of them. Hence, when God is pleased to give affliction in the soul of a poor sinner, and causes that springing of faith to rise which rose in the soul of Moses, the choice of those thus afflicted is rather to have to do with God in the flood-to have to do with God in storms and tempests, than to live a life of pleasure. May you and I be brought to this choice-"rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." God's testimony concerning His people is, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all;" and that they "must through much tribulation enter the kingdom;" and God's testimony concerning them when they are safe landed is, "These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." I could not but notice the simplicity of John Bunyan, in the conversation of Christiana with some of her neighbours, who spake of the desperate hazard of going on pilgrimage, and the trouble her husband had met with, and asked-would she in spite of it all venture? "Oh," she said, "my neighbours, all you say I conceive produces a greater assurance in me that this is the right way. If there were a thousand more dangers I would venture." How faith, in the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus, overcame in her! How it overcame in Moses! It is "the victory which overcomes the world."

"He bindeth the floods from overflowing." Now, whatever trouble, whatever sorrow, whatever temptation

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befalls, I believe, in nature as in grace, it shall be with according to the confidence you have in God. Not that your confidence can alter the overflowings of the floods or the depth of the sea, but it is so wonderfully ordered, that it shall eventually be proved that though at times it is-"all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me," yet, the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer to the God of my life." Here is the gracious power of God-" When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of glory thundereth, the Lord is upon many waters." "He hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out the heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in the balance." Now, if your confidence and mine is in the Lord, there will be the living test; and the proof: of it-the eyes will be up to the Lord, and the cry will be, "Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up; let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. David cried, "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications." The secret of God's Word (or the secret of a gracious knowledge of it) lies in this-in the matter of having to do with Him who bindeth the flood; so that our defence is of the Lord, whether in deeper waters or in shallower, whether in darkness or light, for all are alike in Him. Now, as John Bunyan says, we shall all have trouble. enough before we come to our journey's end, yet in the trouble that awaits us-that river of death-it shall be deeper or shallower, according to our faith in God. "Have faith in God," we have need to cry; but what is our cry A great part of what is passed as vital godliness in the present day is the amount of lack of confidence. You may read it in every page of some religious publications.

?

No;

This is not godliness: unbelief is not the grace of God: carnal reason is not the grace of God. all that has to do with God is the grace of God. All must be taught the unbelief of our hearts, and that faith is the gift of God. We can no more create it than we can create a world. "The gifts and callings of God are without repentance;" He will never take it away where He has given it; "Now abideth faith, hope, and charity." Hence the importance of examining ourselves, and of maintaining these rising springs. For it pleases God, when His people are ready to perish, to grant some fresh springs; and thus we see who they are that prove for themselves the never-failing faithfulness of God. We know that "it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not; they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness." So it is blessed to fall before a gracious God every morning, and sometimes at other parts of the day, marvelling, each for himself, that he is not consumed. There was the flood, but it has not yet overflowed me. Then, says little faith, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Jacob was a witness for God, but how he felt when he said, "Joseph is not, Simeon is not!" and "all these things are against me." And must not his Joseph have thought that the floods were going to overflow him, when he was sold as a slave into Egypt, and when shut up in the prison, forgotten of those who ought to have remembered him? But "until the time that His word came, the word of the Lord tried him." He suffers His billows to rage so long; but when His designs are ready, He discovers a little here and a little there; how He has killed us to make us alive; how He has wounded us that He might heal us; how He has brought us on to the dunghill, that he may fit us for a place amongst His people! We may well render praise unto Him, who stripped us of our rags to clothe us with His righteousness-who emptied us of vanity to fill us with His grace. When He has refined us and purified us, He takes us from