my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise." He knows what God hath said, "Whoso offereth me praise, glorifieth me: " and he determines to offer unto God the tribute that is so justly due. Nor will he do this in a cold and formal manner: no; as a man of warm feelings expresses with his body the emotions of his soul, so will he, together with his heart, lift up his hands also in the name of his God. Nor will he pour forth these effusions only on some particular occasions, or during any one particular season: he will do it continually; he will do it to the latest hour of his life. He considers "praise as comely for the upright;" and he wishes it to be the constant language of his lips.]

To this determination he is led by the consideration of the loving-kindness of his God

[O how wonderful does that love appear to him, which gave no less a person than God's co-equal co-eternal Son to die for him! which gave him too the knowledge of that Saviour, together with all spiritual and eternal blessings in him, whilst thousands and millions of the human race are dying in ignorance and perishing in their sins! This loving-kindness so free, so rich, so full, appears to him "better than even life itself; and all that he can do to testify his gratitude seems nothing, yea "less than nothing," in comparison of it. The language of his heart is, "If I should hold my peace, the very stones would cry out against me." O that I had powers equal to the occasion! how would I praise him! how would I glorify him! verily I would praise him on earth, even as they do in heaven.] In these purposes the believing soul is yet further confirmed by,

III. Its expectations

The service of God is not without its reward even in this life and hence the Believer, whilst engaged in his favourite employment, expects,

1. The richest consolation

[The carnal mind can see no pleasure in this holy exercise; but the spiritual mind is refreshed by it, more than the most luxurious epicure ever was by the richest dainties. His very meditations are unspeakably sweet: yea, while contemplating his God upon his bed, and during the silent watches of the night, "his soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness:" it has a foretaste even of heaven itself — — From its own experience of this heavenly joy, the soul expects this glorious harvest, when it has sown in tears, and laboured to glorify its God in songs of praise.]

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2. The most assured safety

[Thus engaged, the soul looks down upon all its enemies with disdain: it feels itself in an impregnable fortress: it is conscious that it owes all its past preservation to the help of its Almighty Friend; and it rejoices in the thought that under the shadow of the Redeemer's wings it must still be safe; and that none shall ever pluck it out of the Father's hands." The state of Hezekiah, when surrounded by a vast army that was bent on his destruction, exactly shows what is the state of a believing soul in the midst of all its enemies: "The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee." Such was the language of Zion to all the Assyrian hosts: and such is the blessed anticipation of victory which every Believer is privileged to enjoy *.]

IMPROVEMENT

1. How greatly do the generality of religious professors live below their privileges!

Can

[It was not peculiar to David thus to delight in God: it was then common, and is yet common, to all the saints. it be thought that we, who live under so much better a dispensation than he, and have so much brighter discoveries of God's power and glory than ever he had, should yet not be privileged to delight in God as he did? Were this the case, we should be losers by that religion which the Son of God came down from heaven to establish. But it is not so: we may partake of all spiritual blessings in as rich abundance as he, or any other of the saints of old, did. And we have reason to be ashamed that our desires after God are so faint, our purposes respecting him so weak, and our expectations from him so contracted. Let us, each for himself, look at our experience from day to day, and compare it with his; and let us not rest, till we have attained somewhat at least of that delight in God, which so eminently distinguished that blessed man.]

2. What encouragement have all to seek after God!

[It was not only after David had so grievously transgressed, but at the very moment that God was chastening him for his transgressions, that he was thus favoured of his God. Can we then with propriety say, This mercy is not for me? it is not possible for such a sinner as I ever to be thus highly favoured? Know ye, that there is no limit, either to the sovereign exercise of God's grace, or to its influence on the souls

e Rom. viii. 33-39.

f Absalom's incestuous commerce with David's wives was foretold by Nathan, as a part of David's punishment for his sin in taking to him the wife of his friend Uriah.

of men. His grace often most abounds, where sin has most abounded: and the vilest of us all may yet become the richest monument of God's love and mercy, if only, like David, he will humble himself for his iniquities, and sprinkle on his conscience the blood of our great sacrifice. O beloved! know, if you come to God by Christ, you shall never be cast out; and if you commit yourself in faith entirely to Christ, you shall rejoice in him with joy unspeakable, and receive in due time the great end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.]

DCI.

FOLLOWING AFTER GOD.

Ps. lxiii. 8. My soul followeth hard after Thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

IT has been said, that Christian progress is more evinced by desires than by actual attainments. This sentiment is either true or false, according to the explanation given of it. If it be meant that there can be any growth in Christianity without attainments in holiness, or that growth in grace is to be measured by any thing but actual attainments in every part of the divine life, it is extremely erroneous: but if it be meant, that our views of a Christian's duty, and our desires after a perfect conformity to the divine will, will increase beyond our actual attainments, it is true : for a divinely enlightened soul has no bounds to its desires: but, alas! the good that it would, it does not; and the evil that it would not, that it does: so that, after all its exertions, it is constrained to say, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" With this the Psalmist's experience was in strict accordance. He speaks in the beginning of this psalm, not as one who was in actual possession of all that he desired, but as one whose appetite for heavenly things was altogether insatiable: "O God, thou art my God: early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." So again, in the words of my text, he speaks, not as one who had attained, but as one pressing forward in

order to attain: "My soul followeth hard after thee." But was he discouraged as one that had failed in his endeavours? No: he regarded the desires which he felt, and the endeavours which he put forth, as evidences that God was with him of a truth; and as grounds of hope that he should ultimately attain all that his heart could wish.

We see, then, here,

I. The experience of a heaven-born soul.

Two things are found in every child of God:

1. He has desires which nothing but God himself can satisfy

[The language of every enlightened soul is, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, O God? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." He pants after peace and holiness; but how shall he obtain either the one or the other but from God himself? The world around him can contribute nothing, either to remove guilt from his conscience, or pollution from his soul. Nor can he himself do any thing for the effecting of these most desirable ends. If he look at his past or present life, he can find nothing whereon to found his hopes of acceptance with God: his very best duties are so defective, that they fill him only with shame and sorrow. Not one action of his life can he present to God as perfect, or as deserving a recompence in the eternal world: much less can he present any thing that shall, by its superabundant merit, purchase the forgiveness of former sins. Then, as it respects future obedience, he finds how frail his firmest resolutions are, and how weak his strongest efforts. It is in his Redeemer alone that he can find either righteousness or strength and hence to him he looks, in order that he may obtain from him those blessings which his soul so greatly needs—]

:

2. He seeks after God for a supply of them

["He follows hard after God." He follows after God in every way that God himself has appointed. He waits upon God in secret prayer, and implores help from him in sighs and groans and tears. He "wrestles with God," even as Jacob of old did; and will not let him go till he has conferred the desired blessing. In public ordinances, too, he waits, as at Bethesda's pool, for the stirring of the waters, and for the communication of the benefits he so greatly needs. Nor does he yield to discouragement because he does not presently

a Ps. lxxiii. 25.

obtain all that he desires: he is content to "tarry the Lord's leisure," assured that he shall not be ultimately cast out, or suffered "to seek the Lord in vain."

The whole of this experience may be seen in another psalm, where David places in one view the greatness of his necessities, and the urgency of his requests: "I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me; lest I be like them that go down to the pit. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee"."]

That we may not think too unfavourably of this experience, let us notice,

II. The confidence which it is calculated to inspire—

The Psalmist, in the latter clause, did not merely intend to assert a fact, but to mark the connexion of that fact with the experience which he had just delineated; and which he regarded,

1. As an evidence of mercies received

[He was conscious of ardent desires after God, and of laborious exertions in seeking after him. But whence was it that such desires had ever arisen in his mind? And how came they ever to be put forth into act? And whence had he derived that firmness of character, that he could persevere in his pursuit of God, under all the discouragements which he had to contend with? Were these the spontaneous product of his own heart? or were they infused into him by man? or did they arise out of any contingent circumstances capable of producing them? No: they sprang from God only, who had cast, as it were, the mantle of his love upon him, and drawn him to himself. It was "God who in the day of his power had made him willing" to renounce all his former pursuits, and to follow after Christ as the God of his salvation. God had "made him willing in the day of his power," and had kept him hitherto in his everlasting arms. Of all this, his experience was a decisive proof and evidence: and he could not but say, He that hath wrought me to the self-same thing is God."]

2. As an earnest of yet further mercies in reserve—

[In this light God's mercies may with great propriety be viewed; and I doubt not but that this idea was intended to be expressed in the words before us. It is precisely what David more fully expressed in another psalm; where, having

b Ps. cxliii. 6-8.