up by its immortal strength, have safe passage thus, as in the very arms of the grace, into His presence whose grace it is!

"For thee." I say again for thee. Whoever thou art, "for thee." It is for thee now to change the pronoun and say, with a wondering grateful heart-" For me. To-day, and every day, from this time forth, and even for evermore, for me: his grace is sufficient for me." AMEN.

A Multitude of Thoughts.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.-PSALM xciv. 19.

HE greatness of man appears in this, that he can

THE

say "my thoughts." The inferior creatures have, properly speaking, no thoughts. They have passions, and instincts, and laws of their nature guiding them, but nothing which rises to the dignity of thinking. Man is the Lord of this lower world because he thinks. There are other signs of the sovereignty-the erect form, the heaven-looking face, the flexible organs; but the chief sign of power is that which is not visible. It is the thinking. A man can indeed enter into still higher states than states of thought. He can do something better than think. He can love and pray. A state of moral feeling is higher than a state of pure thought. A state of worship is higher than a state of moral feeling. But the moral feeling is full of thoughtfulness, and so is the worship. So that if in this way we look at its consequences and fruits, the power of thinking is the grand characteristic of a man! He is only a little

lower than the angels. Like them he can send thoughts up to God over all. He can think of truth, and duty, and immortality. He can recal the past, shut out the present, anticipate the future.

What a grand power is this power of thought! What a grand being is man when he uses it aright! Because after all it is the use made of it that is the important thing. Character comes out of thought. Or rather, thought comes out of character. The particular thoughts are like the blossoms on the tree; they tell of what kind it is. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."

We all know that it is the teaching of the Scriptures that a man's thoughts by nature are not right, not good. "The imagination of the thought of his heart is evil, and that continually." "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity." He counsels the wicked to "forsake his thoughts." "Out of the heart," says our Saviour, "proceed evil thoughts." "His word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

And when the heart is changed they are changed. By a mighty yet silent process the whole character of a man's thoughts is changed when he receives the spirit of God. A converted man can say, "I am now thinking differently. The fountain is purified, and the streams are growing clearer." The thoughts of a good man are harmonious, being linked together in the chain of truth.

They are calm and peaceful, for the "reconciliation" is accomplished. They are full of hope, and trust, and love.

His own proper thoughts are so-the thoughts of his new life. But he cannot entirely throw off his former self. He is still liable to distraction and disturbance; still very open to sudden inroads of care and trouble.

A good man's soul has found the secret of happiness and the centre of rest. But to keep that secret as fresh and new-found, to abide on or near the centre of rest ;— these things are not so easy. Besides, the world has

He is in the world, and

not found the centre of rest. by any change of its circumstances, by any darkening or lightening of its surrounding scenes, he may be exposed to the inroad of its "troops" of cares, to the roll of its billows and waves of anxiety and trouble. No man on this side heaven, can tell that he may not suddenly be brought, either by his own heart-its deceitfulness or its feebleness-or by outward things, into such a condition of mind as will be well expressed by this text "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul." And to have such a text as this for use and comfort when you need it-how rich the privilege!

We do not know exactly what the care and anxieties of the Psalmist were in that old time. Very probably they were not so unlike our own as we are apt to

imagine-different in form, no doubt, but the same in substance. Well, and "the comforts" are the same in substance too. "He hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace." The consolations of three thousand years ago are fresh and full to-day! God's comforts are not like melting vapours and summer brooks. They are "rivers of pleasures," and "wells of salvation." We stoop down to drink where Abraham bent the knee. We draw water where David assuaged his thirst. Jesus talks to us of the living water which shall be "in us a well of water." If the toils, and cares, and troubles, which exercised the pious soul of the writer of this psalm should come in on us in all their multitude, and with all their tumult, like the noise of many waters; the "comforts" of our God, fuller, deeper, and more abiding, will come flowing in to still them, and to fill all the soul with their own sweet delights.

Let us then meditate on this truth a little longer: This That God's comforts are always greater than our troubles; and that in proportion as we allow them to come in to us we shall have peace and joy.

I.

Suppose, then, first, that the trouble arises directly out of the heart. The multitude of the thoughts in this case are all tinged with self-accusation. Sin revives, the better self seems dead. The heart that was purified and