result, and yet God have prospered us; heaviness and trouble the consequence, and yet God have blessed us. How? Because He may have been disappointing our earthly expectations for the purpose of strengthening our heavenly hopes. He may have been overshadowing our prospects here, for the purpose of brightening our visions of the future. He may have been denying us perishing wealth, in order to augment our imperishable riches. He may have been bereaving us of the honour that cometh from man, in order to give us more of the honour that cometh from Himself. It is indispensable that we should bear this in mind, else we may be haunted with the impression that God has failed to prosper us, though we arose and began to build in His name. Success, in the judgment of God, is widely different from success, in the judgment of man. The Lord often fulfils his promises by seeming to break them. Abraham went forth from his home and country in the obedience of faith; yet, when he reached the promised land, God "gave him no inheritance in it—no, not so much as to set his foot on." By faith, Moses led Israel out of Egypt, yet he was shut up forty years in the wilderness, and never printed his footmark on the holy land. We must see "the end of the Lord" before we fully understand His ways. Meantime, suffice it that He has

assured us, in relation to the man whose "delight is in the law of the Lord," that "whatsoever he Here let us rest. To this

doeth shall prosper." let us cling. Here is a sheet-anchor which never drives. Bear in mind, that in this world we see but fragments of the divine plan; we catch but glimpses of the concatenation of the divine chain. When we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known, then will the symmetry of the plan, and the perfection of the chain, be clear as the light of heaven. Then shall we discern, what now it is so hard to conceive, that "all things work together for good to them that love God;" that the Almighty Master of the universe harmonizes all things, however jarring, in our history, in such wise as to make all eventuate in one chorus of eternal praise.

Such is the principle which a Christian ought to carry into all the duties of his secular, and all the struggles of his spiritual life. He will find its influence alike practical and blessed. Truly practical. It will give sails to his vessel-oil to his machinery. A man tossed to and fro with apprehensions, is unfitted for exertion; he wastes in a flickering blaze the oil which should feed a steady flame. Solicitude about the result paralyses his effort for its attainment. But relieve him of this burden, and you prepare him for his task. Nothing more

unnerves than an anxious mind. And whence does such a mind usually spring? From taking upon ourselves the care of consequences, instead of devoting our attention to duties alone. Let the Christian commit his way unto the Lord, trust in Him, and be doing good—and what hung like a millstone round his energies will be gone, and he will gird up his loins and pursue his course, like the unchained eagle mounting into the sky. Nothing so effectually emboldens a man to do right, as the confidence that all things are in his Father's hands. What can divert-what dishearten-what withstand him who can, in the depth of conscious sincerity, say," The God of heaven he will prosper me; therefore I His servant will arise and build."

Yes, the principle is potent as it is practical. "Knowledge is power," says the philosopher. "Faith is power," says the saint. It endues the believer with a sort of derived omnipotence. "If thou canst believe," said Christ, "all things are possible to him that believeth." And what is faith? Confidence in God-confidence in His Almighty power and faithfulness; a confidence which nerves the soul for every task. therefore, for spiritual or for secular duty—whether for duty in the outer or the inner life-there is no principle can brace a man like the principle of implicit trust in God. Let a believer once rise to

Whether,

the height of this principle, and he will smile at difficulty and be calm in danger. Let him be assured that God says, "Do this," and he will say, "It shall be done; Thou wilt enable me to do it. I am but a clay vessel for Thee to use; the excellency of the power is all Thine own. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom then shall I be afraid?" Here is the power which enabled the saints of old to "quench the violence of fire, to stop the mouths of lions—out of weakness to be made strong, to wax valiant in fight, to put to flight the armies of the aliens." In the might of this confidence, the believer can advance through the storm as through the calm-in the midst of darkness as in the midst of day. Nor is this faith less fitted to regulate, than it is to invigorate in all circumstances and in all anxieties. Is the result with God?-Then the grand inquiry is, not what is pleasant, but what is right—not what is plausible, but what is sound-not what looks most likely to prosper, but what can anticipate success from God. This singleness of reliance will secure singleness of judgment; and the believer will have but one supreme study in all his pursuits, earthly as well as heavenly—to ascertain and fulfil the will of his Father in heaven.

chart, how steady will be his

Steering by this course, and how

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fixed his helm! Whilst others are tossed to and fro by conflicting winds and opposing currents, he will be borne along as by a gulf-stream, and wafted as by a trade-wind.

Need it be added, that this principle will sweetly compose and calm the Christian in the pursuit of his earthly duties? He who is actuated by it can be tranquil under reproaches, misconstructions, and misrepresentations. He will "hold him still in the Lord," as the psalm, we have been reading to-night, beautifully expresses it" still in the Lord"-self-possessed and unruffled in Him, as overruling all things-as doing all things well. Such an one will be able to act on the counsel given in the same expressive psalm, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the men who bringeth wicked devices to pass." "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass; and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." Hence it was, that Nehemiah was not careful to answer the bad men who laughed his design to scorn and charged him with treason against his King. He contented himself with simply protesting, "The God of heaven He will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build." Them who thus honour