mercy, long before the birth of time or your world!" "True," we may imagine the redeemed and glorified sinner to reply,--"but I can tell of something more wondrous still. He is _my God in covenant_! Thou art His by _creation_, but I am His also by _adoption_, _filiation_, _sonship_. Though grace has kept thee through these countless ages, during which thou hast cast thy crown at His feet, what is the grace manifested to _thee_, in comparison with the grace manifested to _me_? Grace made thee holy, and kept thee holy; but grace found me on the brink of despair, plucked me as a brand from the burning, brought me from the depths of woe and degradation, to a throne and a crown! _Thy_ God hath loved thee. _My_ God hath 'loved _me_' and GIVEN HIMSELF _for me_!" [107] "Were it not for this word of possession, the devil might say the Creed to as good purpose as we. He believes there is a God and Christ, but that which torments him is this--he can say '_my_' to never an article of faith."--_Sibbs._ * * * * * And now we close our meditations on this beautiful and instructive Psalm:--a Psalm which, even since we have begun to write on it, we have seen clung to as a treasured solace in hours of sickness;--its sublime utterances soothing the departing soul, just as it was pluming its wings for flight to the spirit-world! Reader! in any future dark and troubled passages in your life, you may well with comfort turn to this _diary_ of an old and tried saint, remembering that it records the experiences of "the man after God's own heart." Tracing _his_ footsteps and tear-drops along "the sands of time," you shall cease to "think it strange concerning the fiery trials that may be trying you, as though some strange thing happened." You will find that "the same afflictions are accomplished in you," which have been "accomplished" in the case of God's most favoured servants in every age of the Church. Do not expect now the _un_clouded day. That is not for earth, but for heaven. God indeed, had He seen meet, might have ordained that your pathway was to be without cloud or darkness, trial or tear;--no poisoned darts, no taunts, no contumely, no cross, no "deep calling to deep,"--nothing but calm seas unfretted by a ripple, sunny slopes and verdant valleys, and bright Mizar-hills of love and faithfulness! But to keep you humble,--to teach you your dependence on Himself,--to make your present existence a state of discipline and probation, He has ordered it otherwise. Your journey as travellers is through mist and cloud-land;--your voyage as seamen through alternate calm and storm.[108] And much of that discipline, too, is mysterious. You cannot discern its "why" and "wherefore." To employ a former symbol, you are now like the vessel building in the dock-yard. The unskilled and uninitiated can _hear_ nothing but clanging hammers;--they can see nothing but unshapely timbers and glare of torches. It is a scene of