more about it we might find it still more difficult to wait, but the victory that we gain by faith is a victory of waiting patiently for the Lord's own triumph over all the obstacles which unbelief and sin have put even in His way. The senses may provoke our impatience, the flesh may sting us into angry reproachfulness, the devil may accuse and attempt to deceive us, but by resting in the Lord we shall gain the victory. The world of ambition, of business, of Christless joys, of perishable attractions, and delusive treasures, may never leave us unmolested; but "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

Let us wait patiently for Him who waited long for us, and may we who have learned to wait patiently in the vestibule of the temple, wait before the throne,

and rest for ever in the bosom of our God!

SERMON VIII.

CONSECRATION OF WORD AND THOUGHT.

PSALM XIX. 14.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

As this Psalm is in all probability the production of David, and as modern criticism has not put its authorship in question, it reveals in a surprising way the sense which the great minstrel entertained of the majesty, beauty, comprehensiveness, and value of the law of God. He was a child of nature, a man whose mind had long pondered the mystery and majesty of creation. He had watched the stars, and waited for the dawn, while keeping his sheep in the fields of Bethlehem. He, like every other Oriental, must at times have "felt his heart secretly enticed, when he saw the moon walking in her brightness" over the star-strewn plains of space. He must have heard from every side of him, echoes of the proud titles and sounding praise offered to the sun, and could hardly free himself from the thought

of the personality of that great hero of the sky, who rejoiced as a strong man to run his race: yet through the high training of the law of God and the blessed inspirations of the Almighty, David could dare, high priest and poet of nature as he was, to laugh to scorn the pantheism of Egypt, the sunworship of Elam, the adoration of the sky which formed the basis of the worship of all the Aryan tribes, and the mad rites of Baal and Ashtaroth, and to exclaim, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork;" "In them hast Thou set a tabernacle for the sun."

'The Heavens,' those gods of the nations; the Sun,' whose praises were sung in awful strains, whose favour was being propitiated by varied sacrifices, from the mountains of India to the wilds of Thrace, from the Euphrates to the cataracts of the Nile, were felt by the shepherd-boy and by the minstrel king to be but the creatures, the messengers, and the ministers of Jehovah.

How much was involved in this language we must go back to the age of David fitly to apprehend. Yet great, and dazzling, and sublime as were these manifestations of God, they were as nothing compared with another display of the character of Jehovah, which he then proceeds to celebrate. Psalmist declares the law of God to be more perfect than the half-deified sun; the statutes of God to be brighter than the stars; and the judgments of God from their righteousness and truth to be his own most

The

costly possession. Such raptures about "the law of the Lord" do not look as though the very idea of "Jehovah" had only just been given to the world. Such enthusiasm for God's judgments and statutes is incredible, if, as some would have us believe, the first fragments of the Romance of the Pentateuch were just then getting into circulation among the sons of the prophets. The Psalm reveals the mighty force of great ideas that had been strong enough from his childhood to shield the mind of David from the dominant and crushing paganism of the East, and witnesses to his deep faith in the revelation of the law and grace of God.

It is a new utterance of David's profound and awful reverence for the law of God, that at the conclusion of the noble prayer-song he should have said, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer:" for seldom have words been more worthy, seldom, if ever, have thoughts been more profound and reverential, more fit to be offered up to the Holy One, as an acceptable sacrifice, a fragrant incense. The words of my text may be regarded as the act of sacrifice and dedication which David made of certain words which he had just fashioned for Jehovah's praise; and they may be regarded as a comprehensive prayer, which included a large portion of David's life. Therefore we shall consider them in these two lights :-first, as an act of sacrifice, which men in these days also have

power to offer; and secondly, as a prayer which may include a large proportion of our lives.

I. Let us consider the utterance of the text as an act of sacrifice and dedication to God which a devout man may make of both words and thoughts. In other words, a man may, like David, so order the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart, that they will prove to be an acceptable sacrifice. I use the word 'sacrifice,' because the Psalmist does employ in my text a term which perpetually recurs in Leviticus and elsewhere, when the acceptance of a sacrifice is spoken of. God had appointed a series of ceremonial acts, which though they were not morally beautiful, yet from their typical character and their expression of the yearnings and petitions of His worshippers, were "acceptable in His sight." It was not practically possible to keep the whole law of God. It was not within the range of human endeavour to atone for transgression; it was not possible to offer unto God sufficient expression of gratitude for His mercies. But God had provided a way in which man's great unutterable needs could find expression. He accepted a ceremonial obedience, which was possible even to the minutest point of required observance. He received the sin-offering of the great day of atonement. He had respect to these sacrifices in virtue of the perfect submission to the Eternal Will which would be yielded by Him who would prove to be "the second Adam," the Son and Jehovah of David, the King-Priest after the order of Melchizedek.