great day, with hope rather than with alarm; when we learn from the records of divine truth, and from our own experience, that the consolations which He communicates are effective under all the trials and sufferings to which man in this earthly pilgrimage can be exposed, what a view does it give us of the tender mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We, who had no claim upon the divine bounty, have thus become partakers of the greatest and most extensive blessings; blessings, apart from which life would frequently present nothing but a melancholy blank, without comfort for the present, without hope for the future. And at what a price were these benefits procured! It was by the death of the Son of God; it was by exposing Himself to the storm, that He has become to us a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; it was by enduring in His own person, and without a shelter, the fiercest heat of persecution, that He has become to ús as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land! So great is that love, so wide that mercy, which we discover in the way of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2.) With what humble gratitude should we avail

encouragement and comfort does this passage afford! What can sinful man want more than these rivers of living waters, these quickening and refreshing influences of the Spirit of Christ? Do we behold others, who amidst the tumults and cares of the world, and the various trials and afflictions of life, are ready to faint under the burden and heat of the day? anxious to fly from the troubles which oppress them, to the enjoyment of tranquillity and peace? We are authorised to remind them of Him, who is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; here neither the heat nor the sun shall smite them; here their languid hopes shall revive, and their drooping and dejected spirits be cheered, and invigorated.

And as the words hold out the promise of consolation to all who need it, and will seek for it in the Saviour of the world: observe also, how abundant and how lasting is the refreshment to be derived from this source! As rivers or canals of water; not a streamlet, which may disappear in the drought of summer, but—a copious tide like that from the rock in the wilderness, which accompanied the Israelites on their march, and afforded an ample supply to their numerous armies. Ho! every one that

thirsteth, such is the invitation of the prophet, come ye to the waters.* If any man thirst, saith our blessed Lord, let him come unto me and drink. And the Spirit and the bride say come; and let him that heareth say come: and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. These waters flow for the solace of a weary world; and when the whole world shall repair to them they will not be exhausted.

And as we notice the abundance of these consolations, signified by the rivers of water; so also do we remark the perfection and the permanence of them in the shadow of a rock.

The shadow of a tree would be very grateful to the exhausted traveller; but it is pervious to the storm and the heat: its leaves may wither, and its roots decay, and ere long, instead of protecting others, it will itself be cast down. The Messiah is as the shadow of a rock, which defies alike the wind and the sun, and remains under all circumstances, fixed and immoveable; of a great rock, which affords complete and extensive protection.

(1.) Hence observe the great love which was manifested to fallen man in the gift of the Messiah.

* Isa. lv. 1.

John vii. 37.

Rev. xxii. 17.

The love of God may be traced in the works. of creation, and in the ways of Providence. We can scarcely fail to observe, even in the most partial and cursory view of the things which exist around us, that we have to deal with a most benevolent Being, who has made it His care to consult the happiness of His creatures; and that this, notwithstanding all the disorder introduced into the world, is the design which He purposed in the formation of man, But when we consider the sorrows incident to the condition of fallen and apostate man-sorrows to which the whole range of creation and Providence afford no adequate relief—when we reflect upon the consequences of sin, arising even in this world from man's disobedience; when we advert to the agonies of a wounded spirit, the terrors of death, the apprehensions of judgment, the anticipation of that wrath which shall then pursue the guilty, and bear in mind that from all these things we may find a refuge in the Redeemer; when we add to these reflections, that not only has He rescued us from positive misery, but that by His Spirit He sustains and consoles us, converting even sorrow into an occasion of joy, and enabling us to behold death itself, and the solemnities of the

great day, with hope rather than with alarm; when we learn from the records of divine truth, and from our own experience, that the consolations which He communicates are effective under all the trials and sufferings to which man in this earthly pilgrimage can be exposed, what a view does it give us of the tender mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We, who had no claim upon the divine bounty, have thus become partakers of the greatest and most extensive blessings; blessings, apart from which life would frequently present nothing but a melancholy blank, without comfort for the present, without hope for the future. And at what a price were these benefits procured! It was by the death of the Son of God; it was by exposing Himself to the storm, that He has become to us a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; it was by enduring in His own person, and without a shelter, the fiercest heat of persecution, that He has become to us as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land! So great is that love, so wide that mercy, which we discover in the way of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2.) With what humble gratitude should we avail