3. The concluding words of the text seem to carry out still further the leading thought of participation in a prepared feast, and by a single touch set before us the idea of full enjoyment. "My cup runneth over.” As with the cup, so with all that is prepared: it is overflowing abundance. David, therefore, sings of his happiness as the conscious possessor of gracious gifts. Again let us remember, that Old Testament saints looked upon blessings of earthly life, as well as those more distinctly connected with religion; as put by a gracious God in their cup. David could not have felt his happiness overflowing, had he not seen in all his joys an outpoured love of God. His life was a full draught of divine favour. Must we, then, look for the corresponding acknowledgment among those whose cup of earthly good overflows, and not among such as know privation and scant pleasures of this life? We should miss some of the gladdest songs if we did. Is not the Grace of God, not only sufficient to banish complaint, but able to turn the darkness into day? The soul is the real guest. The soul's banquet is the real happiness.

No miraculous exception need be sought, but frequent are the illustrations of the overcoming glory of the spiritual life. Many a poor man's bare walls and plain fare, because his heart swells with glad feelings in the enjoyment of his religion, instead of oppressing him with a sense of his poverty, seem rather to lift him

up into a higher appreciation of his spiritual wealth. While, on the other hand, luxury and ease in outward life but too commonly rob the heart of its own joys, make the mind dull and inactive; hide, by a false glitter, the pure brightness of religious realities.

Undoubtedly, those that drink much of the cup of sorrow, generally speaking, drink most thankfully of the cup of gladness. Those who, to the onlookers, seem to have least, may, by the gracious fulness of their hearts, seem to themselves to have most. "Delight thyself in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

However it be in the circumstances of our earthly life, there is one acknowledgment which every Christian can make,-" My cup of salvation runneth over." There may be times when, through the depressing influence of fears which an enemy stirs up, we cannot drink large draughts of comfort from the cup. We are almost afraid to look forward. We dare not speak confidently. The precious words which have been sent us, to give us a foretaste of heaven, sound strange and cold. We cannot rise above the cloud of our own insignificance and sinfulness. But the cup is not emptied by our doubt. It is full as ever. Jesus, the Saviour, has prepared it, and it "runneth over," with divine sufficiency and comfort. We shall enjoy it again. He who has led us to the feast, who has anointed us with His acceptance and

His sanctifying Spirit, will not "forsake the work of His own hands." And, however it be with us while "in this tabernacle," though we but seldom greatly rejoice, still, let us look forward. The same Hand which deals so graciously with us now, will spread the heavenly table, and prepare us for a place at that everlasting feast. When we sit down there, we shall be conscious of no hindrance from our own infirmity. A mistrusting heart will not remove the heavenly viands away from us; a sickly appetite will not leave them untouched ; a mean capacity will not be contented with a poor participation.

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Oh! surely, awaking in the likeness of God, “we shall be satisfied." In the midst of "fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore," "eating of angels' food," drinking of "the river of the water of life, in the Paradise of God," we shall lift up a new song of praise, and strike the golden harp, before the throne of God and of the Lamb in adoring exultation! "My runneth over!" 'Blessed," indeed, "are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM.

VI.

THE FOLDING LOVE.

"SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY SHALL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE: AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOR EVER."

Psalm, xxiii., 6.

UST about to lay down his harp and finish his

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song of praise, David strikes out one more strain, still sustaining the same lovely melody, and leaving us with a last full outburst of sweetness, which seems to float on into the infinite distance. Arrived at the concluding words of the Psalm, it seems necessary to call together in our recollection, what those successive impressions have been which each preceding verse has made in its turn, and thus with the Psalm fresh in our minds, we shall the better appreciate what seems to be the climax and resting place of David's faith and piety. Feeling quite sure that God was the object of his heart's delight, his dearest as well as his greatest

companion, David sings this song to cheer and strengthen both himself and his fellow-believers. He describes his relation to God, and God's character and method in dealing with him, not in cold, abstract grandiloquence, but in simple, natural, familiar language, such as his own actual condition on earth, his felt necessities and future liabilities, immediately suggested. Without trying to grasp the mystery of God's government, and pass a mortal's judgment on the ways of Him who is past finding out, he thinks,-Here am I, a helpless, wandering, sheep. I want food and shelter; I want the safety of the fold. I want the kindly vigilance and the patient nurture of One who is not, like myself, exposed to the dangers, and liable to destruction; above me, while with me; full of those blessings which I feel myself to lack, while yet full of them on my account and for my sake. The Lord is my Creator; the Lord is my Judge; the Lord is my object of Fear and Worship. But, blessed be His name, He has spoken to my heart; He has found me weak, wilful, wandering, and revealed His redeeming and saving love, and, now, I can say, I can sing, out of my happy confidence and sweetness of hope, "The Lord is my shepherd!"

We have seen how, with this delightful truth, fully believed and fully rejoiced in, David went on to speak the language of his pious praise. He thought of his weariness and fainting, in the dry and barren places