vine 'Yea!' And on it alone we can suspend the
whole weight of our soul's salvation. The rope that is to haul us out
of the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be tested
before we commit ourselves to it. There are plenty of easygoing
superficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the world
to-day. Except the one that says, 'In whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sin,' they are all like the rope
let down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath, half of the
strands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above, and when the
weight hangs on to it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a man
who has once learned the tragical meaning and awful reality and depth
of the fact of his transgression can suspend his forgiveness, except
this, that 'Christ has died, the just for the unjust, to bring us
unto God.' 'In Him the promise is yea.'

And, again, we have in Christ divine certainties in regard to life.
We have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are to
conform our whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there may, and
will still be many uncertainties and much perplexity, we have the
great broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand, and
all that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies in
this--Be like Jesus Christ! So the solemn commandments of the ethical
side of Divine Revelation, as well as the promises of it, get their
'yea' in Jesus Christ, and He stands the Law of our lives.

We have certainties for life, in the matter of protection, guidance,
supply of all necessity, and the like, treasured and garnered in
Jesus Christ. For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the promises
which God has made. If we have that dear Lord for our very own, and
He belongs to us as He does belong to them who love Him and trust
Him, then in Him we have in actual possession these promises, how
many soever they be, which are given by God's other words.

Christ is Protean, and becomes everything to each man that each man
requires. He is, as it were, 'a box where sweets compacted lie.' 'In
Him are hid all the treasures,' not only of wisdom and knowledge, but
of divine gifts, and we have but to go to Him in order to have that
which at each moment as it emerges, we most require. As in some of
those sunny islands of the Southern Pacific, one tree supplies the
people with all that they need for their simple wants, fruit for
their food, leaves for