of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord unto
length of days."

But here, as in the opening verse of the Shepherd Psalm, the words of the
sacred Singer, although truly expressive of the sentiments of the sheep,
are more directly the expression of his own inner feelings, and of the
feelings of all faithful souls towards the Lord who rules and guides them.
All those whose lives have been really and sincerely led by faith, have,
like the shepherd's flock, grown trustfully accustomed, in the course of
years, to the goodness and mercy, to the faithfulness and love of the hand
that provides for them. As they look into their lives, and retrace the
steps they have taken, they cannot fail to see how God has been always
with them, patiently enduring their faults, mercifully binding up their
wounds and hurts, and lovingly leading, drawing them to Himself. They can
see their advancement, slow perhaps as it has been; and they know it is
God who has given the increase. Looking now at their lives through the
perspective of the years that are gone, how many problems they are able to
solve! for how many apparent mysteries they have found an explanation! All
those crosses and trials, all those struggles and battles with the enemy,
all those attacks from within and assaults from without, all, in fact,
that they have ever endured, their sins alone excepted, they now can
trace, through the light of faith, back to the hand of their Father in
Heaven. Not everything, forsooth, has yet been explained, but enough,
indeed, is sufficiently clear to remove every doubt from the faithful soul
as to the goodness and Providence of God. And hence she exclaims with the
Psalmist, out of the abundance of her faith and confidence, "Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall
dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

It is doubtless a lack of implicit trust in God and divine Providence
which, more than anything else, accounts for the unhappiness and spiritual
barrenness of so many Christian and religious lives. Poor and scanty is
the fruit they yield, simply because they have no depth of soil, they are
not deeply and firmly rooted in faith and confidence in God. Like reeds
shaken by the wind, like houses built on the sand, they tremble and shake
with every blast, they are all but overturned by every tempest that rises.

Nor is it wonderful that this should be so. The higher gifts of the spirit
come from God,