FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>  
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,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>  



Top keywords:
goodness
 

confidence

 

Providence

 
feelings
 
faithful
 
excepted
 

implicit

 

Surely

 

follow

 

doubtless


Father
 
forever
 

sufficiently

 

remove

 

forsooth

 

Heaven

 

abundance

 

exclaims

 

explained

 

Psalmist


tremble
 

overturned

 

shaken

 
houses
 

tempest

 
higher
 
spirit
 

wonderful

 

rooted

 

spiritual


barrenness

 

Christian

 
religious
 
unhappiness
 

accounts

 
scanty
 

deeply

 

firmly

 

simply

 

divine


shepherd

 

sincerely

 
guides
 

trustfully

 
accustomed
 
retrace
 

faithfulness

 

Shepherd

 
sacred
 

opening