y this, that having broken the prison-house of our sins, and
opened for us the way to God, and been the leader and the captain of our
march through all the pilgrimage of life, and the opener of the gate of
the grave for our joyful resurrection, and the opener of the gate of
heaven for our triumphal entrance, He will still as the Lamb that is in
the midst of the Throne, go before us, and lead us into green pastures
and by the still waters, and this shall be the description of the
growing blessedness and power of the saints' life above, 'These are
they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.'

AS GOD, SO WORSHIPPER

'... All the peoples will walk every one in the name of his god,
and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and
ever.'--MICAH iv. 5 (R.V.).

This is a statement of a general truth which holds good of all sorts of
religion. 'To walk' is equivalent to carrying on a course of practical
activity. 'The name' of a god is his manifested character. So the
expression 'Walk in the name' means, to live and act according to, and
with reference to, and in reliance on, the character of the worshipper's
god. In the Lord's prayer the petition 'Hallowed be Thy name' precedes
the petition 'Thy will be done.' From reverent thoughts about the name
must flow life in reverent conformity to the will.

I. A man's god is what rules his practical life.

Religion is dependence upon a Being recognised to be perfect and
sovereign, whose will guides, and whose character moulds, the whole
life. That general statement may be broken up into parts; and we may
dwell upon the attitude of dependence, or of that of submission, or upon
that of admiration and recognition of ideal perfection, or upon that of
aspiration; but we come at last to the one thought--that the goal of
religion is likeness and the truest worship is imitation. Such a view of
the essence of religion gives point to the question, What is our god?
and makes it a very easily applied, and very searching test, of our
lives. Whatever we profess, that which we feel ourselves dependent on,
that which we invest, erroneously or rightly, with supreme attributes of
excellence, that which we aspire after as our highest good, that which
shapes and orders the current of our lives, is our god. We call
ourselves Christians. I am afraid that if we tried ourselves by such a
test, many of us would fail to pass it. It would thin the ranks of all
churches as