FORTY-FOURTH MEDITATION.

Ꮪ Ꮋ Ꭼ Ꮲ Ꮋ Ꭼ Ꭱ Ꭰ .

66

MY SAVIOUR" Jehovah is my Shepherd," and the conclusion is most certain, "I shall not want."* The sheep is proverbial for its necessities and its personal helplessness. What sheep, what lamb of the flock, is more needy and helpless than I am? It is the office of a shepherd to provide for the food, the health, the comfort, and the security of his flock. In neither of these particulars can I want, if Jehovah is my Shepherd.

me, laid me, as it were, upon his shoulder, and carried me back, rejoicing in the labor of his love. Whatever secondary means were employed in my recovery, and in my subsequent preservation, the strength, the skill, and the success, were his. In the work of my restoration, he had to lay down his own life, and thereby acquired the distinctive titles of the “Good Shepherd," * —“the great Shepherd of the sheep." + Prone to wander still, from the bias of my

old corrupt nature, I continually exercise the patience and care of my Shepherd. There are times when, to humble and to prove me, he leaves me to myself, and in the pride, the folly, and the lusts of my heart, I again go astray. But his eye is upon me, and he suffers me not to go beyond the reach of his arm. “ He restoreth my soul, and leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake.” | My wanderings bring shame and self-abasement upon me, and my recoveries glorify his free grace. I learn the more familiarly to know his voice and to follow him; and the more readily I hear and obey his call, the greater is my peace and enjoyment. For “He maketh me to lie down in

"He

green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters."* He makes liberal provision, by his Spirit, by his word, and his other means of grace, for the nourishment, and comfort, and the delight of my soul. When my infirmities are many, and my fears great, he as tenderly enters into every particular circumstance of my case, as if I were the only object of his pastoral care. gathereth the lambs with his arm, and carrieth them in his bosom, and gently leadeth those that are with young." When the cloudy and dark day hangs over my path, and I feel dismayed at the perils which appear to surround me, my Saviour tells me to look away from my foes and my dangers to him. His assurance to his peo

ple is this,

"They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands." Under my own, or any other guidance, or in any other hands, I might, I must perish. But, now, death itself is to wear a new aspect, or, rather, is to disappear from the path, along which my Shepherd is conducting my soul. I "shall not see death," nor "taste" his mortal cup. Through the awful gloom of his dominion I must, indeed, pass; but the king of terrors trembles, when a

* Ps. xxiii. 2.

+ Isa. xl. 11.

John x. 28.

believer comes near him, under the protecting arm of Him who has declared, “O death, I will be thy plagues." * All cause for dread is removed by the pardon of my sin, by the justification of my person, and the presence of my Redeemer. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” † His word of promise, like the pastoral crosier in the hand of the shepherd, will guide, strengthen, and support my soul, in its passage through the dark vale which lies between the foot of the mountain of human existence and the everlasting hills of “glory, honor, and immortality.”

There is a fold, whence none can stray,

And pastures ever green,
Where sultry sun, or stormy day,

Or night is never seen.

Far up the everlasting hills,

In God's own light, it lies ;
His smile its vast dimension fills

With joy that never dies.

One narrow vale, one darksome wave,

Divides that land from this : I have a SHEPHERD, pledged to save,

And bear me home to bliss.

Soon at his feet my soul will lie,

In life's last struggling breath ; But I shall only seem to die,

I shall not taste of death.

Far from this guilty world, to be

Exempt from toil and strife, To spend eternity with thee, My Saviour, this is LIFE!