“wearisome nights” are “appointed.” Not a pang I feel, not a tear I shed but is known to Him. What are called “dark dealings” are the ordinations of undeviating faithfulness. Man may err—his ways are often crooked; “but as for God, His way is perfect!” He puts my tears into His bottle. Every moment the everlasting arms are underneath and around me. He keeps me “as the apple of His eye.” He “bears” me “as a man beareth his own son!”

Do I look to the future? Is there much of uncertainty and mystery hanging over it? It may be, much premonitory of evil. Trust Him. All is marked out for me. Dangers will be averted; bewildering mazes will show themselves to be interlaced and interweaved with mercy. “He keepeth the feet of His saints.” A hair of their head will not be touched. He leads sometimes darkly, sometimes sorrowfully; most frequently by cross and circuitous ways we ourselves would not have chosen; but always wisely, always tenderly. With all its mazy windings and turnings, its roughness and ruggedness, the believer’s is not only a right way, but THE right way—the best which covenant love and wisdom could select. “Nothing,” says Jeremy Taylor, “does so establish the mind amidst the rollings and turbulence of present things, as both a look above them and a look beyond them; above them, to the steady and good hand by which they are ruled; and beyond them, to the sweet and beautiful end to which, by that hand, they will be brought.” “The Great Counsellor,” says Thomas Brooks, “puts clouds and darkness round about Him, bidding us follow at His beck through the cloud, promising an eternal and uninterrupted sunshine on the other side.” On that “other side” we shall see how every apparent rough blast has been hastening our barks nearer the desired haven.

Well may I commit the keeping of my soul to Jesus in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. He gave Himself for me. This transcendent pledge of love is the guarantee for the bestowment of every other needed blessing. Oh, blessed thought! my sorrows numbered by the Man of Sorrows; my tears counted by Him who shed first His tears and then His blood for me. He will impose no needless burden, and exact no unnecessary sacrifice. There was no redundant drop in the cup of His own sufferings; neither will there be in that of His people. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”

“WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS.”

7th Day.

“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said”—

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”—John x. 14.

The Good Shepherd.

“The Good Shepherd”—well can the sheep who know His voice attest the truthfulness and faithfulness of this endearing name and word. Where would they have been through eternity, had He not left His throne of light and glory, travelling down to this dark valley of the curse, and giving His life a ransom for many? Think of His love to each separate member of the flock—wandering over pathless wilds with unwearied patience and unquenchable ardour, ceasing not the pursuit until He finds it. Think of His love now—“I AM the Good Shepherd.” Still that tender eye of watchfulness following the guilty wanderers—the glories of heaven and the songs of angels unable to dim or alter His affection;—the music of the words, at this moment coming as sweetly from His lips as when first He uttered them—“I know my sheep.” Every individual believer—the weakest, the weariest, the faintest—claims His attention. His loving eye follows me day by day out to the wilderness—marks out my pasture, studies my wants, and trials, and sorrows, and perplexities—every steep ascent, every brook, every winding path, every thorny thicket. “He goeth before them.” It is not rough driving, but gentle guiding. He does not take them over an unknown road; He himself has trodden it before. He hath drunk of every “brook by the way;” He himself hath “suffered being tempted;” He is “able to succour them that are tempted.” He seems to say, “Fear not; I cannot lead you wrong; follow me in the bleak waste, the blackened wilderness, as well as by the green pastures and the still waters. Do you ask why I have left the sunny side of the valley—carpeted with flowers, and bathed in sunshine—leading you to some high mountain apart, some cheerless spot of sorrow? Trust me, I will lead you by paths you have not known, but they are all known to me, and selected by me—‘Follow thou me.’”

“And am known of mine!” Reader! canst thou subscribe to these closing words of this gracious utterance? Dost thou “know” Him in all the glories of His person, in all the completeness of His finished work, in all the tenderness and unutterable love of His every dealing towards thee?

It has been remarked by Palestine travellers, that not only do the sheep there follow the guiding shepherd, but even while cropping the herbage as they go along, they look wistfully up to see that they are near him. Is this thine attitude—“looking unto Jesus?” “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct thy paths.” Leave the future to His providing. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” I shall not want!—it has been beautifully called “the bleating of Messiah’s sheep.” Take it as thy watchword during thy wilderness wanderings, till grace be perfected in glory. Let this be the record of thy simple faith and unwavering trust, “These are they who follow, whithersoever He sees meet to guide them.”

“THE SHEEP FOLLOW HIM, FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE.”

8th Day.

“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said”—

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”—John xiv. 16.

The Abiding Comforter.

When one beloved earthly friend is taken away, how the heart is drawn out towards those that remain! Jesus was now about to leave His sorrowing disciples. He directs them to one whose presence would fill up the vast blank His own absence was to make. His name was, The Comforter; His mission was, “to abide with them for ever.” Accordingly, no sooner had the gates of heaven closed on their ascended Lord, than, in fulfilment of His own gracious promise, the bereaved and orphaned Church was baptized with Pentecostal fire. “When I depart, I will send Him unto you.”

Reader, do you realize your privilege—living under the dispensation of the Spirit? Is it your daily prayer that He may come down in all the