bers in particular. So surely then, as the head provides for, and sympathizes with all the members-so surely is Jesus touched with a feeling of all your infirmities-afflicted in all your afflictions. Whoso toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. The cup of cold water given to you, is regarded as ministered to him. The word spoken against you, is condemned as uttered against him. Such are the blessed fruits of faith-such the unity of believers with their Lord! Such was his prayer for you-such is your privilege-such your calling! Is it your experience?

SERMON III.

PSALM CXIX. 94.

I AM THINE, SAVE ME."

OVERWEENING and preposterous as may be the pride and naughtiness of man's heart, there are, nevertheless, seasons when he is made to feel his own utter insufficiency. When conscience plies her scorpion-scourge; when the body is shattered by disease, and the spirits broken by bereavements; when earthly hopes are wrecked, and earthly friends, like the Levite in the parable, so soon as they have seen and probed the depth of his wounds, pass by on the other side, there is an instinctive craving after some interposition of unchanging sympathy and delivering power, which may avail to soothe and heal and save. In such circumstances, (and perhaps, brethren, they may have been yours) the very pride which clings to the sinner even in his helplessness, just as it frequently does to the bankrupt in his insolvency, will oft-times suggest the vanity of all human aid

D

-the empiricism of all human remedies for a bleeding heart and a diseased soul. 'If mine own arm could not bring salvation,' it will prompt him to reason; if the heart which alone knew its own bitterness, had no resources within by which its wormwood might be sweetened, how should the stranger who intermeddleth not with its mysterious workings, comprehend or alleviate its malady?' It is this conviction, thus painfully realized, which at length constrains him as his last resource, to turn his wistful gaze to heaven and sigh for the help of an Almighty arm, the ministerings of an infinite love. Yes, brethren, many a time and oft have I witnessed this prostration of man's native pride, and heard the stout-hearted sinner, who, in the consciousness of health and independence, would have blushed with shame and indignation at the suspicion that he was a disciple of Jesus and a man of prayer: when the scene was changed, and disease, and pain, and death, and eternity pressed sore upon him, literally howling forth his cries for mercy and deliverance, and crouching to the power which he spurned so long as he dared. Sooner or later you must feel your need of a Saviour. You may live without one; but it is fearful, wretched, hopeless work to die without one. Then, if not before, is the petition of the text extorted from even the most unpractised lips, and the blasphemer himself is schooled by his terror to cry, "Lord, save me." But O how widely different from the dark misgivings and rea

sonable despondency of an unbeliever's supplications, is the simple, affectionate, undoubting affiance, with which the child of God is authorized and enabled to appeal: "I am thine, save me." That you may be assisted in the application of this inspired portion to your own souls, it is purposed to consider

I. THE RELATION TO GOD WHICH IS CLAIMED

IN THE TEXT.

II. THE PLEA WHICH IS FOUNDED UPON THAT RELATION.

I. The Psalmist claims relation to God in those

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simple but expressive terms: I am thine." There are a few points connected with this relation, which it seems material to notice

i. Its origin.

ii. Its dignity and blessedness.

iii. The duties involved in it.

iv. The graces exemplified in pleading it. v. The evidence of its existence.

i. The origin of the relationship cannot surely require any elaborate demonstration. As the workmanship of Jehovah, we are his by creation. "It is he who hath made us, and not we ourselves." In him "we live and move and have our being." But this is not the kind of connexion which is here referred to, seeing that it is one which we share in common with the beasts that perish, and with the very worms of the earth. Undoubtedly

more was designed in the appeal than, 'I am thy creature, thy chattel, thy manufacture.' It is not as a mere appurtenance of the Most High that David says, "I am thine." He speaks as one who knew that the Lord acknowledged a peculiar interest in him, `far more intimate than that which resulted from the simple fact of proprietorship. And the truth is, that by a mere act of sovereign grace, passing by the angels which kept not their first estate, it pleased God to take unto himself a peculiar people from among the sinners of mankind. Yes, brethren, the origin of the relation which we are considering is wholly of the Lord. If I am speaking, as without doubt I am, to any of his children, they will delight to be reminded that they are the adopted ones of his family. From all eternity he set his love upon you, long before you had done or could have done anything to purchase, or earn, or conciliate his regard. And hence your security, my brethren. Had the privilege of this adoption been in the slightest degree dependent upon inherent worthiness or actual merit, it would long since have been forfeited. the inspired Apostle of the Gentiles. say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew."

But hearken to

"I

The natural bond between the creature and the Creator had in this case been rent in sunder by the fall: "God made man upright, but they sought out many inventions." And forasmuch as "in