is no comfort in a lie, there is no comfort in delusion; there may be "peace, peace," but no real peace. And therefore in every Christian's heart the Holy Spirit is first the Spirit of truth, letting him know his state and God's real character, and then he is the Comforter, giving that comfort which the world cannot give and cannot take away; a comfort that begins on earth a tiny rill, that rolls onward as the years accumulate, until it is lost in that fulness of joy which is at God's right hand, and in those pleasures that are for ever and

ever.

May God bless to us his holy word, and to his name be praise and glory. Amen.

CHAPTER I. 20-22.

THE PROMISES,

"FOR all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."

These words are designed to comfort and to cheer the people of God in their arduous pilgrimage, varied conflicts, and tribulations, encountered in their course from this world to a brighter and a better. The first verse speaks of the promises of God. What is a promise? It is the prediction of a good thing; a prophecy is the prediction of what shall be, whether it be good or bad. A prophecy may give pain; a promise can only give pleasure. A prophecy may create fear ; a promise can only create joy, confidence, bright expectancy, cheering hope. Now these promises of God are scattered through the Bible, like stars in the firmament, like flowers on the earth, ever musical in their utterance, ever sweet and fragant in their experience. Threatenings alarm, precepts perplex; promises always cheer, comfort, and encourage.

Promises are given to us, too, for another purpose. We need materials of prayer. Our blessed Lord has recognised this want in the human heart when he

taught his disciples how to pray. We need not only to feel our wants, but to find suitable vehicles for the expression of those wants to God. Hence a weighty object of God's promises is to give us materials of prayer; not simply to cheer, encourage, and sustain, but to present material which we shall turn into prayer. The promise comes from heaven as a promise, it enters into the heart as a creed, it then ascends to the source from whence it came in the shape of prayer; and lastly it comes down and breaks in benedictions upon all that heard the promise, and breathed it back in prayer. No man, therefore, who can read the promises can fail to have words for prayer. The man who will take "Clark's Scripture Promises," a little book full of bright and blessed things, never can want a Prayer-book, or complain that he has not materials, or words, or phrases, for the expression of the deepest wants, or the most earnest praises of his heart.

But, says the apostle, all these promises, so cheering, so suitable as material for Christian prayer, are to be found-where? "In Christ." The fruit is only on the tree of life; the leaves that are for the healing of the nations are there only. Out of Christ-tribulation, anguish, wrath, no blessing, no hope. In Christ-the richest blessing is to be had for asking; through him the fulfilment of the largest and most pregnant promise contained in all the oracles of God may be had just for seeking. Plead his name, and there is nothing good for you that God will not give; ask through him the largest blessing that heart can conceive, or tongue can express, or language can embody, and God is pledged to give it. But ask out of Christ—that is, not pleading his name, not leaning on his intercession, not

trusting in his atoning and meritorious sacrifice; and there is nothing for you. God has said, Draw upon Me in the name of Christ the mediator; and you shall have grace and glory, a shield and a sun, and every good thing; but apply to him for the least blessing of the footstool, or the greatest blessing of the throne, and he can, consistently with what he is, consistently with the demands of law, and your breach of it, consistently with his holiness and your guilt,-he can give you nothing, whether it be a crumb of bread or a crown of glory.

These promises in Christ are not only in him, and his name to be appended to them, and what he has done to be pleaded as a reason why God can give, in his love, what he could not otherwise give, except in and through Christ; but all these promises also are sure of gracious fulfilment. Why has God given them? not for his sake, but for ours. But having given them, he is pleased to see that each shall issue somewhere, or in some case in blessed performance. And when we know that he has a memory that recollects the past just as clearly as his omniscience inspects the present and his prescience sees the future ;--when we recollect that he has power, omnipotence, equal to remove every obstruction and carry every word that he has uttered into actual reality,-when we know that he has love that never falters, and mercy and compassion that never weary; that he has the deepest interest in us, because his purchased possession, and his own glory is, what must be, and has been, and ever shall be, the end and object of all; and without his faithfulness that glory could not evolve-then we may be sure that heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or

one tittle shall not drop from the least or the greatest promise until that promise has ceased to refer to the future, and has been merged into an actual experience in the present.

yea

All his promises are in Christ, that is, realizable, if I may use the word, through him. They are also sure and certain of fulfilment; they are yea and amen. What comfort is here to a Christian! Has he said, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but the covenant of my peace shall not depart, neither shall my loving-kindness be removed?" That promise is and amen in Christ Jesus. Has he said to any one Christian upon earth-and if he has said it to one Christian, he has said it to all-"I will never, never leave thee; no, never, never forsake thee?" Then that promise is in Christ to be realized; and through Christ it is yea and amen, that is, absolutely sure of entire fulfilment. Select from this book the most precious of all the promises, and they are exceeding many and exceeding precious, and you may read that promise, and pray that God would fulfil it in Christ to you as a believer; and God may forget himself, but he cannot forget to accomplish that promise, to his glory, and to your unspeakable good.

The apostle goes on to say, "Now he that thus gives us these promises-which are yea and amen, absolutely sure of fulfilment; which are to be found in Christ, that is, to be pleaded in prayer in Christ's name, and lifted up in supplication through his intercession, is he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us-is God." This Divine Being, the author of the promises, is said, in the next place, to stablish us. What is meant by this word? The Greek word