October 11

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. - Psalms 103:17.

THE truth of this declaration is apparent, if we consider that from the beginning to the end of time mercy is attainable. We have met with many, and have read of many, who have obtained mercy. Hence we read of Manasseh, of Saul of Tarsus, of the murderers of our Saviour, of the Corinthian converts; and there are millions more who have obtained this mercy, whose names are not recorded in the Scriptures; and yet, notwithstanding all this, his mercy is undiminished. And what the Lord has done in showing mercy to thousands he is able and willing to do again. All who repair to him shall find mercy; and when all who are now the recipients of it have passed away, this mercy remains, and will remain, for their children’s children, unto all future generations.

Hence we read of the “sure mercies of David,” and of the “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,” of an “everlasting righteousness,” and of being “saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation,” of “everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,” and also frequently of “eternal life.” And after justifying his people will he again condemn? No, says God; “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” After adopting them into his family, will he disinherit them? No, says God; “Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and, if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Nor, after displaying his mercy in delivering them from the bondage of corruption, will he suffer them to become a prey to sin and Satan; for, says the apostle to the Romans, “Sin shall not have the dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace.” “Being confident,” says he, “of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Thus,-

“Grace will complete what grace begins,-

To save from sorrow and from sins;

The work that wisdom undertakes

Eternal mercy ne’er forsakes.”

In all the changes of life and the ever-varying condition of our frames, amidst the rebukes of Providence and the hidings of God’s face, when the Christian is ready to say, “Is his mercy clean gone forever, and will he be favourable no more?" How cheering to know that “his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,”- that it is and always will be in the purpose of his grace to save and bless us! Our relations may be removed by distance or death, and we may feel our own dissolution approaching; but of this we may be assured,-that, “when heart and flesh shall fail, he will be the strength of our heart, and our portion forever.”