April 20

"For I am poor and needy."—Psalms 86:1.

HOW many are the "Fors" in this psalm! And each one of them introduces an argument which I shall do well to use in my prayers, and which is sure to have weight and efficacy with God. Let me put them together, adding plea to plea, and let me think of their accumulated force.

For I am poor and needy—my own utter want sends me to the mercy-seat and constitutes of itself an unconquerable appeal. For I am holy—a child of Thine, it means, in Thy family and covenant, and therefore dear to Thy heart. For I cry unto Thee daily—I am ever looking and beseeching and clinging, and apart from Thee I can do nothing. For unto Thee do I lift up my soul, that Thou mayest see it to be, not without spot and blameless, but at least sincere and true in its affection for Thee. For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive. Ah, there I am on firm and stable ground—there can be no mistake about the grace and liberality of my God. For Thou wilt answer me. It is Thy delight to do so; and all experience, my own and that of tens of thousands, makes certain the blessed fact. For Thou art great and doest wondrous things. There never is in Thee, as there is so often in myself, the will to help, while the means and opportunities are awanting—Thy strength is as great as Thy love, Thy resources are inexhaustible.

Is it not a battalion of unanswerable reasons? And I can employ them all. If

"A tear is an intellectual thing,

And a sigh is the sword of an angel king,"

here is a whole cruse of tears and a whole armoury of sighs.