August 4

Therefore I will look unto the Lord. - Micah 7:7.

AS if he had said, There is no confidence to be reposed in, and no consolation to be derived from creatures, friends, and relations; I will therefore go beyond them, I will repair at once to God. If they are weak, he is strong; if they are false, he is faithful; if they are unkind, he is merciful and gracious. “I will look therefore unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation.” He turned, away from creatures, knowing they were broken cisterns-cisterns that could hold no water; and turned towards God, knowing that he was “the fountain of living waters.” He turned away from creatures, who he knew were broken reeds, and turned to God, whom “he knew to be the Bock of Ages. “Therefore,” he says, “I will look unto the Lord.”

Observe, first, That this is a designed experience, and not a casual one, so to speak, on God’s side. God is concerned for our welfare, infinitely more than we are ourselves; and, therefore, he does not wait for our application, but he excites it. For this purpose he has given us the Scriptures. He has also given us the Sabbath. He has given us the sanctuary, fie has given us the preaching of the gospel, and all these dispensations are arranged in the same subserviency with the purposes of his grace-and especially our afflictions. He therefore says, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offences, and seek my face; in their affliction, they will seek me early.” So Elihu, reviewing afflictive dispensations, says, “All these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.”

Observe, secondly, It is a necessary experience on our part. God does nothing needlessly, and we may be assured that he doth not “afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” We have a strong propensity to turn away, and to make flesh our arm, and earth our home; but “the prosperity of fools destroys them,” “their table becomes a snare,” and the things ordained for their welfare prove “a trap.” Hence, these dispensations, however trying, improve us by the goodness of God. Hence the ploughshare goes through the fallow ground to prepare the soil for the reception of the seed. Hence God. “hedges up our way with thorns,” that we may not be able to “find our paths.” Hence he embitters earth, that heaven may be endeared, and verifies the truth of the language of Dr. Young-

“Our hearts are fasten’d to the world

By strong and various ties,

But every trouble cuts a string

And urges us to rise.”

Oh, it is a blessed experience when, with the Church, we are thrown from ourselves and from creatures, upon the Divine resources.