What a list of rich and blessed characteristics are in this Psalm attributed to the testimonies of God! perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, eternal, true, and altogether righteous; well indeed may the psalmist add, "more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb." The word is so precious because it testifies of redemption, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot ;" and the word is so sweet, because thereby we "taste that the Lord is gracious." This wisdom of God which the Scriptures reveal, not be gotten for gold, neither shall the silver be weighed for the price thereof; it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire; the gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold; no mention shall be made of coral or of pearls; for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold-behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." Job xxviii.

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Moreover, the testimonies of God give notice beforehand of the coming evil and danger, and discover the snare laid before the feet, so that "by them is Thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward," even at the present time, as well as in the future glory. But "who can understand his errors?" Who knows

the deceitfulness of his own heart, and its desperate wickedness? To the eye of God alone are the thoughts and intents of the heart naked and opened; and He, by His word, can make us aware of the errors within, as well as the wanderings of our steps without. He can cleanse, by pouring in the light of His truth; from secret faults, and then we shall be kept from presumptuous sins-but we may be assured, that the open and presumptuous sin has its spring deeper, and that it arises from secret faults having been cherished, and from our not having sought of the Lord to be cleansed from them; not having allowed the light of the word to search out the leaven hidden in the corners.

Oh that we may be more able at all times to end our speech and the thoughts of our hearts, with the closing verse of this beautiful psalm! "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength (rock) and my redeemer." It will be so, if we set the Lord alway before us, and make Him to be in all things our strength, and remember Him in all things as our redeemer. How many a foolish word would have been avoided, how many a vain imagination stifled in its very birth, and how many darkenings of counsel by words without knowledge, would never have existed, if this little closing prayer had been deeply written on our hearts. If in short, the cross of Christ, with its deep mysteries of judgment, love, and mercy, were kept more in remembrance, and our aim and effort were to please God, and

not to exalt ourselves-if we desired that our ways and words and thoughts were acceptable in His sight, and our souls were full of gratitude for His great redemption, our words would then be seasoned with salt, ministering grace to the hearers; the mouth would speak from a heart filled with Christ, and richly stored with the word of God.

CHRIST OUR PORTION.

How painful is it to see men pursuing the wretched bubble happiness, apart from CHRIST. What a portion HE is! How rich, how satisfying! But what work He has with us often before we really find it out. How many cisterns He has to break, how many props to take from under us-and then, though we do know in some measure, what beasts we are before Him, what painful lessons have we to learn, that we may be kept from looking with complacency on self. How hard, I was going to say, but rather should I say, how impossible of ourselves, in self-denying faith, to trust wholly in another, and walk through one day, or one hour in a day, in forgetfulness of self-ceasing from all fleshly effort, and allowing God to work in us and by us-content, yea, satisfied and happy to be laid aside or used, just as HE wills. However, all this teaches us that if salvation, from first to last, were not wholly of grace, hope then could be none for us, and we learn, too, in a deeply experimental way, that "the just shall live by faith."

ESAU.

Genesis xxv.—xxxvi.

THIS history reads our souls a serious lesson, and we may well welcome the holy and healthful admonition it brings with it.

Esau was a child of nature, or a son of fallen man ; and being so, he is seen to be in every action and condition of life, a Christless or ungodly man; as the apostle speaks, "a profane person."

Nothing is needed to form such an one. God's election and the Spirit's sovereign power are needed to bring into blessing and the right way; but neither any decree of God, nor any external constraint, are required to constitute the child of man a captive of sin and willing stranger to Christ. All that is wanting is, for the Lord to leave us alone.

This is shewn us in this awful history. Nature declares itself in Esau at the very birth. He allowed his heel to be held by his younger brother, as they came out of the womb-or, if we would rather have it so expressed, the Lord allowed this action, or ordered this manner of the birth, as a symbol of the nature of fallen man, that it can part with a portion in Christ without a struggle.

And all afterwards in the history of this "profane person" verifies this.

"The boys grew," we are told. But growth in stature or in years, does not and cannot alter nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" and "they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." It is not growth that will do-but, "ye must be born again." There was one, and only one, whom growth in years and in stature set off and approved. Because in Him was an untainted nature, the larger unfoldings of which therefore only secured further acceptableness with God. "Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man." But Esau, the natural man, as he grows and takes his place in the action around him, be it what it may, betrays the same readiness to do without God and to forego Christ for ever.

His history presents him in four distinct scenes of action. May we have grace to discern the lesson aright, and to lay it to heart in all godly honesty!

Genesis xxv.-Here Esau is the young man of pleasure. There was nothing wicked in this. He did no wrong to his neighbour. There was nothing repulsive in it. It rather made him, we may be sure, a favourite with his companions, as a youth of sport and of spirit. But it was all Christless enjoyment, though to man harmless and even attractive. Esau's pleasures were his own. His happiness was of his own making. The Lord did not make a single item in the account of it.