"Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction; and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day."—2 Samuel 16:11, 12 My soul, see here a believer in his best frame. To be sure, it is not always thus with a child of God; but it were to be devoutly desired always thus to be. But while we admire the faith, let us yet more admire and adore him, and his grace and mercy who gives it. Oh what a blessed state it is to eye the hand of the Lord in every thing. When Shimei thus cursed David, he passeth by the instrument, and recognizeth…

"And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt."—Genesis 45:4 What an interview was this, in the first manifestation the governor of Egypt made of himself to his brethren! We are told that he wept aloud. His bowels yearned over them. He had long smothered in his own bosom those he now manifests himself to every poor sinner, whom, by his grace, he makes partaker in the first resurrection on whom the second death hath no power? I am Jesus, your brother, saith that adored Lord; but he doth not add, whom ye sold for worse than a slave. There is no upbraiding, nothing of our baseness and sins. And yet we have all not only sold him, but by our…

"Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. "—Psalm 73:23 Yes, my soul, and well it is for thee that it is so; there is a nevertheless in the precious redemption by Jesus, which secures thee, amidst all thy languishing seasons, when to thy view it sometimes appears as though the Lord had forgotten to be gracious, and had shut up his loving-kindness in displeasure. And whence this security but in Jesus, and the covenant engagements of God thy Father in him? The everlasting worth and efficacy of the Redeemer's righteousness and death, are the same amidst all the changeable circumstances of his people's warfare. By the expression of being continually with Jesus, is meant, no doubt, that union with his person, as the sinner's Surety, which…