II. I have hurried through this part of my subject as fast as I could, and now at once hasten to the appalling fact, that help is withdrawn-"There is none to help."

Now, I said in the exordium of our subject that, as far as relates to our covenant Head, it is a peculiar inercy, and perhaps, also, with regard to the members of the mystical body. You know it was predicted of our precious Christ, that He should "tread the winepress alone, and of the people there should be none with Him." If there had been any to help Him, they would have shared the honour; if there had been any to help Him, the prophecy I have just quoted would not have been fulfilled; if there had been any to help Him, there would then have been no truth in the declarations of this Psalm in very many instances. But He "trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him." Now, there are instances not a few in which His own people are placed in similar circumstances. Whether it be the soul distress, of which we first spake, or the external assaults that are made upon them, there are cases in which the Christian is isolated, and there is no man to care for his soul. He is troubled to such an extent that he really has no one to turn to but God; and if he tells his sorrows and his distress to any human being, all that even the most affectionate and faithful minister can do is to quote some Scripture, repeat some promise, or offer some prayer. God must be the helper. And in the case of any spiritual affliction, he is beyond the help of mortals; there is no help at hand. And this is often a great mercy to us; because, if all hearts are as fickle and as changeable as mine, they are ever prone to lean upon the bulrushes, to find a bosom friend, a dear companion, to tell what is going on. There may be a kind of relief in this; and it is a Christian privilege, a Christian duty, in many instances, if it be not to the exclusion of our looking to the Strong for help, confiding in the arm of Omnipotence, and casting every burden on the Lord. Now, after you have glanced a moment at the position of our glorious Lord, do not cry out if yours is a little like it. There He stood in the presence of the ruffian mob in the garden, all His disciples having forsaken Him and fled. There He stood in the single-handed combat alone, weakened with having "sweat great drops of blood," and the furious mob assaulting Him with swords and staves; and in that dread moment of deep, dark trouble, the Father's smile is withdrawn, the Father's help is suspended, the Father's love-tokens are kept back. He hideth the face of His throne, and covereth it with a cloud. There Jesus stood, alone. His disciples fled, earth moved, hell raged, heaven frowned, but the glorious Captain of our salvation tore the cloud from the heavens, and fetched down a smile; vanquished the powers of darkness, and locked the regions of the lost that they should go no further. Now, when you and I are put into circumstances in which we feel ourselves alone, without a friend or helper, father or mother, brother or sister, husband or wife, fellow-Christian, fellow-traveller to glory, that can or will put forth a helping hand, what is the consequence? We must presently utter the cry, "Be not thou far from me. It brings us to concentrate our hearts and affections in Jehovah. But before I come to this, just glance at the impotence of the creature. What a poor, helpless thing is man! When we most want his help, we cannot get it. He himself is "crushed before the moth," and, therefore, what aid can we get from him? "Vain," says the

Psalmist, "is the help of man." Why, when he had looked at them all, "men of low degree and men of high degree," what did he say of them? Why, he calls the first " vanity," and the second "a lie." And who can depend upon either of them? I tell you, all the priests in the world, with all their infernal pretence, can do no more to save your soul than the devil can. I tell you, that all the ministers in the world can do no more to save your soul than the devil can, except as instruments in publishing the name and fame of God's Christ; but as for efficiency, no man has a single atom of it with regard to your soul distress or your eternal salvation. And if you come to the external assaults of which we spake a little; if you are placed in circumstances of real difficulty, sorrow, or care in this wilderness state, depend upon it, the kindest friends, the most endeared neighbours, all the nearest relations, when they have done all they can, will leave you with an aching void, a most dreadful destitution, unless you have a God to go to in every time of need. We will not undervalue, we will not despise creature aid when God condescends to make use of it, especially when He stirs up Christians to "bear one another's burdens" as they ought to do. We glorify Him for it. But He affords the means and opportunity; so that it is all to be traced up to God's hand, without whom "there is none to help." Just mark, further, the vanity of Pharisaie pretensions. I have even read of poor ignorant creatures-when I say ignorant, I do not mean it in a literal sense; they may be very learned men, they may be men of mind, and I have heard some of this sort, men of reading, men of science, men of important standing in society-yet I call them ignorant; for I have heard them speak of their supposed good deeds, their meritorious church-going, their alms-giving, and a variety of other things, and I have heard them use these expressions, "Now, I think this is a good step towards the attainment of Divine favour." "I think this is a good step towards heaven." have sometimes told them, "If you have no higher step than that, it is a step to hell rather than heaven; because it is an insulting rejection of the righteousness of Christ." God forbid that my hearers should be so deluded! When we come to matters of help for eternal life and salvation, we must come to the declaration of the prophet when he said, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me, Jehovah, is thy help found." He is the Helper.

I

Now, just look at the extremity to which God's people may be sometimes driven; and when Jehovah looks down from on high, and sees their power is gone, "and that there is none to help," then it is His time to step in. When they are driven to the last extremity, and there appears to be no help left, then Jehovah steps in. Look, I beseech you, at the position of poor Joseph in the dungeon. Trouble came upon him after he was sold into Egypt as a slave; he was falsely accused, and shut up for years in a state prison, and there seemed no ray of hope. He had no way of pleading his own cause, no counsellor to tell his tale; and even when the chief butler was restored to his position, and entreated not to forget him, he thought no more about him when he got back to Pharaoh's palace, and there was Joseph in the prison for years. "Well," says he, "it is all over now, there is no help." "Ah!" says God, "thou shalt have help, but it shall be in me. Pharaoh shall not give it you. I will vex him to-night; I will trouble him with visions, and will put a spirit of ignorance into all his magicians, so that they shall not be able to give him any interpreta

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tion of them." And when Joseph was shut up in the prison, and all aid seemed to be gone, then the Lord came. And so it is with God's people in the present day. I tell you it is good for us, beloved, to be put to an extremity, that all the graces may be called into exercise. Moreover, if you view the children of Israel after they left Egypt, there seemed nothing but destruction awaiting them; mountains and bulwarks around them, the Red Sea before them, and the Egyptian host behind them, what hope did there seem? They seem to have had none left. Make terms of peace they could not; to climb the mountains or the bulwarks was impossible; to plunge into the water and drown themselves seemed desperate. There was no hope left. But then was God's time. O my hearers, believe me, we are never nearer a marvellous deliverance than when we have got to an extremity, and all hope seems to be gone. Remember one instance more upon New Testament record; I mean Paul's voyage. See how he had been tossed up and down, the rigging cut away from the vessel, the surges beating against it, no small tempest;" neither sun nor moon seen for many days, even the stores cast overboard, and at last the account is summed up with, "All hope that we should be saved was taken away." That was the extremity; all hope from the creature was gone. Now," says God, "I shall have the honour of this; the vessel is no good, let it be broken up; ' and He put the rock there, and dashed the vessel against it on purpose. He caused all this to take place-what for? Just that His power and glory might be known by saving the lives of the passengers just at the moment that all hope that they should be saved seemed to be gone. Now, I entreat you to look well at this point, that when there seems to be none to help, and trouble is pressing on the soul, then is the moment when deliverance cannot be far off; for our precious Christ is always near, and it ought to be remembered, that even when the waves began to fill the vessel in which the disciples were sailing, He was along with them; so that, if they had been drowned, He must have been drowned too.

III. This will lead me to the concentration of our expectations. All help is gone elsewhere: and then comes the cry, "Be not thou far from me." My hearers, the highest privilege under heaven, the richest enjoyment to be realized on earth, the mightiest victory to be achieved by mortals, the sweetest consolation in regenerated souls, is when Jehovah is near-sensibly near; when Jehovah is at hand, supporting-or, as the Psalmist says, on my right hand, so that I shall not be moved." "Be not thou far from me. We might go on to plead, "We have sometimes wandered far from thee," as Peter did, "but be not thou far from us." Do see, beloved, how this expression breathes the earnest desire after relative association. Why do I want Jehovah's presence to be enjoyed believingly in my soul? Just because I am related to Him. It is my Father's presence that I want -it is my Saviour's presence that I want-it is my Comforter's presence that I want. This relative association is my heaven upon earth: oh! to enjoy more of it! I cannot make common cause with those who are cold or indifferent about the enjoyment of God. If He were to assure me with a voice from heaven that He would save me, and not give me His presence on earth, I should go mourning all my days; if He were to assure me with the voice of an archangel, or with His own voice, that I should not be lost, but that I should at last get home

to glory, where there was a mansion prepared for me to inherit for ever, and yet give me no sweet fellowship with Him, never let me enjoy His smiles, never hear His precious voice whispering love into my soul, never anoint me with His fresh oil-it would make earth to be hell in my experience. "Be not thou far from me." It is relative association that I want. Where would the child look for help in trouble, but to a fond father? Where would the wife look for help in trouble, but to a fond husband? Where would the pupils in a school look for instruction, or to be brought through difficulties so immediately, as to the kind preceptor? And to whom should we cry for help, but to our Father above-our Husband within the veil-our Preceptor in the Church?

"Be not thou far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help." Oh! how important will this petition be, when the living Church is brought into the trouble which I just hinted at in the former part of the discourse! It is my serious apprehension that it is not far distant. How important, then, will be the presence of God!-in banishment, in caves or dens, in prisons or dungeons! The lions in the den will soon perceive and devour us, if God is not there; if God is present, He shuts their mouths. The flames of a seven-fold heated furnace, if left to their native power, without the presence of God, must destroy life in a few seconds; but if the Son of God be with His troubled and tried children, the flames lose all their power, and the the lions are as tame as lambs. Oh! the blessedness of enjoying the presence of God everywhere! How is it with you in temporal matters? Do you seek His company in your counting-house pursuits, in your labour, in your merchandize, in everything in which you are engaged? Do you look up to Him for aid in all circumstances in difficulty, in anxiety, in temptation, in soul distress? Is He with you in them all? Is the paternal love restraining? Is the Divine love constraining? Is the power of the Holy Ghost anointing? Oh! how blessed to dwell in love, and dwell in God, and God to dwell in us! It is promised that the Lord's disciples shall thus live in Himself; they shall dwell on high; the place of their defence shall be the munitions of rocks; their bread shall be given them, and their water shall be sure; and all because Jehovah is a God that is nigh unto them-a God at hand, and not afar off.

Yet further, mark how experimental godliness is furnished with supplies, invigorated and strengthened with the presence of God. Have you never found-I pity your poverty-struck feelings if you have not-have you never found, that the enjoyment of paternal love, atoning blood, and Divine grace have in your experience summoned every grace into lively exercise? When God has not been far from you, but has manifested Himself to you, has not faith fixed its firm grasp upon everything the covenant has contained, and said they are mine? Has not hope been sure and stedfast, not wavering, as if it was only the hope of the hypocrite? When God is present it is invigorated. Has not humility kept you very low before God? Has not the meekness and gentleness of Christ quieted the turbulency of old Adam's spirit, and laid every corruption before your eye, that it might be taken hold of and crucified? Has not love glowed with a holy ardour? Has not zeal been stirred with supernatural strength, to glorify this covenant God of Israel with all your powers? While patience has endured all, borne all, waited for all, and attained the perfection of its work. My hearers, there is no growth without the

presence of God, there is no stability without the presence of God, there is no usefulness to any extent without the presence of God, and I am sure there is no happiness on earth without the presence of God; therefore join me in the cry, and join the Psalmist in the cry, and join the Son of God in the cry-"Be not Thou far from me, for trouble is near.'

A host of things rush on my attention here, which would serve as illustrations, but I am beginning to feel that I must not stand much longer, and I shall therefore detain you with but one thought more. "Be not Thou far from me," for if I am enjoying Thy presence; the rescue from my trouble and the deliverance out of it cannot be far distant. You will recollect when Jehovah spake to Moses about His people in Egypt He said, "I have seen, I have seen the afflictions of My people that are in Egypt, and I am come down to deliver." When He comes down it is to deliver. Now it should not much concern you and me whether He delivers us from our troubles, by giving us power to surmount them, or whether He gives us deliverance by bringing us right out of them. In either case it is a deliverance. Whatever the trouble may be (and I am not a stranger to these things), whether in the family circle or personal experience, when God gives the soul power to stretch its wings, to mount upon those wings as eagles, and to get above the trouble, then is it delivered, then is its rescue come. I cannot withhold from you the fact, that I have sometimes ascended this pulpit with trouble enough, as I have thought, to crush any man into utter ruin; and, long before I have quitted it, I have forgotten that I had any trouble at all, by just stretching my wings.

Oh! beloved, we live too low, we cleave to earth too much; but when we can soar, and mount as on eagles' wings, gaze on the sun, and enjoy the smiling countenance of our covenant God, our troubles then are mere mole-hills; if we look down on them at all we can hardly see them. Moreover, the deliverance is frequently effected by Jehovah bringing His people through their trouble; just as it is written, "I will bring the third part through the fire." I will not leave them in it, though-I will bring them through it. "I will bring them through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people, and they shall say the Lord is my God." He that hath delivered, will deliver those that trust in Him. Final deliverance cannot be far off. I could read that part of the burial service over a real Christian with a great deal of satisfaction, though I could not read it over any one but a Christian, where it says, "We give thee thanks that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the pains of this life." I could read this, and have read it, over one whom I believed to be a brother; but I could never read it over one whom I thought was gone to hell. I should think the sentence would choke me, it would go so against me, under such circumstances. But when I say the words over the remains of one of Christ's real disciples, I can call him a " dear brother," and thank God for his deliverance; and, if I could reach him with my voice, would congratulate him on his entrance into heaven. That shall be yours and mine, by-and-bye-a deliverance a deliverance from all that is painful, troublesome, trying-a merciful deliverance out of all the troubles of this wilderness state, to "be for ever with the Lord." Until that hour let it be our cry, and never forget, it was our Lord's