A Goodly Heritage

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.—Psalm 91:1. The beauty of the language of this poem fitly corresponds to the grandeur of the thoughts which it conveys. The Psalmist here sings “to one clear harp in divers tones”; and the central thought which he exhibits in its different aspects is that of God’s response to man. For every advance on man’s part there is an immediate and corresponding advance on God’s part. When man goes out to seek God, God meets him more than half-way. When he calls upon God, God will answer him. Loving faith on man’s part will be met by faithful love on the part of God. This is in the first verse, of which the whole psalm is an expansion. If man dwells “in the secret place of the Most High,” he shall abide “under the shadow of the Almighty.” We have here the condition and promise. In his later years, Calvin’s colleague at Geneva was Theodore de Beza (1519–1605), the writer of the metrical version o

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri