THE FAMILY ALTAR
May 9.
"Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life ; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Ps. 23:6
The nightingale among the Psalms ends her sweet song with
a thrilling climax extolling the unfailing, changeless love and
mercy of the Good Shepherd toward His trusting sheep. He
is and remains ever the same tender and solicitous Savior, Christ
Jesus, yesterday, and to-day, and forever. Changeful years may
come and go, but His compassions fail not, they are new every
morning, and great is His faithfulness. Through all the varying
scenes of this transient life, through days of smiling sunshine,
days of darkest storm and stress, to our very last expiring breath,
His goodness and mercy shall follow us like two guardian angels,
as "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall
be heirs of salvation." His changeless goodness shall supply all
our wants, His changeless mercy blot out all our sins. Let the
future loom ever so dark and forbidding, we can rest secure in
our Savior's changeless love, even as a child in its mother's arms.
And that is an indisputable fact, not an idle dream, not a mere
poetic fancy, but God's very truth; for it is divinely established
in the eternal, changeless character of our blessed Savior. Hence
the Psalmist sings with such sublime confidence: "Surely, good-
ness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life"; and
now adds as his last jubilant note: "And I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." Though a pilgrim and a stranger
in a hostile world where unseen dangers and lurking enemies
surround me, I have a sure place of refuge where my soul can
dwell in safety, the house of my Lord, His Temple, His holy
Christian Church where He resides in the fulness of His saving
grace, "daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers,
and will at the last day raise up me and all the dead, and give
unto me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most
certainly true !" 0 blessed the man who can truly sing with David :
"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want!"
Much we need Thy tend'rest care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Thy folds prepare.
Blessed Jesus I Blessed Jesus!
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
