Dwelling in God's House.

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This is My resting-place for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.-' — Psalm cxxxii. 14.

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DWELLI G I GOD'S HOUSE. By Alexander Maclaren

This is My resting-place for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.-' — Psalm cxxxii. 14. This is an allusion not only, as I think, to the Temple, but also to the Oriental habit of irivins: a man who took refui^e in the tent of the guest-riles of protection and provision and friendship. The habit exists to this day, and travellers among the Bedouin tell us lovely stories of how even an enemy with the blood of the closest relative of the owner of the tent on his hands, if he can once get in there and partake of the salt of the host, is safe, and the first obligation of the owner of the tent is to watch over the life of the fugitive as over his own. So the Psalmist says in one place, " I desire to have guest-rites in Thy tent ; to lift up its fold, and shelter there from the heat of the desert. And although I be dark, and stained with many evils and transgressions against Thee, yet I come to claim the hospitality and provision and protection and friendship which the laws of the house do bestow upon a guest." Carrj'-ing out substantially the same idea, Paul tells the Ephesians, as if it were the very highest privilege that the (xospel brought to the Gentiles: *'Ye are no more strangers, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God'''' ; incorporated into Plis household, and dwelling safely in His pavilion as their home. That is to say, the blessedness of keeping up such a continual consciousness of touch with God is, first and foremost, the certainty of infallible protection. Oh ! how it minimises all trouble, and brightens all joys, and calms amidst all distractions, and steadies and sobers in all circumstances, to feel ever the hand of God upon us ! He who goes through life finding that, when he has trouble to meet, it throws him back on God, and that, when bright mornings of joy drive away nights of weeping, these wake morning songs of praise and are brightest because they shine with the light of a Father's love, will never be unduly moved by any vicissitudes of fortune. Like some inland and sheltered valley, with great mountains shutting it in, that •'heareth not the loud winds when they call" beyond the barriers that enclose it, our lives may be tranquilly free from distraction, and may be full of peace, of nobleness, and of strength, on condition of our keeping in God's house all the days of our lives. Trust brings rest, because it casts all our burdens on another. Every act of reliance, though it does not deliver from responsibility, delivers from anxiety. We see that even when the object of our trust is but a poor creature like ourselves. Husbands and wives who find settled peace in one another, parents and children, patrons and protected, and a whole series

of other relationships in life, are witnesses to the fact that the attitude of rehance brings the actuality of repose. A little child goes to sleep beneath its mother's eye, and is tranquil, not only because it is ignorant, but because it is trustful. So, if we will only get behind the shelter, the blast will not blow about us, but we shall be in what they call on the opposite side of the Tweed — in a word that is music in the ears of some of us — a " lown place," where we hear not the loud winds when they call. Trust is rest ; even when we lean upon an arm of flesh, though that trust is often disappointed. "What is the depth of the repose that comes not from trust that leans against something supposed to be a steadfast oak, that proves to be a broken reed, but against the Rock of Ages I We which have "believed do enter into rest."

1. 68 FREE BOOKS http://www.scribd.com/doc/21800308/Free-Christian-Books

2. ALL WRITI GS http://www.scribd.com/glennpease/documents?page=315

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