truths that is
not of use for the strengthening and encouraging of men; but there are
some of these truths which might almost have been designed for this
special use. Do we receive--do we preach them as we ought?

There is the doctrine of Divine Providence. Surely this truth should
be preached more frequently than it is. Surely, too, it should be
preached in such a way as to link its meanings to the common hours, the
common needs and anxieties of life. For the vast majority of men life
is actually a struggle for bread for themselves and their dependants.
We had almost said that it is a constant escape from ever threatening
evils. The question of food and raiment is full for them of the direst
probabilities. Many a man listens to the preacher whose life is,
indeed, from hand to mouth. Fierce competition seeks at every turn to
rob him of his little opportunity of bread winning. Such a man had
rather be told of a _providing_ God than of the newest discoveries in
Biblical criticism. If we forget his need and suffer him to go from
the Sanctuary no more hopeful and brave than when he came--then, so far
as he is concerned, we have surely failed.

There is again the doctrine of the Divine Presence. "I will be with
thee in the six troubles, and in the seventh I will not leave thee."
The wonderful truth of Jesus Christ in living, constant, saving
nearness to every man, ready to help, to deliver and guide--here is a
doctrine, mighty to comfort all the world. Before us are men who,
morning by morning, go forth with trembling to spend the day in
associations full of such temptations and dangers as are undreamed of
by us. Here are men and women haunted by bitter memories, whose
midnight solitude is disturbed by the ghosts of buried years. There
are many lonely people in the world, many from whom lover and friend
have been put far away. For such is this treasure of promise committed
unto us. Send yonder man back to his conflict; yonder stranger to his
loneliness; yonder memoried soul to his solitude to face again the
spirits of his bygone days, with this thought: that every step of the
way--whether in the city or in the desert--Jesus Christ will be by his
side. Such a preaching will be sweeter to him a thousand times than
perplexing metaphysical discussions.

Then let us not forget to apply the _promises_ by which the Master has
strengthened the exhortations given to His servants in all times to
labour in the fields