trasted with the tent of
the shepherd, just as the words "dwell for ever" are contrasted with
the fact that the fugitive was allowed to stay in the shepherd's tent
only a limited time.

This verse expresses the confidence of the Christian with regard to the
future. It is the Christian's confidence that in the Father's house a
mansion is prepared for him, and that when the earthly house of this
tabernacle is taken down and dissolved by death he has a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. This is surely a grand provision for
old age, a life insurance worthy of the name, a home for the winter of
life, and a blessed assurance with regard to one's eternity. How poor
indeed is that soul that cannot say, "Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil," for the grave is
not the terminus but the passageway that leads to endless light and
life, into the glory and beauty of the house of the Lord in which the
believer shall "dwell for ever." Beyond the night of death lies the
perfect day; beyond the valley of the shadow lie the plains of peace.

One cannot help but wonder if you, reader, have such a confident hope
with regard to your future life. Only those who are able to say "The
+LORD+ is my shepherd" are able to say "I will dwell in the house of the
+LORD+ for ever."

A famous Scotch preacher tells us that a demented boy, who was in the
habit of attending one of the classes in his Sunday school, was sick
unto death. The minister was asked to go to see the boy. He went to the
house, and in speaking with the lad and after reading the Scriptures he
was about to leave, when this boy, with only half his reasoning power,
demented and partly idiotic, asked the great preacher if he wouldn't
kneel down and recite for him the Twenty-third Psalm. In obedience to
the boy's request he knelt and repeated the Twenty-third Psalm, until he
came to the last verse which, as you know, reads "Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the +LORD+ for ever." But the preacher did not repeat this last
verse, for he was saying to himself while on his knees, "this verse can
hardly be true of this boy, surely goodness and mercy has not followed
him all the days of his life, and further, what does he know about the
determination of this verse--to dwell in the house of the +LORD+ for
ever?" And so the great preacher was rising from his knees, having