CHAPTER CXVII.

AN EMBLEM * : -THE LORD WAS MY STAY.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay.-PSALM xviii. 17, 18.

THIS is part of one of the Psalms of David. The Psalmist says, that in the day of his calamity the Lord was his STAY.

Let us try if we can understand what he meant by this.

You will remember who David was, and that Saul, the King of Israel, hated him, because he knew God had chosen him to be king instead of himself and his son Jonathan. He was so violent, that David was obliged to run away and hide himself; and Saul hunted him about in the mountains, and tried to kill him. Many a time he had very wonderful escapes, and twice he was tempted to kill Saul, when he was in his power, but he kept his hand off him, because it would have been distrust in God. In all this "the Lord was his stay."

Now we must see what he means by the word "stay." I daresay you have all seen peas growing in a garden. Well, when they get a few inches long, they begin to run along the ground, and do not grow straight up like wheat-stalks; so the gardener puts up some branches of trees on each side of them. He calls it "sticking the peas," and in a short time the peas begin to run up the sticks, and to cling to them, so that they get off the ground, and are able to hold up their heads as high as the top of the sticks, and so get light and fresh air. The peas, you know, have little fibres or feelers, called tendrils, and they catch hold of the sticks with these,

* This lesson is written out as a specimen. The teacher can easily form such lessons from the subjects given at the end of this chapter.

and curl them round the stick, and these hold them up. They could not get held up if it were not for the sticks, because then the tendrils would have nothing to catch to. So the sticks are what hold them up steady. They prop them up or stay them; for stay means the same as prop or support. You know women wear stays to support them; and a lame little boy, whose legs are weak, has two crutches under his arms to support him. Those

crutches are stays.

Sometimes when a house is in danger of tumbling, or the bank of a reservoir is likely to burst, people put up great slanting beams of wood to prop it up, and they call those "stays," because they support it. If any of you know anything about ships, you will know that there is part of the rigging which is kept up by certain ropes, which are called "stays."

Some of you will remember, too, that when the Israelites were fighting once in the wilderness, Moses went up to the top of a mountain and prayed to God for them, and as long as he held up his hands in prayer, Israel prevailed; but whenever he stopped praying and let down his hands, Amalek prevailed. At last his arms got tired, and he could not hold them up any longer, so Israel would have been beaten; but Aaron and Hur came, one on each side, and stayed up his hands-i.e., they supported them, held them up for him.

So, you see, anything to which we cling or lean for support is a "stay;" anything that holds up what is too weak to stand up by itself is a stay."

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"He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay."

David speaks of enemies that he had to face, who were stronger than himself, who got before him (that is the meaning of prevented); and he looked for something to lay hold of, which could support him and keep him from falling. He was like the pea-stalks when a violent wind was blowing upon them.

We saw that the pea had little fibres or holders to catch by, and if we were to break these, or the pea loosed

its hold, it would fall to the ground again. David knew that if he could hold on to God, He would hold him up, so that he should not fall down before his enemies. David's feelers were his faith and his prayers, which laid hold of God, and kept him up, so that when he was inclined to feel down-hearted he was held up; when Saul threw a javelin at him, it struck the wall; when he came with an army, David got out of his way; and when Saul was asleep in a cave by himself, and David and his men found him there, and he could have killed him in a minute, God stayed his hand, that he should not take the life of the Lord's anointed before his time.

So in all his troubles and dangers the Lord was his stay, and at last He lifted him up to the throne, and made him higher than all the rest of his people in the sunshine of God's favour.

Rev. J. Ridgway.

THE CHILD'S FIRST GRIEF.

"OH! call my brother back to me!
I cannot play alone;

The summer comes with flower and bee,—
Where is my brother gone?

The flowers run wild, the flowers we sowed

Around our garden tree;

Our vine is drooping with its load

Oh! call him back to me !"

"He would not hear thy voice, fair child!
He may not come to thee;

The face that once like summer smiled,
On earth no more thou'lt see.
A rose's brief bright life of joy,
Such unto him was given;
So-thou must play alone, my boy!
Thy brother is in heaven."

"And has he left his birds and flowers?
And must I call in vain ?

And through the long, long summer hours,
Will he not come again?

And by the brook and in the glade,

Are all our wanderings o'er?

Oh! while my brother with me played,
Would I had loved him more!'

Mrs. Hemans.

LIST OF EMBLEM LESSONS.

1. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. (Psal. xlii. 1.) 2. As an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest. (Isa. xxxii. 2.)

3. As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isa. xxxii. 2.)

4. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding. (Psal. xxxii. 9.)

5. As iron sharpeneth iron, &c. (Prov. xxvii. 17.) 6. As the grass that groweth up in the morning, and in the evening is cut down and withered. (Psal. xc. 4-6.)

7. I will refine them as silver is refined. (Zech. xiii. 9.)

8. Like a tree planted by rivers of water. (Psal. i. 3.) 9. Like chaff which the wind driveth away. (Psal. i. 4.)

10. Christ like a sparrow alone on the house-top. (Psal. cii. 7.)

11. Christ like fuller's soap, and a refiner's fire. (Mal. iii. 2.)

12. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. (Isa. xl. 28-31.)

13. Joseph is a fruitful bough by a well, &c. (Gen. xlix. 22.)

14. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? (Jer. xiii. 23.)

15. His right hand is full of righteousness.

xlviii. 10.)

16. Like the rain upon the mown grass. lxxii. 5, 6.)

(Psal.

(Psal.

17. The worldly man shall be like the heath in the desert. (Jer. xvii. 5, 6.)

18. The getter of unrighteous gain shall be as the partridge sitting on eggs, and not hatching them. (Jer. xvii. 9-11.)

19. The wicked are like the troubled sea, &c. (Isa. lvii. 20, 21.)

20. The stork knoweth her appointed time. (Jer. viii. 7.)

21. Brotherly love is as the dew of Hermon. (Psal. cxxxiii. 1–3.)

22. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. (Psal. cxxi. 5.)

23. Thy goodness is like the morning cloud and the early dew. (Hos. xiii. 1-7.)

24. Keep me, as the apple of thine eye. (Psal. xvii. 8.) 25. Compassed me about like bees. (Psal. cxviii. 8–14.) 26. Though your sins be as scarlet, &c. (Isa. i. 16–18.) 27. As an eagle stirreth up her nest. (Duet. xxxii. 10-12.)

28. I wait more than they that watch for the morning. (Psal. cxxx. 5-7.)

29. I am become like a bottle in the smoke. (Psal. cxix. 83.)

30. The bruised reed and the smoking flax. (Isa. xlii. 3.)

31. Like grass upon the house-tops. (Psal. cxxix. 6.) 32. I will be as the dew unto Israel. (Hos. xiv. 5.) 33. I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven. (Hos. vii. 12.) 34. In the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. (Psal. lxiii. 6-8.)

35. God is my fortress, high tower, &c. (Psal. cxliv. 2.) 36. God is our refuge, &c. (Psal. xlvi. 1-3.) 37. God is a sun and shield. (Psal. lxxxiv. 9-12.)