God is for His people, always. He loves them and brings them near Himself that they may be fully blest. When He separated Israel from all the nations, it was to dwell among them. " I carried you on eagles' wings," He says, "and brought you unto Myself; " and the pillar of cloud from the tabernacle spread over the camp by day and the pillar of fire by night was the visible token of Jehovah's presence with them. By His command, too, Moses charged the high priest to bless the people according to these words:

" Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee.

Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious

unto thee. Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee

peace. And they shall put MY NAME upon the children of Israel" (Num. 6:24-27).

What an honor put upon a people that but yesterday were a multitude of slaves in Egypt ! Having redeemed them He now covers them with His glorious Name, in the joy and strength of which they are to journey till they reach their God-given inheritance. And at each fresh journey they were encouraged. As the ark went before them to search out a resting place for them, we read, "It came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said, "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee. And when it rested, he said,

Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel" (Num. 10:35, 36).

And all this, dear fellow-Christian, is pre-eminently the portion of God's children now as we journey through the world with our faces toward that inheritance "incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" -and which we seem to have nearly reached (i Pet. i:4, 5). Our salvation is in view of eternity, and our blessings are where Christ has entered as our forerunner, requiring us therefore to "walk by faith, not by sight"-yet it is a much nearer relation and fellowship than Israel's ever was. Hear with what salutation He meets us:

"Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ 1"

And when the Ark comes to its resting place, as it were, among God's people, it is:

" The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all! Amen."

May this glorious grace be richly enjoyed both by the reader and the writer through the year just begun.