In Psalm 8 we have a beautiful contrast between two extremes. In the first verse the glory of Jehovah is celebrated-high above earth and heaven.

"O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens."

Who is to be compared with Him? He is God, and all the universe, animate and inanimate, up to the highest intelligences, the angels who excel in strength-all is the creation of His wisdom and power. There is none like unto God.

"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with a span…. .To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" (Isa. 40:12,18).

His name sets forth His character, is descriptive of Himself. How excellent, illustrious, is that Name, in all the earth. We may think of creation as thus giving a display of God's excellence. His power, wisdom, skill, beauty, goodness, truth and kindness are spread abroad in all the earth, o'er land and sea. Not a drop of water, a blade of grass, a grain of sand, but sets this forth in countless ways.

Then His dealings with men-the Preserver and Caretaker of those who have no thought of Him, who when they knew God glorified Him not as God, and corrupted His truth into a lie, were not thankful for His mercies and kindness. Still His excellent kindness is displayed in sending "rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). Truly any who are not dead to all about them can say, "How excellent is Thy name in all the earth!"

But a more wonderful proof of this has been given upon earth. The Creator has come down, not in dazzling glory, but in the lowliness of perfect humanity, and walked the earth, fashioned and upheld by His own power. "Who went about doing good." Truly He set forth the excellences of God's name in a divine way; not mere power, though His miracles showed that; but holiness, righteousness, pity, love, truth-what we may call moral attributes -were set forth in all their perfection, where we, alas, had gone everyone in his own way, and marred God's beautiful world by our sins and disobedience.

Then the supreme display of that name in the cross!

"Jesus bruised and put to shame
Tells the glories of God's name."

Truly He could say, "I have glorified Thee on the earth" (John 17:4).

Here we see inflexible righteousness and holiness displayed in divine, perfect love and compassion, laying the basis for the power of a perfect grace to work out His sovereign, perfect plans and to vindicate the goodness and wisdom of His whole work of creation. Judged by sight, creation, as it now is, seems a failure. After centuries of human activity this is the verdict of the thoughtful observer. Injustice, sin, degradation, with the wail of misery rising above the thoughtless laughter of the moment, and in the not distant background the silence of a hopeless death! What a fearful tragedy is human life, if we leave out that wondrous cross where divine love has come in the person of the Son of God-the whole Triune Godhead united there, as the blessed Lamb of God is laid upon the altar.

"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Let us look, not a passing glance, not a mere occasional thought, but look still, with our gaze fixed upon Him who was there in His love for ruined man. Here is God's remedy, His sole and His all-perfect remedy for sin. It is not merely the only remedy, but the remedy alone. No mixture of our efforts at improvement, no part of man and part of God; but the cross and work of the Lord Jesus alone. As the serpent-bitten Israelite fixed his dying eyes on the uplifted brazen image of what had wrought his undoing, and found life and healing there alone, so "must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

"There is life in a look at the crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee;
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree."

And from that company of saved, healed souls, as helpless and hopeless as possible, now comes the triumphant song-"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!"

Blessed be His Name! "God is light," shown in the fullest judgment of all sin in the Holy, spotless Sufferer; "God is love" is seen in the perfect redemption flowing from the sacrifice He made. Here let us rest and gaze.

As sure as God's word is sure, is this the blessed, effectual remedy for all our 99:This does not mean that heaven is entered, or that everything is altered for sight, but God's own assurance is unchangeable; and it is for "whosoever."

And such are we. We may not put ourselves in the various categories as to wisdom, position, general condition. If we are looking at self for even the fullest depth and strength of conviction, that might by some subtle snare of Satan be wrested into a ground of merit. But whosoever means me. So I lift my eyes and fix them by this infinitely kind permission and urging of grace and love, upon Him who once hung there for sin upon the cross, and I say, "Lord, here is a 'whosoever,' who thus turns to Thee."

"Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens." Not only has the earth been the scene of the display of the excellence of God's name, but His glory has been set above the heavens. The heavens, as a marvelous structure, declare as in this very psalm the wondrous handiwork of their Maker,

"Forever singing as they shine, The Hand that made us is divine."

It is a noble and grand theme, well calculated to fill the heart with reverent adoration.
But is there not also, as we have seen with the work of the cross of our blessed Lord, an added thought to mere creation in this heaven-transcending glory? Divine love was displayed here; but look up into those opened heavens. The One who finished redemption's work on the cross is no longer there. No need for Him to remain there. The tomb is empty; when He had paid the full penalty of death it was not possible that He could be holden of it. And so, after lingering a little season with the beloved ones who had companied with Him in His earthly course, establishing by "many infallible proofs" the certainty of His resurrection, He ascended up where He was before, far above all the starry heavens, into those bright and blessed scenes where the joys unutterable of His Father's immediate presence awaited the glorious Victor over sin and Satan and the world.

And what a glory has been added to those heavens by His presence there! The personal witness of the One who at all costs, yea, of life and the smile of God, has wrought eternal redemption. Here is the glory that excelleth-not merely the innumerable hosts of heaven, and God the Father's unspeakable effulgence, but the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, "crowned with glory and honor." The very throne, He who sits there, has the light of a "jasper and sardine stone"-the blood color of redemption. In the midst is the "Lamb as it had been slain," with all power in heaven and earth committed to Him.

Here then is the light and glory of that heavenly scene. "The Lamb is the lamp thereof," the luminary.

And now in the next verse of the psalm we have the contrast, we might say. How is this grandeur of redemption set forth? What chorus of mighty angels is to ascribe "glory to God in the highest?" We read that when our Lord made His typically triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the children were crying in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David" (Matt. 21:15,16). When rebuked by the chief priests and scribes, our Lord quoted from this scripture, thus stilling those who were taking the place of "the enemy and the avenger." The words He gives suggest the source of strength of which the psalm speaks. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." For the spirit of praise is the spirit of power. Judah, "praise," is in the vanguard; and in the day of Jehoshaphat they set the singers in the forefront of the army (2 Chron. 20:21). The prophet had said, "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle:set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you."

Praise is the celebration of the glories of Another, His person and His work. Self, and the works of man have no place here. It is fitting therefore that the praises should come from the lips and hearts of feeble infancy-"babes," those who remind us of birth, and "sucklings," whose weakness and dependence is all they have. Here then is the voice of praise from lisping lips of newborn souls, who celebrate the excellence of the Son of God upon earth, and the high glory above all heavens.

"Children's praise He loves to hear, Children's songs delight His ear."

And so we lift our hearts and voices to proclaim the matchless worth of the Son of God. That is what praise is. Not our feelings, nothing of the flesh, simply telling what He is and has done, where He has gone and whence He is coming for us to be forever like and with Him.

"I count on the gracious Lord to keep and bless you always. One cannot do an instant without Him, and oh how blessed it is to trust Him! I feel all our work ought to be directly the immediate expression of God's mind, and it is a very solemn thing to work, and wait, directly from Him. What a thing to say in this world."

"I feel increasingly, what we all know, that the work for God is the work of God."–J. N. D.

"There is danger of being too much occupied with evil. It does not refresh, does not help the soul on. 'Abstain from every form of evil,' but be occupied ourselves, and occupy others with Christ. The evil itself becomes not less evil, but less in comparison with the power of good where the soul dwells.. .There, too, power is found as well as a sanctuary of peace for our souls. To be simply occupied with evil is always a weakening thing; God is not there, though we may be forced to turn and do it for Him in care for others.. .One only, blessed be His name, can touch the leper and not be denied. Of all else, even where right to be done, 'the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until the evening.' "

"It is a great comfort to think He is always right, and always does right. He loves the Church, and in the midst of all our failures carries on His work of loving grace towards it, to 'present it to Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.' And individually such a 'High Priest became us as was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens'; yet we have not one who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was 'in all points tempted like as we are, sin apart.' We belong to these, yea, go in boldly; but we are here sanctified in spirit for that place which He has prepared for us by His entry there, and exercised and helped here by a sympathy and mercy which, while it is met by dependence in us, is a living and gracious sustainment, and gives blessed confidence. On Him we can count; He loves the Church now as ever, and though our hearts are weak, how often have I seen His hand come in where all seemed hopeless. As men have said, 'Man's extremity is God's opportunity.' and so it is, and even in our souls-where to know deliverance we must have learned we cannot deliver ourselves. Peace be with you"-Extracts of letters of J, N. D. -about 1880.