Philippians 4:19

My God shall supply all your need

The need and the supply

Paul declares that the contributions of his Philippian friends are pleasing to him, and acceptable to God.

He cannot requite their kindness, but declares that God can and will.

I. The extent of the supply. The emphasis is on all.

1. There are many promises of this kind even in the Old Testament. “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly,” etc. But in all their fulness we find them only in the gospel, where Christ tells us that our heavenly Father knows our need, and caring as He does for sparrows and lilies will much more care for us.

2. This promise is exceeding broad. It is not restricted--

(1) In the nature of its object, but comprehends temporal and spiritual good.

(2) Nor in the absolute measure of the good it possesses; not your occasional, but your constant need; not one kind, but every kind; not a portion, but all.

3. It is possible to misinterpret the promise. We are not to make it the ground of foolish expectations. God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, nor gratify our whims. The promise has a just and obvious limit. God will supply our need. He does more, but does not engage to do so; and He is the final and righteous Judge of what our needs are. We may not feel the want of what God sees we require. We may desire wealth, or health of body, but God may see that we need spiritual riches and health of soul, and to give the latter He may have to withhold the former. Take the case of Paul who prayed for deliverance from his thorn in the flesh. God’s response was grace to bear it, and Paul saw that his need was supplied, and then gloried in his infirmity.

II. Its means--“riches in glory,” or “glorious riches,” a phrase indicative of the wealth of Deity; but more than this, for behind the works of His hand there is the uncreated wealth of His own infinity. Here we come to an ocean without a bottom or shore. What we see gives us a small idea of the Divine possibility. Notwithstanding all that God has given, His ability to give remains undiminished.

III. Its medium. The passage is sometimes made to read “out of” His riches and glory. This is true, but what Paul means is that our need is supplied by a certain method. We are under a mediatorial government. By Christ God made the worlds. Through Him, too, comes daily bread and daily pardon. The promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Apart from Him there is no mercy to anyone. Prayer is only heard as offered in His name.

IV. Its certainty. There is no doubt or contingency: God shall do it. Some one has said that the apostle here draws a bill on the exchequer of heaven that God will make the wants of the Philippians His own care. Rather let us say that he draws a bill which he is assured God will honour the moment it is presented in believing prayer. What are the grounds for this?

1. The apostle knew that God loved His own children with a peculiar love, and was therefore sure to take care of the Philippians.

2. He knew that God approved of their act, and would therefore compensate them.

3. He knew his own standing with God. We have friends for whom we can say that “for our sakes” they would do what we desire, and God thus puts Himself in human conditions and enables Paul to claim Him as his own. (J. Stacey, D. D.)

Our need and supply

I. Examine the scope of the promise. There is danger of fanaticism in the interpretation of truth. God promises to supply our needs, but not to gratify our wishes or whims.

II. The supply is not according to our deserts, but according to the riches of His glory: i.e., His glorious wealth. The resources of the Trinity are drawn upon. Jesus bade His disciples to ask, that their joy might be full. He does not delight in a sad, starved Church, but in one that is joyful, well fed.

III. The medium. Through Christ. But God ordains means and puts us under conditions. As in agriculture, so here, we are to work in harmony with God’s established methods, if we would secure fruits. (M. Staple, D. D.)

Man’s needs and God’s wealth

I. Man’s needs and God’s wealth.

1. Man’s needs are--

(1) Physical. There is no creature with so many wants.

(a) The creatures far beneath him have not so long and so helpless an infancy, and acquire much sooner the means of self support.

(b) There are successive births in the same life. Man passes from one stage to another, higher and still higher; but he never reaches the platform where he finds perfection.

(c) We may learn the greatness of his nature from the character of his wants. He must have a world made for him and all things in it must serve him.

(d) His needs are constantly recurring. He has marvellous powers of receptivity. The world may empty its treasures at his feet, and yet leave crying needs.

(2) Social. Life can only develope itself by clinging to other forms of life. The affections require some object round which to twine, and thus give beauty to life. The words father, mother, brother, etc., represent the needs of his social nature. Let him be deprived of any of these and he ever after feels that he is poor.

(3) Mental. The mind in its best state is like the garden of Eden; but it may be like a wilderness which brings forth only thorns. It needs teachers, books, culture; the libraries of the world represent its needs.

(4) Moral.

(a) Man is a sinner, and that is enough to express his utter poverty. He needs nothing short of God’s great salvation. He has left his Father’s house and gone into a far country, and having spent all, he begins to be in want.

(b) With the new life there are new capacities. He wants light--the conditions of life--and God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness must shine in our heart. He wants love--God. Nothing short of the Infinite can satisfy him.

(c) There are great changes in this life which give birth to great needs.

(d) There are needs which stretch into the future. Man has time, he wants eternity; he has earth, he wants heaven; he has houses and lands, he needs “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” He wants the perfect life, without suffering, without sin, without sorrow.

2. God’s wealth. How poor all words are in describing the riches of God, the boundless wealth of His nature.

(1) There are some figures that help us; there is the sun. God is our Sun. The sun pours light not only on the tops of the mountains, but into the depths of the valleys; gives colourings to the countless leaves that quiver in mighty forests, and kindles the incense of the world. There are the pulsations of the ocean. In its fulness it pours its tide on our shores, and its waters flow on till they have filled every bay and creek and inlet. The pulsations of God’s goodness are felt through the universe: “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.”

(2) There are some titles that help us, such as the “God of hope,” the “God of peace,” the “God of all comfort,” the “God of all grace,” the “Father of mercies,” the “Father of lights.” But what a revelation of God’s wealth we have when we are told “God is love.” His promises represent His wealth, and are convertible into realities any day and any hour. His gospel reveals His purposes, His thoughts, His grace. Do you want mercy? “He keepeth mercy;” it is treasured in His nature as in a storehouse. Strength? “He giveth power to the faint.” Truth for your understanding? There are revelations as you are able to bear them, visions regulated by the soul’s capacities to see them. Love for your heart? Build a sanctuary, let its dimensions be vast, for in proportion to the greatness of the temple will be the manifestations of the Divinity. Get up into one of the world’s highest mountains and look around, and then claim all.

II. The experience of the highest life shows the connection between the needs of man and the wealth of God.

1. The life of the apostle illustrates our text. One class of needs creates another, and if the highest are supplied the others can be endured. The man who wrote the text had suffered every kind of need, and had therefore large conceptions of human want; but his need had been supplied, and therefore he had large conceptions of God’s wealth.

2. We have the best illustrations of this in his prayers. We may learn from the prayers of men how great the wealth of God must be. “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” if our needs took outward form, what endless processions we should see going up to the throne of God, all asking. What prayers have gone up from tabernacle, temple, venerable sanctuaries, the pavements of which are worn by generations of kneeling worshippers. What prayers have gone up from men in the depths, from men in the height! What prayers we have heard prayed from our fathers and mothers! What prayers we have prayed. The answers to these reveal the connection between man’s needs and God’s wealth.

III. With what certainty the apostle speaks. This certainty must have come from his faith in God.

1. In the affluence of the Divine life. The universe is but the outward clothing of the thought of God. The gospel with its provision for the need of man is the revelation of the heart of God, and the outpouring of its love.

2. In the benevolence of the Divine nature, wherever God proclaims His name, He makes His goodness to pass before men. If our relationship to our children is the proof of our willingness to give them good gifts, how much more so in regard to God.

3. In the inexhaustibleness of the Divine resources. God is a fountain always overflowing: if the streams should fail there would be a universal bankruptcy of life.

IV. With what intense satisfaction the apostle speaks. He had a large mind and heart, and fitly represented the genius of Christianity. There are some who think only of themselves, and appear to value the gospel all the more because they limit it to a few. If they have bread, they care not if the whole race starves; if they are saved, they care not if the whole world is lost. But this treasure was placed in the apostle’s hands and in ours that man may be enriched. Our need supplied is an assurance that God will supply the need of every man.

V. God supplies our needs through Jesus Christ. How much more precious gifts are when they come through the hands of those who love us. (H. J. Bevis.)

Man’s need supplied from God’s riches

I. Man’s necessity. Strictly speaking, all creatures are equally indigent, whether sinners or saints. Out of God there is no self-sufficiency. But circumstances, though they cannot add to our inherent emptiness and dependence, may add materially to our necessities, and that in three ways.

1. When a creature is placed in a situation unfavourable to his happiness. An infant, e.g., in his mother’s arms, is as needy as want and helplessness can render it, but take it from its mother and cast it into the sea and it needs to be rescued as well as nourished; a deliverer as well as a mother.

2. When there is something within himself counteracting his welfare. A sick man needs more help than one in health; a man with a wounded spirit more comfort than one with a mind unwrung.

3. When he is destined for a high station. A monarch’s son requires more care in training than a peasant’s. A barbarian does well enough in his native woods, but set him apart for a high state of civilization and you add to him many wants. Put these three things together and we shall have some idea of the extent and urgency of the Christian’s need. We are in a state unfavourable to our happiness; there is sin within us; we are designated for a station for whose pursuits we have naturally no desire. We are needy as creatures, as sinful creatures, as redeemed creatures.

II. God’s wealth. The apostle has not in his mind all the blessings which God possesses in Himself, but those which are adapted to our present state of want and our future state of exaltation--gospel blessings, “the riches of His grace,” the mercies offered to sinners.

1. The figure contains two ideas.

(1) Their abundance. It is not one or two pieces of gold that make a man rich, nor power to relieve one or two beggars. There must be large resources. And where is the want for which God’s gospel does not offer a remedy? Where the blessing He is not able to bestow? Millions on millions can no more exhaust His store that we with the hollow of our hand could empty the sea.

(2) Their excellence. We do not deem worthless things riches however abundant. A mass of sand would never be called a treasure. And what so precious as God’s mercies? We can no more estimate their value than their abundance. We can no more say “We know their utmost worth” than “We have taken them all.”

2. Why are they called “riches in glory?” Perhaps the term

(1) may refer to heaven, the storehouse of spiritual blessings.

(2) Or it may be equivalent to “glorious riches.” In this case it may mean that these riches

(a) are magnificent as well as excellent and abundant.

(b) That they bring glory to their possessors, and are honourably acquired and spent.

(c) That they are glorious in their tendency and use. They not only come out of glory but lead to it--whereas earthly riches are often debasing and injurious.

III. The supply for this necessity out of this wealth. This supply is--

1. Certain.

2. Abundant. Not according to our necessities but to God’s riches; suited to His character not ours; commensurate with His magnificence rather than with our poverty and meanness.

3. Adapted to our real, not imaginary need.

4. Through Christ.

(1) He purchased them for us. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc.

(2) He receives them for us as our representative.

(3) He bestows them on us. It is the connection it has with Christ that makes this supply certain, for it is the stipulated reward of His sufferings; abundant, for those sufferings were of infinite worth; glorious, because its bestowal brings glory to Him. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

Provision for the way

Joseph filled his brethren’s sacks with corn, which they were to carry home with them. But in addition he gave them “provision for the way.” This, compared with the other, was a small thing, but the other would never have reached home without it. So we know that there is a glorious portion in the heavenly Canaan, but we have a wilderness journey to pro vide for: and Jesus, our Covenant Joseph, who has charge of the treasures of heaven, has not forgotten this.

I. The nature of this provision.

1. This is embodied in the word “need.” This is all that God undertakes to provide for. There are many things that others have that we should like; there are many things that we feel we could make good use of if we had them; there are many things that our pride, ambition, desire for self-indulgence prompt us to crave, but we do not find them in this provision.

2. This word need has a variety of meanings which take their shape from the character and aim of the person to whom it refers. The man who goes to business with the consciousness that by twelve o’clock he has a note to take up for five thousand dollars--needs that amount of money. The mariner needs favouring breezes to aid him in reaching port. The farmer needs rain and sunshine to ripen and mature the grain. And so in the case of the Christian. His need does not take in what will minister to present gratification, but what will be useful in promoting his eternal interest. What this is God only knows and can give.

3. The psalmist teaches us the meaning of the word when he says, “No good thing” will God withhold from His people. But this good thing may mean disappointment, sickness, poverty. But whatever the soul’s interest requires is our need.

II. Its extent. This will be best illustrated by scriptural examples.

1. Job’s need could only be supplied by passing through a peculiar experience; but it was supplied. He was led into the furnace, supported through it, and brought out of it.

2. Noah’s need could not be met without a demand on faith and obedience such as had never been made before. But Noah believed and obeyed God, built the ark and was saved.

3. Jacob’s need could only be met by Joseph’s being governor of Egypt, and this involved much grief.

4. Abraham’s need could only be met by the stern call to offer up his son, and the result of that action will follow him throughout eternity in untold blessings.

5. And so with Moses, David, Daniel, Jonah, and Paul.

III. The rule by which this provision is regulated. It would have been a great thing had the apostle said, “According to His riches in grace.” These riches are marvellous, and show us what God is doing for His people here. But “riches in glory” point to what He will hereafter do for us in heaven. These “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.” When St. John gazed through the veil he only tells us of the foundations and walls of the heavenly home as made of precious jewels; its gates of pearls, and streets of gold; and then leaves us to infer what the “riches in glory” must be. Tempted, burdened, needy Christian, the riches lavished on yonder home are pledged for thy supply.

IV. The agent by whom this provision is administered. How tenderly God has considered our comfort in constituting Christ the agent. With whom could the administering of this supply be so safely left as with Him?

1. How able He is to help.

2. How willing.

3. How ready.

4. How close and always at hand.

V. Its certainty. This is the promise of the God of eternal truth. Did His promise ever fail? Can the scripture be broken. (R. Newton, D. D.)

Sure supplies

I. God is rich--gloriously rich.

1. In life. He is the living God.

2. In the power of imparting life--a fountain that can never be exhausted.

3. In strength. “Is anything too hard for the Lord.”

4. In knowledge and wisdom. “Oh, the depth,” etc.

5. In mercy. “He spared not His own Son.”

6. In all that constitutes goodness.

7. The earth is full of His riches--there is not a poor province in creation.

8. He is rich in possession, for “all things were created by Him and for Him.”

9. Rich without obligation to another, for “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.”

10. This gloriously rich God is our Father, and to His boundless wealth His firstborn had free access.

But they became prodigal, and all their younger children have trodden in their steps, and now we have not free access to the whole of our Father’s wealth. We now inherit God’s glorious riches by Christ Jesus, and become heirs of God by becoming joint heirs with Him.

II. The Christian’s supplies are sure. This is secured--

1. By the source--God.

(1) The ordinary sources of supply to us are ever changing and multiplying as we advance. The first we recognize is that which we denominate “my mother”; then “my father”; then “my teachers”; then “my books and companions”; then “my trade or profession”; then “my husband, wife, friends, country, Church.”

(2) But these are only subordinate sources of supply--cisterns which cannot long hold water. My mother and father--their days are as grass; my friends--how many are worthy of the name; my daily calling--if it yield bread enough is a weariness; the happy wife may become a widow; upon your country you may have to turn your back; the Church may be a wilderness to you. With everything you now term “my” you may be disappointed and disgusted.

(3) But Paul is positive that this source shall never fail, because it cannot.

2. By the channel--Christ Jesus.

(1) When our supplies fail the channel is sometimes at fault and not the source. The supply of fuel in midwinter sometimes fails, not because the coal fields are exhausted, but because the snow blocks the railways. The supply of water or gas may be insufficient, not because the reservoirs are low, but because the pipes are broken. A good scheme perishes through bad agents; and though sure of the source if we be doubtful of the channel we can never speak confidently of the supply.

(2) But in this case we are as sure of the channel as we are of the source. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

3. By the scale of distribution. “According to His glorious riches.”

(1) Human supplies are not always according to means. The rich husband will sometimes supply his wife so sparingly that the wife of the working man is less straitened. Not according to their wealth do some parents educate their children, but according to their niggardliness. Wealthy masters remunerate their servants according to their own selfish hearts. Offerings cast into God’s treasury are often only “according to necessity.” But when we find men supplying the need of others according to their resources we are sure that they are kind and liberal, and are sure to supply the need of all that are dependent upon them.

(2) Now God gives “according to His glorious riches.” Not as the poor give, in the abundance of their poverty; not as the rich, when they give grudgingly; not according to our low views, restrained prayer, or feeble faith; not according to any liberality we see in each other. If the gloriously rich God give according to His wealth we may say with confidence, “My God shall supply,” etc.

III. The knowledge of God is essential to confidence in Him. There are few things in which we are oftener disappointed than the resources of our supplies. This is especially the case with men who look for patrons to carry them forward. The power to help is overestimated: disappointment comes and confidence is wrecked. Now this man knew God, and that knowledge was the basis of his trust. He had looked to God for the supply of his need of wisdom, guidance, protection, strength, etc., and God had supplied it. With this personal experience of the riches of the Divine liberality, he says, “My God shall supply all your need.” (S. Martin.)

Comfort for the needy

I. Your need--is great--diversified--constant.

II. The supply--suitable--seasonable--abundant.

III. The source of supply--certain--inexhaustible--free. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Filling the empty vessels

I. Set out the empty vessels.

1. It is not supposed that you need to borrow other people’s needs: you have enough of your own. Set them out--in a long row, all of them. Needs for your body and needs for your soul; needs for your families, for the present, for the future, for time, and for eternity. Your needs are as many as your moments and the hairs of your head.

2. Some of these empty vessels are large and are growing larger. Our wants grow upon us. One loaf sufficed once: it would not go far at your table now: the loaves vanish there like snow in the sun. You have more infirmities. You never needed so much as you do now.

3. Some of these needs, if supplied tonight, would be empty vessels tomorrow morning. Yesterday’s old patience is stale stuff. You must grow more of that sweet herb in your garden. We are like the fabled vessels of mythology that were so full of holes that the fifty daughters of Danaus could never fill them.

4. Some of our needs are very pressing. Bring, then, your urgent needs. Set them all out in this row of empty pots.

II. Who is to fill these empty vessels? My God will supply all your need. Nobody else can. He can. Paul says: See, my God has supplied me. He will also supply you. Paul’s God is the God of providence. He is also the God of grace. He that spared not His own Son, shall He not with Him freely give us all things? He is also the God of heaven. The riches of nations are as rags and rottenness in comparison with His resources.

III. In what style will God supply His people’s needs?

IV. By what means does the Lord fill His people’s needs? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Christian’s want and supply book

On a tradesman’s table I noticed a book labelled “Want Book.” What a practical suggestion for a man of prayer! He should put down all his needs on the tablets of his heart, and then present his want book to his God. If we knew all our need, what a large want book we should require! How comforting to know that Jesus has a supply book, which exactly meets our want book! Promises, providences, and Divine visitations, combine to meet the necessities of all the faithful. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God will supply our need

The Rev. Hansard Knollys was among the Christian ministers, who, in the seventeenth century, were the subjects of persecution. He was prosecuted in the High Commission Court and fled to America: whence after a time he returned. Having lived for some time in obscurity in London, he had but sixpence left, and no prospect for the support of his family. In these circumstances he prayed, encouraged his wife to remember the past goodness of God, and to reflect on the promise, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”; paid his lodging and then went out, like Abraham, not knowing whither he went. He had walked only a few steps, when he was met by a woman who told him that some Christian friends had prepared a residence for him and his family, and had sent him money and other comforts. They were impressed with this manifestation of Divine goodness to them, and his wife exclaimed, “O dear husband I how sweet it is to live by faith, and trust God’s faithful word! Let us rely upon Him whilst we live, and trust Him in all straits.”

The faithfulness of God

Rev. J. Brown, of Haddington, said that his epitaph might appropriately be, “Here lies one of the cares of Providence, who early wanted both father and mother, and yet never missed them.” (Thomas Cooper.)

Sufficiency of the Divine resources

God is satisfied with Himself, and sufficient to His own happiness. Therefore, surely, there is enough in Him to fill the creature. That which fills an ocean will fill a bucket; that which will fill a gallon will fill a pint; those revenues which will defray an emperor’s expenses are enough for a beggar or poor man. (T. Manton, D. D.)

The nearness of the provision

Ability and willingness to help are not sufficient of themselves. They must be always at hand just when and where we may require them. How often the help of earthly friends fails just here. We see this strikingly illustrated in the case of Hedley Vicars. He was wounded in one of those sanguinary conflicts before Sebastopol. His wound was not necessarily mortal The surgeon understood the nature of the wound perfectly. He felt sure that it could be cured, and he was perfectly ready and willing to do all he could for his suffering friend. But still Hedley Vicars died of that wound. And why? Because in the hurry and tumult of that terrible morning, on the gray heights of the Crimea, the regiment which Hedley Vicars commanded was carried far away from the tent that held the supplies. A bandage was needed to tie up the bleeding artery. But this bandage was in yon distant tent; and ere the tent could be reached, the brave Christian soldier was no more. In speaking of this circumstance afterwards, at a public meeting in England, one of the friends of the departed hero said, with the pathos of true affection, “If there had been a bandage within reach--if the tent of supplies had been half a mile nearer, Hedley Vicars might have been alive today.” There was knowledge, and power, and willingness to help. But just the one thing needed was not at hand, and so there was a failure to meet the pressing need. But such a thing can never occur with Him in whose hands our supply is left. (R. Newton, D. D.)

The exactness of the Divine supply

Harms of Hermannsburg, the pastor of a poor village on the Luneberg Heath in Hanover, said in his annual missionary sermon in 1857: “I have expended much in the past year in sending out the ship with her fifteen passengers, for the printing house, the press, and the paper, altogether 14,781 dollars, and I have received altogether 14,796 dollars, so I have fifteen dollars over. Is not that a wonder? So much spent, and yet something over! And I thank God that He has given us the fifteen dollars overplus. Riches only makes cares. God has heard all my prayers. He has given me no riches, and I have also no debts. We have neither collected nor begged, but waited patiently on God in prayer.”

Christ adapted to human need

You cannot name a noble figure, a sweet simile, a tender or attractive relationship, in which Jesus is not set forth for the comfort and encouragement of His people. Are we wounded? He is balm. Are we sick? He is medicine. Are we naked? He is clothing. Are we poor? He is wealth. Are we hungry? He is bread. Are we thirsty? He is water. Are we in debt? He is our Surety. Are we in darkness? He is our Sun. Have we a house to build? He is the Rock on which to build it. Have we a black and gathering storm to face? He is a strong tower to which we may flee and be safe. Are we to be tried? He is our Advocate. Is sentence passed, and are we under condemnation? He is our pardon. To deck Him out and set Him forth Nature culls her finest flowers, brings her choicest ornaments, and lays these treasures at His feet. The skies contribute their stars. The sea gives up its pearls. From fields, and rivers, and mountains, earth brings the tribute of her gems--her gold, her frankincense and myrrh, the lily of the valley, the clustered vine, and the fragrant rose of Sharon. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Mercies stilt left

There was a man who came over from New York some years ago, and threw himself down on a lounge in his house and said, “Well, everything’s gone.” They said, “What do you mean?” “Oh,” he replied, “We have had to suspend payment; our house has gone to pieces--nothing left.” His little child bounded from the other side of the room and said, “Papa, you have me left.” And the wife, who had been very sympathetic, and very helpful, came up and said, “My dear, you have me left.” And the old grandmother, seated in a corner of the room, put up her spectacles on her wrinkled forehead and said, “My son, you have all the promises of God left.” Then the merchant burst into tears and said, “What an ingrate I am! I find I have a great many things left. God, forgive me.” (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The promise should inspire fearlessness in Divine service

Your business--you cannot neglect that! Call to mind the story of the rich English merchant to whom Elizabeth gave some commission of importance, and he demurred to undertake it, saying, “Please, your majesty, if I obey your behests what will become of these affairs of mine?” And his monarch answered, “Leave those things to me; when you are employed in my service I will take charge of your business.” So it will be with you. Do but surrender yourself to Christ, and He, of His own free will, takes in hand all your affairs. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Neglect of the promise

Many years ago, an aged and ragged Indian wandered into one of our western settlements, begging for food to keep him from starving. A bright-coloured ribbon was seen round his neck, from which there hung a small dirty pouch. On being asked what it was, he said it was a charm given him in his younger days. He opened it, and took out a worn and crumpled paper, which he handed the person speaking to him for inspection. It proved, on examination, to be a regular discharge from the Federal army, entitling him to a pension for life, and signed by General Washington himself. Here was a man, with a promise duly signed, which, if presented in the right place, would have secured to him ample provision for the way; and yet he was wandering about hungry, helpless, and forlorn, and begging for bread to keep him from starving! What a picture we have here of many Christians, who, with all the promises of Jesus in their hands--with the charter of their inheritance in full possession, are yet gloomy, and sad, and starving in the wilderness! (R. Newton, D. D.)