for any high outline of morality or religion to break upon the eyes of our
race, it is impossible for any field of righteous battle, any floor of
suffering to unroll, without the vision of Christ upon it. He dominates our
highest aspirations, and is felt by our side in our deepest sorrows. There
is no loneliness, whether of height or of depth, which He does not enter by
the side of His own.

Who has warned us like Christ? To this day He stands the great Sentinel of
civilisation. If all within the camp do not acknowledge Him, no new thing
starts up in its midst, no new thing comes upon it from outside, which He
does not challenge. His judgment is still the highest, clearest, safest the
world has ever known; and each new effort of service, each new movement of
knowledge, is determined by its worth to His Kingdom.

Who has assumed responsibility for our life as Christ has? Who has taken
upon himself the safety and the honour, not of the little tribe for whom
this Psalm was first sung, but of the whole of the children of men! He
called about Himself our weariness, He lifted our sorrow, He disposed of
our sin--as only God can call or lift or dispose. Nothing exhausted His
pity, or His confidence to deal with us; nothing ever betrayed a fault in
His character, or belied the trust His people put in Him. _He suffers not
thy foot_ _to be moved; He neither slumbers nor sleeps_.

For all this we sing the Psalm of Christ. We know that so long as we have
our conversation among the lofty things of life, His dominating Presence
grows only the more clear; and so long as we are beset by things adverse
and tempting, His sympathy and His prevailing grace become the more sure.

_The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul_.