During his brief ministry Mr. Ainsworth published a series of meditations in the columns of the Methodist Times , which are here reprinted by the kind permission of the Editor, Dr. Scott Lidgett. The rare interest aroused by the previous publication of Mr. Ainsworth's sermons encourages the hope that the present volume may find a place in the devotional literature to which many turn in the quiet hour....

The Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for evermore. Ps. cxxi, 8. Going out and coming in. That is a picture of life. Beneath this old Hebrew phrase there lurks a symbolism that covers our whole experience. But let us just now look at the most literal, and by no means the least true, interpretation of these words. One of the great dividing-lines in human life is the threshold-line. On one side of this line a man has his 'world within the world,' the sanctua

  Trust in Him at all times, ye people.   Pour out your heart before Him.   God is a refuge for us. Ps. lxii. 8. Here the Psalmist strikes the great note of faith as it should be struck. He sets it ringing alike through the hours and the years. Trust in Him at all times. Faith is not an act, but an attitude; not an event, but a principle; not a last resource, but the first and abiding necessity. It is the constant factor in life's spiritual reckonings. It is the ever-applicable and the ever-nece

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Ps. xxvii. 4. I have desired … I will seek. Amid the things that are seen, desire and quest are nearly always linked closely together. The man who desires money seeks after money. The desire of the world is often disappointed, but it is rarely supine. It is dynamic. It leads men. True, it leads them astray

  Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord,   For He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Ps. xxv. 15. In any man's life a great deal depends upon outlook. In some ways we recognize this fact. We do not by choice live in a house whose windows front a blank wall. A little patch of green grass, a tree, a peep of sky, or even the traffic of a busy street—anything rather than a blank wall. That is a sound instinct, but it ought to go deeper than it sometimes does. This outlook and aspect question is import

  The Lord shall keep thee from all evil;   He shall keep thy soul. Ps. cxxi. 7. One of the great offices of religion is to help men to begin at the beginning. If you wish to straighten out a tangle of string, you know that it is worth your while to look patiently for one of the ends. If you make an aimless dash at it the result is confusion worse confounded, and by-and-by the tangle is thrown down in despair, its worst knots made by the hands that tried in a haphazard way to simplify it. Life i

  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.   He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,   Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,   Bringing his sheaves with him. Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. It is almost impossible to recall the joys and sorrows of life without having some thought of their compensative relation. We set our bright days against our dark days. We weigh our successes against our failures. When the hour through which we are living is whispering a bitter message, we recall the k

  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;   I will be with him in trouble:   I will deliver him, and honour him.   With long life will I satisfy him,   And show him My salvation. Ps. xci. 15, 16. He shall call upon Me. He shall need Me. He shall not be able to live without Me. As the years pass over his head he shall learn that there is one need woven into human life larger and deeper and more abiding than any other need—and that need is God. Thus doth divinity prophesy concerning humanity

  Hear me speedily, O Lord….   Cause me to hear …   For I lift up my soul unto Thee. Ps. cxliii. 7, 8. You will notice that the first verse begins 'Hear me,' and the second begins 'Cause me to hear'; and the second is greater than the first. Let us look, then, at these two attitudes of a man in his hour of prayer. Hear me. The Psalmist began, where all men must begin, with himself. He had something to utter in the hearing of the Almighty. He had something to lay before his God—a story, a confess

Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels compasseth me about? Ps. xlix. 5. Iniquity at my heels . Temptation is very often indirect. It is compact of wiles and subtleties and stratagems. It is adept at taking cover. It does not make a frontal attack unless the obvious state of the soul's defences justifies such a method of attempting a conquest. The stronger a man is, the more subtle and difficult are the ways of sin, as it seeks to enter and to master his life. The

  And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove!   Then would I fly away, and be at rest….   I would haste me to a shelter   From the stormy wind and tempest. Ps. lv. 6, 8. These words are the transcript of a mood. The writer is not unfolding to us any of the deep persistent longings of his spirit; he is telling us of a thought that shadowed his soul for an hour. Let us look into this mood of his. It is not his in any unique or even peculiar sense. In moods, as in manners, history is wont to repea

O sing unto the Lord a new song. Ps. xcvi. 1. Time and again in the Psalter we find this appeal for a new song. First of all, and most obviously, the appeal concerns the contents of the song. It reminds us of the duty of making our grateful acknowledgement of God's goodness to us expand with our growing experience of that goodness. It is, if, one may so phrase it, a reminder to us that our praise needs bringing up to date. A hymn considerably later in date than this psalm exhorts us to 'count' o