“The opened heavens around me shine
    With beams of sacred bliss,
  When Jesus shows that he is mine
    And whispers:  I am his.”

There can be no greater enjoyment than the reading of the Scriptures when we feel that we have complied with their injunctions and requirements, and have a will to do so for ever.  It is then the “peace of God which passeth all understanding” fills the soul, and the mind is happy.

The text says:  “I will be your God; and ye shall be my people.”  This is the reward of our obedience.  If men would preach from this to the end of time they could tell but a very small part of the blessedness wrapped up in this promise.  People think much of the blessings of this life when they are joyous and cheerful from health and prosperity.  But in this promise life and health are guaranteed to all eternity.  “He that believeth on me shall never die.”  We are assured that in the glory world sickness and pain and death shall be no more.  “I will be your God.”  This means in the way of every good.  “No good thing,” says the Psalmist, “will the Lord withhold from them that fear him.”  This will be made clearest in the world to come.  “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.”  “I will be your God,—­not for awhile and then cast you off.  I do not repent of my promises and gifts.  You may make a promise, or give something, or do something from an impulse of feeling, which you afterwards regret; but I am subject to no such weakness.”  In this sense he speaks to us in his Word.  He will, if we heed his voice, make of us all “a people prepared for the Lord,” a converted, obedient, sanctified and eternally saved and happy people.

Some may regard God as man’s enemy.  They seem to think there is something terrible in religion, and the farther away they can keep from it the safer they are.  What a fatal mistake!  To be a child of God is to be safe and happy.  Our heavenly Father feels the love of pity for the sinner.  I lately read a very touching account of a lost child.  The father went calling, calling the name of his boy.  After awhile the boy was found; but his mind was so bewildered and confused that he did not seem to know his father’s voice.  So it is with the sinner.  He has wandered so far away from home, the home of peace with God, that he knows not the voice of the Father.  That voice is still calling:  “Come unto me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls;” for “he came to save that which was lost.”

“And ye shall be my people.”  We get to be his people by true repentance, faith and baptism.  He commands us to repent.  He commands us to believe on the Son.  “He that believeth the Son hath everlasting life.”  He commands us to be baptized.  Obedience from love and faith makes us his people.  As Jesus ascended from the waters of the Jordan, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and a voice from heaven said:  “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This was an expression of the Father’s love which he has for every one who, from the heart, will hear his voice.