of discussion, the same truths which the facts of the good patriarch's life presented, namely, that sorrows are not necessarily judgments, and that the interpreters of Providence should bow rather in acquiescence and trust, than rashly interpret or presumptuously question what is too high for them fully to attain.

THE BOOK OF PSALMS;

OR JUDAISM SEEN IN ITS DEVOTIONAL AND PRACTICAL INFLUENCES.

WITH no portion of the Old-Testament Scriptures are Christians in general so well acquainted as with the Psalms. These compositions are read and recited in Christian worship almost as frequently as any parts of the New Testament itself, and rightly so. The Jews have, indeed, through this their wonderful book of Psalms, taught us the spirit and the practice of devotional song.

The book of Psalms contains their chief remaining treasures of sacred song-writing, while a few more are preserved in their historical books, and frequent passages of similar spirit and power may be pointed out in some of their prophets. This book embraces compositions of very various ages, from the time of David to that of the return from exile, and perhaps a few as late as the time of the Maccabees. One nobly plaintive Psalm (the ninetieth) is commonly ascribed by the Jews to Moses, but with very doubtful propriety. David is the undoubted

Translators of the book of Job are very numerous. Among them are Thomas Scott (English rhymed verse), 1771; Bishop Stock, 1805; Elizabeth Smith, with Dr. Randolph's Notes, 1810; J. Mason Good, 1812; J. Fry, 1827; C. Wellbeloved (Bible, Part III., Didactic and Devotional Books); George R. Noyes, Boston, U.S., 1827; S. Lee, 1837.

author of a great many of these poems. To Solomon, to Asaph, Heman, Ethan (who are named as musicians in 1 Chron. xv. 17, 19), and to the sons of Korah, many others are ascribed. Some are quite anonymous. And where titles are prefixed, they cannot be regarded as decisive of the authorship, if internal appropriateness is wanting. It may seem remarkable that no Psalms should appear bearing the names of any of the Hebrew prophets, the acknowledged writings of many of whom shew them to have been poets of the first order. It has also been remarked as curious, that in a collection so largely devoted to the poems of David, his beautiful ode on the death of Saul and Jonathan (preserved in 2 Sam. i. 19-27), and his "last words" (in 2 Sam. xxiii. 2-7), should not have been incorporated, as has been done in the case of his " song of thanksgiving," in 2 Sam. xxii., which, with very few and slight verbal variations, forms Psalm xviii. It is impossible to ascertain on what principle of compilation the book of Psalms was formed, or when this was done. But the book plainly consists of five separable portions (which the Jews fancifully compare to the five books of the Law); and it is probable that these five divisions mark the gradual growth of the book.

The first portion reaches to the end of Ps. xli., concluding with this doxology: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen and Amen."

The second portion, consisting of thirty-one Psalms, ends with lxxii., and is marked by this note: "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." The other three divisions contain, nevertheless, a few Psalms ascribed in their titles to David; but they are comparatively very few.

The third division, containing seventeen Psalms, and ending with lxxxix., is marked, like the first, by a dox

ology, in these words: "Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen and Amen."

:

So is the fourth collection, of seventeen Psalms, ending with cvi. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord."

The fifth part, which gives forty-four additional Psalms and concludes the book, contains, beyond doubt, a large preponderance of Psalms belonging to the period of the captivity and return; while among them are fifteen ascribed in their titles to David and one to Solomon; which, if their original authorship can be admitted as claimed, must have been adapted by later poets (perhaps by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah) to the circumstances of the return from exile, and thus may have found their place among the latest and concluding portion of the book of Psalms.

over.

It is observable that one of the Psalms occurs twice Ps. liii., in the second part of the collection, is the same as xiv. in the first part; and this is the more remarkable, because the Psalm itself is a brief and striking one (beginning, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God"); so that we wonder the compiler should not have been aware of the repetition. Ps. lxx. again, a short poem of five verses, forms part of the longer xl. And cviii. is made up of portions of lvii. and lx. These are pretty plain proofs that the collection must have been enlarged at various times by supplemental collections, some of them, perhaps, nearly as old as the original one; in which process of successive enlargement these little oversights might easily occur.

The public worship of God seems to have been the chief impulse to Hebrew psalm-writing. Yet, as ordained by Moses, the tabernacle service did not include the use of music, either vocal or instrumental. It was by king

David that both were introduced, and a large choir of levites organized for the service of the tabernacle. Religious song seems, indeed, to have been spontaneous with the Hebrews from the earliest times, when impelling occasion suggested it, as is seen especially in the Song of Moses and that of Deborah. The schools of the prophets, which rose into notice in the time of Samuel, if' they were not instituted by him, gave new impulse to the cultivation of religious poetry and music; and from the permanent establishment of the Tabernacle in Jerusalem by David, and the building of the Temple by his successor Solomon, the services of both of which these two monarchs assiduously adorned with psalmody, there was a constant national stimulus provided, of the highest and worthiest kind that could excite the poet's genius in connection with the worshiper's devotion. We may well believe, therefore, that the hundred and fifty poems preserved to us in the book of Psalms, are but a small portion of the intire productions of the Hebrew muse in this class. They contain, however, almost every conceivable variety of religious sentiment and emotion, in reference to all the varied occasions of joy and grief, hope and fear, religious exultation and penitence, that can by turns possess the human heart. Some of them have reference to public matters, some to private; some are national, others personal; in some the sentiment is specifically Jewish and limited, in more it is human and general.

This great variety of topics and occasions embraced by the Psalms, constitutes them a fair representation of the spirit of the Jewish religion itself. Indeed, they are at once the most vivid and the most trustworthy picture we can anywhere obtain of practical Judaism. They speak the very thoughts and feelings of religious-minded disciples of Moses. They portray the religion in its

practical and devotional influences. Their authors being very various, and living at very different periods of the Jewish history, through five hundred years embracing the most glorious and the most humiliating of their national experiences,-these sacred poems make us intimately acquainted with the influence which the principles of the Jewish religion actually exerted upon the minds of their professors under the various experience of their lives.

If we wished to learn, drily and didactically, what the principles of Judaism were,-what doctrines it taught, what ceremonies it practised, and what duties it inculcated, we must of course seek this information in the five books of Moses, in which all is set down with the greatest minuteness. And in this way we should become acquainted with a long list of ceremonial observances, the particular objects of which are, in many instances, but half appreciable by us, and into the spirit of which we can with difficulty enter, our prevailing habits and modes of thought being so different from those which prevailed among the ancient Jews. And we might even be in danger of supposing that the Hebrew religion consisted of little or nothing but ceremonies, and might almost doubt (judging from our own feelings as modern Europeans and Christians) whether such a system was calculated to promote the great ends of practical piety and virtue. But such a conclusion would be very unjust, and quite at variance with another kind of evidence, of which, as belonging to our general human consciousness and experience, we are more competent judges than of the former. Instead of theorizing as to what would be the influence of such a religious system, we have it recorded in lines of light what its influence was.

We look, therefore, into the devotional compositions of the Jews themselves during these periods, to see how