of Paley, Lardner, and Butler are capable of demolishing the strongest theories of sceptism, either ancient or modern. But one life permeated and fashioned by the Christian spirit, has a far more convincing power than any or all of these magnificent productions. The man that Christianity has transformed from the sensual, the selfish, and the corrupt, into the spiritual, the benevolent, and the holy, furnishes an argument for Christianity which baffles all controversy, and penetrates the heart. Thirdly Truth written by the soul in the life is more persuasive than truth written by the pen. There are many books which are persuasives to piety. Some are called so, and some have undoubted power. But the most powerfully persuasive books are weak compared with the winning power of a true godly life. There is a magnetism about Gospel truth, when embodied in a real life, which you seek for in vain in any written work. We have Christianity preached. Ten thousand pulpits in England are engaged every Sunday in unfolding the truths and enforcing the lessons of Christianity. We have Christianity written. Books of every size, written by every class of mind and in every style, flow from the press every day in an everwidening and deepening channel. What we want now is Christianity in life, Christianity incarnated, worked out in the daily life of all who profess to be its disciples. It is not until we have this that the world will ever be converted. CONCLUSION-Consider. First, That life is a book; a book which thou art writing every day. An old author has said that a man is a book. "His birth is the title page; his baptism the epistle dedicated; his groans and crying the epistle to the reader; his infancy and childhood the argument or contents of the whole ensuing treatises; his life and actions are the subject; his sins and errors the faults escaped; his repentance the correction. As for the volumes, some are in folio, some in quarto, some in octavo, &c. Some are fairer bound, some plainer; some have piety and godliness for their subject; others, and they too many, are mere romances, pamphlets of wantonness and folly; but in the last page of every one there stands a word, which is Finis, and this is the last word in every book. Such is the life of man, some longer, some shorter; some stronger, some weaker; some fairer, some coarser; some holy, some profane. But death comes in, like finis, at the last, and closes up all; for that is the end of all." Ah! but death is not the finis, the soul will go on writing for ever. ConsiderSecondly: The book of life should be a Christian book. Every fact should be registered in a Christian spirit, every emotion saturated with the Christian sentiment, every thought controlled by the Christian doctrine, every volition ruled by the Christian law. The word should not only dwell in us, but should be made flesh by us. Consider Thirdly: This book of life will soon have to be examined. In that great day when the hearts of all men shall be revealed this shall be one of the books that shall be opened before the Judge. Its countless pages shall be turned over and exposed to the blaze of the last day. Every chapter, every verse, every sentence will be examined. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.” 66 'Again, it may be that there is more of truth than one suspects in the assertion which I met with in a work of M. de Quincey's, that forgetting -absolute forgetting-is a thing not possible to the human mind. Some evidence of this may be derived from the fact of long missed incidents and states of feeling suddenly being reproduced, and without any perceptible train of association. Were this to be so, the idea is very awful; and it has been suggested by a great thinker that merely perfect memory of everything may constitute the great book which shall be opened in the last day, on which man has been distinctly told that the secrets of all hearts shall be made known: 'for all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.'-Heb. iv. 13. An old man, in describing the sensations he felt at drowning, when he was with difficulty recovered, said he had the ringing of bells in his ears, which increased as consciousness was becoming less: and he felt as if all the bells of heaven were ringing him into Paradise!-the most soothing sensation.'"-TIMBS. Homiletic Sketches on the Book of Psalms. OUR PURPOSE.-Many learned and devout men have gone philologically through this TEHILIM, this book of Hebrew hymns, and have left us the rich results of their inquiries in volumes within the reach of every Biblical student. To do the mere verbal hermeneutics of this book, even as well as it has been done, would be to contribute nothing fresh in the way of evoking or enforcing its Divine ideas. A thorough нOMILETIC treatment it has never yet received, and to this work we here commit ourselves, determining to employ the best results of modern Biblical scholarship. OUR METHOD.-Our plan of treatment will comprise four sections:-(1.) The HISTORY of the passage. Lyric poetry, which the book is, is a delineation of living character, and the key, therefore, to unlock the meaning and reach the spirit of the words, is a knowledge of the men and circumstances that the poet sketches with his lyric pencil.— (2.) ANNOTATIONS of the passage. This will include short explanatory notes on any ambiguous word, phrase, or allusion that may occur.-(3.) The ARGUMENT of the passage. A knowledge of the main drift of an author is amongst the most essential conditions for interpreting his meaning.—(4.) The HOMILETICS of the passage. This is our main work We shall endeavour so to group the Divine ideas that have been legitimately educed, as to suggest such thoughts, and indicate such sermonizing methods, as may promote the proficiency of modern pulpit ministrations. Subject: THE SOUL'S CRY AND THE TRUE RESPONSE. (Continued from page 334, Vol. I., Editor's Series.) Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation; This is the generation of them that seek Him, That seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah."-Ps. xxiv. 3—6. HISTORY.-The history of this Psalm was given in our last Homiletic sketch, and as the verses above are very similar not only in meaning but expression to Psalm xv, we must direct the attention of our readers to our remarks on that priceless portion of Holy Writ. ANNOTATIONS.-Annotations on the first two verses of this Psalm were given in our last sketch. Ver. 3.-" Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place." The "hill of the Lord" was Mount Zion, the Acropolis of the holy city. In the tent which David had prepared for it on this mount the ark was to be deposited, and henceforth the spot would be hallowed as the earthly dwelling-place of Jehovah. Ver. 4.-" He that hath clean hands." Margin "the clean of hands." The expression means a blameless external conduct. "And a pure heart." A mere blameless external life must be connected with and flow out of purity of soul. Spiritual holiness. In the parallel passage, Psalm xv. 2, the answer is, "he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness." The words are different, but the meaning is substantially the same, "Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity." Some render it "And lifteth not his mind to vanity." Some think there is a reference here to idolatry, where the soul is lifted in worship to an idol, which Scripture designates "a vain thing," 1 Cor. viii. 6; Isa. xli. 24. But moral evil in all its forms is vanity, an unreality and blasphemous falsehood in the universe. In the vulgate it is rendered, "He that hath not received his soul in vain." What millions have received their souls in vain! "Nor sworn deceitfully." Sworn to falsehood; i. e., made a false oath, sworn to deceit with a fraudulent design. (Alexander.) In the parallel passage, Psalm xv. 2, the statement is, he that speaketh the truth in his heart. Ver. 5.-"He shall receive the blessing from the Lord." Literally, he shall bear away a blessing from Jehovah. "And righteousness from the God of his salvation." That is, God will make him righteous and recognize him as righteous. Ver. G.-" This is the generation of them that seek him." This means, perhaps, this is the description of the race of men. "That seek thy face, O Jacob." Margin, "O God of Jacob." De Wette understands this as meaning that they would seek the face of God among His people; or that they who belonged to the race of Jacob, and who were sincere, thus sought the face of Jacob. Others regard the passage as meaning, "This is the generation of them that seek him, the true Jacob, O Lord." "By the demonstative pronoun' this," says Calvin, "the Psalmist erases from the catalogue of the servants of God all counterfeit Israelites, who, trusting only to their circumcision and the sacrifice of beasts, have no concern about offering themselves to God; and yet at the same time, they rashly thrust themselves into the Church." ARGUMENT.-We have already said that the whole Psalm contains three subjects. (i.) God's mundane property and man's moral obligation. (2.) The soul's cry and the true response. (3.) An urgent demand and an earnest enquiry. The second is the subject of these verses. HOMILETICS: The homiletic remarks which we have made on the xv. Psalm will render it unnecessary to give more than a very brief sketch of the truths suggested by this passage." * Notice then I. THE SOUL'S CRY. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ?" The real meaning of this question-its spirit-is, * See HOMILIST, fourth series, vol. iii., p. 204. We should recommend our readers to peruse our remarks on the xv. Psalm in connection with our present observations on this. how is fellowship with the great God to be attained? This state of fellowship with Him is the great want of human souls. The language suggests three thoughts concerning this state. It is— First: A very elevated state. "The hill." Communion with the Great Father is the highest state of moral being. It towers as the Andes above the level of man's ordinary life, it is a high hill to be climbed, a mountain whose peak is aloft in the sun. Up there how clear is the moral sky? all the clouds roll beneath the feet. How calm is the atmosphere; the roar of the winds and the crash of the thunders are lost in the depths below. How vast, how sunny, how enchanting the prospects unfolded from that elevation. The soul in communion with God is high up above the mists, impurities, and tumults of worldly life. It is Secondly: A very holy state. It is a "holy place." The place where "the ark," the symbol of the Divine Presence was deposited. So holy was it that the High Priest only entered it once every year, and then never without blood, but the gleaming Shekinah was only a symbol of the essential purity of God. "He is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all." "He charges the angels with folly and declares the heavens unclean in His sight." Communion with him is the holiest condition of souls. "Without holiness no man can see the Lord." It is Thirdly: A very desirable state. "Who shall ascend?" All should ascend, but what is the qualification for ascending? Of all the desirable things in life there is nothing so desirable for man as fellowship with God. For this his nature craves, there is no satisfaction without it. For this Christ became mediator. The grand purpose of His interposition was to bring man into fellowship with his Maker. Would that the souls of men would climb this hill. Though high and difficult its foothold is strong, its heights can be scaled. Alas that so few are making the attempt. Alas that the millions instead of climbing upward are sliding down the gloomy slopes of corruption and ruin. II. THE TRUE RESPONSE. The answer that is here given indicates two things. First: The way of reaching this state. What is the way? |