Reflections on the Thirty-Seventh Psalm. 103 Our peace, which requires If such knowledge is wisely neither useful to know nor wise to presume. thus much, would be disturbed by more. concealed from us, the outward signs are in mercy withheld. Those who prosper in the world have no ground, therefore, to conclude that they are spiritually better on that account; and those who suffer adversity have no reason on that account to fear that they are worse. But every one can to a certain extent know his state from his circumstances, if he looks into his heart to discover whether he fully recog nises the hand of Providence in his condition, whatever it may be, and is careful neither to envy the rich nor despise the poor. The literal sense of this psalm being applicable strictly to those only who lived under the Jewish dispensation, we, as Christians, must look within the letter for instruction suited to our state and our wants. And viewed in a light such as that in which our Lord in His sermon on the mount placed the whole Mosaic law, the Psalms become rich indeed in lessons of the purest moral wisdom. Not to fix our attention on that exalted sense in which David is a type of the Lord Himself, and David's enemies are types of the powers of darkness, and David's conflicts with them are descriptive of the Lord's conflicts with the spiritual enemies of His kingdom; if we regard David as representing the spiritual man, and his adversaries as the evil affections and false thoughts of our own corrupt nature, we can read in these records of his experience that of the Christian life. But even where “David and his afflictions" are not the immediate subjects of these inspired compositions, Christian knowledge may be derived and Christian experience be found plainly and minutely described; for though the letter is Jewish the spirit is Christian. In the present psalm, while the letter treats of the naturally rich and poor, the naturally prosperous and afflicted, the spirit treats of the spiritually rich and poor, of those who have no spiritual temptations and of those who have. Spiritual riches are the knowledges of goodness and truth. The workers of iniquity who are rich and prosperous are such as have enriched their minds with the knowledge of religion, but have never employed it to improve their heart. Those who thus know their Master's will and do it not are liable to severer final sorrow and suffering than the ignorant. But still more severe is the affliction of those who have practised hypocrisy, who "have drawn out the sword, and bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation;" who have falsified the truths and doctrines of the Word, and have thereby destroyed the life of goodness and truth, or of charity and faith, in themselves. Those very principles which they had acquired, and used as instruments for effecting their evil ends to the injury of others, become the means of their own condemnation. "Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken." Yea, "the wicked shall perish; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. He passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." How expressively does this declare the truth, that evil, combined with deceit, consumes every vital principle, and dissipates the whole spiritual life! From this painful, but yet salutary lesson of the certainty and completeness of the destruction which known and unrepented evil causes, it is pleasing to turn to the contemplation of the benefits and blessings which result from sincerity and righteousness. And the contrast is not confined to the final state of the righteous and the wicked, but to their probationary states also. Not only is the end of the righteous peace and salvation, but his preparatory life of trial as well as of duty is cheered by the presence of such supplies and aids as his wants and his weakness require. "He is satisfied in the days of famine, his steps are ordered by the Lord, and though he fall, he is not utterly cast down." A man's steps are confirmed or established by the Lord when his obedience is grounded in love to the Lord; and the Lord delights in the way of the righteous when a man's obedience is in accordance with the laws of Divine truth. Both are necessary to Christian righteousness. Love is the motive and truth is the rule; and so much as Christian duty is the result of their united operation, so much does it partake of perfection. Duty, as a perfected principle, is not to be understood as being liable to those weaknesses to which the righteous are in this instance represented as being subject. "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down." Much indeed depends on what we consider to be comprehended in this expression; whether it means to fall into sin or to fall into temptation, or whether it includes both. There can be no danger of contradicting the Scriptures, or encouraging evil, by admitting the larger signification, if we are careful to guard against a latitudinarian interpretation which may give a licence to the commission of sin. The Word of God declares that there is no man that liveth and sinneth not. The corruptions and infirmities of our nature cause offences in the course of the daily performance of our religious and moral duties, which every one who attends to his Reflections on the Thirty-Seventh Psalm. 105 mental operations and bodily actions must acknowledge. But these are to be carefully distinguished from deliberate and heinous sins. No one deserving the name of Christian can live in sin, or commit it repeatedly and intentionally. And if any one is led astray or turns aside from the path of duty which the law of God lays down, it is at least a sign of the existence of some yet unsubdued evil; and unless it is made the occasion of sincere repentance and humiliation, must lead to still greater evils. The difference between evil of intention and evil of infirmity consists in this, that evil of intention proceeds from corrupt principles, while evil of infirmity proceeds from strong natural concupiscence. Thus evil of intention proceeds at once from the internal and external mind, while evil of infirmity proceeds from the external mind only. It is only this last kind of evil which a good man can be supposed to commit; and it is this kind of evil which is meant into which the righteous may fall. This appears from the spiritual sense of the passage. The man who falls, but is not utterly cast down, is one who is upheld by the Lord, “for the Lord holdeth him up with His hand," or, "the Lord holdeth his hand." Thus, the man is represented as slipping or falling while he walks in the right path, but is not prostrate, because the Lord holds him by the hand. In the Scriptures the hand and the foot signify the powers of the internal and of the external man. And while the powers of the internal man are devoted to the Lord, and the Lord possesses them, hereditary evil in the external man may indeed cause some deviation from the rectitude of the Divine law, but it is such as is capable of easy correction, because it is not deeply seated in our nature, and is of infirmity, but not of purpose. Even while the Lord holds the hand the foot may slip; but he who is thus supported will not be utterly cast down. This, however, is not to be considered as equally incident to man in every period of his regenerating life; but is more especially incident to its earlier stages. The man of whom it is predicated is not as yet the perfect man, but is suffering from trial and temptation, which the whole psalm abundantly indicates. He is, indeed, in our version called a good man; but the word good is not in the original. The term used for man is, however, one which implies excellence, or at least strength; and is no doubt intended to mark the man whose experience is described as being spiritually and morally strong, and yet subject to those infirmities which are incident to all men in this life, but more especially to those who, however strong their principles, are as yet only struggling with themselves, and who, though they have good principles, have still strong propensities. Were it not that in those struggles the Divine power and guardianship were extended to the regenerating, they would not only fall but be utterly cast down. To Him, therefore, who is an ever-present help in trouble we owe our preservation and deliverance in every time in which we are in danger of falling under the power of our hereditary nature. The fall of the strong man indicates the temptations to which he is exposed as well as the errors to which he is liable. Temptations are inseparable from that state which has been alluded to, in which the inward or spiritual mind is conjoined to the Lord, and established in the truth, and the outward or natural mind is not yet brought into entire harmony with it. This contrariety between the internal and external man is the cause of conflict. And in the experience of these states the supporting power of the Lord preserves the Christian from falling under the pressure of the united operation of evil spirits and his own worldly and selfish inclinations, and gives him who perseveres the victory. In the progress of the new life, the internal is first regenerated, and afterwards the external. There may, therefore, be an inward love to God and faith and confidence in Him, while there are still rebellious motions and false suggestions arising in the natural affections and thoughts. These are gradually overcome; and their entire subjugation, so far as this can be said of them in this life, is a work of later accomplishment than the bringing into order of the internal ends and 'principles. We have only to trust in the Lord and do good, and He shall give us the desires of our heart; and the desires of every sincere heart are, that the whole man may be brought into conformity with the will and wisdom of the Lord. If we continue to rest in the Lord and resist evil, He who holds our hand will also set our feet upon a rock and establish our goings; and He will put a new song in our mouth, even praise to our God. EDITOR. WHAT WOMEN HAVE DONE FOR THE WORLD. (LEO GRINDON.) III. WOMEN, as already said, are by nature eminently conservative. do not use the term in the specialized or political sense. We Conservatism in the broad and genuine sense of the word-that which renders it an essentially feminine characteristic-denotes predisposition to disapprove of any serious change, whether of social custom, creed, opinions in general, or the established organizations of the state-a change, in a word, in anything which the heart has been brought up to admire and to put its trust in. Preferring the old familiar beaten paths, women dread the, if needful, derangement and disquiet which must needs be passed through in order to arrive at a new régime, however superior it may be in principle. More clinging, in all things, than men; more adhesive; -fonder, as a botanist would say, of their old original habitat; having more in them of the sweet-pea nature, with its infinite tendrils —these taking hold, many a time, indissolubly, of dead sticks; women like to stay where they are, to do as they have been accustomed to do, and to maintain the position with regard to their surroundings to which they have always been used. To get them to surrender superstitions is very hard, and a prejudice is dissipated scarcely ever. Resulting from this strong preference for the established, there exists in the world (little though it may be in amount compared with what is desirable) more peace, more order, and a decidedly more energetic maintenance of all the best social relationships of mankind, than would be the case did woman go hand in hand with man in his love of progress. Of women given to war and battle no doubt there have been plenty. Doubtless, again, the old poet uttered a profound and incontestable truth when he penned the famous line- "Varium et mutabile semper, fœmina." This, however, applies only to subordinate matters, and there is nothing in it to induce lament, for another poet has told us that ""Tis to their changes half their charms they owe." In all weighty affairs women have an unquenchable passion for the preservation of things as they are; they look with disfavour upon anything that involves upset. Their conservatism of spirit is vastly strengthened by their intense aptitude for veneration. Such men only as are animated by a thoroughly feminine affection for peace and order stand abreast of woman in degree of reverence for what is above them, whether it be the throne, superior social status, or nobly masculine physical and mental powers. She may not always admire discreetly, any more than she always loves that which is best; strong affection (in man as well) being very often referable less to worthiness of love on the side of the recipient than to the inconsiderate energy of a rich heart |