as she rested in her husband's arms, she said, "I shall never forget this house, and the kindness I have received in it."

All her family, every member of which loved her most deeply and devoutly, committed her to the grave (in the presence of many of the congregation, several clergymen, and a large number of ministers from other Churches), on Saturday, in " the full and certain hope of a glorious resurrection." J. G. HUGHES, MALDON.

Homiletic Sketches on the Book of Psalms.

Our Purpose. Many learned and devout men have gone philologically through this TEHELIM, 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 HOMILETIC 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 ministra

tions.

Subject:-Thought and Prayer under Trial.

"I said, I will take heed to my ways,

That I sin not with my tongue," etc.-PSALM Xxxix. 1–13.

HISTORY.-The title ascribes this poem to David, and there is no conclusive reason for doubting its authorship. On what particular occasion it was composed cannot be ascertained with certainty, but it was evident he was in circumstances of great affliction. It is addressed to Jeduthun, a word which properly means praising, but here stands for a proper name, the name of one of the choristers appointed by David. In this capacity he is also mentioned in 1 Chron. xvi. 41, xxv. 1; 2 Chron. xxxv. 15. The psalm bears a strong resemblance to the

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one immediately preceding, such a resemblance as warrants them being placed together. There are other psalms also to which it has a close resemblance, i.e., xxix., lxii. 4. The psalm lxii. is dedicated to the same musician, Jeduthun, and, like this, describes the nothingness of everything that is human, and in almost the same language. This poem is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of all the elegies in the Book of Psalms.

ANNOTATIONS:-Ver. 1.-" I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me." 'I said, I will keep my ways against sinning with my tongue: I will keep a bridle on my mouth, so long as the wicked is before me."--Delitzsch. The marginal reading of "bridle" is “muzzle;" the words express a strong resolve to check the utterance of the strong feelings which his sufferings awakened within him. A similar state of mind is expressed in Psalm lxxiii. 16.

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Ver. 2.-"I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred." The resolution of verbal restraint which he had formed, he here declares he had carried out. "I was dumb." Some suppose that the word "good" refers to the prosperity of the wicked he saw around him, and that he means to say, I held my peace, taking no notice of the prosperity of the ungodly, which so distressed my mind." But his self-imposed silence on the subject only gave intensity to the suppressed pain. His "sorrow was stirred," his mental anguish became violent.

Ver. 3.-"My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." Here his resolution seems to have given way, further repression became impracticable, and the redhot emotions of his soul break out in words. The more he thought, the stronger the fire became, until silence was impossible and he speaks. Ver. 4.-"Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am." He speaks, but to whom? Not to the wicked, not to men, but to the great God, he pours out his soul before Him. The real idea of this seems to be, I want to know when all this will be over, and the exact time when I shall end my mortal life? If this is his meaning his prayer was unwise, for were man to know the precise day and hour he should leave this world, he would become utterly unfitted to discharge the ordinary duties of life. Perhaps, like Job, he felt that life was become intolerable (Job iii. 1-26; vi. 4-12; vii. 7; xiv. 1–33).

Ver. 5.-Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah." Here he refers to the brevity and emptiness of life; it is only "an handbreadth," the shortest natural measure. Not a foot breadth, not an arm breadth, but a hand breadth, the mere space of the fingers. The journey of life, not miles, not roods, not yards, not feet, but a hand. And then this short life is vain. vanity." Vanity at its "best state," empty and unsatisfactory.

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Altogether

Ver. 6.-" Surely every man walketh in a vain show: surely they are disquieted in vain : he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." Only as a shadow doth man wander to and fro; only for a breath does he make an uproar; he heapeth up, and doth not gather it."-Delitzsch. The poet's idea seems to be, that there is scarcely any reality in human life, that man is a mere shadow, a phantom, an impalpable spectre walking to and fro. Still a shadow filled with anxious disquieting thoughts, and those thoughts inspired by greed, heaping up riches.

Ver. 7.-" And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee." In this world of shadows and disquietudes he appeals to Heaven, and says, What shall I wait for ? my hope is toward Thee. From the shadows he turns to the substance, from the restless seas of life he looks to the Rock of ages.

Ver. 8.- Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish." Here he strikes at the roots of all his sorrows, transgressions," and prays for their divine removal; and here also is one of the chief resources of his distress, viz., the reproach of the profane. He seems to have been terribly sensitive to the scorns and sneers of the ungodly.

Ver. 9.-"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it." A

better rendering would be, "I am dumb, I open not my mouth." He means, I presume, that he was dumb in relation to men, not to God, for he was now speaking to Him.”

Ver. 10.-" Remove Thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand." Though he submits, he still supplicates. Prayer is consistent with true submission. Instead of 'I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand," read "Before the blow of Thine hand I must perish." Ver. 11.-"When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah." The idea of the psalmist is, that God, by punishment or calamity, expresses His sense of the evil of human conduct, and that under such an expression of it, man, being unable to sustain it, melts away, or is destroyed. "His heart melts away" (margin), that which is to be desired in him melts away.

Ver. 12.-"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." The word "stranger" some translate "guest," and read, "I am a guest with Thee." That is, not a resident, not an inmate, but just a passing visitor. "A stranger," and, by implication, homeless and friendless, wholly dependent on Thy hospitable bounty. To a Hebrew familiar with the law of Moses, which continually joins the stranger with the widow and the orphan as legitimate objects of compassionate regard, this description must have been peculiarly affecting. 'With Thee' under Thy roof, at Thy fireside, or, in Scripture phrase, within Thy gates' (Ex. xx. 10), i.e., at Thy mercy, and dependent on Thee."-Alexander. The idea foreigner is included in

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the word (Gen. xiii. 15; Ex. iii. 23; Heb. xi. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 11).

"A

sojourner, as all my fathers." Sojourner is identical in meaning with stranger." Probably the allusion is to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived as men without a permanent home.

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Ver. 13.-"O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more." "Look away from me, that I may rally, before I go hence, and am no more."-Delitzsch. "The last clause, in Hebrew, is exceedingly laconic. The literal translation is, 'before I go and am not.' It has been justly represented as remarkable, that all the words and phrases of this verse occur in different places of the book of Job." ARGUMENT: This Psalm consists of two parts, in the first of which the Psalmist describes his feelings and his conduct at a former period, in relation to God's providential dealings (ver. i. 6); while in the second he expresses what he now feels and believes in reference to the same subject, closing with an earnest appeal to the Divine compassion (ver. 7-13)."-Alexander.

HOMILETICS.-Homiletically, all the verses of this psalm may be brought under two general headings, the one being thought under trial, and the other prayer under trial.

I. THOUGHT UNDER TRIAL. We have here two things in relation to thought under trial.

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First: Its Utterance Repressed. Human thoughts have in them the instinct of utterance; as they rise in the mind they struggle for expression. To keep them mute and voiceless requires oftentimes the most resolute effort. This effort the author of this poem determines to make. "I said, I will take heed to my ways." (1) This effort at repression was pious. Why did he essay to muzzle his tongue? Here is the reply,—“that I sin not." He felt in all probability that the circumstances which brought on his sufferings had awakened within him such sceptical ideas concerning the rectitude or benevolence of the Divine procedure, the utterance of which, in the ears of the wicked, while, they were “before him,” would be highly sinful. Satan often suggests, even to the best of men, infidel thoughts of the most blasphemous and terrible character. Cecil says, "I have had, and could have produced, arguments far more weighty than I have ever found in them"--that is, in the writings of avowed sceptics in revelation. And Dr. Payson reveals a similar experience. He says, "All the atheistic and deistical objections which I meet

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with in books are childish babblings compared with those which Satan suggests, and which he urges upon the mind with a force that seems irresistible.' -Barnes. What godly thinker has not had often in his experience to exercise this repression? He who has sceptical thoughts within him and speaks them out, acts far more perniciously than the man infected with a virulent and contagious fever, who runs and mingles with his neighbours. (2) This effort at repression is painful. "I was dumb with silence; I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me; while I was musing the fire burned." While he was repressing his thoughts, he says, his sorrow was stirred, and the fire burned within him. Imprisoned thoughts, like pent-up floods, increase in turbulent force; the more they are suppressed the more they heave, swell, and battle. Or, to use the other figure, the more you repress them, the more intense the fire becomes. Such thoughts are like subterranean fires before a volcanic eruption; they continue to augment in fury and force, until they break into thunder. There is a philosophic idea suggested here; viz., that thought has the power to kindle the passions into flame. Musing on good subjects will make the heart burn with good feelings, and the reverse. (3) This effort at repression was temporary. "Then spake I with my tongue." His thoughts became at last irrepressible; the accumulating waters broke through the embankment; the over-charged clouds rushed forth in lightnings, thunders, tempest showers. "I spake with my tongue." To whom? Not to ungodly men-this he resolved not to do because it was sinful-but to the great Jehovah. "Lord, make me to know mine end," etc. We may, and we ought to, pour out all our thoughts into His ear, pour out our souls before Him. Speak not, then, your bad thoughts to men, for this would be to pour out moral poison on the world; speak them out to God, and they will die away as noxious mists in the sunbeam. Another thing here in relation to thought is

Secondly: Its Attention Arrested. The author of this psalm directs his attention to three subjects. (1) The character of