Is it with feelings like these we join in this thrilling hymn of praise? The very question falls heavily on the ear of conscience, and nothing remains for us, but with shame and contrition once more to acknowledge the guilt of our holy things.

Yet the heavy heart cannot be commanded to rejoice; smiles and song may indeed come at our bidding, or the organ may swell its exultant peal, but the joy of the heart must gush from an unbidden fountain, and till the spring be open, what boots it to search for the stream. We can only rejoice when we have that which makes us glad ; the unbelieving heart is here again necessarily shut out from the service, while the Christian can only join in it through the direct influence of the Spirit, whose fruit is love and joy. The more closely we study our Liturgy, the more entirely we shall see it to be a spiritual service, calling forth the whole energies of the soul, yet requiring far more than its unaided energies, a sacrifice that can only be consumed when fire descends from heaven.

The call to rejoice is most reasonable. Had we fully joined in the previous service, we should be better able to respond to it. If the burden of guilt had laid heavily on our hearts, its removal would have given them life and spring. Had we yearned for a restoration of our Father's love, the full assurance of it would have opened the fountains of gladness. The deepest joys must spring from the deepest sorrows, and perhaps one reason why we taste so little of triumphant joy, is because we shrink from disturbing the quiet lull of our spirits, and awakening to the painful duties of self-examination and repentance. These sources of joy are brought before us by the preceding service, but others are now opened as the Psalmist continues.

"For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all Gods."

"In his hand are all the corners of the earth and the strength of the hills is his also.”

“The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands prepared the dry land."

Creation with all her wonders is here spread before us. This wide and beautiful world of ours, let us recal some of its fairest scenes, let us think of the rocky dells clothed with graceful foliage, where we have rejoiced in the wild course of the foaming torrents. "In his hands are all the corners of the earth." His is all their hidden loveliness, and he rejoices over beauty which the eye of man has never marked. Or let us again in imagination climb the mountain-side, while the prospect every moment widens before us, till at last a bright light in the horizon reveals the distant ocean; -still "in his hand are all the corners of the earth; and the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land." There is a joy in all the works of nature, and it is a joy our God would have us taste; a joy we are here invited to recal within the hallowed precincts of the temple. We cannot rejoice in mere abstractions, but when in the beauty, the majesty and the glory of all around, we have traced some features of Him in whom we live and move and have our being," then we can respond to the call of the Psalmist; "Oh come, let us worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker."

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"For he is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand."

He is great and glorious, and each year of our lives, as it reveals more of the wonders of his creation, will

enable us to realize more fully, how great and how glorious; but with all this, he has the gentle tenderness of a watchful shepherd. It is difficult for us under the Gentile dispensation, to realize the depth of feeling with which a pious Israelite must have contrasted Jehovah with the Gods of the heathen around. Perhaps it was on the heights of Carmel, that David composed this Psalm, if so, with what deep emotion must he have looked on the wonders spread around him, and then thought of Him who had made them all; as the God of Israel, who had led them through the wilderness like a flock; who had separated them from all other people, and even condescended to speak with them face to face. "He is the Lord our God, we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Should not a similar feeling of exultation reign in the hearts of the Israel of God. If wealth, beauty, learning, genius, earthly love be all, as his gifts, more or less reasonable subjects of rejoicing, much more may they rejoice who can claim the Giver as their portion, and say of the Lord, he is their God.

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'To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness ;"

"When your fathers tempted me; proved me, and saw my works."

"Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said: It is a people that do err in their hearts for they have not known my ways."

"Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest."

The tone of the Psalm here changes from one of joyous exultation, to one of solemn warning; it was perhaps mainly for the sake of this warning, that it was

appointed to be read each Sabbath morning, at the commencement of the sacred services of the day. It speaks to each of us individually with pressing earnestness, "to-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." There is so much that tends to harden the heart; the words of truth grow so familiar to the ear; custom lies with such a deadening weight on the benumbed spirit, that even the two-edged sword of the word seems at times, as if it could not penetrate it, but to-day one more opportunity is granted; it may be the last ; no to-morrow is promised: oh harden not your heart. You would not willingly do it, but remember, it is impossible to spend an indifferent Sabbath; however passive you may seem to be, unless at the close of the day you can trace some stirring of your soul to lay hold on God, you have really been hardening your heart. To each of us this is the time of temptation, or of trial; and a heavenly Father's eye is fixed on us, watching to see how the trial will be met. He watches the children of prosperity, to see if gratitude, humble dependence, and heavenly aspirations mix with their earthly joy. He watches the sons and daughters of sorrow, to see whether their hearts be melting in the furnace of affliction. He watches those who have to struggle on in the entangled paths of this world's business, to see if they keep fast hold of the clue of faith. He watches the young, who just set free from some of the restraints of childhood, have time, life, energy and talent, that might be turned to noble account in his vineyard. Yes, and he watches the little ones too, for even a child is known by his doings; and has its own happy circle of love and obedience. Let us never forget that we are in the midst of the day of temptation, and let not the warning of Israel's fall

and fearful doom, be lost upon us. We may pass lightly over the words of the solemn oath with which the Psalm concludes, but they proved the death-warrant of a nation. Men and women were there in the prime of life, and the fulness of their strength, but the blighting curse was on them. Sometimes it worked silently, and one by one fell, almost unmarked beneath its influence, at other times the pestilence mowed down its thousands. Before they reached the borders of Canaan, the graves of the lonely wilderness had closed over them all. These things were written for our learning; it is not this solitary threatening of the Lord which is terrible, because we have been allowed to see its accomplishment; other warnings are equally sure, though long. suffering patience at present may delay the stroke. This one fearful judgment should throw a beacon-light over every Scripture threatening, that we may share in the blessing pronounced on those who tremble atGod's word.

In philosophy equally as in poetry, it is the highest and most useful prerogative of genius, to produce the strongest impressions of novelty, while it rescues admitted truths from the neglect caused by the very circumstance of their universal admission. Extremes meet. Truths of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.—Coleridge.