its free and gracious meaning. There are good and pure songs for merry souls which are not directly spiritual, as we use the term; there is a permitted singing together of the people of God, which may be a human participation in the human, and not without unexpressed witness to God, who fills our hearts with food and gladness (Acts xiv. 17). There are songs to nature, national and patriotic songs, which are pure to the pure, though they are not strictly psalms of Israel. When the Lord in His sublime parable mentions the music and dancing of the whole house on an occasion of great joy (Luke xv. 25), He found nothing therein of itself criminal. He who requires us to become like little children, will take no offence at the joyful songs of childlike men. We would not even reject the words of the son of Sirach, when rightly understood, though they are not sufficiently guarded:-"A concert of music in a banquet of wine is as a signet of carbuncle set in gold. As a signet of an emerald set in a work of gold, so is the melody of music with pleasant wine" (Ecclus. xxxii. 5, 6). We would not fanatically allow nothing but psalms to be sung; but a legitimate piety requires that we be able freely and cordially to connect the unmentioned name of God with every song, and thus make of it a psalm.

And so it follows that we, dear brethren, should indeed, when joyous, find the best and most natural expression of our joy in psalms. But we must ask what these strictly mean. First of all, this sanctified word reminds us of those psalms and songs of praise which the Spirit of God expressly put into the mouths of His people, wherewith to praise the Lord their God. The song of Moses at the Red Sea is not lost even in the future glory (Rev. xv. 3). We hear in that, "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation" (Ex. xv. 2),—and Isaiah prophesies that it should be heard again from the redeemed, "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, He also is become my salvation!" (Is. xii. 2). And how can we sufficiently honour by our diligent use the pre-eminently socalled psalms of Israel, in which the son of Jesse is so full of grace because the Spirit of the Lord spake by him, and His word was in his tongue (2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2), with all the other prophetic hymns which the same Spirit added to them? O how lovely was the sound of those psalms in the Temple, in the way

of the pilgrimages, and in the household life of the priestly people! Our Saviour Himself sanctified at the last Passover the singing of those psalms; and we His disciples should never fail to have recourse to the inexhaustible treasure of that book of prayer and praise. These hymns were all in common called psalms, that is, songs of praise, although there is in them much supplication, and mourning, and petition; but the very singing of a song of lamentation before the Lord inspires joy into the soul, while it is to the praise of His name. The old custom of issuing the Psalter with the New Testament and our hymnbooks, was very significant; teaching us, as the spiritual Israel, never to forget the psalms of Israel. The Reformed Churches in some cases pressed this too far, suffering no others to be sung in the churches-though, alas, these rhymed translations were too often full of human errors!-Finally, the devout reading of a psalm, when the inner man utters it earnestly before God, may itself be called a singing and making melody in the heart.

,

But as the singing which the text means does not refer only to the lips, so the psalms do not refer to those alone which are found in Scripture; for St James, reminding us of those, would rather that our heart should compose and sing new psalms also. The same Spirit of God has not ceased to put new songs into the mouths of men to this day. In the apostolical churches He gave birth to many new spiritual songs in addition to the ancient psalms, so that many who prophesied in the assembly had psalms to bring (1 Cor. xiv. 26). We still possess many ecclesiastical songs of the first ages. And our German people has been richer than all others, since the Reformation, in its precious treasure of hymns; wherein find exheart every pression for every sentiment that may be uttered before God. Our festival-hymns have almost become one with our festivals; in our old confession-hymns there is a might of testimony which was of wonderful influence at the beginning of the Reformation, and which has not yet lost its force; and our beautiful hymns of penitence and prayer have been always stamped with the blessing of God. Alas, that there should not be wanting examples of the perversion and corruption of our hymnology in our modern churches!

may

But of this nothing more now; let the earnest question of all be-Do we in such manner sing, that even our song may

also be a prayer before God? The Apostle, speaking against unintelligible words, says, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding (intelligibly to the church); I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also (1 Cor. xiv. 15);-but we may very properly invert the words, and ask—Do you always sing in the spirit, and with the heart, and from the ground of the soul? Or even, to say the least, with devotion, understanding and reflecting upon the words which are upon your lips; so that you may, according to the Apostle's expression, teach and exhort yourselves in spiritual songs? Alas, there is, even in our evangelical worship, too much of mere vain lip-service, which takes the place of the worship which should be in spirit and in truth! Alas, there is too large a proportion of the congregation which has no taste for spiritual song-in itself a painful token that true devotion cannot penetrate and seize the entire man! Otherwise, the first hymn would not be regarded as sung merely while the congregation is coming in, and the concluding verses as merely singing them out. The one would be regarded as helping to fit preparation for the word of God, and the other would confirm and as it were seal the sermon. All would feel anxious to add their tribute to the voice of the congregation, singing as the voice of one man to God. All would seek what their souls need in hymns, as a channel of prayer. May the Lord's Spirit amend what is wrong, and restore us our ancient heartiness in the Church's service of song!

Into our houses, also, psalms and hymns should be introduced, for they do not necessarily belong to the walls of our churches. Be not contented, brethren, with simply reading, and nothing more than reading, your hymn-books at home. It is not only a lovely thing, but full of influence and blessing, for the members of the family to join, when they can do so, in the morning and evening song. And, further, the individual Christian may well sing alone before his God: when he is full of joy, wishing that he had a thousand tongues for a thousand psalms prompted by his heart, as also when he is striving to encourage his spirit to be of good cheer. Far be it from us to sink into that despondency and weakness of faith in which the captives of Zion hanged their harps on the willows of Babylon, and would not sing the Lord's songs in a strange land (Ps.

cxxxvii. 2-4). But the three men in the burning fiery furnace sang! Paul and Silas, in their imprisonment, with their feet fast in the stocks, first prayed and then sang praise to God, so that their fellow-prisoners could hear them! (Acts xvi. 25). So do thou pray, O sufferer, and thou shalt soon praise thy God! How How many have sung away their cares and sorrows by the well-known strains of our own hymn-book, so diversified in their adaptation to all our wants!

But, in order to this, we must most sincerely and earnestly exercise ourselves in prayerful singing. We must in our trouble learn aright how to pray, that then in our cheerfulness —and, indeed, that we may become of good cheer-we may be able to sing the right psalms in the right spirit. This is the most internal and final meaning of the text: in all things, and without intermission, to turn the heart, and, where it may be, the lips also, to God; so that our heart at least may be as it were a harp, on which the strains of lamentation or songs of joy may evermore resound before the Lord. All naturally and in sincerity, according to the hand and dispensation of Providence, through the hours of good or evil; yet so that the joyful spirit may be ever more and more apt to return to psalms of thanksgiving and praise-until the day shall come when nought will remain but eternal gratitude and adoration in the psalm of salvation !

XXXI.

ORDINANCE FOR THE SICK.

(Ch. v. 14--18.)

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed a prayer that it might not rain: and it rained not in the land by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

St James has exhorted us to prayer in joy and sorrow, in need and prosperity; and to thankful praise in happy times, as well as to earnest supplication in times of trial: thus he has returned again to the subject of the commencement of the Epistle. There he began with the great promise, that God would assuredly give with simplicity to every petitioner; but added the necessary admonition, that he must ask in faith, nothing doubting! But there the subject was spiritual gifts for the need of the soul:-if any man lacked wisdom, or the consolation of patience, the power of obedience, the joy of faith and hope in tribulation. And many of his readers mistake St James-though, for the most part, wilfully, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the experience of believers-as if he allowed validity only to prayer for spiritual good. Is any man among you afflicted? let him pray! he has just been saying. And, if this is an external affliction, must he merely pray for consolation and a resigned will,—not for deliverance from the evil of his evil days and hours? Often, indeed, the best and truest prayer would ask only power to bear the tribulation; but then our infirmity seldom reaches this point, and, moreover, we have the free filial right to our Father's help from trouble. Certainly, there are many external tribulations which are not to remain any longer than the sin remains; and certainly it is the