our religion enter into the heart we have no religion at all. The form of godliness is insufficient and unavailing without the power thereof. We can never attain to the true beauties of holiness, unless, like the king's daughter, we be all glorious within. On the other hand, when clean hands and a pure heart are united in the same person; when a conversation without blame, and a conscience void of offence, coincide, they are in the sight of God of great price. A life sacred to devotion and virtue, sacred to the practice of truth and undefiled religion, joined to a heart, pure, pious, and benevolent, constitute an offering more acceptable at the altars of the Most High God, than whole hetacombs of burnt-offerings, and a thousand hills of frankincense in a flame.

"By lifting up the soul unto vanity," the Psalmist means making riches and honour, those vanities of the world, the object of our affection and pursuit; saying to the gold thou art our trust, or to the most fine gold, thou art our confidence. Or it may mean the worshipping of idols, which, in Scripture, go under the denomination of vanity, as in Jeremiah, Are there any among the

"Swear

vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain ?" ing deceitfully," includes all manner of perjury. This vice is always represented in Scripture in the most dreadful colours. He that sweareth falsely, and he that feareth an oath, is an equivalent term for the wicked and the righteous. As an oath is the greatest pledge of veracity, and the end of all strife, general and customary violations of it must have the most pernicious effect upon society. Such a practice would entirely banish religious principles from the world; it would dissolve the bands of society; it would shake the fundamental pillars of mutual trust and confidence among men; and destroy the security arising from the laws themselves. For human laws and human sanctions cannot extend to numberless cases in which the safety of mankind is essentially concerned. They would prove but feeble and ineffectual means of preserving the order and peace of society, if there were no checks apon men, from the sense of divine legislation; if no belief of divine rewards and punishments came in aid of what human rewards and punishments so imperfectly provide for. We have, in the next verse, the rewards promised to the persons possessed of these qualifications.

Verse 5. "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteousness from the God of his salvation." This alludes to the appointed custom of the Jewish priests, who, on solemn and stated occasions, were wont to bless the people. Their form of blessing we have prescribed in Numbers vi. 22. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the people of Israel: the LORD bless thee and keep thee; the LORD make his face to shine upon thee; and be gracious unto thee: the LORD lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace." But as the priest was a fallible creature, his blessing might be indiscriminately bestowed, and fail of its effect. But the person who hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, shall receive the blessing from God himself, whose favour is better than life, and whose blessing maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow. These blessings are summed up in the eighty-fourth Psalm; "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." "Righteousness from the God of our salvation," may either mean the reward of righteousness, as the work in Scripture is frequently put for the reward; or it may mean kindness, mercy, and the benefits from righteousness, as in 1 Sam. xii. 7. "Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord, of all the righteousness of the Lord, which he did to you and your fathers." Where it is evident, from what follows, that, by righteousness of the Lord, he means the deliverances that God had wrought for them.

Verse 6. "This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, or, O God of Jacob," as it might better be rendered. This is the generation, who, in obedience to the commandments of God, and in the methods of his appointment, seek his face, that is, his favour and friendship, and to whom he never said, “Seek ye my face in vain.”

Animated by his subject, the Psalmist proceeds to higher strains, and, in the sublime spirit of eastern poetry, calls upon the gates of the temple to open and admit the triumphal procession.

Verse 7. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye

lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shail come in." To illustrate this part of the psalm, wo must take a short view of the Hebrew psalmody. The Psalms of David are of various kinds. Some of them are dramatic, having speakers introduced, making a kind of musical dialogue. Of this the ninety-first Psalm is a remarkable instance. In the first verse, the high-priest, rising up, declares the happiness of him who putteth his trust in the Almighty. In the second verse, David himself, or one of the singers, representing the faithful among the Jews, declares his faith and confidence in God. From the third to the fourteenth, the ode was performed by the sacred singers, both with the voice and instruments of music. The three last verses were spoken by the highpriest alone in the character of God Almighty.

Many of the Psalms are intended to be sung by two divisions of the sacred singers, the chorus and the semichorus. Such is the Psalm before us. Every verse is divided into two members, exactly of the same length, and generally representing the same thought, expressed in a different manner. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;—the world, and they that dwell therein." When we come to the seventh, the verse is evidently altered. The verses are not divided into two members as before, and for a very good reason. The semichorus asked the question, and the chorus made the reply. Apostrophes, or addresses to inanimate nature, are among the boldest figures in poetry, and, when properly introduced, as in this place, are in the highest manner productive of beauty. The simple thought, when stripped of its poetical ornaments, is no more than this: When the priests had carried the ark to the temple, Solomon ordered the gates to be thrown open to admit the ark. How much this thought is improved, when embellished by the fine imagination of the sweet singer of Israel, and clothed in all the graces of poetry, let persons of the smallest critical discernment judge. In short, the passage is too well known, and too beautiful, to need or admit of any illustration. Like the meridian sun, it shines in its own light, and to endeavour to adorn it were wasteful and ridiculous

excess.

As we are assured, by an authority that cannot err, that the ceremonies of the Jewish law were a figure of good

things to come, and as the ark has been considered as a type of our Saviour, it is highly probable, that its introduction into the temple prefigured to the faithful among the Jews, that solemn and triumphant period when our Saviour ascended into the heaven of heavens, to take possession of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was.

LECTURE III.

LUKE XVI. Ver. 19-31.

There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that she beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finguer in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot: neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.

THE method of instruction by parables was much in use among the eastern nations. Both physical and moral Causes contributed to introduce and to support this custom. The people of the east have always been more un