his penitent prayer answered (Ps. li.), his broken bones healed, the joy of God's salvation restored, he stands with retuned harp, and well-strung heart, and sings the glorious Psalm beginning, “ Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless his holy name." But where shall we end our quotations? The Psalms are full of David's grateful utterances, who surely was, in this respect, “the man after God's own heart," and hence honoured to be the preparer of the psalmody of the Church of God in all ages. Take one look at him in his old age, resigning bis kingdom to Solomon, free from envy, free from care, full of adoring love. He presents his munificent offering towards & temple he may not build, nor even see ; and as he lays it upon God's altar, exclaims, “Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer 80 willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers : our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own" (1 Chron. xxix. 13-16). And then he retires from public life to die ; retires gracefully and gratefully, singing, Verity of verities, all is verity; for his last song is of Him who shall rule over men, who shall be as the light of the morning; who shall come as the rain on the mown grass; who is the blessed One; who lives to bless ; in whom man shall be blessed, and who shall be for ever praised. (See 2 Sam. xxxiii. 1-7; Ps. lxxii.) And, oh! the glorious final chorus of his matchless song, “ And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended” (Ps. lxxii. 19, 20). “Ended," but unended. While time lasts, " men blessed in Christ” will breathe out David's prayer, and sing his sweet songs, and eternity will prolong the ever swelling theme. A thousand years after David had been gathered to his fathers Paul took up the harp of praise, and sung the completion of what David foretold. "Sor. rowful, yet always rejoicing," was his motto, and nobly he adhered to it. Grief was his beritage; but gratitude never forsook him. He had “great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart," and yet a favourite adjuration was, “I protest by the rejoicing that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He ever remembered with gratitude, and would have others remember also, the wonder-teeming, blessing-producing fact, “ that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead." There was a living Saviour, and that living Saviour was all his own to live upon and to live for. That Saviour had lived, and died, and rose for him, and in heaven ever bore him upon his heart. Conscious of this, his soul made perpetual music in such words as these : “ Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift;" “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ; " " Thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ;"" How shall be not with him freely give us all things?” “ Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;”. “ Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. i. 3—5). Surely Paul's epistles, like David's psalms, are full of grateful praise. If we would sing David's psalms with the spirit and understanding, we must believingly study Paul's epistles. If we enter into that fellowship of “God's Son Jesus Christ," of which Paul wrote, we shall sing in all circumstances of sorrow and joy the grateful songs of the “sweet singer of Israel.” And though different days may bring their various trials and temptations, their pains, and losses, and dangers, still we shall be able to use what is emphatically called “ David's psalm of praise,” and to sing, “Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.” To one other specimen of gratitude I would just refer-a female saint of the olden time, who, if she had not had a praying and a praising heart, would long since have been forgotten. Some, perhaps, may start back from the thought of taking David the king, Paul the apostle, as a pattern; they want one in humble life, one who was tried with every-day vexations, such as often untune their hearts and chafe their spirits. Come, then, and listen to the song of Hannah, the happy mother of honoured Samuel. (See 1 Sam. ii. 1-11.) We must leave the reader to meditate upon it with a brief remark or two. Observe first, that she connects the mercy for which she gave such grateful thanks with the prayer that she had presented some time before : “I am the woman of a sorrowful spirit that stood here praying, for this child I prayed.” Prayer was that which came between the misery she had endured and the mercy she now possessed. How did she trace God's hand in the process, and rejoice in his faithfulness in honouring the prayer of faith. "What she won in prayer she wore with praise." And let us bear in mind that the winning must precede the wearing. The spirit of grace and supplication is God's handmaid, to bring the garment of praise out of the wardrobe of heaven, and to array the soul in it instead of the spirit of heaviness. We must draw in a long breath in prayer if we would send forth a loud outburst of praise. Her gratitude was elevating and ennobling to her own heart. She was lifted on the wings of her own song far above all she had previously known. It was thus with David, as we have already seen. There is a striking agreement between Hannah's song and that of a still more favoured woman, a thousand years afterwards. (See Luke i. 46, &c.) Gratitude is always suggestive and prolific. Though we shall not, as those referred to, receive revelations of the future, and rise from the work of praise to the lofty regions of prophecy; yet shall we find that gratitude elevates the soul, expands its powers, introduces into the higher regions of truth, and enables hope to soar forward to the glorious future. When we rise on the wings of grateful praise by the aid of the gracious Comforter, we see spiritual things in God's light, and become more and more conformed to what we contemplate and have communion with. The gratitude of Hannah led to practical consecration. She offered up her soul in a tribute of praise. God accepted this sacrifice, and has preserved it in the temple of truth for the use of all worshippers there, in all ages. She offered up the gift God had bestowed upon her, and for which she felt so grateful. God accepted her “Samuel,” enrolled him amongst his most eminent saints, employed him amongst his most honoured servants, and used him for his own glory and his people's good. The saintly feeling of gratitude triumphed over the motherly feeling of attachment; and while God honoured the saint, he rewarded the mother with a fivefold blessing ; thus laying her under fresh obligations, producing deeper gratitude, and evoking new thanksgivings. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.” “In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." “ Then let us take what God bestows, And, like his own fair flowers, And gently bend in showers. Submissive to his will, And all repining still, Prepares the flowers to spring, SINAI AND CALVARY. BY THE REV. FREDERICK LEONARD, LL.B. " He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul.”—Prov. xix. 16. “Do we then make void the law through faith ? God forbid : yea, wo establish the law."-Rom. iï. 31. MOUNT SINAI, upon wbich the law was | loving God, who would have all his crea. given, and Mount Calvary, upon which the tures happy. If it were universally obeyed, Lord died to remove the curse of the universal happiness would be tlie certain broken law, are frequently opposed to one and necessary result. another. They are viewed sometimes, but On the other hand, there is much for the erroneously, as though they had nothing in sinner, who still fondly loves his sin and common, but rather frowned upon each madly clings to it, to droad in the awful other; if, indeed, the sacred hill of Cal. scenes of Calvary. All the thunders of vary can ever be thought to wear a frown Sinai need not strike the impenitent transupon its sad but loving brow. To say the gressor with so deep a horror as the sight least, they are often regarded as separated of that innocent and Divine Sufferer. God's by a deep and yawning gulf, as though a holiness gleams forth luminously, with a bridgeless chasm lay between ; or (to drop glory too dazzling and scorching for the the figure) as though distinct, if not con sinver's gaze, brighter than the forked flicting, attributes of the Most High shone lightning which quivered round the heights forth from each. We are told that God's of Sinai. God'sjustice speaks in tones louder, strict holiness and impartial justice are far louder, than the voice of Mount Sinai's manifested on the one, his exceeding love trumpet, though it was long and exceeding and mercy on the other. This is true, loud. The darkness which shrouded the qaite true; but this is not the whole truth. earth when the Lord of Heaven hung dying We are taught by many to regard the one on the cross, is more gloomy and threatenonly with awe and fear, the other only with ing to the man hardened in sin than the hope and unrestrained joy. Thus the poet: thick cloud which veiled the hallowed spot sings where the law was given. When Calvary " When on Sinai's top I see trembled at the Saviour's dying cry, the God descend in majesty To proclaim his holy law, obdurate sinner had greater reason for fear All my spirit sinks with awe. than when Sinai shook to its base beneath “ When on Calvary I rest, the footstep of God. If God's holiness God, in flesh made manifest, demanded so tremendous a sacrifice to Shines in my Redeemer's face, appease the affronted majesty of his law, Full of beauty, truth, and grace.” before he could stretch forth the golden These are, undoubtedly, beautiful senti. sceptre of his mercy; if he spared not his ments, and they are perfectly truthful. own Son to purchase salvation for the Indeed, they were not beautiful if they guilty; oh how certain and terrible the were not true. Error, however cleverly | doom of the impenitent! God's law, how disguised, is still a deformed and hideous | majestic and authoritative! God's holithing. But perhaps it may be allowable ness, how dazzling bright! God's justice, to parody these well-known and much-loved how strict and immutable! lines ; and the sentiments they will then We must never lose sight of the fact that convey, though vastly different, may be it is the same God who revealed himself found equally scriptural and correct. upon Mount Sinai, when he gave the law, When on Sinai's top I see as hung incarnate upon the cross when the God descending from above Christ suffered for the creature's sin ; and the very same attributes shine forth, if not with equal yet all with Divine glory, both When at Calvary's foot I kneel, When the dying Lamb I view, from Sinai and Calvary. We are accusThen, O then, bow do I feel tomed to regard the law as a striking maniGod is holy, just, and true. festation of his holiness and justice; and so The truth is, there is much love dis it is. But his love ; his wise, clear-sighted, played in God's law, whether we receive it far-seeing love; is no less prominently disfrom Mount Sinai or from any other source. played. Indeed, strictly speaking, love is It is a very kind and gracious law; a per-| the very root and essence of God's holiness. fect law of liberty and love; the law of a | His holiness is but another name for his love, with its necessary and inseparable and blessed, because they are perfectly twin-sister, namely, his wrath and indigna- | obedient. God will bestow the sunshine of tion against all that is unloving and there his favour upon those who love and serve fore unlovely and base. And God's justice, him. From the impulses of his own naso far as it is viewed as an attribute of his ture; and from a regard to his own honour, nature, is only another name for his holy, that honour which is without a stain; he pure, and all-embracing love, love which will do this. This is only just, and God is must ever lead him to abhor and punish just. This love demands, and God is love. what is opposed to itself. On the other This God can do, for he is almighty. Then, hand, we are accustomed to regard the in addition, we have his promise, his Saviour's cross as the most wonderful dis pledged word ; and it is easier for heaven play of God's goodness; and we are right in and earth to pass than for that to fail. In doing so. But it also exhibits his holiness ; numberless passages, which sparkle so lus. his indignant wrath against what is un trously from the sacred page, he assures us loving and unlovely; in a word, sin. It that in keeping his commandments there is shows us not merely that he is merciful, great reward ; and that the mercy of the but that he is also holy and just; so holy Lord is from everlasting to everlasting that, before he could receive guilty man into upon them that keep his covenant, and his friendship, his Son must die. We look upon those that remember his commandelsewhere in vain for such a proof of his ments to do them. But the text placed at love of what is right, of his hatred of what the head of this paragraph means, doubt. is wrong, and of his respect for his own eter less, more than this. It means that the nal law, as the cross of Christ supplies. very law which God has imposed on us is Yes; amidst the loud thunders of Sinai, itself a means of procuring happiness, if it we may hear distinctly the still, small voice be obeyed. This is the specific point beof the Divine love; and as we stand at the fore us. In its own nature, and considered foot of Calvary, whilst the very soul of apart from the protection and blessing of mercy looks forth from the Saviour's tear its great Author, it is itself a mighty shield ful eyes, we may see the hand of God's of defence and a gushing fountain of felijustice in that dripping blood, and hear the city ; 80 that he who keepeth the comá wful voice of his holiness in those dying mandment keepeth, at the same time and groans! thereby, his own soul. It may be well, then, sometimes to re In its first principles, the moral law of verse the usual course of our thoughts, and God is, as it were, the reflection of his own to contemplate Mount Sinai (or the law of character. In it he has drawn a moral God) as a manifestation of his goodness, portrait of himself. He commands us to and Mount Calvary (or the Gospel of the be like him, and to act like him. So far as atonement) as a manifestation of his we delight in the law of the Lord, and yield holiness. a glad obedience to its precepts, so far are “ He that keepeth the commandment we like God; and therefore, in our degree, kcepeth his own soul." By “ the com we shall be happy as God is, from being mandment” we are to understand God's what he is in a moral point of view. We law, for He alone possesses an absolute shall enjoy the approbation of the still right to command ;-God's law, however it small voice within; our rejoicing will be may be conveyed to us, whether by the the testimony of our conscience; we shall moral sense, by reason, or by the Scrip feel the glow of that deep and divine felicity tures. This is one of the many proofs of which springs from conscious integrity, his love; for it prescribes nothing but what from unswerving justice, and from univeris for our good. It is our best guide to sal love. ultimate safety and happiness. So that he But further, if we examine the particuthat keepeth the commandment keepeth lar precepts of the moral law, do not all also and thereby his own soul; that is, he directly conduce to human happiness? best provides for his future security and Which of them could be blotted out with felicity. This we should naturally expect. safety, without occasioning a host of evils We might infer the truth of this from the and a world of suffering? If they had consideration that God is a just, faithful, been drawn up with a view to man's happi. loving, and almighty Sovereign, who will ness alone, could anything be better see to it that his obedient subjects are safe adapted to the end proposed ? When and happy. The angels are perfectly secure' civilized men attempt to construct a code of laws to govern the society of which they | way of God's commandments is the road form a part, and thus (so far as they have to the serenest bliss in this life; and, the power) to secure its happiness, they through the atoning merits of the Saviour, are compelled to borrow their first princi- it is the path to heaven! ples from the perfect law of God. Thus But we can well imagine the uneasy they are witnesses, though sometimes un thoughts which may be agitating the mind conscious witnesses, to its excellence and of some studious and earnest reader, who benignity. They feel that they cannot | has followed the course of our remarks up contrive anything better; that man's wis to this point. Let us clothe these dom cannot suggest anything more favour- | troublous thoughts with words : " I freely able to human happiness. What first acknowledge the perfect excellence and principle shall they dare to omit? What goodness of the moral law; but, alas ! I can they add ? Yes; God's law is a law have already broken this law, so wise and of love. The Divine goodness is con- | kind, and I find myself continually break. spicuous throughout it aìl. It contains no ing it still. Little comfort can I derive tyrannical exactions, no whimsical or capri- | from contemplating the love which dis. cious demands ; not one. Every precept covers itself in its every precept. Indeed, has an immediate tendency to promote the this very love, so apparent, so evidently happiness of mankind, as much so as if sincere, only aggravates my distress. I that had been the sole end contemplated have not kept the commandment: I am by its loving Author. Not one can be even now under its condemnation and spared; not one need be added. God's curse. It seems a mockery to tell me, moral law is not framed to contribute to "This do, and thou shalt live. I have his glory alone, or to minister to a selfish done what I ought not to have done ; I pleasure. Man has more to gain from it have left undone what I should have done. than God. All its precepts are com The past cannot be lived over again; and prehended in two grand laws: love to God, as to the present and future, I feel as if I and love to his creatures. These need only could not fulfil the duties of God's law, to be generally observed in all their breadth which is exceeding broad. What I would, to make all happy as well as holy. If they that do I not; and what I hate, that do I. were universally obeyed on earth, this The law, with all its love and goodness, world would be a part of heaven. If we gives no rest to my conscience and but little could suppose them to be ever universally comfort to my heart.” If these are indeed obeyed in hell, that dark world of endless your secret thoughts and feelings, the woe and sin would lose its nature and be- Gospel charges us with a joyful message to come heaven too. In exact proportion as | you. What you say, or rather think, is we love and keep them, do we possess | true ; but you are not without hope. The the most precious germs of heaven's Gospel brings you glad tidings of great blessedness securely treasured up within joy. You have broken the law, and in our own souls. great measure lost your delight in it as well Let us learn, then, even from the law of as your ability to obey it; and, therefore, so God, the love which burns within his in far you are a lost man. But the Redeemer finite mind. It is not a tyrannical or of the world has come to seek and to save arbitrary law. It commands nothing but the lost. The lost may be redeemed. what directly conduces to our happiness. Salvation can never come to you by the Oh that men would praise the Lord for his law, it is true ; but it has been brought goodness, and for his wonderful works to very near to you by the Gospel of Jesus the children of men! Let us learn, too, Christ. You have only to stretch forth that, so far as a rule of conduct is concerned, the hand of faith, and it is yours. By his God's law is our best and safest guide to work of atonement, and by his promised happiness. “He that keepeth the command gift of the Holy Ghost, Christ has brought ment keepeth his own soul.” Our duties you within the scope of this eternal law : constitute a part of our privileges. If we “ He that keepeth the commandment would enjoy the purest, deepest felicity to keepeth his own soul.” This is a law now be obtained in this world, we must obey. applicable to your case. If you put your “Light is sown for the righteous, and glad trust in him, and habitually endeavour to ness for the upright in heart.” If we would live in holy obedience to his laws, the be happy hereafter, when this world has / sentence of condemnation under which you faded from our view, we nust obey, The ! now ļje will be cancelled at once, and God's |
