^ Kedemption is the raising up of a man from the evil condition in which he feels sacrifice as pain, into a condition in which it is felt as joy, a condition of true and perfect life.^
^ As in its purer parts the human nature is a prototype of the Divine, so hence we may form some conception of the mode in which human repentance softens Divine justice, how it is at once accepted as the earnest of better things, as the beginning of a new life, and as being in itself the fruit and pledge of that Christian simplicity which brings us to the condition of little children. We must have conquered many worldly, many complicated, many anti-Christian feelings, before we arrive at the repentance of the prodigal son. . . . Well may it be conceived how this state of mind is more congenial to the Divine nature, has in it more softness, more faith, more love, more elevation, more purity, than the calm virtue of ninety-and-nine just persons who need no repentance.^
When I look back upon my life nigh spent,
Nigh spent, although the stream as yet flows on, I more of follies than of sins repent.
Less for offence than Love's shortcomings moan.
With self, 0 Father, leave me not alone — Leave not with the beguiler the beguiled;
Besmirched and ragged. Lord, take back thine own : A fool I bring thee to be made a child.^
1 J. Hinton.
2 Bishop Stanley, in Memoirs of Edward and CatJterine Stanley, 192. ^ George MacDonald, "Organ Songs."
The Man that is Blessed.
i«>5
Literature.
Banks (L. A.), David and his Friends, 23.
Burrell (D. J.), The Morning Cometh, 243. ■
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, i. 234.
Deshon (Q.), Sermons for all the Sundays of the Ecclesiastical Year, 322.
Foston (H. M.), Tlie Waiting Life, 1.
Kingsley (C), Westminster Sermons, 110.
McFadyen (J. E.), Ten Studies in the Psalms, 3.
Maclareu (A.), Sermotis Preached in Manchester, iii. 225.
McLeod (M. J.), Heavenly Harmonies for Earthly Living, 27.
Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 171.
Parker (J.), The Ark of God, 113.
„ „ The City Temple, v. 289. Pulsford (J.), Infoldings and Unfoldings, 1. Simeon (C), Works, v. 1. Smellie (A), In the Hour of Silence, 326. Stall (S.), Five Minute Object Lessons to Children, 93. Tholuck (A.), Hours of Christian Devotion, 85. Thomas (J.), M%jrtle Street Pulpit, iii. 172. Walker (A. H.), Thinking about It, 59. Watson (J.), Respectable Sins, 241. Winter (G.), Keep to the Right, 59. British Congregationalist, May 28, 1908 (Jowett). Christian World Pulpit, xxvi. 269 (Mursell). Expositor, 2nd Ser., i. 81 (Cox). Preacher's Magazine, iii. (1892) 342 (Hawker) ; v. (1894) 414 (Walker) ;
vi. (1895) 211 (Tubbs). Sunday Magazine, 1883, p. 704 (Maclaren).
i66
The Man that is Blessed.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor standeth in the way of sinners,
Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.— Ps. i. i.
1. Deep as is the interest attaching to the Psalter as the great storehouse of sacred poetry, and vast as is its importance con- sidered as a record of spiritual life under the Old Dispensation, scarcely less interest and importance attach to it with reference to the position it has ever occupied both in the public worship of the Church and in the private life of Christians. No single book of Scripture, not even of the New Testament, has, perhaps, ever taken such hold on the heart of Christendom. None, if we may dare judge, unless it be the Gospels, has had so large an influence in moulding the affections, sustaining the hopes, purifying the faith of believers. With its words, rather than with their own, they have come before God. In these they have uttered their desires, their fears, their confessions, their aspirations, their sorrows, their joys, their thanksgivings. By these their devotion has been kindled and their hearts comforted. The Psalter has been, in the truest sense, the Prayer Book of both Jews and Christians.
^ The Jewish Psalms have furnished the bridal hymns, the battle songs, the pilgrim marches, the penitential prayers, and the public praises of every nation in Christendom, since Christen- dom was born. They have rolled through the din of every great European battlefield; they have pealed through the scream of the storm in every ocean highway of the world. Drake's sailors sang them when they clave the virgin waters of the Pacific; Frobisher's, when they dashed against the barriers of Arctic ice and night. They floated over the waters on that day of days when England held her freedom against Pope and Spaniard, and
won the naval supremacy of the world. They crossed the ocean
167
i68 THE MAN THAT IS BLESSED
with the Mayflower pilgrims ; were sung round Cromwell's camp- fires, and his Ironsides charged to their music ; whilst they have filled the peaceful homes of England with the voice of supplication and the breath of praise. In palace halls, by happy hearths, in squalid rooms, in pauper wards, in prison cells, in crowded sanctuaries, in lonely wilderness — everywhere they have uttered our moan of contrition and our song of triumph; our tearful complaints, and our wrestling, conquering prayer.^
^ If all the greatest excellences and most choice experience of all the true saints should be gathered from the whole Church since it has existed, and should be condensed into the focus of one book ; if God, I say, should permit any most spiritual and gifted man to form and concentrate such a book, such a book would be what the Book of Psalms is, or like unto it. For in the Book of Psalms we have not the life of the saints only, but we have the experience of Christ Himself, the Head of all the saints. So that you may truly call the Book of Psalms a little Bible. Be assured that the Holy Spirit Himself has written and handed down to us this Book of Psalms as a Liturgy, in the same way as a father would give a book to his children. He Himself has drawn up this Manual for His disciples; having collected together, as it were, the lives, groans, and experience of many thousands, whose hearts He alone sees and knows.^