(4) The heart is soothed and comforted. Love alone can find its way into the innermost shrine of personality. In the atmo- sphere of beneficence our pores are opened, and subtle heavenly influences percolate into the soul.
^ Harsh and heartless criticism almost fatally wounded the imaginative genius of Turner. The precocious poet Keats was mortally grieved by the cruel ridicule and savage scorn of the Press. But in the atmosphere of Supreme Love, the flickering spark of spiritual genius is revived into an aspiring flame, and the absorbent system of the soul is developed and perfected. The
^ H. Batclielor, TJic Incarnatioji of God, 65.
3i8 GOD'S GENTLENESS
influences with which God is surcharged are so wisely regulated that the frailest spiritual organism can imbibe them.^
And gently, by a thousand things
Which o'er our spirits pass, Like breezes o'er the harp's fine strings
Or vapours o'er a glass, Leaving their token strange and new
Of music or of shade, The summons to the right and true
And merciful is made.^ ^ J. Newton, The Problem of Personality, 163. ^ Whittier.
The Perfect Law.
3»»
Literature.
Fox (W. J.), Collected Works, iii. 175.
Gibson (E. C. S.), The Old Testainent and its Messages, 128.
Hanna (H.), The Church on the Sea, 384.
Indiig (E.), Collected Writings, iii. 383.
Lee (R.), Servians, 325.
Morrison (J.), Sheaves of Ministry, 13.
Peabody (A. P.), King's Chapel Sermons, 95,
Pierson (A. T.), The Hopes of the Gospel, 3.
Spencer (J. S.), Sermons, ii. 7.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1. (1904) No. 2870.
Christian World Pulpit, xlvii. 24 (Scott Holland).
Church of England Magazine, viii. (1840) 112 (Dixon).
Expositor, 1st Ser., xii. 89 (Mathsson).
Homiletic Review, New Ser., xix. 566.
330
The Perfect Law.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul :
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart :
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever :
The judgements of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
Ps. xix. 7-9.
1. This Psalm consists of two parts — so distinct that some have held that their union was an afterthought, and that they must originally have belonged to different hymns. The supposition is scarcely necessary, for surely the transition is not an unnatural or a violent one — from the thought of God in nature to that of God in revelation. And very instructive is it to note how the Psalmist suggests a contrast between the two by the different names for God which he employs in the two parts of the Psalm. The Hebrew tongue has many names for God, but there are two principal ones, and it is often interesting to see which is employed. There is first the ordinary name for God, "Elohim," or "El," a name which simply speaks of the Supreme Being, the Maker and Creator of all things visible and invisible, but tells us nothing of His nature and character. But there is also the name by which God specially revealed Himself as entering into covenant with man, which spoke of His personal relations to His own people, His manifestation to them, and His unchanging love for them. This is what we might reverently call the " proper name " of God. It is sometimes represented in our Bibles as Jehovah, more often simply as the Lord, the translators having followed Jewish custom, which shrank, from motives of reverence, from pronouncing the word Jehovah because of its sacredness, and ordinarily substituted for it another word meaning Lord. Now when we turn to the Psalm before us, what do we find ? In the JOB-PS. XXX. — 21
322 THE PERFECT LAW
first part, consisting of verses 1 to 6, of which the subject is Nature, we are told that the heavens declare the glory of God. It is God — El, the strong, the mighty — whom the world around reveals. Of God as Power you can learn from Nature. Would you know Him as Love, as entering into personal relations with man — for this, the Psalmist seems to say, you must go to Eevela- tion. And therefore, in the second part of the Psalm, from verse 7 onwards, where he describes the glory of the revealed law, the name of Him who gives it is changed. He no longer speaks of Him simply as God. It is the law of the Lord that is perfect. The Lord — that is, Jehovah, the covenant name under which the Almighty revealed Himself to Moses at the bush, the name which spoke to every Jew of One who had set His love upon man, who was mindful of him, and entered into closest personal relations with him.^
2. The Psalm may perhaps have been written in the first flush of an Eastern sunrise, when the sun was seen " as a bride- groom coming out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run his course." The song breathes all the life and freshness, all the gladness and glory of the morning. The devout singer looks out, first, on the works of God's fingers, and sees all creation bearing its constant though silent testimony to its Maker; and then he turns himself with a feeling of deep satisfaction to that yet clearer and better witness concerning Him to be found in the moral law. Thus he begins the day ; thus he prepares himself for the duties that await him, for the temptations that may assail, and the sorrows that may gather as a cloud about him. He has made trial of the preciousness of that word. He knows its deep, hallowing, soul-sustaining power. He knows that it is full of life and healing. But he knows also that it is a word that searches and tries the heart, that reveals the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of man ; and therefore he bows himself in prayer, saying, " As for errors, — who can understand them ? Cleanse thou me from secret faults." ^