By devout communion and contact a soul gains strength from Christ. I cannot tell hoio it is that I should be able to receive into my being a power to do and to bear by this communion, but I know that it is a fact.^
II.
The Character of God's Law.
The Law is characterized by six names and nine epithets and by nine effects. The names are law, testimony, statutes, com- ma,ndments, fear, judgments. To it are applied nine epithets, namely, perfect, sure, right, pure, holy, true, righteous, desirable, sweet. To it are ascribed nine effects, namely, it converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures for ever, enriches like gold, satisfies like honey, warns against sin, rewards the obedient.
^ C. Vince, The Unchanginy Saviour, 173.
330 THE PERFECT LAW
^ The six names here given to the word of God are the same six names that are spread through the 119th Psalm. These six names are law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear (what produces fear), and judgments. Studied more closely, it suggests that law and testimony have a close relation, as also have statutes and commandments, and fear and judgments. There is here even a deeper and profounder suggestion than possibly has ever struck many a reader — namely, that as law has three main features or departments, first, common law, — principles or pre- cepts upon which all specific statutes are based, — next statute law, or the commandments and precepts themselves, built up on the basis of common law, — and then legal sanctions, of reward and penalty, which sustain both common and statute law, giving the law authority, certainty of execution, and glory in the eyes of men, so these three things are distinctly referred to in this inspired poem. Law and testimony concern the common law. Law is the one word of the six, most general and covering the largest meaning. Testi- mony is another name very wide in its application, for it is God's witness to men concerning His will and His character. Statutes, however, represent specific precepts ; and so do commandments. But, when we come to consider that which in the law produces fear in the subject, and overawes by its judgments or irreversible decisions, we at once think of the sanctions which sustain the whole fabric of law and rule, as we have already been reminded of common law and statute law.^
^ God needs for the manifold illustration of His perfect law, and man needs for example and encouragement in keeping it, that it show its resplendent beauty and reveal its transcending loveli- ness alike on the throne and on the cross, in prosperous and in adverse fortunes, in buoyant strength and vigour, and in infirmity, illness, and suffering, with the praise and under the frowns of men, in honour and beneath scorn and contempt. I have never forgotten what was said many years ago by a clerical friend of mine on his death-bed, " My words are few and feeble ; but the pulpit from which I utter them must give them weight and power." Have we not, all of us, witnessed in the patience, resignation, and trust of those most severely afflicted such demonstration as no words could convey of the peace which God gives to those who love and keep His law ? Thus the faithful law-keepers have numbered in their ranks equally those for whom the world has done its best, and those who have endured its severest privations and finals.^
^ A. T. Pierson, The Hopes of the Gospel, 10.
2 A. P. Peabody, King's Chapel Sermons, 100.
PSALM XIX. 7-9 331
1. " The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." In the world of Nature there is no provision for the restoration of the soul. It neither praises nor blames; it neither weeps nor laughs ; it neither applauds nor condemns the acts of struggling humanity ; and, amidst all the speech which day utters unto day and night to night, there is no evidence that one word is spoken of interest in a fallen spirit.
But when the Psalmist turns his eye inward, he finds in the revelation of Conscience that which in Nature he sought in vain : " The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." The per- fection which he sees is the adaptation to a world of imperfection. He hears a voice speaking to his humility, to his nothingness, to his abasement. He is in communion with a revelation which recognizes him in his ruin, which speaks to him in his fallen majesty. True it is a rough voice uttering a stern command, speaking in an accent of strong rebuke ; but it is precisely this that endears it to his soul. It is not the placid tone of the in- different universe, which seems to pass him by on the other side ; it is the stern speech of a wounded parent who, in the depth of offended love, cannot pass him by.
^ If the mountain would have come to Mahomet, Mahomet would not have gone to the mountain. If we could twist and bend the law at pleasure, we could convert it, instead of its con- verting us. In our sins, great or small, we virtually try to evade the law, to get round it, to violate it and shirk its penalty, to make for ourselves a law independent of it — but in vain. When we will not keep the law, the law executes itself upon and in us, body, mind, and soul, all three, it may be. To find this true is our unspeakable blessedness ; for when we learn that we cannot escape the law, we embrace it, take it to our hearts, incarnate it in our lives ; and then it becomes our light and our joy, and we experience the full meaning of those good words of the early time, "Great peace have they who love thy law." It becomes, too, not our restraint, but our freedom ; for when the finite range of things forbidden by it is cut off for us, we emerge into un- bounded liberty of choice in the infinite scope of things excellent, Divine, eternal.^