Divifiioii £>S n"M
..H35
V. 4
cofY )
THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
MA' 3 1 loop
THE GREAT T OF THE BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
JAMES Hastings, d.d.
EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE*
"THE DICTIONARY OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND
"THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS"
PSALMS XXIV.-GXIX.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS
EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1914
X
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
•
PAGE
The Secret of the Lord ...... 1
Waiting Courageously .
19
The Transiekce of Sorrow
37
Room to Live ....
51
The Beatitude op Forgiveness
67
The Guiding Eye
83
The Goodness of God .
97
God of Nature and God of Grace .
117
Life and Light .
137
Delighting in the Lord
153
The Crowning of the Year .
167
The Burden-Bearing God
179
A Sun and a Shield .
195
The Home of the Soul
209
The Right Use of Time
225
God's Inner Circle
239
Strength and Beauty .
255
Light and Gladness
269
All His Benefits
. 283
The Father's Pity
. 303
The Day's Work.
317
Leanness of Soul
337
A Volunteer Army
351
The Brook in the Way
. 367
What shall I Render?
383
The Day which the Lord made
. 397
The Clean Path
. 413
The Wondrous Law
. 427
Liberty in God's Law .
. 445
VI
CONTENTS
TEXTS. Psalms.
XXV.
XXVII.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXII.
XXXIV.
XXXVI.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
LXV.
LXVIII.
LXXXIV.
xc. xc.
XCI.
XCVI.
XCVII.
cm. cm.
CIV. CVI.
ex. ex.
CXVI. CXVIII. CXIX. CXIX. CXIX.
14
14
5
8
1,2
8
8
5, 6
9
4
11
19
11
1
12
1
6
11
1-5
13, 14
23
15
3
7
12-14
24
9
18
96
MOK
3
21 39 53 69 85 99 119 139 155 169 181 197 211 227 241 257 271 285 305 319 339 353 369 385 399 415 429 447
The Secret of the Lord.
PS. XXV.-CXIX. — I
Literature.
Banks (L, A.), Tlie King's Stewards, 142.
Brooks (P.), New Starts in Life, 271.
Clow (W. M.), The Secret of the Lord, 1.
Cowl (F. B.), Digging Ditches, 79.
Holland (C), Gleanings from a Ministry of Fifty Years, 150.
Johnston (J. B.), TJie Ministry of Reconciliation, 323.
Jowett (J. H.), Brooks hy the Traveller's Way, 172.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Ascension Day to Trinity
Sunday, 343. Morrison (G. H.), The Afterglow of God, 3G6. Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 78. Selby (T. G.), The Divine Craftsman, 142. Simeon (C), Works, v. 168. Vaughan (C. J.), Memorials of Harrow, 270. Literary Churchman, xxxviii. (1892) 45 (C. W. Whistler). Sunday at Home, 1910, p. 629 (G. H. Morrison). Treasury (New York), xvii. 404 (G. B. F, Halluck).
The Secret of the Lord.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; And he will shew them his covenant.— Ps. xxv. 14.
When the Hebrew poet spoke of the secret of the Lord he meant the knowledge of the God of Israel, the unseen and eternal Jehovah. When he thought of them that fear Him, he remembered the stalwart saints who shall ever be the heroic leaders of the faith. He recalled Abraham coming out of Ur of the Chaldees with a wisdom and a knowledge that no Babylonian star-gazer ever divined. He thought of Jacob rising from his midnight dream at Bethel, saying in penitence and awe, " Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not," He saw Moses at the burning bush, putting off the shoes from his feet, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. He remembered Samuel coming out of the temple in the morning light, having heard the voice of God, with a message he dared not tell to Eli, Each of these had entered into a solemn experience. Each of them had come forth with a secret. A new and deeper understanding of God's ways, and thoughts, and purposes had been given them. He marks the law of their experience. It was the law of fear. They had that fear of God which is an awe and a reverence, a passion of desire to know, and a willingness to submit and to obey. Therefore God made known the secret to them,
^ Thompson dwells on St. Paul's unspoken message, which, designated by the name of wisdom, he withheld from many of the Corinthians because they were not fit to hear it. He communi- cated it to the spiritual not to the animal man. Origen says that that which St. Paul would have called wisdom is found in the " Canticle of Canticles." Thompson dwells further on the hidden meanings of the Pentateuch, believing that there was " an inex- haustible treasure of divine wisdom concealed under the letter of Holy Writ." Thompson saw wise men whispering, and guessed that there were secrets ; their presence discovered, they were open
4 THE SECRET OF THE LORD
secrets for such as he. " You have but to direct my sight, and the iutentuess of my gaze will discover the rest." ^
^ There were three courts in the Temple at Jerusalem. There was the outer court, where even the Gentiles who cared nothing for the God of Israel or the faith of the Hebrew people might freely come. There was the holy place with its sacred things, where only the Hebrew worshipper might walk. There was the most holy place, over which the veil of the Temple hung, and into whose unseen and unknown seclusion the high priest entered once every year, alone. There are these three courts in the life of a Christian man. There is the outer court, where a man who is living his life in the world must keep company with all who enter its circle. He must rub shoulders with the crowd, although he never forgets that they cannot enter into his secret. There is the holy place, where fellow-believers may pass, and speech and thought of the things of God have a gracious liberty. But there is the most holy place, and what passes there between God and the soul is to be kept with a guarded reticence until there is need for its being told.^