1 P. C. Ainsworth, The Threshold Oraee, 17. "^ Henry Melvill.
PSALM cxxi. 8 6i
her husband, ** into the face of death. Three times has my life been given back to me after a dire struggle that nearly ended it all. But oh ! I can tell you death is not so dark and drear as it is painted, even to the Christian. I felt as in the embraxje of a friend." ^
She sat within Life's Banquet Hall at noon,
When word was brought unto her secretly :
" The Master cometh onwards quickly ; soon
Across the Threshold He will call for thee."
Then she rose up to meet Him at the Door,
But turning, courteous, made a farewell brief
To those that sat around. From Care and Grief
She parted first: . . .
Then turning unto twain
That stood together, tenderly and oft
She kissed them on their foreheads, whispering soft:
"Kow must we part; yet leave me not before
Ye see me enter safe within the Door;
Kind bosom-comforters, that by my side
The darkest hour found ever closest bide,
A dark hour waits me, ere for evermore
Night with its heaviness be overpast ;
Stay with me till I cross the Threshold o'er."
So Faith and Hope stayed by her till the last.
But giving both her hands
To one that stood the nearest : " Thou and I
May pass together ; for the holy bands
God knits on earth are never loosed on high.
Long have I walked with thee ; thy name arose
E'en in my sleep, and sweeter than the close
Of music was thy voice ; for thou wert sent
To lead me homewards from my banishment
By devious ways, and never hath my heart
Swerved from thee, though our hands were wrung apart
By spirits sworn to sever us; above
Soon shall I look upon Thee as Thou art."
So she cross'd o'er with Love.^
* Memoirs of the Late Dr. Barnardo, 269.
• Dora Greenwell, The Soul's Parting.
The House of the Lord.
Literature.
Burrell (D. J.), The Spirit of the Age, 51.
Cuckson (J.), Faith and Fellowship, 205.
Duncan (W,), God's Book : God's Day : God's House, 73.
Farindon (A.), Sermons, ii. 634.
Leach (C), Sunday Afternoons with Working Men, 253. '
Rawnsley (R. D. B.), Village Sermons, ii. 70.
Stanley (A. P.), Sermons on Special Occasions, 87, 110, 224.
Talbot (E. S.), Some Aspects of Christian Truth, 292.
Tomory (A.), in Alexander Tomory, Indian Missionary, 75.
Voysey (C), Sermons, ix. (1886), No. 13 ; x. (1887), No. 26 ; xvi. (1893),
No. 31 ; xxi. (1898), No. 13 ; xxvi. (1903), No. 34. Christian World Pulpit, xvii. 190 (J. F. Haynes) ; xxix. 56 (W. Scott) ;
Ixxvi. 123 (J. G. Davies), 316 (A. B. Scott). Church Family Newspaper, Feb. 3, 1911, 88 (H. H. Robinson). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., xi. (G. Calthrop). Record, Feb. 7, 1913 (T. J. Madden).
The House of the Lord.
I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go unto the house of the Lord. — Ps. cxxii. i.
All who have made the Book of Psalms their study must have been struck with the deep and unaffected piety of the authors. The psalmists speak throughout the whole book of praising God, and praying to God as none could speak unless they were in earnest. There is a fervour in the language used by them which proves how surely their hearts were interested in what they uttered; which shows that religion was not to them a hollow form, something put on for policy or custom's sake, but a living, animating principle of conduct, the bread of their spiritual life, as necessary for their happiness as the food they ate was for their bodily existence.
^ Instances of this heart-felt piety might be quoted from every portion of the Psalms. To take a few out of the many, we read in Psalm xxvi. : " Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. I will offer in thy dwelling an oblation with great gladness. I will sing and speak praise unto the Lord." And in Psalm xxvii. : " One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will require, even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life ; to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple." Again, at the opening of the famous Psalm Ixxxiv. and all throughout it : " Oh ! how amiable are thy dwellings, thou Lord of hosts! My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord ; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be always praising thee. . . . One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness." And in Psalm cxvi., that which is so fittingly read at the churching of women, this is his language after he had experienced a great deliverance: "What reward shall I give unto the Lord, for all the benefits that he hath done
PS. CXIX.-SONG OF SOL. — 5