things, set on musing and meditation of heavenly things. The psalmist took and bent his heart, a.~ a. thing bending too much to other things; set his mind on musing on it. He found hie heart and the Law of God too far asunder, and 1;o would continue, unless be brought them together and mado them one. If he bad not brought his heart to the Word, he had never meditated; the object cannot apply itself to the mind, but the mind must bring itself to the object. No holy duties will come to us; we must come to them" (Nathanael Ra.new, 1670). L WE RECOGNIZE OUR POWER OVER OUR OWN LIVES. We say thaJ a. man may make of his life what he pleases. He can set before him standards and rules of conduct., and compel his actions to conform to them. His power is indeed wi1hin limitations, so that he cannot always do the things that he would. There are limita- tions arising from (1) natural character, feebleness of will, etc.; (2) imperfect mental and moral training; (3) hindering circumstances; (4) resistance of other will~. And yet every man knows that the dominion given to man in this world includes, and indeed reaches, its higher forms in the dominion of his own conduct and relationships. 11 WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE OUR POWER OYER OIJB OWN HEARTS. Because a vague sentiment easily grows on us that our hearts aro the sphere only of the Divine operations, and we can do nothing with them, but must leave them wholly to the indwelling Spirit. This, however, is exaggerating and misrepresenting a most vital and precious truth. What we cannot do in the inclining and shaping of our hearts or affections should bring to view how much there is that we can do. We can put oureel ves in the way of nourishing a.11 good a.lfections and emotions. We can keep out of the way of things that would unworthily bias or occupy our hearts. And we may keep ever fresh in our convictions that the power which we have to incline our own hearts is power on which God's power rests, and through which his power worke.-R. '1'. Ver. 113.-The offence of the insincere. "I hate them that a.re of a double mind " - men who "halt between two opinions" (1 Kingd xviii. 2). "Perhaps we nre to think of those among the Jews who were for political reasons favourably inclined towards foreign customs and ideas, and who would not throw in their lot frankly and courage- ously with the national party." Compare St. James's "double-minded man" (i. 8). The good man has a natural repugnance to the " two-faced" man. He revolts from him. He cannot trust him. He shrinks from him as from the serpent, which is the type of subtlety in a. bad and perilous sense. When the ideal Man moved to and fro among men, this characteristic of the good man was most marked in him. He was keenly sensitive to insincerity; he most vigorously denounced the hypocrite; the two- faced man was ever an unendurable offunce to him. L THE INSINCERE ARE AN OFFENCE TO EVERY MAN. Genuineness is the basis of all human trust. The schemer undermines society. We can only deal with our fellow- men on tha assumption that they are what they seem to be. Home, friendship, business, society, nations, Churches, all are so seriously injured by the influence of the insincere, that they are always on the watch for them. To stand in any relation in this world, a man must be true to himself. II. THE INSINCERE ARE AN OFFENCE TO THE GOOD HAN. Everything that is characteristic of man is sharpened and polished (furbished) by his becoming a good man. And this may especially be observed in relation to truth and eruthfvl,ness. To appre- hend and kuow God is to gain an altogether higher estimate of sincerity; for he "de9ireth truth in the inward parts." And to endeavour to live a godly life is to establish and confirm truth as the basis of character and relationships; and the man of truth requires truth in others. And he is keen to detect and to renounce that almost unco!lscious insinceriLy into which men fall whose lives a.re not ruled by high and noble principles. 'l'heir "permissions" are an offence to him. III. THE INSINCERE ARE AN OFFENCE TO Goo. This can be illustrated from Old Testameut character-studies, from Psalms, Proverbs, and Prophets; but more fully from the relations of the God-Man, the Lord Jesus, with the hypocrite and the insincere (Matt. xxiii.).-R. T.
Ver. 115.-The mischievous influence of the disobedient. "Away from me, ye 164 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. llXIX, 1-176.