inwardly. With the wicked, when suffering comes, there is no alleviation, no blessed peace c)f God, no communion with him, no bright hope, no sustaining Holy Spirit . .Hut these are all in the lot or the righteous, God's saints have ever enjoyed them. Hence it matters but little, if the inward grace be given, whether the outward rod be removed or no. 3. But ie generally is removed both outwardly and inwardly. It is not suffered to be permanent. Tho troubles of the righteous are but as going through a tunnel; it may be very long and very dark and very drear, but it is only a tunnel, and ere long the light iG reached again. II. GoD WILL NOT SUFFER THEM TO BE TEMPTED ABOVE THAT THJ;;Y Ar.E ABLE TO DEAR. 'l'his is the reason given why "the rod of the wicked shall not rest," etc. 1. There are other reasons. God's love for bis people. He has no pleasure in their pain. No, but in their affliction he is afflicted. Hence "he will not always chide," etc. (Ps. ciii.). Then, because they are in Christ (cf. Rom. viii. 1). 2. But there is this reason also. It would defeat the very end God has in view. He desires his people to be perfected in righteousness. But if the "rod of the wicked" always "rested," etc.-that unmitigated, unalleviated rod-it would be more than our poor frail humanity could bear. The righteous would be discouraged, and this would be fatal to them, as it ever is. The condition of fidelity is to be strong and of a good courage. III. TaEm LOT WILL BECOME DRIGHTER AND BRIGHTER. (Ver. 4.) The prayer simply states what is God's perpetual way, He is good to them that are good, adding ever to bis grace (Prov. iv. 18). IV. BuT MUST NEVER BE DEPARTED FROM. To turn aside from it is certain misery (ver. 5). The most wretched souls on the face of the earth are those that have turned aside from God to wicked ways, such as are all the ways of sin.-S. C. Ver. 1.-Stability out of trust. The key-note of this psalm is a fear lest the restored Israel should again prove faithless and backsliding, as in the older time. "The pious psalmist trembles lest the blasts of foreign tyranny, which have swept upon the sacred nation with such protracted severity, should uproot it from its basis of true religion. The long domination of a heathen power dnring the recent Exile, and the present molestations of the semi-idolatrous Samaritans, must doubtless have had their effects on the weak-hearted among the psalmist's countrymen. In the present poem, therefore, words of consolation and of threatening l\ro naturally blended. The faithful, say~ the psalmist, need not be terrified, for calamity shall not endure; they ho.ve n firm foundation, which cannot totter, and Jehovah is to them a bulwark, deterring the oppressive foe who would pervert them from their holy faith." Mount Zion should not be confused with Mount Moriah. It represents the people as o. whole, tho nation as a nation, not exclusivelJ regarded In itR religions obligations and relations. '!'he poetical conception of a mountain is firmness, because resting on broad and deep foundations, The earthquake is thought of as the most awful of forces, because it can even shake the mountains. The rootage of the mountains 11t the very centre of tho earth is a figure of the rootage a nation or a soul hns by its trust in God. Or ns the cedar on the hillside, it is free to wave in the storm-winds, becl\use it clasps and twines about the rock of God, I. STADILITY CANNOT COME OUT OF CIRCUMSTANCES. They do but shake us to and fro, and make us stagger up and down. Illustrate from the various experiences of the Israelite nation. No kind of restfulness can possibly be gained while we wait on circumstances. II. STABILITY 0ANNOT COME OUT OF KNOWLEDGE. "For knowledge is of things we see," and these all lie in the range of the circumstantial. It is curious that men should have such confidence in the certainty of knowledge, when there is nothing in the world so fluctuating. What men stoutly affirm they know to-day they relegate to the list of exploded the1Jries to-morrow. Being a creature, man's secret of rest must be the dependence of faith, and not the certitude of knowledge. A very striking illustration of the instability of the results of even advanced learning is given by Mr. H. L. Hastings. The following is a list of the discordant hypotheses of tho so-called "Higher Criticism," publi:1hcd since 1850, on the origin nnd authorship of the Old nnd New Testament books: "For Genesis there have been 16 theories, Exodus 13, Levi- ticus 22, Numbers 8, Deuteronomy 17; total for Pontateuch, 76 theories. For Joshua 216 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [es. oxxv. 1-5.
10, Judges 7, Ruth 4, Samuel 20, Kings 24, Chronicles 17, Esdras 14, Nehemiah 11, Esther 6; total for historical books, 113. For Job 26, Psalms 19, Proverbs 24, Eccle- siastes 21, Canticles 18; total for poetical books, 108. For Isaiah 27 Jeremiah 24, Lamentations 10, Ezekiel 15, Daniel 22; total for great prophets, 98. For all the minor prophets, 144. Total for the Old Testament, 639. For Matthew 10 Luke 9, Mark 7, John 15; total for Gospels, 41. Acts 12, Paul's Epistles 111, othe; Epistles 44; total for New Testament, 208. Grand total of theories for the entire Bible, 747. Of these 603 have already gone into oblivion, and there is no reason to fear that many of the remainin~ 144 may not soon follow them to the shelves of the libraries, to be dusted no more. ' Or illustration may be taken from scientific knowledge. So incom- plete and uncertain is even such knowledge, that a scientific book more than ten years old is now regarded as out of date and untrustworthy. ,We can never find security in our own particular knowledge, seeing that we are ever growing out of our own past of imperfection. III. STABILITY CAN 0l\"LY COME OUT OF TRUST. It may 11eem strange to say, but the most reliable thing is the human heart. "Many waters cannot quench love." Let it 'lllCe get its grip, it holds tight, and will die rather than loosen that grip. But when we speak of trust, two things are in mind: (1) the stability which comes out of trust as an exercise of the whole force of a man's being; and (2) the stability which comes by the trustworthiness of him on whom we rely. The grip may be strong, but that which is gripped may be uncertain and shakable. Our stability is guaranteed only when he in whom we trust is absolutely reliable, and the trust that we repose in him is wholly undivided and entire. "Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."-R. T.