from things. The disturbances of nature are not real; they only represent human con- ceptions based on what is humanly observed. Tempest,~ earthquakes, etc., are in the Divine order. The hindrances can only come from inttlligeot creatures, to wl,om is entrusted a limited self-will. Man has this awful possibility given to him ; he can come in between God's will and the carrying out of that will. IIL THE TRIU11PH OVEB THE HINDRANCES. That murt sometimes be accomplished by the putting forth of Divine power; but it is the marvel of Divine grace that it is usually done by persuading the human will, briogirig it into full harmony with the Divine will, and so getting the man himself to take the hindrances out of the way. -R.T. Ver. 10.-77ie Lord, ia a" Man of 'IDQ,r." 1. So thoroughly has Christianity filled the modern mind with the love of peace, that tho older associations of Jehovah with times and scenes of war have become positi\."ely paiofnl to us. Taking advantage of this feeling-perhaps we should s~y this weakness of feeling-the infidel makes easy attacks upon the Old Testament Jehovah as an altogether unlovely and even blood- thirsty conception. Are we to be unduly alarmed, and to attempt explanations and excuses? or are we to take a firm stand, and say that, as the experience of war is one of the common places of humanity, the association of Jehovah with war is inevitable; it must he made in every nation and in every genert1.tion, and according to the idea a nation has of war must be its notion of God as aRSociated with war. In the last hun- dred years there have been a great variety of wars, right ones and wrong. Men cannot help it ; they must as5ociate their God with their wars. The thing to seek is a right association. Ware are dreadful things; but it is not possible to read history intelli- gently, and say that they have al ways been wrong. Bnt if they have ever been just anu right, God cannot be dishonoured by being thou~bt of as connected with them, and working out his purposes by means of them. 2. Theo, again, wars belong to that liberty with wbi~b God baa entrusted his creatures. It is a liberty over which be watches, and which he holds in due restraints. But he would not he fair to men unless he gave them a good length of tether. Man mnst have liberty enough to fight for his ends. 3. Again, if the self-defence of an individual man be right, and even aggressive action under some cooditions,-self-defence in an aggregate of individuals, in a nation, need not be wrong. We must distinguish between the misery of it and the sin of it. A nation has no way of aggressive or defensive action, in relation to the aggressive or defensive action of another nation, save by war. 4. And lastly, God may wre nations, as well as natnral forces, for the execution of hb judgmcots. Natnral forces are pestilence, famine, and convulsions, RB we call them, of nature. 'l'be only national executive force is war. Reasonably, as well as poetically, God may be called a" Man of war."-R. T.
Ver. 13.-.Authorit.Itive rerorda of the Divine tcay1. "'l'hy memorial, 0 Lord, from one generation to anotbtr." The "memorial" may be but another word for the "Name;" but from one point of view the" Name" is but gathering into a single term the records of the Divine dealings; and it does but express that conception of God himself which his Divine dealings have prodaceJ. on us. So we may say that the memorial of his doings fills with mcaoiag the Divine NaTM, and assures us that what God has ever been to his people, he ever will be. Once on a time learned men were sorely puzzled by certain irregular holes on the front of an ancient temple. One, more sagacious than the rest, suggested that these indentations might be the mark~ of nails used to f&sten Greek characters to the stone. Lines were drawn from one point to the next, when they were found to form letters, and the name of the Deity oncx)ll'ctedlv stood disclosed. ,vhat is kuown aa a "zikr," or memorial service, is repeated by 1\Ioham- medaos, at stated interval11, at the graves of thOlltl long dead, if they have left II reputation for holine88. The word "zikr" is closely connected with the Hebrew word for "a memorial," or" remembrance," indeed, one may say identical with it. Tile subject suggested is the Divine arrangement that the Divine dealings shoulJ be ~1elJ in men's memory through all the generations, and be a permaneut moral force In every age. '!'be Bible is the memorial. L 'l'B.K BwLE 1s A BOOK OJ' nlBTOBY. It is more than this, but it is this; and 284 fHE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. cnxv. 1-21.