Vers. 3, 4.-The transitoriness of man. "The occasion of the introduction of these sentiments here is not quite clear. It may be the humility of the warrior who ascribes all success to God instead of to human prowess; or it may be a reflection uttered over the corpses of comrades; or, perhaps, a blending of the two." I. THE VANITY OF MAN 0BEATEB SURPRISE AT Goo's CARE. "Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him?" This is an exclamation of surprise, which is repeated by every devout soul when the frailty of man is brought impressively before him. It is not merely the brevity of life that is in view, nor its uncertainty; it is the smallness of all human doings and aims. Relative to the size of the globe, the highest mountain is but a slight and scarcely perceptible ridge. Relative to tl:e mountain, e. single man is scarcely as big as a pin's head. And what can tuan accomplish? His mightiest achievements are but as the triumphs of the ants whose work he despises; and he is seldom permitted fully to achieve anything, for he is usually cµt off before the thing he intended can be completed. Man is a smaller being than some of the animals, and it is hard to concei~e of bis doing anything that is really worthy of Divine notice. And yet God does care for man as he cares for nothing else that be ha.s made. We can only wonder over the fact, glory in H, and let it bring home to our hearts the mystery-" God is love." II. THE VANITY OF JIU.N SHOULD LEAD HIM TO PUT HIMSELF INTO Goo's OARE. For it is not enough that God should care for us. The joy of that care is not realized until we care that God should thus care. It may be a fact, but it is no helpful, comforting fact until we respond to the fact, accept the care, and voluntarily put ourselves entirely into it. The psalmist here speaks as one who had mastered the depressing influence of his own sense of frailty, by assuring bis heart of God's personal care. That brings to man a sense of dignity which more than matches the sense of frailty. Man may be "crushed before the moth;" but it is also true, he is only "a little lower than the angels," for God-yes, the great, eternal God-is mindful of him.-R.T. Ver. 5.-God's intervention is his condescension. "Bow thy heavens, and come down." This prayer follows on the acknowledgment of man's frailty and transitoriness. His sphere is altogether below God, who must stoop down to help him. God's inter- vention involving his condescension may be illustrated in several spheres. To creato material things; to remedy the disturbance of things; to provide for the wants of tbino-s 0 · to recover self-ruined thino-s ;-all involve the Divine condescension. I. T~ CREATE MATERIAL 'IRING~. We want thu mind of a Hiudu philosopher in order to conceive of God as an absolute, uncaused, unrelated, independent existence; eternally and infinitely happy in himself, -.yitho~t what we call "_personality," ?ecause without relations. Just in the measure m which we can conceive such a berng, we can realize his condescension in corning out of the abstract into the concrete, and making and puttina himself into relation with, a world of things. II. •lo nEMEDY ;HE DISTURBANCE OF THINGS, Once let things be in any sense separate from himself; once let there be force8 (which W? ea.II laws) in nature, and free-will in man, and God's order will be sure to get disturbed. But he may be sublimely indifferent to the disorder in_ his crea~ion. It is_ his cond_esce~sion ~bat be is the constant Rectifier of the difficulties and disasters which come ID bis creat10n. III. To PROVIDE FOB THE WANTS OF THINGS. What impresses UB so greatly is tlie l'B, OXLIV, 1-15,] THE lJOOK OP PSALMS. 369
minuteness of attention which creation daily needs. We bow ourselves to do a thousand insignificant but necessary things in our households. How God must bow .himself to guard the life of every grass-blade, and to feed every gnat that hums in the summer evening I IV. To RECOVER RUINED THINGS. 'fbis brings to view the havoc which man's sin has made in individual lives and in God's fair world of things. For there is a ruin of the world which answers to the self-ruin of man. Why should not God let things go, and leave men to ruin themselves, and the world in .which they dwell, if they please to do so? He is not bound to intervene. If he does, it can only be in condescending love.-R. T.
Vers, 7, 8.-The known God and the unknown foe. "Stretch forth thine hand from above; rescue me out of the hand of stranger3." This is but saying, "I do not know those who trouble me, but I do know thee," I. ALL AROUND us IB THE UNKNOWN. 1. There is so little that we can understand. Spite of all the attainments of science, the "known" to-day bears no comparison at a.II to the" unknown." The philosopher has but scooped up in his shell a little of the water of the great ocean of truth. 'fhe more a man knows, the more he feels how little he knows, We need not be philosophers, and argue that man never does know more than phenomena, the accidents of things; it is enough to see that, concerning almost everything, a child can ask questions which the wisest man cannot answer. 2. There is so much that never comes into the field of human thought at all. For we have no right to say that the laws which we apprehend as controlling the movements of nature are the only la,vs that control them. We are constantly bJ.ffled by intima- tions of the working of laws of which we know nothing at all. 3. And the human experience through which we have to pass is hopelessly unknown to us. Known to no man are his coming positions, relations, friends, or foes, Every day every man has to say to himself, "I have not gone this way heretofore." It just has to be accepted as the fact for every life," We are of yesterday, and know nothing." II. UP ABOVE us I8 THE KNowN. In e. recent exhibition there was e. very touching picture of an old farm-labourer, dressed in his smock-frock, and with a lined, wearied face that told of a long life of troubles, but over the seams and lines seemed to spread e. soul-smile as, looking a.way through the clouds, he ea.id," Up beye.nt is the blue sky." It may be thus with every man. For the mind there is no rest; there is nothing but a fretful worrying with the surrounding unknown. But for the soul there is rest. It does not look around; it looks up, e.ud knows God-knows as love can know, knows as trust can know. And that is the only satisfying knowledge. A man can only be an a.gnostic till his soul finds God; then he knows as souls only can know.-R. T.