Ver. 6.-The preciousness of the Word. "Tho words of the Lord," etc. Thus the Bible bears witness to itself. We read often in Scripture of "the word of the Lord "-not so often of" the words" of the Lord. By "the Word of the Lord" is meant sometimes a particular command, promise, or prediction ; but frequently-and usually in the N:w Testament-the substance or sum-total of pivine truth (Ps. cxix. 9, e.g.). But tblS phrase, "the words of the Lord," calls attention to the actual utterances in which this truth is recorded for us. So our Lord distinguishes (John viii. 43) between his "speech," the particular form or method of his teaching, and bis "Word," bis doctrine, J. '11111: INSPIRATION AND AUTHORITY OF THE SORIPTUREII. "The words of the Lord." We must guard against such narrow, mechanical views of inspiration as would confine it to the Hebrew and Greek words in which it was written, so that one who reads a good translation would not have "the words of the Lord." "The meaning ot Scripture," says 'l'yndale, "is Scripture." Inspiration is the Holy Spirit workinu in men and by men-not as machines, but as living, reasonable beings. . We ought n<rt. to speak of "the human element" and "the Divine element" as separable or hostile. A great picture is but paint and canvas, informed, vivified by_ the thought and genius ot the artist. You canuot say, "This part is paint, and that part is genius." So in the Bible. "Men of God spake "-there is the human element-" as they were moved by the Holy Ghost"-tbere is the Divine (comp. 2 'l'im. iii. 16, where, had the llevisers followed the analogy of their own rendering in 2 Tim. iv. 4, they would havs retained ihe rendering they have transferred to the margin). IL ITs TRmD AND PROVED TRUTH, The similitude is drawn from precious metal, whose worth and purity have been proved in the furnace, which separated the dros~ from the pure ore. The idea is not that we are to distinguish, in Scripture, dross from gold and sil,er, but that God has done so. He gives us not rough ore, but pure metal. But we may apply the image to the tests to which the Bible has been and daily is submitted. 1. The experience of those who have trusted it and gone by it. Those who have done this longest, most practically, with fullest faith, are the very persons most convinced of the truth and worth of the Bible. 2. Hostile criticism. !<'or the last hundred years this has been especially fierce, learned, elaborate, determined, skilful. Had the Vv ord not been pure g;old, it must have perished in this fierce furnace. The result has been to shed a flood of light on the letter of Scripture, and to bring to light a mass of new and powerful evidence, bearing witness to its truth and genuineness. It stands both tests (1 Pet. i. 23-25). III. lTs PRECIOUSNESS. It is worth all the care and trouble God has bestowed, by his providence and inspiration, on its composition and preservation; all the help and illumination which the Holy Spirit continually grants to those who read it with faith and earnest prayer; all the study given to it by friends and foes (Pss. cxix. 72; xix. 20). CoKCL!JBION, Is it precious to you 7 Is this the witness of your own experience? If not, it must be because you have not really tried it.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vcrs. I-8.-Hard times. This psalm has no indication of the time in which it was writien.1 At whatever time, however, it may have Leen penned, there iH no doubt about the general features of the age here represented. It was one in which good men were becoming more and more rare, in which the wicked abounded, and took occasion from the numerical inferiority of the ril(hteous to indulge in haughty and vain talk against ~hem and agair.st God. The psalmist looks with concern and distress upon this state 1 See the introd·1ction hereto in • The Cambridge Bible.' PB. XU. 1-8.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 7!)