mysteries, though there may be impiety either in our presumptuous attempts to explain them, or more presumptuous denials that there can be an explanation perfectly consistent with God'8 wisdom, justice, and goodness. We must not rashly try to lift the veil or rend it; but as we worHhip before it we feel that it is a veil (Isa. xiv. 15). God is a Sovereign, but not a Tyrant. Absolute obedience and trust are his due; but he will not crush either our reason or our conscience (Jer. xii. 1). Among the imperish- able monuments which the Bible has placed over the graves of the good and wise and faithful, are not only those of such as were garnered like the ripe shock; but of others who came forth as a flower, and were cut down; not only Abraham, Israel, David, Daniel; but Abel, Josiah, Stephen, James, Such cases are not rare exceptions, but so frequent in every age of the Church's history as to suggest the thought that them must be some deep, permanent, prevailing reason why so many priceleos !ins are cut short in their prime, and the Church of Christ and the world made poor by the loss of such vast stores of unspent service, II. THE ENIGMA OF LIFE. For those who reject the gospel-the insoluble enigm!\, Close your Bible. Suppose, iu the history of our race, no Incarnation, no Atonement, no Resurrection; in our calendar, no Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Then, whet ls human life? A vast funeral procession; not in ordered march, with the grey heads always in the van. A confused blind hurry, in which not one of the crowd can tell but the next step may be into darkness and dust. Now the babe is snatched, now the mother. The child in his play, the youth in his pride and hope, the bride with her wreath; the man of ripe power and rich experience, whose fall is like Samson's, bringing down the pillars on which the house rested. W7iat does it mean 1 There are those who try to borrow the moral force and motive power of Christianity, while rejecting its facts, who are ready with an answer. "Man," they say," is immortal in bis work. All that is best of us survives." No more, we reply, than what is worst. "The evil that men do lives aft11r them." Noblest enterprises are rudely made abortive by death. The statesman, reformer, philanthropist (as dying Mirabeau said), cannot "bequeath his head" (Job xi\", 10, last clause). III. THE GOSPEL SUPPLms THE KEY TO THE ENIGMA, THE REPLY TO THE QUESTION, Yes. '1.'he dust shall praise God; the grave does declare his truth. 1. From the open, empty tomb of Jesus comes the message of comfort, hope, life. Death is abolished (2 'fim. i. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 20). 2. Every Christian grave praises God, bearing witness to the faith which conquered death and robbed the grave of terror (Ps. xxiii. 4; 2 Cor. v. 1, 6); in the recognition and comfort of Christian mourners (1 Thess. v. 13) ; in the promise of the Lord (John vi. 39; Rev. i. 18). Patience I "Fear not, only believe." '1.'he promise shall be fulfilled. Death shall be destroyed (John v. 28, 2Ll; Phil. iii. 20, 21 ; 1 Cor. xv. 62, 53, 65). Men.ntime, who can doubt that the work which seems to us often so roughly on,\ untimely broken off, is but raised to a higher sphere? They who seem to enter into rest before their time do so because the Lord has made their place ready (John xiv, 2),
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-12.-A public thanks_qiving on recovery from sicknBBs, This psalm has a remarkable title, "A Psalm or Song at the dedication of the house of David." What house is referred to we have no means of knowing, nor is there any very manifest relation between the contents of the psalm and the dedication of ,my house wh,\tso- cver.1 We can scarcely read the psalm carefully without gathering therefrom that the writer had had o. dangerous illness, from which he was not expecting to recover, But his life was mercifully spared; and ,vo may venture to gather also (by comparing tho title of the psalm with ver. 3) that his recovery, and the dedication referred to nearly coincided in point of time; and that he piously resolved to avail himself of
1 Delit.Z'doh hos most eervioeable remn.rks hereon in Ilia introduotion to this psalm, Mr. Fauseet's study on tbi1t pso.lm is most inatruotive, • Horm Psalmiom,' pp. 138-141. Kirk- patriok's introduction and notes, in the 'Cambridge Bible' serie1, will repay- onreful atteq- tiol!, w will :Pr, Grceq's note aq vet, :i. 223 THE BOOK 011' PSALMS. [rs. xxx. 1-12.