by the sweat of his brow, as long as his work is healthy, his food plentiful and whole- some, and he can keep out of debt, and have a little to give to God's work and to a needy neighbour. But when strength is overtasked, when toil and thrift cannot keep the wolf from the Joor, and work fails or health breaks down, and the question l1as to be faced how long the home can be kept together,-then, indeed, poverty is felt to be one of the bitterest forms of the curse which. sin bas brought into human life. For though this cruel form of suffering often falls on those who have not themselves to blame for it, somebody is to blame, or society is to blame. 'l'race it to its deepest root, a11d you shall find sin. And then it is that the pitiful eye of the AU-giver rests on that darkened home, and his voice say~, "Blessed is he that cousidereth the poor." Sickness often comes as the direct fruit of poverty. Often they terribly aggravate one another's burden. It would be a heart-rending sight to see all the sick-beds in a nation, or even iu a single city; but a blessed and heavenly sight if we could see all the tender sympathy, self-sacrificing love, sleepless, patient labour, self-devoted skill, which sickness is hourly calling forth. None tread closer than the nurse and the physician in the earthly footsteps of him who "went about doing good." What a hard, selfish world, one imagines, this would become, were there no self-denying ministry to the helpless and suffering I So God brings good out of evil, and "blesses him that considereth the poor." Note the tender promise, ver. 3, Authorized Version, w bich, I doubt not, is the true sense. 2. '!'here is justice as well as 'TMrcy in this claim, enforced not only by Christ's example, but by his Law (Gal. vi. 2). 'l'rue, both poverty and disease are largely the direct result of sloth, intemperance, dishonesty, neglect, or other vices and follies-sin's wages. Yet even in these cases the heavy end of the burden very often falls on innocent shoulders. And in multitudes of cases . these calamities come on those who have done their best. 'l'bey fought bravely, but the battle of life went against them. The causes may lie far back in the past-in bad laws, misgovernment, wars, wasteful expenditure; or in trade disputes; or in far-off lands, by the failure of a crop or the origin of a pestilence. Then, since the poor and the Eick are so largely the victims of the mistakes, follies, or crimes of society, nations, mankind; nay, even suffer often from the very causes by which others grow rich,-is it not simple justice that those for whom the great wheel of life is spinning a smooth and golden thread should step in t-0 lift their burden," as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" ? II. 'l'RE NATURE OF' THE BLESSING HEBE PRONOUNCED, 1. One of the greatest of all blessings is to be like God (Matt. v. 45). 2. It is blessed to be God's almoner (Matt. x. 8). 3. The sweetest happiness is to make others happy. 4. It is blessed to have a place in the prayers of God's afflicted children. Perhaps, if the balance could be struck, it would not be always where the giver expects; he may be more a debtor to their prayers than a creditor by his gifts. 5. After all this, it seems an over- measure of re1,ayment to speak of any future recompense; yet our Saviour does (Luke xiv. 14; 1 'l'im. vi 17-19; Matt. x. 42).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-3.-The poor man's cha,·ter; or, a blessing pronounced on the benevolent. Thouo-h there is no sufficient reason to question the accuracy of the title of this psalm, yet the blessing here pronounced on benevolent souls is entirely independent of its human penman. The two key-words in the first verse-" considereth "and" the poor" -are words of very wide significance. 'l'he first would mean "he who takes a kindly, continuous, intelligent interest in, and who cherishes a tender sympathy for, them; and the word "poor" would include the weak, sick, insignificant, impoverished, wretched, and unfortunate-even the debtor and the slave. Now, we are so accustomed_ to such kindly thoughts for the helpless, that we often come to regard care for the poor as one of the "ordinary virtues of humanity;" yet such is very, very far from being the case. Where the light of Divine revelation bas not shone, it is no social sin, in the estimation of men, to trample on the poor. 1 'l'hus the merciful consideration for 1 Iuforma.tiun on this o.nd cognate themes will be found in Dr. Ublhorn's 'Chl'istian
Cliarity in the Ancient Church,' the chapter entitled, "A World without Love;" the THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 325