The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 328

an index of character, but the truths underlying that fact demand from us closer attention than is sometimes given thereto. l. IT IS AN ORDINANCE OF Goo, THAT IN A WAY EITHER OF MEROY OR OF JUDG- ~rnNT, THE FACE SHOULD BE THE INDEX 01!' THE SOUL. When Moses had been on the mount, communing with God, his face shone. When Hannah had laid her burden before God, her countenance was no more sad. When Stephen was before the council, in the midst of hostile, angry men, his face was as the face of an angel. The late devout Samuel Martin, of Westminster, had a face so radiant through fellowship with God, that when a friend had called on him with Dean Stanley, the dean remarkerl afterwards, " I am glad you took me to call there; I have seen the face of an angel." The truth that communion with God lights up the face is recognized by Dante, who, speaking of Beatrice, says- ". . . with such gladness, that God's love Seem'd from her viBBge shining." (Carey's Dante, p. 497: H. G. Bohn.) To work out this thought on its darker side would be as terrible as on its brighter side it is enchanting. How are some faces that once bid fair to be beautiful, spoilt by the deeply graven lines of vice and crime! Our present theme puts before U8, however, the brighter side, aud it is one on which we may well love to linger. For nole further- H. 'l'HAT THE DEVOUT souL LOVES TO COMMUNE WITH Goo. The whole of Pss. xiii. and xliii. shows us this. And the experience of believers is perpetually verifying this, in prayer there is an upward look of the whole being. "Unto thee, 0 Lord, do I lift up my soul;" "Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God;" "I will lift up rnino eyes to the hills." And in this uplooking of the man there is an entirely different set of mental and spiritual powers and energies at work than when the habit of looking downward or around, or even the habit of not looking at all, is in exercise. 'l'he soul is in communion with the best and dearest of Friends, enjoying a luxury of fellowship with which a stranger cannot intermeddle. III. WHEN THE SOUL THUS COMMUNES WITH GoD, Goo BENDS ms GIFTS DOWN INTO THE SOUL. God reveals himself within, and makes us full of joy with his countenanco; and in revealing himself he brings with him purity, peace, and power; and when such privilege is realized, the outer discomforts of life are forgotten in a joy unspeakable and full of glory. 'fhe temptations of the evil one cease to have power when God is near; the heaviest toil can be undertaken, and the weightiest cross be carried with cheerfulness and even with song; and since by the law of nssociation we grow like those we love most, we, beholding the glory of the Lord, shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory I IV. THE EVFECT OF ALL THIS WILL BE THE SALVATION OF THE FACE. Such is the remarkable expression in Ps. xliii. 5; it is translated, "the health of my counte- nance;" literally it i~, "the salvation of my face." Even so Christ is-is now-the Saviour of the body, and in the emancipation of the spirit from sin he is redeeming the face from ignoble marks and traits. How often have we known a man's fact marvellously changed at his conversion, not by evolution, but by regeneration. '' Ht doesn't look like the same man I" is an exclamation often heard. A well-known minister was converted while preaching. Such a radiance instantly shone into his foce, that o.n enthusiastic Methodist jumped up and exclaimed, "The parson's con- verted I Tho parson's convert(Jt I" A brave Scotch soldier, whose countenance rarely wore a smile, o.nd from whose l!ps never a word was heard as to his personal religion, suddenly beheld the glory of the words, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wiso cast out ; " o.nd o.s suddenly radiance gleamed from hie face, the parllock fell off his lips, o.nd he exclaimed," rve Christ by the hand I I've Christ by the hand I" And in his second volume the Rev. J. G. Paton, writing of a convert from heathenism, says, "His once sullen countenance became literally bright with inner light" (p. 217). See also 'Leaves from my Note-book,' by Rev. Wm. Haslam (1890), p. 99. All tho spiritual gifts whic~ God bestows-joy, peace, purity, stre~g~h-will find c~rres~nding expression 1n the lmes o.nn features of the countenance, g1vmg demonstrative ev1donce of the present power of Divine grncc oven over the body, nnd yielding no dim prophetic  3(0 'l'HK BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, XLtII, 1-6.