Ver. 4.-The river of God. "There is a river," etc. How is it that when we rea<1 or chant this psalm, it never seems to us that it was written in an ancient foreign tougue, nigh three thousand years ago? It is as much a living voice, comes as home to our hearts, as though written in our mother tongue and our own generation. So it is with other psalms, however local in imagery, Jewish in application. Bible poetry is unlike any other, in its capacity of translation into all languages. Usually, the finer poetry is, the more it suffers in translation; the less can it make a home for itself any- where but in its native land. Why is the case so different with the poetry of the Bible? The reason lies deeper than any poetic beauty, than human patriotism, than human sympathy. It is spiritual force. 'l'hese songs or Zion utter the experience of souls quickened and breathed through-inspired by God's own Spirit. Therefore their interest is universal, their charm undying, their force inexhaustible. The living stream at which those ancient believers drank flows fuller, deeper, broader, with the lapse of ages; and still makes glad the city of God. This beautiful image, in its broadest application, is to be taken of the unfailing care, gracious presence, overflowing loving-kindness, of our Gud, with whom is "the fountain of life." Mo1s especially we may apply it to (1) the written Word; and (2) the indwelling Spirit of God. Theso are the two main streams-one outward, one inward-by which we drink of the Divine fulness. L THE WRITTEN \V OBD. The full, deep, sweet stream of truth in the promises, pre- cepts, prayers, revelations, histories, and examples of Old an~ New Tc~tam~nt Scriptures. Amazing effort is put forth in our day to prove that this stream 1s neither clear nor pure; that it flows from no certain fountain; in fact, to drY: it up altogether. Modern science has taught us, what no one dreamed of at the middle of last century, that water is made up of two kinds of air, and can be decomposed by electricity. What then? Does this make any difference in the need and power of water to quench our thirst, make our fields fruitful, keep our skin anrl raiment and all we have clean? .All this is the same now as in David's days. In like manner, the immense learning nnd criticism bestowed on Scripture, partly instructive, throwing a flood of light on its strocture, its language and literary character; partly_ d~structive, endeavouring !o destroy its authority, page by page, and decompose 1t mto fragments-has not rn the least altered its living power or our need of its teaching. H still gives us truth, never taught or dreamed of by other religious teachers; promises of God, which are nowhere, if not in the Bible; laws which embrace and explain the whole of humRn duty; examples for daily guidance; a history, in which God is seen dealing with men and manifesting himself to them along one unbroken line, from the birth of our rnce to the end of our present world; above all, in our Lord Jesus, a personal manifestation of God, a full deliverance from all the ruin and misery of forsaking, forgetting, l'fl. XLVI. 1-11.J TUE BOOK OF P8ALMS. 3!3l
<lisobeying God, and warrant for coming to him in absolute trust and perrect love; nn,1 a glorious certa.inty of a life which death cannot touch-eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. .A.II this, and more, is in the Bible. Unbelief may rob the unbeliever of his portion, but cannot impoverish the Bible. "The Word of God liveth and abideth." What joy, comfort, strength, light, purity, is it at this moment diffusing through myriads untold of Christian hearts and lives I It makes glad the city of God. A single promise may be the stay of a sinking- heart; a single text the hinge of a new life. II. THE INWARD GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Whence this wonderful power of the Scriptures to quicken, nourish, guide, bless, the higher life of mao, as no other writings can? From God's Spirit in the men who wrote them. Only life feeds life. The devout reader need not perplex himself with any questions about the inspiration of the Bible, as long as he hears in it God's voice, reads in it God's thoughts, feels in it God's love, beholds in it "the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus." But for all this, imJpiration-q.d. the livinF: breath and life-giving presence of God's Spirit-is ns needful for the readers as it was for the writers. Of the same sort? Certainly not. But as real (1 Cor. ii. 10-15; 1 John iii. 27; John vi. 44, 45). If there be one truth to which the Scriptures bear clear witness, it is the need of Divine teaching (compnre with 2 Tim. iii.15, 16; Acts xvi.14; John iv.14; vii. 37-39). III. THIS DIVINE FULNESS IS THE SOURCE OF THE CmJBCH's PEACE AND JOY. It "maketh glad the -Oity of God "-the communion of ~aints; the true Israel. Ancient Jerusalem was so well supplied with water as 11.evor to fear drought. When besieged by the Crusaders, it was the besiegers who suffered thirst, not those within the walls. But one perennial spring is known to exist at Jerusalem (" En-rogel," 1 Kings i. 9, which feeds, through a tunnel, the pool of Siloam; see 'Biblical Handbook,' p. 334). But beneath the temple were vast reservoirs, by some supposell supplied from a spring, but by explorers said to be fed by the rain-" the rivers of God" ~Ps. !xv. 9). ::fo, in the common treasure of God's Word, the common possession of Gods Spirit (Rom. viii. 9), the Church of Christ has a never-failinii; fountain and unfathomable reservoir of joy, strength, peace, for evermore. (N.B.-'l'his third_head might supply a sermon by itself.)