pardon and reconciliation with God, but restoration of purity. Jn the Gospels we have not only the doctrine, but facts tho.t authenticate the doctrine. The great conversions of St. Luke (Luke vii. 48; xix. 9, 10; xxiii. 43) are samples of what Christ has done and is doing (1 Tim. i.15-17), and what he begins he will perfect. III. lTs IDEAL OF HUMANITY, We have not only the Law, but the life (Matt. v. 1-11; 1 Pet. ii. 21). Christ not only gives us the ideal, but shows us how that ideal may be realized (Matt. xv. 24-27; Titus ii. 11-13). Thus in Christ God comes down to man, and man is raised up to God. The promise is unto all, without respect of persons. IV. lTs BOND OF BROTHERHOOD. What force, and commerce, and ecclesiasticism,and all human devices failed to do, Christ has done. He treats men simply as men, and by his Spirit binds them together as brethren. The wall of partition is broken down. 'l'he divisions formed by pride and selfishness are abolished, and all the world over "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free," but all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal. iii. 28). V. ITB CONBOLA'l'IONB AND HOPES. Here there is comfort for every troubled heart. Christ is our Hope. To use the words of Arthur Hallam, "I see that the Bible fits into every fold of the human heart. I am a man, and I believe it to be God's book, because it is man's book." VI. ITB PROMISE OF nmoBTALITY. This is the climax. Godliness has the promise not only of the life that now is, but of that which is to come. The vision rises bright before every Christian. "Days without night; joys without sorrow; sanctity without sin; charity without stain; possession without fear; society without envying; com- munication of joys without lessening; and they shall dwell in a blessed country where an enemy never entered, and from which a friend never went away." Therefore we pray \'[ith increasing fervour," Thy kingdom come."-W. F. Vers. l-9.-77ze universal sovereignty of God. The occasion of the psalm was, according to ver. 3, an overthrow of many heathen peoples by the visible interposition of God, who had leagued themselves against Israel, and who, according to ver. 4, had set out with the plll'pose of expelling Israel from her land. Another interpretation is that the psalm was composed for the dedication of the temple on the return from captivity. The main thought is the universal sovereignty of God. " God is the King of all the earth." Three thoughts are suggested. I. GoD CONSTRAINS ms ENEMIES TO FULFIL HIS PUBP0BE. (Vers. 3----8.) 1. The almighty wisdom and goodmss of God bring good out of evil. "Maketh the wrath of man to praise him, o.nd the remainder of wrath he restrains.'' 2. 77zis should be a ground of troth and joy to the whole world. (Vera. 6, 7.) Evil, therefore, is not absolute and eternal, and cannot be finally victorious over him to whom "the shields of tho earth belong." Thie is the psalmist's thought. II. Goo HAS OHOBEN AND SE0UBED THE INHERITANCE OD' HIS PEOPLE. (Ver. 4.) Tho reference here is to the Holy Land. God would not allow the heathen to wrest it from them. 1. Generally, God has gi11tm us a grand destiny in Christ and heaven. Rest is our inheritance. 2. He will secure this to all who accept his promises, and faith- fully seek/or it. He restored the Jews, who for a time had been disinherited, when they became penitent and forsook their idolatry. "If God be for us, who can be ago.inst us?" III. '.l'HE GilEATEST MEN, KINGS AND LEADERS, BilALL AT LENGTH YIELD THEM- SELVES TO Goo. (Ver. 9.) 1. The kings of thought shall at le11gth bow to Christ as the highest Wisdom. 2. The kings of action will aclcnowledge him as the inspiration of the grandest conduct. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, tow hom every knee shall bow.-S.
EXPOSITION. now been dolivorcd from o. confederncy of PSALM XLVIII. kings (ver. 4), who hod como within sight !IEBl!I we have another psalm of thanksgiving of the city, but had then been seized witl1 for a cleliverance, but not apparently for the panic, and retreated, without making an same deliverance na go.ve oocasion for either attack (ver. 5). After this, pnin ho.d come of the two preceding psalms. Israel had upon thcrn, and they hod been "broken," 3i2 THE IlOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. ~IVIII. 1-14.