HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-20.-From dark= to dawn. So may this psalm be described. Wo have the night of weeping followed by the morning, if not of joy, yet of peace. It is a portriliture to which the experience of myriads of souls bas answered and will answer. Hence, for the help of all such, the psalm has been given. We know not who the writer was, nor when, nor the special reason why, the psalm was written. We only know that it is the utterance of a heart that had been sorely troubled, but to whom light and peace came again. We are shown the darkness, the paling of that darkness, and the dawn. L THE DARKNESS, 1. It was very dark. There was great trouble. He tells of it in vers. 2, 3, 4. And prayer seemed no good, notwithstanding it was very earnest, hence spoken aloud (ver. 1) and prolonged all the night through (ver. 2: "My hand in the night bath been stretched out [the hand of entreaty and prayer] and ceased not"). Nevertheless, no comfort came. 2. His grief seems to have prompted distrost. As Jacob (Gen. xxxvii. 35)aboutJoseph, and David about his child (2 Sam. :xii.17) and about Absalom (2 Sam. xviii.), so here there was what there should not have been- the refusing to be comforted. 3. But tltis made the darkness yet deeper, He could not remember God (ver. 3). He could not realize his presence and help; he could only sigh in di.stress. He could not commune with his own heart, but his spirit was too overwhelmed. He would sleep, but could not. He would speak to God, but his trouble wa.s too great. The distressed soul, as it often does, utterly broke down. But a break- down like that brings speedily the help of God. He will never leave his people in a strait like that, blessed be his Name I And so we see- IL THE PALING OF THE DARKNESS. Those who ascend high mountains to witness the glory of the dawn are told of its advent by the paling of the darkness. And spiritually, we see this here. God sends the thoughts of bis servant back to" the days of old" (ver. 6), and to the bright joyous periods which were like a" song," and their sweet memories came back and talked to him, and set his spirit in "diligent search," so that he was compelled to come to the conclusion that all his dark and dreadful thoughts about the Lord's casting off for ever, and being favourable no more (see vers. 7, 8, 9), were all impossible of belief, mere nightmares of the soul, altogether false and untrue. Then in ver. 10 he comes to see how he hai belln led to think such sad thoughts. "Then I said, This is my sorrow, that the right hand of the Highest bath changed." Ye!!, God's providence had changed, but not his heart. Before we pass on, let us ask-Why does God let his servants suffer such eclipse of all joy as is recorded here? Partly by way of reproof. The psalmist "refused to be comforted." We often do when, would we only say, '' I will trust," then we should find that we should "not be afraid." It is the letting in of doubt and unbelief that works such harm. Or, if not for reproof, then for the sake of others, that when we find them in darkness, we may be able to tell them how God helped us. IlL THE DAWN. This came through his remembrance of, and meditation on: 1, The re. LXXVII, 1-20.) TUE llOOK OF PSALMS. 115
deeds, so wondrous, of the Lord (vers, 11, 12). 2. What God himself was-so holy and so great (ver. 13). 3. The recollection of God's special act of redemption (vers. 15-19). 4. The shepherd-care of God,-S. C.