the Old Te~tRment wbi.:h illustrate this "covering over of sin." The.y are Moees' intercession with God in the matter of the golden calf. The atonement made by Aaron ia connection with the rebellion of Korab, Dathan, and Abiram. And the vindication of Phinehas, when Balaam's bad addce bad brought moral woes on Israel. Theee were but 1ireparatory illustrations of the way in which man's sin is "covered over" by the great atonement, the great vindication of the Divine righteousness, made by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God himself covering over human sin. II. OUR sm MUST BE "PURGED AWAY." We must not for one moment think of the atonement as if it were some device or deception. It is no "coverin" over" that merely keeps from view. There is another truth that must be clearly s~en. Alon.,. with the "covering over" goes a "purging away." It is not covered up and kept, but covered over until it can get purged away. The Word of God is ever trying to help us in apprehending; that sin is not the mere act we do, but the state of mind and heart out of which the act comes, and of which it fiuds the expression. The sin is as it were, in the stuff, like a stain; so it must be washed, cleansed, purged away. And this is done by Di\'ine discipline. And this the true-hearted man desires to have done in him, and lovingly yields himself to the Divine cleansing. He even makes it a matter of devout and earnest prayer, " Purge me with hyssop, and I shail be clean ; wash me, and I sball be whiter than snow." In this passage national calamity is seen as the consequence of national sins; but the psalmist seems almost able to take the truer, deeper view, that those national calamities are doing God's purging work, and delivering the na.tion from the power of the old sins. We want our sins covered over, but that cannot content us. We also want them purged away. .And this is but another way of saying that we need Jesus the Justifier, and Jesus the Sanctijier.-R. 'f. Ver. 11.-The cry ef the prisoner. "The sighing of the prisoner." The prisoner here is not the man under the penalty of his crime. It is the captive placed under wearying limitations, not for personal faults, but as sharing the national disabilities. The c.ase of snch may he treated from three points of view. We have the sigh of the captive, the exile, and the oppressed. L THE SIGH OF THE Cil'TIVE. The restraint of personal liberty is a most grievous distress. Man loves his freedom, and cannut endure bondage. There is the captivity of the body, but there is also a captivity of opinion, and a captivity of habits. When men a.re awakened, they begin to sigh under these bondages. "He is the free man whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves besides." Illustrate by the condition of captive Israel in Babylon. One psalmist pictures their distress in a very touching way (Ps. cxx:rvii. 1, 2), "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." Not captives in the bodily or in the national sense, we_ may be captives to sin ; then what is the sigh we breathe, and the cry we make, and 1Dto whose ears will our cry enter? There is One whose work concerns the "freeing of them that are bound.;' There is a trumpet-voice which proclaims for all who sigh and cry in the pruon-house- " The year of jubilee is come, Return, ye ransomed sinners, home." II. THE SIGH OF THE EXILE. Where patriot-feeling is strong, it is an inconceivable distress to Le away from one's own land. .At least it is to be compelled to be away. We may leave home pleasantly at our own will; we never leave home pleasantly against our will. Illustrate by the passionate yearning of the Babylonian exiles for Jerusalem. "If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." See Daniel, the exile, praying with hu window open toward Jerusalem. And yet here is a most strange and unnatural thing-so many souls are exiled by the compulsions of sin and self-will from their true home in God, and yet they neither sigh nor cry for their return. For all who do sigh there is a Divine Zerubbabel, ever ready to lead them back. III. THE srnH oF THE OPPRESSED. For the captive life in Babylon was ·a Ele of stern trials and hardships. There were even some "appointed to die," placed ii:, peril oJ life. To whom should they r.ry in their time of sore need, save to the God of lhcir 1'8, LXXIX, 1-13.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 165
fotbere? Like Bameon, blind and oppreesed, they could find a way to God. And sin le an oppression and humiliation. They who live in sin find it, ae the prodigal son did, a hard lot; and presently they cry for home and father and God, even as he did.-R. T.