know right.. The appraisement man can mako of his own acts involves his power to appraise acts which nre said to be acts of God. But this caution needs to be fully presented and illustrated-that the standard of right is not the sentiment of any singlo individual, but the harmonious sentiment of all the race iu all the ages. It is a huruan st.'\udard, not an individual standard. There hR!' grown up in the world a standard of1 righteousness, which is now well established; by it the acts declared as God's may be judged; and it will always be found that inspired descriptions of righteousness are in effect, descriptions of the established human staudard; and that all acts of God c~m- mended iu t.he inspired record will stand the test of that established human standard. It should be carefully shown that there is not one standard for man, and a differing standard for God. Right for God is right for man. Cases that seem doubtful are simply cases misapprehended. Poets may say, "Whatever is is right." Pious men say, "\\'hatever God does is right." II. Gon's WAYS ARE ALWAYS RIGHT TO THE CIRCUMSTANCE, There is a temporary right as well as a.n eternal right. There is an uneducated right, and a cultured rivht, dependent on conditions of conscience. There is a right at the moment, and a riaht for ever. There is a right absolute, and a right in adaptation. Illustrate from the m~ther's idea of right in r!lialion to Ler child. She has to fit her right to the capacity and condition of her child. There is a right form and setting and clothing of the eternal right. So the psalmist may find God's right in the adjustment of his dealings with the wilful and wayward Davidic king, Rehoboam.-R. T. Ver. 38.-Perplezities of present appearances. "But thou hast cast off, and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed." The psalmist may have been reminded of the first king, Saul, from whom the favour of God was wholly removed, and he may have feared that Lhe same sad fate was reserved for David's grandson, Rehoboam, in spite of the very remarkable and apparently ever.enduring promises made to David. Certainly, when be composed this psalm, everything did look very black. Rehoboam was a.cting very foolishly and very wilfully, and bdnging himself and the nation into what seemed overwhelming judgments, 'l'he king was humiliated, the kingdom was prostrated, the people were perplexed; all the world seemed out of joint. All depended on the point of view from which the psalmist regarded these" present appearances." He might stand beside his fellow-countrymen, and see them as they saw them, in a strictly human light. Or he might try to rise up to a place beside God, and see them a.s God saw them--see them in the Divine light. Then he would know that "things are not what they seem." L PERPLEXITIES OF PRESENT APPEARANCES PARTLY ARISE FROM MANS IMPERFECT VISION. He never sees more than parts of a thing at a time ; even as, with his bodily ,·ision, he can only see a front, a little of two sides, and nothing at all of the back, What man cannot see often holds the key to the meaning of what he sees. Man's mistakes are imperfect apprehensions. Concerning God, man may search all ways, and yet be compdled at last to look on all the product of his toil, and say, "These are parts of his ways." We never really know a thing until we know it all round, and all through; and we mistake when we attempt to judge appearances, If it seems that God has forsaken David, and forgotten his covenant, we may confidently say," Since God is what he is, that cannot be wbich seems." Appearances here are deceitful. ll. PEB:f'LICK..ITIES OF P.6.ESENT APPEARANCES ABE BELIEVED AB WE CAN ENTER INTO Goo's PURPOSES. Ouce apprehend that God is the Lord of discipline; the eternal Father who chasti.,es and corrects and trains his children, and then strangest appear- ances begin to gain their meanings. '!'hey are seen to be as temporary as a boy's flogging, and as truly the sign of a Father's anxious love, They are proofs that God has not" forgotten to be gracious." "How did Ethan, i_n this psalm, find ground for faitb, for trust and hope? Simply in the conviction that God had sent these calamities in mercy, for correction, for discipline, and not for destruction." We can never read appearaoce8 aright until we read them in the light of what we do know, or may know, or uod.-R. 'l'.
Ver. 47.-The argu:ment from the 'brevity of life. "Remember how 11hort my time is." This iJ; the argument of an old man, who knows there can be but a" little while" PtJ, LXXXIX, 1-52,] TUE BOOK OF PSALMS. 253
before his passing timo, and is supromely anxious to see the way3 of the Lord justi6eJ while he is" in the land of the living." Compare Hezekiah's exclamation, when told that he must die. As Ethan was born in the reign of David, and lived through the forty yeo.rs of Solomon's reign, he must have been an old man in the later time of Rohoboam. In this psalm he given us the last results of a long life of observation and experience. Trusting fully in God's faithfulness, Ethan could grasp the idea that the present depression of the nation was a temporary discipline; but this only made him the more earnestly plead with God that the discipline might be completed, and the restoration might be granted, before he passed away. I. First argument: BEOAUSF: LIFE 18 so. FRAIL, DO NOT OVER-TRY IT WITH PER- PLEXING DEALINGS. The psalmist says, " How fleeting and frail life is!" It is a poor thing, very weak; it cannot stancl over-much strain. He deprecates too severe trial in the Divine discipline; afraid of himselt; lest faith should fail. The calamities falling upon David'R nation seemed more than ho could bear. He thought about them day and night; they suggested painful doubts. So he pleads his frailty before God, begging that the calamities may not be carried to extremes, and the faith in God, which he longs lo keep, be quite overwhelmed. We can sympathize with Ethan. The strain of modern conflict often seems as if it would overwhelm us. We are too weak, we think, to bear any more. Learn of Ethan that we"YTW,y plead our frailty with God, and ask for gracious limitations of the strain under which we are put. II. Second argument: IlEOAUSE LIFE IS BO SRORT, FINISH THE COURSE OF DISCIPLl~E SPEEDILY, SO THAT I MAY UNDERSTAND THY DEALINGS, AND REJOICE IN THE ISSUES, It is the argument of one who intensely longs for the honour of God to be manifested, and for the highest well-being of God's people to be secured. Indeed, his very intensity puts his faith in peril ; for he wants to see for himself, while he lives, God's honour vindicated, and God's word fulfilled; he cannot be quite content with the assurance that God is jealous of his own honour, and supremely concerned in his people'~ well- being. It is impatience, but it is the impatience of a thoroughly earnest soul. God's work will go on, God's glory will he advanced, whether we die or live.-R. T.