covering cloud, and all connected with it, was to impress this idea (for the hi"hest fulfilment of which, see Eph. ii. 22; Rev. xxi. 3). But here God is himself our Habitation. The whole range of Gentile religious thought cannot (I believe) produce a parallel to this tender, attractive, yet glorious representation of God as the Eternal Home of his people, In that most mournful, though beautiful psalm, in which the psalmist can see nothing but the frailty and vanity of human life, and Faith struggles not to lose her hold, he thinks of himself as "a sojourner" with God (Ps. xxxix. 12). His fainting faith would have revived, had he said, "No I a. sojourner with men, a pilgrim on earth; but at home with thee I" REMARKS. 1. How closP, tender, full of encouragement, is this relation I To what does the heart cling more lovingly, trustfully, restfully, than to our home? 2. Tr,is looks beyond this fleeting life, the shadowy brevity of which is so powerfully contrasted, throughout the psalm, with the opening thought of God's eternity. We are never to leave home (cf. Ps. xlviii. 14). Our Guide till death; our God for ever, Compare our Lord's argument (Luke xx. 37, 38). 3. The unity of the Church: "all generations" of the long succession of believers have one Home (Heh. xi. 13, 16, 40). 4. Our Lord Jesus claims to sustain this relation (John xv. 4-7; 1 John ii. 28). Ver, 8.-" Secret sins." Nothing perishes. Nothing is forgotten. Things lost to us a.re found elsewhere. Things that seem to perish do but pass into new forms. The bursting bubble, the smoke scattered by the wind, the fallen leaf trampled into the mire, vanish from our sight and sense; but the atoms of which that puff of smoke is made are as old as the world, and will endure while the world endures. The image of that bubble, with its lovely colours, most lovely just before it bursts, may remain in our memory, or may exercise the thought of scientific minds, for years. The bud which the perished leaf nourished may grow into a bough that will be green when generations have passed; and the dust into which the dead leaf moulders may feed new life. How much more in the spiritual realm I The acted deed, the spoken word, the conscious thought, may seem to perish the instant it comes to birth. Memory may blot it that moment from her tablet. But it is indestructible. It survives in its results. There is a memory in which nothing ever fades; an eye nothing is quick enough to escape or baffle; a light from which no secret thing is hid. " Thou hast set," etc. I. 8IN NA1"URALLY BEEKS OONCEALMENT, The first impulse of the first si □ ners very foolish, but very na.tural::_was to hide themselves from God (Gen. iii. 8-10). Some sins those who commit them are anxious to hide from human knowlec:lge. Shame is the natural attendant of consciousness of wrong-doing. Only the most hardened and debased "glory in their shame." Other sins, through self-ignorance, self-deceit, care- lessness, or dulness of conscience, are a secret from the sinner himself (Ps. xix. 12). Some sins-e,g. fraud of all kinds-are possible only by concealment. Self-interest, not shame merely, prompts secrecy. So subtle is sin, that it often disguises itself as virtue. Covetousness poses as prudence, spite as candour, pride as a delicate sense of honour, obstinate ill temper as honest independence, envy, malice, and all uncharitable- ness, as zeal for truth and for God. Even the sincerest Christian has cause to pray, " Who can understand," etc.? (Ps. xix. 12). II. No SIN 1s HIDDEN FROM GoD. .An appalling contrast! What darker biding- plnce conceivable than the secret, silent depth of tile heart? But not only is it trans- parent to God's view (Ps. cxxxix. 1, 12), he brings our secrets to light in the full blaze of omniscience. Elsewhere the "light of God's countenance" mea□ s his favour, the sunshine of his loving-kindness. But that is a. different word in Hebrew; the one uRed here means not mere sunshine, but the sun (Gen. i. 14-16). God's knowledge of men's sins is such as is possible to God alone; he knows each sin in its motives, its exact magnitude, its issues in the sinner himself and towards others, its desert. Yet this tremendous thought has its side of comfort. " He knoweth our frame" (Pe. ciii. 14)-our weakness, ignorance, temptations. His justice excludes harshness. lie "has no plea.sure in the death of him that dieth." III. THIS KNOWLEDGE 1s NOT TO BE KEPT SECRET. It is to be published to the universe (Eccles. xii.14). The frequent detection and punishment of the most carefully concealed crimes ie a. faint anticipation of "the day" (Acts xvii. 31; 2 Cor. v. 10 • Rev. ii. 23). PSALMS-II II 258 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, XO, 1-17,
IY. SIN C.U-'}IOT BE RIDDEN; BUT IT CAN BE "COVERED." (Pss. xxxii.1; lxxxv. 2.) It c11n be "blot.ted out" (Is&. xiii i. 25; Acts iii. 19), "washed" (Ps. Ii. 2; 1 Cor. vi. 11; Rev. vii. H). Only he who knows our sins could forgive or atone (Rom. v. 8).