II. IT IS ASSUMED THAT WE ARE RIGHTEOUS, Such, in the first part of tho veree, are distinctly appealed to. For only such can obey this command. To the ungodly the holiness of God is hateful; it is to him a constant and awful threatenina a dark cloud lowering over his life; he shrinks from corning into contact with it'. How fearful are, often, t.be death-berls of such men! And until we are regenerate, and know that we are accepted in Christ, the holiness of God must excite iu us fear ratber than thanksgiving. III. And that THERE ARE GOOD REASONS FOR BUCH THANKSGIVING. And there are. for: 1. The holiness of God i,s the sure pledge and guarantee of our redemption: The atoning work of Christ, on which our redemption rests, is no plan whereby God's love may be satisfied at the expense of his holiness. For nowhere is that holiness more conspicuous than in that atonement. It magnifies the Law, and makes it honourahle as nothing else could (cf. Rom. viii. 1, 2). The tables of the Law in the ark of the covenant, on which the mercy-seat rested, syruboiized the eternal fact that God's mercy rests on rigb teousness; his love is sustained by and based upon his holiness, 2. And it is the assurance of our own holiness, that we shall be me.de like him. For whatever be the character of any man, one sure effect of it will be that he seeks to make his surroundings like himself. And so the holy God must seek to make his people holy; he cannot be satisfied until they are holy as he is holy. 3. And of our eternal blessed- ness. Could sin enter heaven, it would cease to be heaven-it would be the world over again. But nothing can enter heaven that defiletb. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 4 . .And of the kingdom of God upon earth. The curse wrought by the Fall shall be banished by the redemption of God. Not in us alone, but in humanity at large, shall God's blessed holy will for our sanctification be done on earth as it is in heaven. IV. .A.KO THAT THERE NEED BE NO REASONS WHY ANY 011' US SHOULD NOT "GIVE THANKS AT," ETC. For the two essentials for our thus giving thanks are ours in Christ. 1. We can be reconciled to God in him. Until we are we cannot be thankful for his holiness. But if we will come away from our sins, and confess them, and believe in him, then we shall be reconciled to God, and to us shall be given the new nature, the regeneration, withont which we cannot even see the kingdom of God. 2. And we may be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Not forgiven only, but saved from sin itself (see Ezek. mvi. 25, 27). And when this is done, then the very thoughts of our heart will be changed, and whereas we could not heretofore do aught but tremble at the remembrance of God's holiness, now we shall rejoice and give thanks.-S. C. Ver. 2.- What God seems, and what God i.,, The figures of this verse are evidently taken from the scenes connected with the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Then " clouds and darkness " were the surroundings, and from these men might get a cursory and an unworthy impression of God; but then" justice andjudgment" were declared to be the " pillars of bis throne," and if men would but go beyond the appearances, they would apprehend God aright, and even discern the mission and the mystery of the symbols in which he appeared to them. L WHAT GoD SEEMS TO ouB IMPEBFECT VISION. What could Israel see when the people dared to look up to the holy mount? Compare with what Moses saw who was on the holy mount. "And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke . . . and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly" (Exod. xu. 18). For proper apprehension of God we are under two di~e.d- vanta<>es : 1. Distance. 2. Si □. Distance makes it difficult for ns to see things clearly; and difficult for ns t-0 get them in the right perspecti~e. Sin brings_~ dimness of the moral and spiritual vision-somewhat as drunkenness gives a double v1s1on; and so the clouds round about God prove to be sin-clouds in our own eyes. And sin brings a strange fear, because man can never separate sin from consequence_s, and he cannot help feeli:17 g that God will see that the consequences come. So our sin makes a " darkness n about God. IL WHAT GoD 1s TO ooB CO'LTUBED VlBlON. That vision has to be cleansed before it can be cultured. Illustrate cultured vision by the trained eyesight of the sailor or of the scientific man. We at first may see nothing; gradually as we fix our gaze, _and think &ll we gaze, we can see much. Cultured spiritual vision gradually gains right PB, XCVII, 1-12,] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 337
apprehension of what God is, and sees two things as absolutely necessary to the fitt-ing idea of him. 1. He is eternally right in the principles that sway him. 2. He is practically right in the application of those principles. These two things are indicated in the abstract word "righteousness'' and the concrete word "judgrnent." It may be shown bow necessarily related these two are. If God is right, we may be confident that his ways are right. If we can see his ways are right, we know that he is right.-R. T,