showing further kindness, To have ever helped any one gives them a sort of natural claim on us to help them again. So the psalmist, full of joy in the blessinas God was giving hi~ people in his day, felt quite sure that God must have bee; recallin~, remembenng, what great things he had done, in olden days, for'.}iis people. We think our great pleas to urge before God are our needs and our deserls. But these are alto- gether surpassed by the pleas we may use. God's honour, God's promise, and what God has already done for us. But herein lies an important distinction between God's feeliogs and man's, Only the very noblest among men fail to be annoyed when past favours are made into a plea for new gifts. We are annoyed at the bea"ar who comes ag11in and again so hopefully, because he has so often come successful'iy. God loves to bless those whom he has blessed. We may never think of him as tiriog of blessing. I. WHAT MAY WE TllINK THE LORD REMEMBERS? See two things. (1) That he had to be very gentle and merciful toward us. (2) That he had to keep his promise to help us. Remembers his mercy and truth; his loving-kindnrss and faithfulness. See what persuasion to new "mercy and truth" is in such quickened memory. 1. The exercise of the passive graces purifies and ennobles character, and makes us more able to exercise them, and more anxious to find objects on which to exercise them. Do some act merely for a person, aud you may find it tiresome to have to tlo it again. But show a kindness, be merciful, pitiful, tender, gracious, and you will want to be all these over and over again. 2. Every claim upon a man of truth is an establishing and confirming of his truth, and makes him more determined that men shall have absolute trust in bis word. If it be thus with men, how much more so with God! II. How MAY WE VENTURE TO QUICKEN THE LORD'S MEMORY? By telling him freely what is in our memories concerning bis dealings. This is the way of love. The lover tells his loved one his memories, and that is the best quickening of hers.-R. T. Vers. 5-7,-Showing our joy in God. It must strike every reader of the Psalms that the call to give expression to the joy felt in God is very frequent. "\Ve are con- stantly made to feel that the people did not readily come up to the psalmist's stand- point. Emotionally he could not raise them to his level, and their flagging and dragging .seems sometimes to worry him. But the intensely earnest man, the man of cultured spiritual feeling, the pious poet-soul, always has this trouble, and is always in danger of misapprehending his fellows because they seem unable adequately to respond to him. He does not realize that he may be no better standard, since he is above average, than they a.re who are below average. The man in advance does us all good by lifting us all higher, if he fails to lift us to his own level. If we cannot sing and praise as the psalmist does, we can all sing and praise better because the psalmist chants so nobly. Illustrate this point by referring to David, the royal psalmist, actually beginning in the tabernacle a service of song. No doubt some were heartily with him from the first, but many must have given him trouble. Some were tire- somely indifferent. They would not come, but they would give no reasons for not coming. Some opposed, and we cao well imagine some of the grounds of their opposi- tion. So it always is and always wilt be. We may qualify the trouble this may cause us by remembering that the signs and expressions of religious feeling greatly differ, and we cannot reasonably expect all persons to express themselves as we do. What we may look for, and work for, is some expression of what is in men's hearts toward the Lord. Let them break out into songs and music, if that will best utter their hearts. Let them abound in good works, if they like that voice for their souls better. The main thing is this-if a man has any joy in God in his son!, let him find out how to give it voice, so that God and men may know of it.-R. T. Vers. 1-9.-Universal salvation. "The last great revelation, the final victory of God, when his salvation and his righteousness, the revelation of which be has promised to the hc11se of Isr l\el, shall be manifested both to his own people aud to all the nations of the earth.'' I. GoD HAS REVEALED A GRl(AT SALVATION FOR THE WORLD. (Vers. 1-3.) Dis- tinguished by three great things. 1. Righteo1tsness. (Ver. 2.) Reveals his righteous- ness in and by means of Christ in order to secure our righteousncMr. Righteousness the most comprehensive description of the Divine character and work. 2. Mercy, or THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, XClX. 1-9.
lo1•frtg-kind11e,ss. (Yer. 3,) Loving-kindness towards the 11inful and unwortlly. Mercy and ri;,!htecusness compa,tible-mercy II part of righteousness, 8. Truth or faithful- ,1ess, (Ver. 3.) "Loving-kindness and faithfulness, the two attributes 'expressivo of God's co'l'enant relationship to bis people." He fulfils 11ll the promises, and more than all the promises, which his mercy has made. JI. THE JOY WHICH THIS SALVATION SHOULD CREATE. (Vers. 4-9.) 1. The intensity of this joy. (Vers. 4-6.) To be uttered by e.11 possible means and instru- ments. "A joyful noise." The human voice is to be aided and supplemented by instrumental music to give more intense expression to it. 2. TIie extent of the joy. (Vers. 7-9.) The see. is to take up the song; and the floods all to clap their hands; and the mountains are to rejoice together. The whole earth is to rejoice, because God comes to bring it from sin Rod sorrow into a state of salvation a.ud joy. The poet projects himself into the grandest material objects, and they become eympe.thetio with bis joys and sorrows.-S. •