I. DARKNESS PROVIDES BEST FOB THE WEARY, Show the actual physical influence of darkness on men's bodies, on the muscular and nervous systems. Rest is essential for man when bis labour is merely routine labour of the body; but how much moro C'ssential is it in these modern conditions, when the toil overwears also the bra.in and the heart I Recu.mbency may restore wearied limbs; darkness alone is chemically efficient to restore wearied brains. But it is a thought full of seriousness, that nearly one-hnlf of a man's brief life is spent in unconsciousness. The wakeful hours in which rested faculties may find their spheres, ought to be jealously watched and wisely used. Mnn only "goeth forth to his work and to his labour until t/1$ evening." II. DARK:NESS PROVIDES THE CRANCE OF BEGINNING AGAlN, It comes and stops a man, gives him the opportunity of looking at his work; it ~hunts him aside awhile; and then, with returning light, the man can try again. He need not keep on the bad way of yesterday. There has been II gap of darkness. He can do better to-day. Hope for man lies in beginning afresh day by <lay.-R. T.
Ver. 24.-Poet-thoughts concerning the Creator. This psalm has been called n
r oetic version of Gen. i., "11 panorama of the universe viewed by the eye of devotion." t is connected with Ps. ciii., which reviews God's dealings in the realm of grace. That psalm comes first, because only through our personal knowledge of God do we gain the true understanding of the God of nature. From nature alone man gains ideas of power, and even of malice; so he makes many gods, and they are chiefly god~ to fear. The good man, through bis faith in God, finds good in seemingly evil things, and fears nothing. But this psalm represents the poet's observation of nature, not that of the scientific man. Sentiment, not minutely described fact, is befitting to a psalmist. Science must always be for the few among us; pious-toned observation is for all of us. In this verse we have the impression produced by religious meditation, which dwells not on the things, but on God's relation to the things. I. THE v.isnoH OF Gon SEEN IN ms WORKS. Marvellous is the development of a ftw laws, and the harmonious interaction of these laws; they work into each other so that the order of the universe is never really broken. Then every individual thing is adjusted to its mission and its sphere. There is a strange an,l wonderful power ot repair and recovery everywhere. Things do not really fail or die; they do but pass from one form of service to another. II. THE RIGHTS OF GoD RECOGNIZED IN ALL BIS WORKS, "Thy possessions." Then our so-called "rights" are only "trusts." We have nothing. Possession belongs only to God. We are the children born of a Father who owns a large estate. We enjoy, we use, we serve our Father in the use. But we can never enter into any sort of separate and individual "possession" while our Father lives. Are we, then, sensitive as a pious poet is in the midst of mighty and benutiful nature? Are we only interested, in a scientific sort of way, in things 1 or do we know bow to enter into the very heart of lhings, and let them do their true work-make God precious to us ?-R. T.
Ver. 24.-The manifoldness of God's works. What profusion, what variety, there is in God's \forks! How ine:i;:haustible must be the Divine ideas I "When trees blossom, there is not a single breast-pin, but a whole bosom-full_ of gems. The leaves have so ruany suits, that they can throw them away to the wmds all summer long. What unnumbered cathedrals bas he reared in the foreet shades, vast and grand, full of curious carvinas and haunted eve1more by tremulous music I and in the heavens above how do st;r; seem to have flown out of bis hands faster than sparks out of a mighty forge!" (Beecher). "Mineral, vegetable, animal-what a range of works is suggested by these three names! No two, even of the same class, are exactly alike, and the classes are more numerous than science can number. Works in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth; works which abide the ages; works which come to perfection and pass a:war in a year; works which, with all their beauty, do not outlive a day; works w1tbm works, and works within these; who can number one of a thousand?" I. MANIFOLD at.PLIES VARIETY. Here distinguish between the sameness of those creative and providential laws which regulate everything, and those multitudinous_ and ever-varied forms and shapes in which those ever-working laws can present thmgs, l'B. OIV, 1-35.) THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 413
God makes all things on principle, but no two things are precisely alike. The leave~ of a tree and the faces of n flock are infinitely varied. What an impressiun we should hara of God if e. procession could pass before us of specimens only of every kind of insect form, or bird form, or beast form I What a mind to conceive these million shapes I II. MANIFOLDNESS IMPLrne DESIGN. Once get the die stamped, and you make as many coins as you please to a pattei:n. But if every coin is different, there must have been a precise design in th_e making c,f each. Each coin would em body a thought. It must be true of the vo.ryrng creatures of God. He must have planned each. III. MANIFOLDNESS IMPLIES ADAPTATION. Everything has its place and relation. For nicety of fitting it is precisely shaped. God does not make mere things, but things to go into positions; and every variety of form and of force is the product of considerations and calculations of the Divine rnind.-R. T.