YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE
B AMPTON LECTURES.

LONDON : PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

The Bampton Lectures.

THE
WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
TO
CHRIST AND OHEISTIANITY.
EIGHT LECTURES
PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN THE YEAR 1876
ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M.A.
CANON OF SALISBURY.

By WILLIAM ALEXANDEE, D.D., D.C.L.
BEASENOSE COLLEOE :
BISHOP OF DERRY AND RAPHOE.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

LONDON :
JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMARLE STEEET.
1878.
Tlte right of t?'anslation is reserved,

n P

150

*w

TO
CECIL EEANCES ALEXANDER,
IN REMEMBRANCE OF
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF HELPFUL LOVE
AND HOLY EXAMPLE—
WITH FULL ASSURANCE THAT HIS OWN ESTIMATE OF
HER HYMNS AND SACRED SONGS
IS THAT OP THE CHURCH AND OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING CHRISTIANS
GENERALLY—
THIS ATTEMPT TO INTERPRET THB 'SIGNIFICANCE OP
THE HIGHEST OF ALL SACRED SONGS
gg <§ttskutib
BY HER HUSBAND.

Palace, Derry :
February 1, 1877.

EXTRACT
PROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF THE LATE
EEV. JOHN BAMTTON,
CANON OF SALISBURY.

 ' I give and bequeath my Lands aud Estates to the Chan
cellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford for
ever, to have and to hold all and singular the said Lands or
Estates upon trust, and to the intents and purposes hereinafter
mentioned ; that is to say, I will and appoint that the Vice-
Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the time being shall
take and receive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and
(after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions made)
that he pay all the remainder to the endowment of eight Divinity
Lecture Sermons, to be established for ever in the said Univer
sity, and to be performed in the manner following :
' I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter
Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the heads of Colleges only,
and by no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-House,
between the hours of ten in the morning and two in the after
noon, to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol
lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement of

viii EXTRACT FROM CANON B AMPTON' S WILL.
the last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third week in
Act Term.
' Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture
Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following subjects
— to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute
all heretics and schismatics — upon the divine authority of the
holy Scriptures — upon the authority of the writings of the primi
tive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church
— upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon
the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the Chris
tian Faith, as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
' Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture
Sermons shall be always printed, within two months after they
are preached ; and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of
the University, and one copy to the Head of every College, and
one copy to the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one copy to be
put into the Bodleian Library ; and the expenses of printing
them shall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or Estates
given for establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the
preacher shall not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before
they are printed.
' Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified
to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken
the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Univer
sities of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the same person shall
never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice.'

PEEFACE.

In submitting to the Church and to the public a Second
Edition of this work, I have to acknowledge with grati
tude the considerable measure of favour which it has
received. Within a few months of its publication, which
was unavoidably delayed for nearly a year, two impres
sions were exhausted in America, and another was called
for in this country. Private letters from many whom I
have never seen, in England, Scotland, France, and
America (including several who are not members of the
Anglican Communion), have surprised and affected me
by the warmth with which their writers speak of the
pleasure which they have derived from the volume. I
have specially to acknowledge the kindness of several
pious members of the Methodist body, who, unlike one
or two critics in our own Communion, did not allow their
favourable judgment to be warped by certain undisguised
doctrinal differences.
Now the circumstances of the case, and the conditions
under which the Lectures were produced, cause me to feel

x PREFACE.
a pleasure in this, deeper, I hope, than any which could
be supposed to arise from personal vanity. For they
were put forth under some inevitable disadvantages. The
original preparation for them, and their delivery before
the University of Oxford, involved an expenditure of time
which I could ill afford. And, after they were delivered,
I could devote to their preparation for the press but
broken fragments of time. Thus the pages were dis
figured by a considerable number of misprints, especially
in Hebrew citations and criticisms, being the department
in which my modest acquirements and my failing eye
sight made me most liable to error. Moreover, the Lec
tures in many places simply indicated principles, which I
had intended to develop and apply, while I found no time
afterwards to carry out my purpose. The Discourses
seemed, by God's grace, to awaken an interest, for which
I shall ever be thankful, and which I certainly did not an
ticipate. But the sight of those great congregations of
young men filled my heart to overflowing, and imparted
to my style, from time to time, an amount of rhetorical
colouring which cooler criticism may not unjustly con
demn. To all these deficiencies in ripeness, in knowledge,
in style, I plead guilty. The deeper, therefore, is my con
viction that I must have grasped a principle of interpre
tation for the Psalms, sufficient to meet the problem to
which it is to be applied, and to which Christian minds

PREFACE. xi
are, perhaps, not much accustomed in these days. Later
criticism upon the Psalms has been distinguished by
the show, or by the reality, of great technical skill in
Hebrew grammar. Tt has produced interesting pages
upon the authorship of the Psalms, and the occasions
which gave birth to them ; but those pages are written
upon sand. It has piled up section after section upon
the inscriptions and prefixes of the Psalter, and upon the
nature of Hebrew musical instruments. I am apt to
agree, after all, with Kimchi, who says of one, ' non con
stat nobis quale discrimen sit inter nomina Psalmorum
initialia,' and with Aben-Ezra, who affirms of the other,
' nulla est ratio ea cognoscendi.' But for some of these
writers the Psalms themselves seem to be but occasional
religious pieces, parts of which no doubt are Divine, but
parts very human — and parts very inhuman.
Now this vacillating semi-Rationalism appears to
me to be utterly unsatisfactory. Logic forces us, in the
long run, to accept one or other of two principles of
interpretation : either that of Reuss, or that of the
early Church, of the Apostles, and of our Lord and
Saviour. The last, I, for my part, accept fully and literally.
This principle of interpretation alone appears to me to
explain the Psalter, or to account for its existence.
And, if it be so, an argument of no small importance
for the truth of the Christian Religion seems to follow

xii PREFACE.
— an argument which it is the business of the following
pages to state and illustrate.
It remains for me to indicate the ' sources ' to which I
have habitually turned.
First, then, I have been diligent in reading the
Psalms in Hebrew, with Gesenius and Fuerst's Concord
ance by my side. Of Translations, those of the LXX,
of S. Jerome 'juxta Hebraicam veritatem,' and of Reuss,
have been compared. Of the chief schools of expositors
and commentators I have carefully selected some prin
cipal specimens, and constantly referred to them. Thus,
S. Augustine has mainly represented for me Catholic An
tiquity. From the older Roman Catholic school I have
chosen Bellarmine ; and, after prolonged use of his ex
position, I can subscribe to the judgment of Dr. Delitzsch,
that ' he brings to his task not only very unusual genius,
but, within the bounds of Romish restraint, a deep,
spiritual penetration.' Among German Protestant critics
I have consulted Hengstenberg and Delitzsch, both —
especially the last — with considerable profit. There are
two other books which I have read and re-read, as re
presenting the first beginning, and the most finished
and thorough-going expositions of modern Rationalis
tic criticisms of the Psalter. The first of these is
Ernest Fred. Car. Rosenmuller. His Scholia in Psalmos
are written in an unimaginative style, in perspicuous
Latin, which never rises to eloquence. But his exegeti-

PREFACE. xiii
cal penetration is of a high order. Rosenmuller's in
dustry reminds the reader of Gibbon's comparison of Til-
lemont to the humble and sure-footed Alpine mule. He
produces, just in their right places, valuable citations from
half-forgotten authors. He differs from most commen
tators in never avoiding a real difficulty, and in always
giving an unbiassed exposition. And thus — while his po
sition is simply that of a critip ab extra — while he has little
real sympathy with the poetry, less with the spirituality,
and least of all with the Theology of the Psalter — he is
the most valuable of guides up to a certain point — ac
cording to our English translation of a famous text, ' a
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.' Still more sweeping
and thorough-paced in the negative direction is Eeuss,1
whose work is the very quintessence of the latest unbe
lieving criticism. Having read these two considerable
commentators through and through, I have not cared to
wade through many others of the same school, very infe
rior to them in real scholarship, acuteness, and logical
consistency. But of modern commentators of our own
Church, I have turned again and again to the Psalms, in
the fourth volume of the ' Speaker's Commentary,' by
Canon Cook, the Dean of Wells, and the Rev. C. J.
Elliott; and I have found unfailing instruction in the
theological depth and spiritual sweetness of the Bishop
1 Le Psatitier, ou le Lime de Can- mentaires, par Edouaid Eeuss, Pro-
tiques de la Synagogue.— Traduction fesseur a 1'UmVersite de Strasbourg,
nouvelle, avec introductions et com- Paris, Sanduz tt Pisehbacher, 187ft.

xiv PREFACE.
of Lincoln, and the thoughtful brevity of Dr. Kay. Out
of a host of others occasionally used, I may mention
Calvin, Rivetus, Genebrard, Hammond, Gejerus, Pis-
cator, Cocceius, and Le Clerc. For the poetry of the
Psalms I have studied Herder, and Lowth's Prcelectiones
with the Notes et Epimetra of T. Dav. Michaelis. I
should be ungrateful indeed, were I to forget to add to
this list the honoured name of Mr. Keble.1 It is depres
sing to think how completely such noble strains as, e.g.,
Psalm xciii. in that version, are unheard in our churches ;
how few avail themselves of the conscientious thorough
ness of a translation which, when read side by side with
the Hebrew Psalms, is a pregnant and condensed com
mentary. In the present Edition I have not scrupled to avail
myself of the results of additional studies during the last
year and a half. I have even ventured to break up the
original materials, and to re-cast the arrangement in such
a way as I hope to make the argument more simple and
impressive. In the correction of the Hebrew I have
received the valuable assistance of my learned friend and
chaplain, the Very Rev. John Gwynn, Dean of Raphoe, to
whose large stores of information and conscientious accu
racy in every department of criticism and general lite
rature almost each page of this volume is indebted.
1 Psalter, or Psalms of David, in English verse. By a Member of the
University of Oxford. Oxford, 1840.

PREFACE. xv
I conclude with the earnest prayer that this book may,
in some degree, enable some of our clergy and people
to carry out the exhortation, 1 : b^po -iii?!
1 Psalm xlvii. 7.
WILLIAM DERRY and RAPHOE.

SYNOPSIS

PAGE 1

LECTURE I.
I.
Subject stated ....
Its fitness for the Bampton Lectures. . . i
Tts two main divisions ...... 3
II.
Witness of the Psalms to Chjust (Lectures I., II.) . 5
Predictive element in Prophecy essential, but not exclusive . . 5
Messianic Prediction in Psalms sufficiently perspicuous— The
main difficulty in disengaging Messianic facts from theories
about them ........ g
III.
Psalm xxii. proposed for special consideration .... 9
Criteria for testing the superhuman origin of single prophecies : 
1. Known prior promulgation.
2. Sufficiency of correspondence ....
3. Remoteness, chronological and moral
4. Non-isolation .... . .
5. Characteristic, but not over-definite, particularity
6. Worthiness of spiritual purpose

999
10
10
10

1 ' TJniversam eorum naturam, et generales habitus, et extrema solummodo
lineamenta adumbrans ; ad singulas partes, et minuta rerum adjuncta, paree ac
raro descendens.' — Lo-wth, De S. Poes. Hfibr. Prselect. XI.
a2

xviii ' SYNOPSIS. i'Arh
Such tests necessary . . .... 10
Schemes of interpretation of Psalm xxii. ... .11

Rationalistic — represented by Reuss ...... 12
Based upon the subjectively National or Israelite principle 14
Who is indicated by the pronoun I ? . . . . .14
Jarchi's view that in Psalms of this class I stands for
Israel personified ........ 15
Applied to Psalm xxii. in the anti-Christian interest . . 15
The view not necessarily anti-Messianic, but carried out
extravagantly and unspiritually ..... 16

Christian scheme of interpretation of Psalm xxii. — represented
by Bossuet . ........ 18
Presuppositions .......... 19
Who is the Forsaken One ?  19
Particular traits in the delineation ; verse 16 especially . 20
Constructive answer to the question proposed ... 23
IV.
Current depreciation,
I. Of the 'Christ Ideal' ....... 26
II. Of emotional contemplation of it . .27
Answered — (I.) By an appeal to facts  28
(II.) By analogy of the 'Duty-Ideal' ... 28
Christ our Interpreter of Psalm xxii.  29
Moral force of that interpretation ..... 30

LECTURE II.
Witness op the Psalms to Christ— (continued) ... 33
I.
General division of Messianic Psalms into (i.) subjectively, (ii.)
objectively, (iii. ) ideally Messianic .... 33

SYNOPSIS.

PAGI5

Subjectively Messianic Psalms (principally xvi., xxii., xl., lxix.) 34
Objections : —
1. That historical starting-point must be assigned . . 34
Answered ......... 34
2. Antecedent psychological objections . . 35
Of no weight  35
Subjectively Messianic Psalms to be explained by the characte
ristics of our Lord's humanity  36
Two questions of great importance suggested by this classifi
cation :
1. How are we to understand passages which speak of sin in
connection with Messiah 1  40
Answered ...... ... 40
2. How are we to understand the imprecatory portions of
these Psalms? ..... 43
Bishop Home's explanation insufficient  44
We must first consider the Character of our Lord ... 44
The appreciation of that character involves the reception of the
Incarnation ......... 45
The imprecatory Psalms express the more awful side of that
character ...... ... 47
Evil in Scripture represented as concentrated in successive prin
ciples, persons, systems ....... 48
No other solution meets obvious objections .... 51
(a) Not that which regards ' enemies ' as spiritual foes —
though valuable, and partially true . . '. .51
(6) Not that which explains imprecation as the utterance of
a low and legal spirit ....... 52
It is unjust to David ...... .53
To the elder Dispensation .... 53
Fatal to reverence for Scripture .... .54
General point of view .... ... 55
ii.
Objectively Messianic Psalms ... ... 58
1 . Psalm ii. ... .58
2. „ xiv  . 59
3. „ ex. . . . .... 61
Christological analysis of these Psalms . 59

SYNOPSIS.

Ideally Messianic Psalms  "2
Rather an aspect than a formal division of the Psalter . . 63
II.
The establishment of .the Prophetical character of these Psalms
makes it unlikely that it will stand alone .... 63
Principle of colligation of Messianic coincidences in the Psalter. 64
Divided into two classes :
1 . Those which delineate His character .... 64
2. Those which delineate His life  65
This mode of interpretation is not fanciful .... 69
Illustrations from Satire and Allegory of the colligating power of
a known general purpose or scheme  70
Swift and Spenser . .  70
Mystically Messianic thought Scriptural and admissible . . 72
III.
Objection to the entire view of Messianic Prophecy — from sup
posed failure in result ........ 73
Psalms and Prophecies had done their work when Messiah
came ........... 76
Two consequences :
] . Pronhecy must be taken into account in constructing a
Life of our Lord  76
2. A general principle of interpretation is gained . 77
The life of the Psalter bound up with its association with Christ 78

LECTURE IIL
Two objections to the use of the Psalter as a Christian Manual.
(i.) From the Character and History of David, (ii.) From
the indistinctness of the Hope of Immortality in it . 81
Moral objection from the character of David .... 81

SYNOPSIS.

1.
PAGH

Question of the Davidic authorship of a large portion of the
Psalms ......... 82
Evidence of the Titles of the Psalms ; how far to be used . 82
Fanciful conjectures from internal evidence .... 83
Denial of Davidic authorship of — •
1. Psalm li.  84
2. Psalm xxxii.  85
Answered . . ....... 86
Moral objections to David  88
Considerations suggested ........ 88
Illustrative parallel of Charles the Great  89
Contradiction between David's life and the tone of many of
the Psalms attributed to him apparent and superficial . . 91
Witness of Mr. Carlyle  92
The Psalms wonderful in proportion to the severity of our esti
mate of David ..... ... 93

Second objection to the fitness of the Psalms to witness for Christ
and Christianity, from alleged indefiniteness or negation of
the Hope of Immortality .... ... 96
A.
Judaism must have had that hope, or its later developments
could not have been harmonised with its first rudiments . 97
General considerations before studying Texts in detail . , 97
1.
Peculiar reasons for reserve in the case of Moses ... 97
2.
The sanction of immortality not to be expected in the portion
of Mosaism which consists of legal enactment ... 98
3.
Indications of the Idea of Man's Immortality in earlier portion
of the Old Testament  98
In its teaching about God ........ 99

xxii SYNOPSIS. PAGE 99
1. God's Omnipotence . ¦
The Sacrifice of Isaac. . • •
2. God's Love ..¦¦¦¦
Its teaching about Man 
Death, so to speak, an after-thought
Particular passages . . . • • •
B.
Alleged silence or denial of the Psalter ; Klostermann's conclu-
sion "  102
Two general considerations  1.
Psalter would be incomplete without an expression of the sad
ness which comes with the prospect of Death . . .102
2.
One peculiar aspect of the solemn mystery of death is thus
impressed upon us  *®6
The intermediate state, and the Hebrew feeling about Sh'ol . 103
Death not, per se, a state of Joy  105
Psalm cxxx  106
Summary .  106
Conclusion, that the teaching of the Psalter with respect to the
Future State does not impair its Witness to Christ and
to Christianity  107
Confirmation of this conclusion :
1. In the prediction of the Resurrection of Christ in Psalm
xvi. .  107
2. In Psalms which express the Christian's triumphant hope 109
Psalm lxxxviii.  114

LECTURE IV.
Witness of the Psalms to Christianity (Lectures IV. to VII.) 118
The predelineatiqn of the Christian Character in the Psalms is a
standing prophecy of the Gospel  118

SYNOPSIS. xxiii PAGE
Witness to the Christian Character  119
I.
The Christian Character viewed in relation (i.) to God, (ii.) to
the Church, and (iii.) to self  119
i.
The Christian character in relation to God  120
1. Religion is a present joy for the Psalmists . . . 120
This feature in the Psalms answers an objection of Mr.
Mill— Aristotle's avSpfios  123
2. A deep sense of sinfulness ...... 126
The joys of penitence  126
The Penitential Psalms  127
Richness of the Psalms in words for sin and pardon . . . 128
ii.
The Christian character viewed in relation to the Church . . 128
Equipoise of rubrical and spiritual elements .... 128
Use and abuse of will, sentiment, reason, imagination, in religion.
— Abuse of imagination, formalism. — Religious character for
which Psalmists provide is not formal, but spiritualises forms 129
Psalmists are Church poets ....... 131
And Evangelical poets. — The 132nd Psalm, as well as the 110th,
a Psalm of Messianic priesthood ..... 132
Lesson in dealing with formalism ...... 134

The Christian character viewed in relation to self . . . 135
Regulation of thought distinctively Christian .... 135
Emphasised by the Psalms ....... 136
Other traits of Christian character in the Psalms— The ' broken
spirit ' — the childlike soul in the 131st Psalm— the Beati
tudes anticipated  137
Summary ...... • • • 138
II.
Providential fitness of the various experiences of David to suit
the various phases of the Christian life . . . .139

xxiv SYNOPSIS.
This characteristic pressed as an argument against their Davidic
origin ..... • ¦ •
The Psalter a rare and precious gift 
Prayers rare and precious 
Thus, in the Psalms we have a prophetic Manual of Prayer
The Psalms a spiritual test 

141143144 144147

[Supplemental remarks on the contemplation of Nature in the
Psalms . .  148
Distinguished by four characteristics  148

Distinguished by serious sensibility  148
Humboldt's view ......... 148
Two remarks :
1. Reserve of the Psalmists . .... 149
(a) Psalm xxix. ........ 150
(b) ,, xxxvi. ....... 152
2. Delicate apprehension of Nature ... . 153
Instances ... ..... 153

Distinguished by grandeur ....... 156

Distinguished by direct reference to the Power and Wisdom of
God  156
Classical writers not serious in connecting Nature with the gods.
The ' Psalmist of Eleusis ; ' Cicero De Naturd Deorum ;
Hindu Pantheism colossal rather than sublime . . 156

Distinguished by spiritual transparency  159
Psalm cii. ......... 159
„ cxlvii  .... 160
New significance imparted to Nature by Christ gives a new light
to many Psalms .... ... 161

SYNOPSIS. xxv
PAGE
Instances :
Psalm xxix. applied to Holy Spirit  161
„ lxv. applied to Resurrection  161
,, xciii. applied to new creation in Christ . . . 162].

LECTURE V.
Witness of the Psalms to Christianity — (continued) . . 164
(II.)
Witness to the Christian Church  164
Bishop Pearson's view of the Church  164

Three great images of the Church in the Psalms — (i.) a City,
Sion or Jerusalem, (ii.) a Kingdom, (iii.) a Bride . . 165

The Church a City in the Psalms  165
Psalm Ixxxvii. discussed — Sion a prophetic word for the Church 165
Prophecy of the Church's Catholicity, and of entrance into her
by a new birth  . 168
The City — Sion or Jerusalem — the type of the Church in her
objectivity in the Psalter  170
Psalms xlvi., xlvii., xlviii. — Calvin upon the 48th Psalm . . 171

The Church a Kingdom in the Psalms  172
Psalm Ixxii. ; delineation of the influence of Christianity in it . 172
The Church an organised body— David's kingdom ennobled and
transformed ... . . . . 173
Psalms of Israel's National History are thus not effete or
superannuated in the Christian Church .... 174
1. The National History of Israel marked by facts which
become typical and predictive, and pass with a fixed
significance into the spiritual language of the Christian
Church — Principle of reversion  174

i SYNOPSIS.
PAGE
Hence the Psalms, as being Divinely pre-arranged,
allow a considerable space for the History of
the elder Dispensation — Psalm cxiv. — Rosen-
miiller and Dante — Psalm lxviii. . . . 177
2. Transfer to Christianity of permanently valuable elements
of Judaism ......... 179

The Church a Bride in the Psalms ...... 180
Principle of condescension in the language of Scripture about
God  180
Summary . . ...... 182
Bearing of this view upon Psalms cxxxii., cxxxiii., cxxxiv. . 182
II.
This view contrasted with current theory of the Church . . 185
The Evangehcal Alliance ; its mistake, its better and nobler side 186
Our hope of unity ......... 188
III.
Witness of the Psalter to the Church ...... 189
The idea of the Church needful for full appreciation of the
Psalter  190

LECTURE VI.
Witness of the Psalms to Christianity — (continued) . . 193
(III.)
Witness to Christian Worship  193
Inscription over Cathedral at Damascus proves that 1 45th Psalm
was addressed to our Lord by those who reared the Church 193
Is this interpretation tenable ?  194
Witness in Psalms both to the Adoration of ous Lord, and
to the general system of the Church's Worship . . 194
I.
Preliminary witness of the Psalms to the reality of the spiritual
world, and of religion in the more general sense of the word 194

SYNOPSIS. Xxvii

II.

Witness of the Psalms — (i.) to the Worship of Christ, (ii.) to
Worship in forms specifically Christian . . . 198

Worship of Christ in the Psalter recognised in the New Testa
ment — Hebrews i. ....... 198
The Psalter leads to the worship of Jesus, (1) by way of general
preparation, and (2) by a special provision .... 201
1. The general preparation — condescension in speaking of
God  .... 201
2. The special provision — the so-called Adonaic style in the
Psalms ... .... 202

Witness of the Psalms to worship in forms specifically
Christian — Christian seasons provided for by anticipation . 203
Christian thought in the order of the Psalms .... 204
The Gospel— what is it ?  . 207
The Psalms recognise it ....... . 209
Canonical Hours — Antiphons  210
In the fitness of the Psalms for Christian worship we have a
Prophetic fact ......... 212

The coincidence completed by the form of the Psalms . . 213
Parallelism, or ' Thought-metre ' .215
Hebrew poetry fitted for translation into all languages, and,
therefore, for a religion destined to be universal . . 218
III.
A preparation in the Psalter for the Music and Cathedrals of the
Church .  219

xxviii SYNOPSIS.
LECTURE VII. PAGE
Witness of the Psalms to Christianity— (continued) . . 225
(IV.)
Witness to Christian Theology . .... 225
I.
Great ideas of Christian Theology in the Psalter, (i.) Theistic ;
(ii.) Anthropological ; (iii.) Christological ; (iv.) Scheme
of Redemption ... . • ¦ 226

Theistic ideas of the Psalter . .... 226
Republication of Natural Religion — its value .... 229
Psalms capable of Theological construction . . . 230
Trinitarian anticipations ........ 233

Anthropological ideas of the Psalter ...... 233
Argument from Design in
1. Nature  234
2. History  235
Historical coincidence between men and circumstances leads to
question of Traducianism (or Generationism) and Crea
tionism .......... 236
Creationism (with due allowance for the other hypothesis, Psalm
li. 5) is the Psalmist's Creed  239
Psalm cxxxix. ..... .... 239
iii.
Christological ideas of the Psalter ...... 242
St. Athanasius .......... 242
iv.
General Theological ideas ........ 243
1. The Atonement ...... : 243
The Sacrifice of the will — Psalm xl. . . . 243
The great ' I come ' . . . . 245

SYNOPSIS. xxix PAGR
2. Justification — Grace— Psalm xxxii., &c. . . 245
3. Sacraments ..... ... 248
New Birth — Psalm lxxxvii.  248
Eucharistie Grace, Psalm xxii. 26, 27, &c. . . 248
II.
General Result of this Lecture . . . . . 250

LECTURE VIII.
Recapitulation of the Argument . ... 257
I.
Its force and bearing upon thoss who do not receive the Divine
authority of Scripture . ... 261
II.
Practical applications :
i. The use of the Psalter a test of the Church's spiritual life 265
ii. The Psalter can only really be used as in our own Service 266
Compensation for the Psalms cannot be found in Hymns . . 268
Love of early Christians for the Psalter ..... 270
Can the Psalter be restored to its proper place in the affections
of the Church 1  .271
Two means to this end :
1. Educating and catechising the young into intelligent
knowledge of it . . . ... 273
2. Shewing Christ, His Church, and Christianity in it 273
Enthusiasm for the Psalter at Hippo under St. Augustine . . 274
Can it be revived ? ..... . . 275
New life to the Church from such revival . . . 275
1. In quickening her own Services . . . 275
2. In attracting devout Separatists . 276
III.
Two other forms of Witness to Christianity in the Psalms :
i.
Their Witness to individual Christianity  277
Instances .....••• • • 277
Conclusion from this .... . 281

SYNOPSIS.

Their Witness to unfulfilled promises :
1. Of the gathering in of Israel
Psalm cxviii.
2. Of the times of restitution
Psalms xcvi., xcvii., xcviii.
3. Principle of intensity
Instances
Spiritual use in ministering to Hope
ConclusionIndex of Passages of the Bible,
General Index

281282
283283
284
284
286
289383
393

Page 60, 61;
65,
66,
100,
155,
161,
167.
217,228,
279,292,300,321,
347,383

Corrigenda.
note 5 ; for v. 3, read v. 2
note 5 ; for Index, read Indexes
note 2 ; for My father and my mother, read My
father and My mother
note 3 ; for i. 67, read i. 57
ib. for accipit, read usurpat
note 3 ; for .Note C, read Note D.
note 5 ; for aj?p read ^Q
note 1 ; for tp\6yi -jrup6s, read <p\oy\ irvphs
note 4 ; for Niphil, read Niphal
note 3 ; for Note B., read Note C.
note 1 ; for xix. 15, read xix. 14
line 7 from foot, /or 1668, read 1608
line 2, before Eph., insert 1 Cor. ii. 3 ; 2 Cor. vii. 15 ;
(note 1 to p. 299); for xviii. 41, read xviii. 4
note 1 ; for aj'3 read 2T3
note 3 ; for Kovrdpia, read KovraKta
(opposite to Gen. III. 22); after 100, insert 110 re.1
(opposite to Gen. XLIX. 10) ; for n.\ read n.1

Note.— Throughout this book the numbering of the Psalms, and of their
verses, for the sake of uniformity, has been made to follow that of the
Authorised Version, even where the Hebrew or the Greek of the LXX. is
cited.

Bampton Lectures.

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST
AND CHEISTIANITY.

LECTURE I.
Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
Psalm xxii. 15.
I.
In this series of Lectures I shall attempt to present, in a
systematic view, the varied Witness to Christ and Christi
anity which is afforded by the Book of Psalms.
Independently of its proper interest and instruction,
this subject has a special claim to be considered as
coming within the range of those which were contem
plated by the founder of the Bampton Lectures.
The other books of the Old Testament may, for the
most part, be kept at a convenient distance. It was said
by the most popular Christian Apologist of the last genera-

2 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS user, i.
tion, that it is an artifice of unbelieving controversy to
< attack Christianity through the sides of Judaism,' and to
make the New Testament ' answerable with its very life
for the Old.' l When the attack is pressed in the extrava
gant forms which Paley proceeds to mention, his defence
is worthy of serious consideration. There is, however, a
sense in which those who advance along this line towards
the citadel of the faith are not guilty of artifice. There
is a sense in which the responsibility must be borne.
But, then, as regards a great part of the Old Testament,
it is an ultimate responsibility of the logical faculties.
It lies, even for thoughtful minds, at a practically un
defined distance. But the Psalms are interwoven with the
texture of the New Testament. They are so, indeed, to a de
gree which can scarcely be imagined by any one who has not
directed his special attention to the subject,2 and marked
down, not only certain palmary passages, but literally hun
dreds of at first unsuspected hints, allusions, and expres
sions. But, over and above this, the echoes of the Psalms
rather multiply than decrease even in the Nineteenth Cen
tury. The words of Aristotle did not become more com
pletely stamped upon the language of the world in the Middle
Ages than the words of the Psalms upon the language of
devotion and Theology in the Church of every age. It is not
merely that preachers occasionally quote the magnificent
encomium of Hooker. It is not merely that an enormous
literature of criticism and devotion has accumulated round
the Psalter, so that a competent scholar, many years ago,
reckoned up six hundred and thirty separate commen-
1 Paley's Evidences, Part III. chapter 3. 2 See Appendix. Note A.

lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIAN IT Y. 3
taries on the subject.1 The Psalms occupy about a fifth
of our English Prayer Book. They a.re more familiar
than the words of Ken or Cowper. Of the many aspects
presented by an English Cathedral, there is one which is
often overlooked; it is a shrine for the Psalter. The
Great Teacher, who saw into the depths of Scripture
with such penetrating insight, once spoke of it as a
chain of which no link can be broken without rupture
or dislocation of the whole.2 But that may be in the
ultimate consequences of things; in the way of remote,
and sometimes unsuspected deductions from premisses
not distinctly formulated. It may be in the long run,
in the lifetime, not of an individual, but of a com
munity or of a nation. For instance ; a disbelief in
the Bible account of the creation of man, however ex
plained, may co-exist — it is to be feared, illogically — with a
reverence for the supreme authority of Christ. It can
scarcely be so with the Book which we propose to
examine. The Psalmists cannot be put away from us,
with an impatient shrug, to a more convenient season.
At marriages and funerals, by sick-beds and in stately
ceremonials, in churches and homes, they make their
voices heard at every turn. They are as near to us as
the Evangelists themselves. Christianity is responsible
for the Psalter with its very life.
Our subject naturally falls into two main divisions :—
1 ' Le Long, sedulus si quis alius S. S. commentati sunt.'— Dank, Hist.
et exactus perscrutator, ad 630 reeen- Rev. Div. i. 287.
suit (Bibliotheca S. Pat. 1723. II. 2 ou Sivarat XvOrivai ri yptup-l). St.
1098), exceptis iis qui in universam John x. 35.
B 2

4 THE WITNESS OF IHE PSALMS lect. i.
(1) The Witness of the Psalms to Christ, and (2) The
Witness of the Psalms to Christianity.
The second of these divisions— the Witness of the
Psalms to Christianity— has, less frequently than the
first, been distinctly contemplated by Christian preachers.
Under the complex term Christianity, I shall include four
separate conceptions :
i. That whole tendency of heart and mind which leads
those who are under its influence to feel, act, and pray in
a particular way — in a word, the Christian Character.
ii. The outward expression in appropriate utterance of
this prevailing tone or life — in a word, Christian Wor
ship. iii. The enunciation, at least in pregnant germs, of
those primary intellectual conceptions which give form and
consistency to the spiritual life — in a word, Christian
Theology. iv. That great organisation — the community of souls
which is stamped with that peculiar character, which
utters the adoration of its heart in that peculiar worship,
which frames its intellectual conceptions in that peculiar
mould — in a word, the Christian Church.
The contemplation of a Character, which, under the
elder dispensation, was not yet perfected ; the provision
for a Worship, which did not yet exist ; the anticipation
of a Theology, which was not yet elaborated ; the delineation
of an organised Body, which was not yet established ; are
prophecies, which may be submitted to the most stringent
tests.

lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. r,
II.
It will be understood that he who speaks ofthe Witness
of the Psalms to Christ can scarcely belong to the school
of those for whom the predictive element in Prophecy is
secondary and unessential. There are many who con
ceive the word to have little significance beyond that
which it bears in the title of Jeremy Taylor's famous
book.1 For them the Prophets are preachers of a reli
gion, tolerant, unritualistic, and unsectarian. They are
incorruptible political Puritans. They are, in a degree,
prelusive echoes ofthe voice of a Free Press. After making
the necessary allowances, they resemble the young and
eloquent chief of the Eclectic philosophy, when in 1820
his burning words, delivered from a Professor's chair in
the Sorbonne, stirred the mind and spirit of the youth of
France. They may be thought of as chiefs of a Hebrew
Liberal party, as writers of a kind of glorified leading-
articles at once sublime and obscure. But their special
function as pre-announcers of the Historical Christ is
denied, or ignored. It will generally be found that those
who wish to remove or minimise the predictive are im
patient of the miraculous — for the predictive is the
written form of the miraculous.
It is, indeed, never to be forgotten that the utterances
of the Prophets are not merely predictive. The English
Divines of the last century often used language which
might seem capable of such a construction. The general
1 It should be remembered that the 'Liberty of Prophesying' does not
represent the maturity of Taylor's intellect or convictions.

0 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
tendency to this partial view was, probably, increased by
a misapprehension of the limits which the context implied
to Bishop Butler's apparently unguarded statement — ' Pro
phecy is nothing but the history of events before they come
to pass.' ' On the contrary, the Hebrew Prophets enunciate
those great moral and even political axioms, which, as
Coleridge says, ' are permanent prophecies because they
are at the same time eternal truths, predictions which in
containing the grounds of fulfilment involve the principle
of foresight, and teach the science of the future in its
perpetual elements.' 2 Invectives against superstition and
sin; words of comfort to the weary and heavy-laden;
occasional warnings about the political relations of the
Theocracy ; are mingled with vaticination. Above all, and
that more especially in the Psalms, the principles of a
higher spiritual life are developed, in a line of progress
which runs parallel with the development of the image
of Him who was to be the Author of that life. To the
importance of this whole side of Prophecy, more espe
cially in its political relations, the attention of English
men was first prominently called by the great thinker
just quoted. His once famous Lay Sermon owed its
origin to this.
From this part of the Prophetic Office arose one
great characteristic of the history of Israel. In other
Eastern countries, two iron hands have been laid upon
the moral and intellectual life of man, the hand of the
Priest and that of the Despot. Among the Jews, des
potism and priesthood existed. An order of Prophets
1 Analogy, Pt. II. cli. vii. 2 Statesman's Manual, p. 207 (2nd Ed.).

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 7
was recognised in Egypt, but it was absolutely identified
with the Sacerdotal Caste. The Priesthood of Israel was
prevented from becoming Egyptian or Brahminical ' by
the independent existence of the Prophets. They saved
the plant of spiritual religion from dwarfing and dying,
under the cultivation of a caste in the enjoyment of a
monopoly. In the worst of times there was not wanting
a mysterious voice which spoke the accents of conscience
and liberty in the ear of despots. But if we are to be
on our guard against the exaggeration which has been,
not without injustice, attributed to Bishop Butler, we
must, in the present conditions of thought, be still more
careful to avoid that which may be derived from Mr.
Coleridge's writings. To forthtell (etwas weissagen) is, no
doubt, a main characteristic of the Prophet. But the fc03?
(nabhly) is not the demagogue who scatters his burning
words among the masses. He is not the rational and
philosophical Divine who speaks a sublime and sanctified
common sense. He is the man who rebukes, utters, or pre
dicts ; — but the essential idea is that he does so under the
influence of another and higher power than his own, that
he obtains and announces a Divine Revelation.2
' Ewald, History of Israel, i. the soul, the Niph. or Hithp. is
563. employed for this sort of Divine in-
2 Fuerst's observations on the verb spiration, because these conjugations
K3, and the noun »o3 deserve are used to describe the inner affections
¦tt ¦ t (tt(£87)) (as in the case of words denot-
attentive study. They correct two ing grief and penit6nce). ... But the
¦wide-spread errors on the derivation yerb under consiaeration is employed
and meaning of the verb :— ' The Niph. &r fche annolmcement maae by Divine
K33 and Hithp. K33rifl = to sPeak b? inspiration of things past or future;
Divine impulse and instigation, to as also for ethical teaching ; or for a
prophesy, vaticinate, announce the prophetic poem undertaken by Divine
future. Because the Holy Spirit pro- impulse ; or, if false prophets are in
duces a spiritual sense and motion in question, of utterances arising from de-

8 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
It has been remarked by Bishop Horsley that predic
tion in its highest form, the Messianic, is nowhere more
perspicuous than in the Psalms. Yet nowhere is it more
overlooked. One cause of the feeble impression produced
by these passages is, certainly, the enormous mass of criti
cism and speculation which has overlaid and buried the
text. Nowhere has the preacher more emphatically to
lament the barren superfluity of his materials ; the often
thin and shadowy substratum of result under gigantic
layers of books. What Psalms are objectively, what sub
jectively, Messianic; — how far we are to recognise an
ideally Righteous Man suffering and glorified, whose fea
tures, projected in the mirror of the Psalms, assume a
strange and touching likeness to the King of Sorrow and
of Glory ; — whether, and how far, the thought and per
sonality of the Psalmists were protended to, and absorbed
by, the Divine object of their contemplation ; — these are
speculations of great interest and importance, but they
are speculations after all. I desire to lay hold, in the first
place, if possible, of one solid Messianic fact, apart from
all theories about the mode in which it may have been
presented to the Prophet. We may then hope to proceed
with better assurance of success ; for truth emerges from
error itself more readily than from confusion.
momacal instigation. . . . It is a great vincere,eonvincere"(niederreden,uber-
mistake to suppose that ^33 like waltigend reden) .. .— N»3;j = speaker,
j)23 has the original signification of prophet, who, endowed Divinely -with
bubbling up, bringing forth, uttering the &iffc of Pr°phecy, is the messenger
out. The word is compounded of the and iuterpreter of the true God-
root 6a— Gr. <pa— Lat. fa-ri— and the sometimes of false prophets -who feign
preposition na—Kari.. From this we a -^'v'ne Mission.' — Concordantia
see its natural import—" oratione de- Hebraica, Jul- Fuerst, pp. 669, 670.

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 9
III.
Let us then begin by considering the 22nd Psalm.
Let us see what witness it gives to a sincere en
quirer, possessed of the ordinary means of investigation.
But it will lead us more directly to our object, if,
before entering upon this enquiry, we provide ourselves
with tests, or criteria, by which to examine whether
' single examples of prophecy ' may reasonably be re
ferred to a higher than human origin.
Three such tests were many years ago laid down by a
venerated divine of this University in his ' Discourses on
Prophecy.' ' They are briefly these :
(1) Known promulgation prior to the event.
(2) Sufficiency of correspondence between the predic
tion and the result.
(3) Chronological, or moral remoteness, in the date or
in the nature of the event. The first excludes forged
or manipulated prophecies ; the second, equivocal coinci
dences; the third, random forecasts, felicitous guesses,
sagacious anticipations, predictions in the form of uni
versal principles, which, as Mr. Coleridge says, ' contain
the grounds of their own fulfilment.' Gibbon speaks of
a prophecy which was affixed to an equestrian statue in
Constantinople, about a.d. 955, to the effect that Russia
in the last days should be mistress of Constantinople. He
goes on to mention that there are writers who witness
to this fact about a.d. 1100. ' Perhaps,' he adds, ' the
present generation may yet behold the accomplishment
of the prediction, of a rare prediction, of which the style is
' Davison, Discourses on Prophecy, viii.-ix. 374-426.

10 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
unambiguous and the date unquestionable.' l Gibbon's lan
guage implies that a style sufficiently unambiguous and a
date sufficiently certain would be enough to establish
a species of vaticination inexplicable upon ordinary prin
ciples. And it would occur to most persons at once to
cite the prophecies which relate to the fall and dispersion
of the Jewish people. But those who believe in the
Divine origin of prophecy can afford to be more exacting,
and to give additional stringency to the tests proposed by
Mr. Davison. They may claim beyond those —
(4) That the prediction, though capable of being con
sidered separately, shall not in itself be detached and iso
lated, but part of a connected and systematic whole.
(5) That the sufficiency of correspondence shall be en
hanced by a prediction not absolutely general and colour
less, but enriched with a certain number of particular
adjuncts. (6) On the moral side — That the prediction shall not
be of a nature merely to gratify private feeling, or stimu
late an otiose curiosity, but shall have some reference to
an end worthy of a Divine Author.
That these tests are necessary will readily be under
stood. Very extraordinary forecasts may be made by
sagacious men, from the application of historical analogy,
or from the possession of general principles ; — every
general principle being a species of prophecy pregnant
with repeated fulfilments. Of this kind was the anticipa
tion of Polybius that Rome would become imperial, be
cause he had observed that democracies and aristocracies
1 Decline and Fall, chapter lv.

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 11
end in empires. A less well-known illustration is afforded
by Archbishop Browne's sermon, preached in Christ
Church, Dublin, on Easter Day, 1551, in which he said of
the Jesuits that ' the Society shall be cut off by the hands
of those who most succoured them ; that at the end they
shall become odious to all nations, having no resting-place
upon earth, and then shall a Jew have more favour than
a Jesuit.' In such cases there is a want of that moral
remoteness which has been laid down as necessary to give
us a conviction of a superhuman origin. Examples might
be multiplied of men, who, under an intense feeling of
righteous indignation, have been led to give utterance to
sayings which have been accepted by their contemporaries
as the sentence of the Judge of all the earth. National
wickedness has elicited from men of fervent piety im
passioned invectives which have been strangely fulfilled,
as in the case of the marvellous prediction of the French
Revolution delivered by Beauregard in Notre Dame, thir
teen years before that event. But none of these can
submit to be confronted with all the tests which have
been laid down, in order that our interpretation of the
22nd Psalm may be compared with them.1
Let us now proceed to contrast the Rationalist and
Christian interpretations of that Psalm.
i.
The former may fairly be represented by Professor
Reuss, of Strasburg, whose exposition is as follows : 2 —
1 Appendix. Note B. Par Edouard Eeuss, Professeur a,
2 La Bible. Traduction Nouvclle, l'lTniversite de Strasbourg. Cinquieme
avee Introductions et Commentaires. Partie, pp. 115-121.

12 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. r.
' Here is a Psalm, simple, transparent, without any
grammatical difficulty, confining itself to generalities,
making no allusion to particular facts which can only
be discovered by critical combinations more or less
ingenious ; which yet has caused heated controversies and
incredible divisions among commentators, who have been
misled by the necessity of finding imaginary traces of an
individual history.
' The piece is composed of two parts. In the first, the
person who speaks deplores his misfortune, speaks of
mortal dangers which menace him, describes the state of
humiliation and misery to which he is reduced, and
implores with cries the succour of a God who seems to
have abandoned the suppliant. This fervent prayer,
from the very fact of its maintaining the relation between
the faithful and his God, gives him the hope of being
heard. Thus, the second part of the poem places itself at
the stand-point of this perspective, and passionately im
plores the aid of Divine Grace, so as to forget the present
situation. More than this — the horizon is enlarged, and
the glory of the future appears brilliant in proportion to
the darkness and sorrow of the momentary abasement.
The main question is to know who speaks in the Psalm ?
The inscription tells us that it is David, and, of course,
the pursuit of Saul forms the stock of the exegesis which
feels constrained to subscribe to the conjectures of the
Rabbis. We shall not amuse ourselves by discussing an
impossible interpretation.
' But the subject of the Psalm, the person who speaks
in it, is it really an individual ? He consistently speaks

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 13
in the singular. The third and fourth strophes appear to
exclude all doubt on the subject. " I am a worm and no
man," " Thou art He that took me out of the womb," and
the rest. In spite of all this we are of a different opinion.
The second strophe, in speaking of " our fathers," already
puts them in relation to the present situation. And
this allows us to see a more perfect parallelism between
the two epochs of the history, no matter of what epoch
the poet thought in speaking of the times when the
prayers of Israel were more promptly heard. Again ;
unless my feeling of the passage greatly deceives me, the
long list of ferocious beasts places us in presence, not of
individuals, but of assembled enemies, hostile peoples.
But the four concluding strophes absolve us from the
necessity of further hesitation. In them, the deliverance
of this so-called individual becomes the subject of thanks
for all Israel present and future. The Unhappy One
changes into the unhappy ones. Finally, in view of this
deliverance, the entire Pagan world will be converted.
The Psalm depicts and deplores the profound misery of
the people of God under a Pagan tyranny. . . Every
one knows that Jesus, nailed to the cross, pronounced
the first words of this Psalm. That circumstance con
strained Christians from the first to recognise their Lord
Himself in the person who speaks in it. The partition
of the garments of the Crucified, and the I6t cast upon
His coat, were immediately made out, and later on it
was discovered that the LXX had translated, "They
dug My hands and My feet," instead of " as a lion." Not
only did they see a direct allusion to the punishment of

14 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect, t.
the cross in changing dig into pierce, but they concluded
that the feet also were pierced, contrary to the custom.
And so the Crucifix is represented to this day. But all
this system of interpretation reposes upon a notion of
Prophecy to which science can no longer adapt itself, viz.,
that an ancient poet, David, completely forgetting his
person and his age, could have transported himself in
spirit into the soul of a Personage belonging to a distant
future, and could have described the destinies of that
person in an anticipatory picture of accidental details.'
In spite of all the gifts and acquirements of the
accomplished writer, it will appear obvious from his own
statements (1) that the Psalm does not paint a general
situation of undefined distress, but one crowded with par
ticular facts ; (2) that the Sufferer contemplated in it is,
upon any ordinary construction of words, an individual ;
(3) that the learned author struggles against facts which
he himself admits, for the purpose of defeating a principle
of interpretation which he dislikes.
It is advisable to notice in this place the general theory
of interpretation inherited by modern Rationalism from
the Jewish schools, which is found to be the most conve
nient mode of stripping Psalms of this class of their
Christian significance. It may be not unfitly called the
substitution of the subjectively National or Israelite for
the subjectively Messianic principle.
Many of the Psalms suggest the same question which
has so often been asked in reference to the seventh chapter
of the Epistle to the Romans — Of whom is the writer
speaking ? who is indicated by I"? Is he thinking of him-

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 15
self, or of some other man, or men ? The answer of the
school just mentioned is that, in almost all cases without
exception, the Psalmists adopt a vivid and convenient
personification of Israel in its national agony or triumph,
repentance or restoration. It is plain that, if sufficiently
numerous and important instances can be alleged to esta
blish this as a general scheme of interpretation, we must
enter upon an examination of the 22nd Psalm with a
strong presumption, to say the least of it, against the
subjectively Messianic /view.
A numerous class of Psalms is understood as subjec
tively national or Israelite by De Wette, Rosenmiiller,
and Reuss, who follow the teaching of Jarchi.1 Of the
13th Psalm Jarchi affirms that ' the common prayers of
the whole people in a time of oppression are here con
tained.' This becomes a pregnant principle indeed, and
runs through the whole Psalter. The 25th Psalm does
not really express the sentiment of an individual ; the
' tender mercies ' from the very Heart of God 2 are simply
those recorded in the pages of history. The 69th Psalm
merely echoes the 6th and 38 th; it is spoken in the per
son of the Jews, who were carried away into captivity at
Babylon. This principle of interpretation is especially valu
able as disposing of the formidable witness of the 22nd
Psalm. 'With the Jewish interpreters,' says Rosen-
muller 'we do not hesitate to place this Psalm among
those that bewail the sad fate of the whole Jewish people
1 Especially Psalms vi., ix., xii., 2 ^»prn (rachameykha), Psalm
xiii., xvii., xxii., xxiii., xxv., xxxi., xx^ 6_
xxxviii., xxxix., xl., lxix.

16 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
among their barbarous oppressors, under the image of a
single man, smitten with every kind of anguish, mental
and bodily. But if this conviction be well founded, it is
scarcely necessary to point out that the Psalm cannot
have been composed by David.' — ' The name of the royal
poet was prefixed to this and other pieces of the same
type, because that monarch in his many perils and conflicts
was not unnaturally conceived of as a noble representa
tive and personification of the whole people of Israel.' '
Kimchi supposes that the 23rd Psalm was composed by
David, but that it was found specially suitable to the
Hebrew people, on the eve of their return from their
captivity, and was thus joined to the preceding dirge,
which complains of the miseries of the exile.2
This principle of interpretation need not, perhaps, be
absolutely fatal to the higher Christian view of the Psalm.
The collective ideal Israel is typical of Christ, and the
lamentation or triumph of the one might pass over into
that of the other. Nor are we concerned to deny that
there are Psalms which had a national significance, and
breathed forth the humiliation or rapture of the whole
community. There are times for every people and for
every Church, when each single wave of thought and
emotion is drawn shoreward by a powerful tide — and the
separate resonance of any one breaker cannot be distin
guished from the multitudinous murmur of the whole sea.
But there can be no doubt that the theory which we are
examining has been pushed to an extravagant length,
3 Scholia., Arg. in Ps. xxii., Arg. in 2 ' Sententia haudquaquam repu
Ps. xiii. dianda ' ! Scholia, Arg. in Ps. xxiii.

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 17
until it becomes tasteless and frigid, as well as unspi-
ritual and unchristian. It is said, for instance, of the 13th
Psalm, that ' there is something poor in it, when we read
in it the complaint of an individual against other indi
viduals, beseeching God to intervene in his private con
cerns. But all is natural,. legitimate, and touching, when
we think of a nation oppressed and betrayed even by some of
its own sons. We are content to leave to others the pleasure
of following the shadowy phantoms of Saul, Absalom, and
the Philistines.' ' But if all human hearts which have
really tried the Psalms have found an expression in them
of their own wants and their own experience, it was
because they were, in the first instance, the expression
of real living human hearts. The 13th Psalm has ever
been dear to holy souls in dark hours of temptation,
whether of the intellect or the will ; and the thousands
who so use it feel that it is the voice of an individual life.2
Let us look at two other Psalms most confidently asserted
to be subjectively national. Surely, in the estimation of
religious Israelites, sin was something intensely linked to
a man's personal existence. Such a forced and artificial
periphrasis for national transgression as ' sins of my youth,' 3
1 Reuss, in loc. first, the believer when tempted says,
' ' He who is tempted suffers from "How long wilt thou forget me, O
one of two evils — unholy desires from Lord? " On account of the second, he
the will, doubt and darkness from the exclaims, " How long wilt Thou hide
intellect. When lusts press upon us, Thyself from me ?" ' Bellarmin., F.x-
God seems to " forget " and desert the planat. in Psalm, p. 61. ' Hine apparet
soul; when clouds obscure the intel- Psalmumhunc scriptum esse pro libe-
lect, God seems to "hide His face." ratione justi a tentatione diabolica.'

For He is the Light, and illuminates jbid.
when He turns His face towards us, „
but leaves in darkness when He turns
His face away. On account of the ray), Psa!m xxv. 7. The qualification

when He turns His face towards us, , ^m (chattoth n'uu-
but leaves in darkness when He turns

18 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
in a prayer, is utterly inconceivable. Again, it does not
need the dying voice of the Son of God to remind us that
the act of yielding up the soul to God is the very con
centration of personal and individual life, and has no
counterpart in national history. But, if this be so, the
(b'yadh'kha, aphkiydh riichiy) '
of the 31st Psalm can never belong to a personified Israel.
I contend that some of the Psalms most confidently claimed
as subjectively Israelite cannot be read through in that
sense, without doing violence to all natural construction
of language. But, if this be established, we need not enter
upon a consideration of the 22nd Psalm, with any ante
cedent presumption that the /, so often spoken of, must
almost necessarily be an agonising Israel personified.
ii.
Thus the way is open for us to put another expo
sition of the 22nd Psalm side by side with that of
Reuss. It is, in substance, that of the early Fathers, of
the Apostles, of our Lord Himself. The form in which it
is cast may give it some interest. I- shall follow the main
lines of Bossuet's interpretation. I have been unable to
find that it has been seriously affected by the long succes
sion of Rationalist critics. But I have not followed
Bossuet without the liberty of occasional amendment, from
a careful study of the Psalm itself, and from the results of
later research.
in the text will show that I have not forgotten that Dn-lj;} is used metaphori
cally of the youth of the people of Israel. Jer. ii. 2; iii. 4 ; Ezek. xvi. 22, 60.
1 Psalm xxxi. 5.

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 19
The presuppositions from which we need to start are
but few. In default of evidence to the contrary, we hold
that the title which refers it to David may safely be as
sumed ; though even this is not necessarily bound up with
the Messianic interpretation. We require, then, but two
postulates : (1) That, whatever be the psychological ex
planation, Psalmists, as a matter of fact, speak, from time
to time, in the person of Messiah; (2) That Jesus on the
Cross attributed it to Himself — or, at least, cited its
opening words, and thus leads us to do so. That He
uttered the ' Eli, Eli,' scepticism itself can scarcely doubt.
It is the one Last Word of the Seven which has been pre
served by the two first of the synoptical Evangelists. Its
record is an instance of fearless candour. There have not,
as we know, been wanting those who, in days of rougher
blasphemy, spoke of this utterance as weakness or cowar
dice. There are those living who write, in lower but not
less bitter tones, of the cry wrung from a heart broken by
the sense of a mission misunderstood ; of the wail of a
young life made for the sunshine of Galilee, as it felt the
last golden drops pouring out on the dust of Golgotha.
' That voice of utter loneliness in the death-struggle,'
exclaims the noble-hearted Rationalist, Schenkel, 'that
entirely credible utterance, because it could never have
been invented.' l
The question before us is — Who is this Forsaken One ?
To answer it, we must observe what are the traits of His
position, circumstances, and character, as they are here
delineated. 1 CharaJcterb. p. 308. See Appendix. Note 0.
c 2

20 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
They are these : —
He is abandoned, scorned, and abject. His anguish
shows itself by broken cries. We ask for the construction
of the words immediately after the first line, but who can
construe a sob?
My God ! My God ! why hast Thou forsaken Me ?
Far from My salvation ....
Words of My complaint. . . -1
So abject is He, and so scorned, that the strange word
translated ' reproach of men ' 2 is applied to Him.
He is surrounded by enemies typified by wild beasts.
Bisons have compassed Me, many a one :
Strong ones of Bashan have surrounded Me.
They have opened upon Me their mouth,
As a lion roaring and rending the prey.3
His suffering involves fierce thirst.
Is dried as a potsherd My strength :
My tongue is cleaving to My palate.
Death is the consequence ; laying or setting out for the
sepulchre.4 The sixteenth verse brings us very close to the Cross.
We must pause upon the words rendered, ' They pierced
My Hands and My Feet.'
1 "• !¦ dandi.' Bosenm., Scholia, in loc. ' Tu
2 CIS nS"in (cherpath adham), v. 6. m'etends dans la poussiere de la mort.'
3 mi. 12, 13. Eeuss.
4 'JDf £>n njO--©$) (v'%'aphar- • My strength is like a potsherd, dry,
maveth tishp'thenly), u. 15. 'Pulveres. My tongue and gums together
humo mortis eignificatur tumulus, cleave —
sepulchrum. Sepulchro alique.m dis- I'ow in the dust of death I lie,
ponere s. aptare est ita conficere ut Thou layst me there, and there
mortui instar sit sepulchro deman- 'wilt leave.' Keble.

lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 21
The choice lies between three readings : (1) n&??
(Kd'arly) (2) nX3 (Ka'arey), (3) 1183 (Ka'aru). If the
first reading be correct, the word with its disposition of
vowel-points means ' like a lion ; ' with the second, it is the
plural participle from a verb signifying to dig or pierce ;
with the third, the preterite of the same verb. Not
only does Justin Martyr quote the text against Trypho as
translated by the LXX. (&pv%av %sipds fiov ical troBas).
The impossibility of giving any satisfactory sense or con
struction to Ka'arly — ' like a lion My Hands and My Feet '
— and other reasons, have induced scholars like Ewald
and Fuerst, without the slightest dogmatic prepossession,
to adopt Ka'aru as the true reading, though not strongly
supported by MSS.
But even then, it is said, if it be so, that is no true
picture of the Crucifixion, for crucifixion did not involve
piercing of the feet. But the slave, in the lines from the
' Mostellaria ' of Plautus, so often quoted since the days of
Bynseus, expressly mentions the affixing of the feet as
well as the hands in the slave's punishment of the cross.
Tertullian, who lived before crucifixion was abolished,
speaks of the double piercing as forming the peculiar
atrocity of the cross. Two martyrs, Marcus and Marcel-
lianus, remained a day and a night, tied to a beam, to
which their feet were nailed. The impartial industry of
Rosenmiiller supplies another instance from a crucifixion
in Arabia. Above all, let us remember His own words,
' Behold My Hands and My Feet ! n
1 St. Luke xxiv. 39. Appendix. Note D.

22 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
The Sufferer's Hands and Feet, then, are pierced. If
not, a mysterious something is done to them.
Those who have remarked the passages from ancient
writers, which describe the extension of those who were
crucified, will read with a fresh meaning the words in the
seventeenth verse, I may tell all my bones.1
His garments are parted, and ' upon His clothing they
cast a lot.' 2
But then this agony has a strange, yet real and most
powerful influence, in bringing the nations of the earth to
God. The 'half -indignant' question of the Apostle, 'Is
He the God of the Jews only?'3 is no question at all
with Him Who speaks from the great agony. The long
sweep of the rhythm speaks of His joy in the travail of
His soul. Those who have forgotten 'have not so for
gotten that they cannot be brought to remember.' 4
All the ends of the earth shall remember, and shall turn them unto
Jehovah,
And shall bow down before Thee all the tribes of the Gentiles.5
Not only will He declare His name unto**His brethren.
The kingdom becomes the Lord's, and He is ruling and
reigning among the Gentiles.6 A great procession comes
to worship. A mystic Feast is spread. There pass before
us the forms of strong men in lusty pride, fed and sated
1 "IBDX ('asapper), v. 17. 'I will 4 St. Aug. De Trinitate, xiv. 13.
diligently note down ' (as one carefully "• ^-
writing in a book). 6 D?iil2 ?fJ>i!3 (moshelbaggoyim),
2 v. 18. „. 28. '
3 Rom. iii. 29.

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 23
wiih life's richest fare. ' All the fat ones of earth ' have
eaten 2 and bowed down.' For these strong men feel that,
after all, there is One Who brings together all the far-
stretched pride and ambition of man, and covers them with
these two narrow words, ' Hie jacet.' They who are in
one view ' earth's strong ones,' are in another 'goers down
of dust.' 3 But the poor and humble shall so eat that a
new thrill of imperishable life shall pass into their souls.
' Your heart shall live for ever.' 4
Any one in whom these traits do not meet cannot
supply us with an answer to our question. Of course, by
allegorizing, by denying that any particulars are described,
critics may close their eyes to Christ. But with Him,
and Him alone, we obtain an answer which is unforced,
natural, and connected. It is easy to refer to David, to
Jeremiah, to collective Israel. But unless these positive
facts can be asserted of each or all of them ; unless death,
preceded by these particulars, or most of them, can be
justly, and without palpable absurdity, affirmed of them ;
we have not found the object of our search. How can the
conversion of the world, as the reward and consequence of
suffering, lie hidden in some obscure nook of history?
' If you deny it,' cries Bossuet, ' the world itself is a wit
ness against you.'
We may now give, in a constructive form, the Church's
answer to the question which we have put.
Loaded with the sins of the world, Jesus began the
1 Y-\H " 'JtJ'V^S (k51 - dishney- certainty.
- ^ n ''"''on ': ' T ' "fflVTlV (yor'dhey J>aphar).
erets), v. 29, T' !
2 ¦l^OK Drset. for Put. to denote * v. 26.

24

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS

LECT. I.

Psalm upon the Cross to show that it was His. Four out
of the last Seven Words certainly are taken from, or refer
to, this portion of the Psalter.1 From the first verse on,
there is scarcely a line which might not have come from
the pen of an Evangelist. Instead of a colourless scene,
instead of unmitigated darkness and inextricable confu
sion, there are colour and detail. The echo of part of this
very Psalm, hideously distorted and caricatured, comes
up in the ears of the Forsaken One.2 Burning thirst ;
violent tension of suspended members, making the frame
like that of a living skeleton ; rude spectators gambling
over the raiment ; some wrong, probably piercing, done to
the hands and feet ; the dh-qfiovelv, the feeling strange and
out of place in God's universe ; — all these are represented

1 Mr. Coleridge once said : ' I am
much delighted and instructed by the
hypothesis, which I think probable,
that our Lord in repeating Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani, really recited the
whole or a large part of the 22nd
Psalm. It is impossible to read that
Psalm without the liveliest feelings of
love, gratitude, and sympathy. It is,
indeed, a wonderful prophecy, what
ever might or might not have been
David's notion when he composed it.
Whether Christ did audibly repeat
the whole or not, it is certain, I think,
that He did it mentally, and said
aloud what was sufficient to enable
His followers to do the same. Even
at this day to repeat in the same
manner but the first line of a common
hymn, would be understood as a re
ference to the whole. Above all, I
am thankful for the thought which
suggested itself to my mind, whilst
I was reading this beautiful Psalm,
Damely, that we should not exclusively
think of Christ as the Logos united

to human nature, but likewise as a
perfect man united to the Logos. This
distinction is most important in
order to conceive, much more, appro
priately to feel, the conduct and exer
tions of Jesus.' — Table Talk, p. 86.
St. Augustine mentions it as a cur
rent belief in the Church that our
Lord upon the cross repeated from
Psalm xxii. 1 to xxxi. 5. The Last
Words, which refer to this portion of
the Psalter, are :
'HA.!, 7)\1, \a/j.a (TaPaxBavt; (St.
Matt, xxvii. 46 ; St. Mark xv. 34.)—
Psalm xxii. 1.
Hva TtKeLtodi} 5} ypaipfy \eyer Sii^uJ.
(St. John xix. 28.) — Psalm xxii. 15 ;
(Psalm lxix. 21.)
TeTe'Xfo-Toi (St. John xix. 30) —
last word of Psalm xxii. 31, n"5W
'He hath done.'
eis xetpcfo trov -jrapaTidefiai to irvev-
lid nou (St. Luke xxiii. 46.) — Psalm
xxxi. 5. *
2 St. Matt, xxvii. 39, 43 ; Psalm
xxii. 7, 8.

lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 25
so vividly, so powerfully, so accurately, that Christian
consciousness upon Good Friday turns to this Psalm as
naturally and spontaneously as to the Nineteenth Chapter
of St. John. Centuries of contemplation at the foot
of the Cross have shown Faith no discord between the
Crucified Lord Whom she adores and Him Who cries ' Eli,
Eli.' If she ever tries in vain to get a glimpse of His
features, it is because she cannot see distinctly for tears.
But there is more than this. The Sufferer passes to glory
by the edge of the sword (or a violent death), from the
lion's mouth, from the claws of the dog, from the horns of
the unicorn. The minute touch in the twenty-second verse,
referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews ('He is not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy
Name unto My brethren '), might not, by itself, attract
our attention ; but then it comes from Him Who has cried,
' Eli, Eli,' Whose Hands and Feet have been pierced ; and
we note that twice only, in quick succession, just after the
Resurrection, our Lord is recorded to have applied the
word 'brethren' to His servants.1 The wonder of the
Psalm is brought to a climax by the ordered development
in which all is given. First, He Who suffers is laid into
the very dust of death. Then risen from that dust, He
proclaims His Name to His brethren, beginning from the
Jews, and ending with the Gentiles from the very farthest
parts of the earth.
To understand all this fully, we must, indeed, re
member those deep words, ' He hath made Him to be sin
1 Psalm xxii. 22; cf. Hebrews ii. 11, 12; St. Matt, xxviii. 10; St. John
xx. 17.

26 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
for us '_< Who His own self bare our sins in His own Body
on the tree.' ' That alone explains the Dereliction. The
chapter ' De carentia, omnis consolationis,' in the ' Imita
tion of Christ,' leads us but a little way down this great
depth. ' Such,' cries Bossuet, ' are the inner wounds of
Jesus Christ, ruder and more intolerable than those of
hands and feet. But God grants to His Son not only the
conversion of His brethren, but that of the Gentiles ; the
establishment of His Church and the exaltation of His
glory in all lands. Such is this Psalm, more historical
than prophetical. To enter into its spirit fully would
require the triumphant note of the Song of Moses to
succeed the plaintive tone of Jeremiah. Happy they who,
in reciting the Psalm, can find in themselves the reflec
tion of a sadness that is so holy and a joy that is so
Divine.' 2
Such is our answer to the question proposed for solu
tion. ' Psalmorum clavis Christi fides.' The golden key
of the Psalter lies in a Pierced Hand.
IV.
Before I close, there is a view of the ethical bearing
of this, and other prophecies fulfilled in the Passion, to
which I must advert. In the present ' chaos of disinte
grated convictions ; ' among the hundred voices of criticism,
which succeed to the hushed adoration of former ages in
presence of the Crucified, those are to be found who com
plain of the Ideal itself of Him Who is marred more than
any man. If such be here they may possibly say — The
• 2 Corinth, v. 21 ; 1 St. Peter, ii. 24. 2 Appendix. NoteE.

lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 27
preacher has been mainly occupied, successfully or unsuc
cessfully, with the witness of one particular Psalm to
Christ. But, the image of the Sufferer there given is not
that which strikes us as the highest type of humanity, or
the most wholesome and fruitful to contemplate. Not
the highest human type. A writer of great power, whose
veiled sarcasm has deceived not a few simple-minded
reviewers, says bitterly, ' How infinitely nobler and more
soul-satisfying is the ideal of the Christian saint with
wasted limbs — his upturned eye piercing the very heavens
in the ecstasy of a divine despair — than any of the fleshly
ideals of gross human conception. If a man does not feel
this instinctively, let him test it thus. Whom does his
heart of hearts tell him that his son will be more godlike
in resembling ? The Theseus ? The Discobolus ? Or the
St. Peters and St. Pauls of Guido and Domenichino? Who
can hesitate as to which ideal presents the higher de
velopment of human nature ?' And then the writer proceeds
to speak ironically ' of the natural instinct which draws us
to the Christ-Ideal in preference to all others, as soon as
it has once been presented to us.' '
Nor, again, does the ^Christ-Ideal of the 22nd Psalm
seem to such persons the most healthy or the most pro
ductive. A very eloquent critic doubts whether dwell
ing upon this Ideal is even morally good. The four arts
of eloquence, music, painting, sculpture, appear to him
to be in a kind of fatal conspiracy to wring out the last
drops of pity for a merely physical agony. Each of these
arts in dwelling with ignoble iteration on the physical
1 The Fair Haven, p. 220.

28 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
wounds and exhaustion, degrades rather than ennobles
the conception of pain. And then he speaks of time,
of thrilling emotion in men and women of exquisite
sensibility, wasted in picturing the mere bodily anguish
of One Who suffered long ago, instead of preventing the
pain of His people here and now— instead of tending the
sick, of aiding the untaught and the unhelped.
As regards this last objection, a part of it is, of course,
not only conceivable but true. There are coarse and re
volting Calvaries abroad ; there are realistic sermons and
devotions at home. We may forget a Divine Agony in con
templating bodily anguish. But the result is a question
of fact. There are tears ever flowing upon this fallen earth,
tears of pain, of penitence, of sorrow. There, are also idle
tears of sentimental emotion. But as a matter of fact,
every battle-field, and hospital, and mission, and crowded
city, bears witness that tears shed beneath the Cross, as
the Christ-Ideal melts into the soul, are the rains which
quicken the harvests of human charity.
To the other able writer, who appeals to the instinc
tive choice of parents for their children, we may reply that
there is a natural ideal and a supernatural. Between the
thin hand and hectic cheek of a son fading away into an
early grave, and the elastic frame that wins athletic palms
in the University Eight or Eleven, no parent would hesi
tate. Yet even the natural eye can see, at times, that an
ideal of a different type becomes higher and better. After
an action in the siege of Paris, when the troops had sought
safety in ignoble flight, a French mother came to one
of the gates towards the evening of a winter day. She

lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 29
asked for her son by name from those who came trooping
hurriedly in. One officer, himself a fugitive, told her that
the Germans were making no prisoners ; that her son, if
ever he came back alive, must return that way before
dark. She watched through the deepening shadows, and
at last, as the night fell, turned homeward, with a cry,
' Thank God ! he did not run away.' What if some one
were to ask with bitter irony — Whom does a parent's heart
of hearts tell her that her son had best resemble ; a cavalry
officer in his strength and youth, galloping up the lines on
a review day, or a shattered thing, dabbled in blood, lying
stiff and stark upon the field ? Even the natural eye has
moments of insight, when it sees that the Duty-ideal is
higher than anything earthly. And the Duty-ideal, like
the Christ-Ideal, has the mark of wounds.
For believing that the very Christ-Ideal is here in
the 22nd Psalm, there is one reason beyond any other.
There is an exact correspondence between seeing
Miracles in the light of Christ's performance of them, and
seeing Prophecies in the light of Christ's application of
them. In arguing upon the Miracles, we often forget to
estimate the moral element in which they were immersed
for their first witnesses. We see them through the colour
less media of history and of logic ; they saw them flushed
with the lights of love, goodness, and truth. When the
sick were healed, or the dead raised, it is little to say that
their senses supplied them with evidence of the fact. There
is an evidence beyond that of sense. The purity of
the look ; the compassion and majesty of the, tone of
voice ; the words, deep, solemn, simple,' which had the

30 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. I.
inimitable ring of truth ; the whole effluence of the Man
floated in the Miracle, through every channel of con
viction, to the very centre of their being. ' The responsi
bility of their belief was thrown upon One Whom they
knew to be supremely true. They did not so much believe
in Christ because they believed the miracle ; they rather
believed in the miracle because they believed Him.
The application of the Prophecy by Christ is thus
elevated to the same point as the performance of the
Miracle by Him.
One bathed in blood, hanging upon a Cross, applied
the prophecy of the Twenty-second Psalm in words that
rang up from the darkened altar-stairs of a mysterious
sacrifice to the throne of God.
Let us bow before the pathos and the majesty of that
interpretation. Does He not say, ' Behold My Hands and
My Feet, that it is I Myself ?

NOTE UPON LECTURE I.
[That the interpretation of Psalm xxii. adopted in this Lecture
is not popular at the present time, I am only too well aware. The
prevalent views run in two opposite currents. (1) The thoroughly
Eationalistic, or subjectively Israelite view, has been discussed in
the body of this Lecture. (2) Among Christian believers there has
been a general acquiescence in the theory of the justly venerated
Hengstenberg, and a quiet contempt for the old prophetic view, as
' antiquated,' ' mystical,' ' mechanical,' and ' unspiritual.'
Hengstenberg's interpretation may be termed the Mystico-ideal.
It may be stated as follows.

lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 31
David composed this Psalm from the starting-point of his own
experience. It embraces three elementary propositions of the spiri
tual order — that the righteous must suffer ; that his deliverance will
assuredly come ; that the deliverance will redound to the glory of
God's Name. Every righteous man of every age might thus appro
priate the pathos and consolation of the Psalm, and still more the
community of the righteous ; but in its highest sense, it was ful
filled in Christ, and, until His coming, partook of the character of
unfulfilled Prophecy.
This cumbrous theory seems to me to break down at every point. <
That the colours of the picture were derived from any particular
event in David's life, is a simple hypothesis, for which or against
which much can be said. I utterly disbelieve that any religious
soul, at any time, — much less under the Christian dispensation — ¦
could ever have appropriated this Psalm to himself. Dare any
Christian man say it over as in his own person ? ' The expres
sions throughout are too frankly and naturally personal to admit of
any direct reference to a people or community. The exuberant
magnificence of the language in which the world-wide and abiding
consequences of the sufferer's deliverance are celebrated, would be
absurdly disproportionate if applied to any individual in Jewish
history. Hengstenberg is too candid and pious not to admit that
outward circumstances were so moulded by God's Providence, that
' the inward conformity of the sufferer to Christ should be out
wardly visible.' But he maintains that without these the Psalm
would have been fulfilled in Christ. What the 22nd Psalm would
convey to us without these outward circumstances, I cannot con
ceive. I can quite understand that if our interpretation of a single
circumstance (such as tbe piercing of the Hands and Feet) be erro
neous, the prophecy would still be amply fulfilled. But if onr Lord
had never uttered upon the Cross its first or last words ; if those
who passed by had never used the gestures, or spoken the sentences
of mockery mentioned in it ; if the lots had never been cast, nor the
1 This, of course, does not apply of v. 21 by St. Paul in 2 Tim. iv.
to such use of parts of it in a lower 17.
and reflected sense, as is made, ». g.,

32 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i.
death-thirst taken place, nor the Hands and Feet been pierced — I
am apt to think that we should have had no Crucifixion. The
Psalm would, indeed, have hung in its place, the divinely carven
crucifix ofthe Old Testament; but no generation of men would have
seen the original from which it was derived. It would have re
mained ' a tale of little meaning, though its words are strong.'
On the whole Hengstenberg seems to me utterly unable to an
swer his own irrefragable argument in his invaluable ' Christology.'
I do not think that it is difficult to discover the motive by which he
was actuated. If the 22nd Psalm is subjectively Messianic, so, by
parity of reasoning, are other Psalms, e.g. the 16th and 69th. But
the tone of religious thought around the great theological critic was
too adverse to the ancient Theology of the Church to enable him to
face the intense reality of the vicarious suffering by which our
Lord, as it were, appropriated the sins of His people, speaking of
them as His, and the expression of the wrath of God in the so-called
imprecatory passages.1
Hengstenberg maintains that the subject of the 22nd Psalm is
neither David threatened by his enemies, nor the pious part of the
people, nor Christ exclusively, nor is it typically Messianic — but that
it refers to the Ideal Person of the Righteous One. I hold, with Bos-
suet, that, beyond any other part of Scripture (except the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah), if I may adapt a phrase of Bacon's to a higher subject than
that of which he wrote, ' Messiam directo percutit radio.' I believe
that, in the long run, if a choice can only be made between the in-.
terpretation of Reuss and the non-natural theory of Hengstenberg,
the former will carry the day. Most of us prefer a frosty night, in
tensely cold, but luminously clear, to a fog in which we perpetually
wander, without a definite point for which we can make.
1 Thus he writes : ' Not one of the apply to Christ (most prominently the
quotations from the Psalms in the his- strong expressions about the suffer-
tory of the Passion refers to a Psalm er's sin), and which excludes the idea
which is directly and exclusively Mes- that our Lord and His Apostles have
sianic. The 69th Psalm, which, next given it a direct and exclusive Mes-
to this, is the most remarkable, sianic interpretation.' Comm. on
contains features which will not Psalms, i. 365.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 83

LECTUEE II.
And He said unto them, These are the loords which I spake unto you, ivhile
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning
Me. St. Luke xxiv. 44.
The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias cometh, which is
called Christ.
St. John iv. 25.

I propose to conclude this morning our survey of the
Psalms, as a Witness to the Person of Christ, while the
remaining Lectures of the present course will be occupied
with their Witness to the Christianity which He founded.
If we have succeeded in establishing one solid Mes
sianic fact in the 22nd Psalm, the Messianic idea comes
to us with a weighty introduction. We are not startled
at its becoming the key to the general scheme of the
Psalmist. The Psalms which belong to Christ may be considered
as belonging to three classes :— (i) the subjectively, (ii) the
objectively, (iii) the ideally, Messianic. i.
There is one class of these Psalms which has, in
later times, been generally termed subjectively Messianic,
D

U THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. n.
i.e., in which the suffering or glorified Saviour is Himself
the Speaker. The ancient Church believed that such
Psalms are numerous. It cannot fairly be doubted by
those who receive Holy Scripture, and reason consistently
from it, that four at least, if not five, are pointed out in
the New Testament to be such— the 16th, 22nd, 40th,
69th, and perhaps the 109th. Many others (pre-emi
nently the 23rd, the 28th, the 30th,the 35th, the 71st,1 the
120th,2 and the 142nd) have been generally received by the
Church in this sense until recent times.
I. There are many, indeed, who utterly refuse to recog
nise the existence, or the possibility, of such Psalms, unless
we are able to show the historical basis, the occasional
circumstances, from which they could have sprung. Now
we are unable to do anything of the kind with the poems
of many writers who possess that lower and mundane form
of inspiration which is called genius. But in the case of
those whose inspiration welled from a diviner spring,3 and
whom we may literally call the Poets of God,4 it becomes
more unreasonable again, and implies still greater forget-
fulness of the conditions under which they wrote, to insist
upon the solution of such a problem. Assuming the
Divine nature of Prophecy, who can tell what personal '
1 This is so interpreted by our voice of the ' Saviour of the world.'
Church in the one Antiphon preserved 2 Appendix. Note A.
in the Prayer-book-that at the end , ^t, ^ '(rachSsh imij) Psalm
of the 71st Psalm in the Service for the ¦ • -t
Visitation of the Sick: ' 0 Saviour of xlv" *' ' Hoc tantum loco in V- T->
the world, Who by Thy Cross and eK Syr,aco BTH. scatuit. Proprie de
precious Blood hast redeemed us, Save aqu4 Vlvente- ebulliente.' Eosenm.,
us and help us, we humbly beseech 8ch°ha, m loc.
Thee, 0 Lord.' This shows that the ' W9 (may'asay) Ibid., -ra ttoi-
voice which wails through that Psalm ward pov (Symmachus), 'The things
is believed by the Church to be the which I have made' (P. -book Vers.).

lect. II. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 35
experience, what inward anguish, wrought in David that
frame of mind which led him to wail forth the 22nd
Psalm ?
2. Ifc has, again, frequently been said that the notion
on which this classification is based involves a psycho
logical impossibility. It has even been urged that to
speak of subjectively Messianic Psalms is tantamount to
asserting that David's consciousness could extend to one
yet unborn, and that this cannot be admitted without
confounding the very idea of the personal life of human
souls. But we may safely dismiss such magisterial assertions
as these. All the valuable monographs of the Scotch and
French schools of philosophy have not brought Mind
completely within the ascertained range of exact science.
Barriers against the attainment of a perfect knowledge
of the soul are interposed by four different causes :—
(1) by the contrary current of habit ; (2) by the complication
of phenomena which exist simultaneously in countless
numbers ; (3) by the inconceivable rapidity of their suc
cession ; (4) by the want of an accurate and determinate
language which can be applied universally and with exacti-
' tude. These general and insuperable difficulties may well
make us suspicious of such sweeping negatives as that
which is before us. But to this, in the present case, we
must add our want of materials for analysing the working
of the human mind under the impulse of the prophetic
spirit, further than such materials are supplied by the
Prophets themselves. We, therefore, decline to bow
before negations which give, and can give, no proof,
D 2

30 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
That is not inconceivable which Christians in every age
have conceived. That is not absurd of which one well-
supported instance has already been given in the 22nd
Psalm. That Psalm does not stand alone. It belongs to a class
of which there is but one consistent solution. From what
particular occasion or experience they may have taken
their point of departure, what psychological conditions may
have existed during their composition, we do not propose
to examine. It may be true, as is currently held in the
Jewish schools since the days of Maimonides,1 that the in
spiration ofthe 'Kethubim' is different in some degree from
that of the Prophets more strictly so called, less emotional
and overwhelming, more like a gentle and harmonious
development of the ordinary faculties. It is possible that
the causes of poetical excitement to David were so like
those of the poetical temperament generally as to be well
described by the Eabbinical story: 'David used to be
awakened at midnight, and moved to begin the composi
tion of Psalms by the north wind rippling along the
strings of his harp.'2 Ewald may have rightly interpreted
these Shemitic ideas into Japhetic thought, when he
points out to us the conditions of David's prophetic
poetry.3 In his youth, Ewald reminds us, the son of Jesse
was a close spectator of the prophetic spirit. He was
charmed by the measure and cadence of thought in Hebrew
1 APP™dix. Note K himself with the tune until the pillar
2. A cithern used to hang above 0f the dawn (-,nt?n TlDJ?) ascended.
David s bed, and when midnight came Talmud, B. Berachoth 3 b, quoted by
the north wind blew among the strings Delitzsch on Psalm lvii
so that they sounded of themselves ; s History of Israel, iii. 197.
and forthwith he arose and busied

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 37
poetry, and the music which accompanied it. He occasion
ally yielded himself to its impulse in his earlier days.
In his maturity, when the cares of a kingdom weighed
upon him, he refrained from exhibiting himself as one of e
the Prophets — in most striking contrast to Muhammad —
his Psalms presenting themselves as the noble fruit of a
grand and various life. But, however all this may have
been, the Psalms to which I now refer were prepared,
under superhuman influence, for Jesus the son of David.
The wonderful feature of these Psalms is that they
answer the peculiar characteristics of His Human Soul.
One part of the Evangelical delineation of our Lord which
most amazes us is the rapid interchange, or coexistence,
of apparently inconsistent moods and feelings. To over
look this, is to misunderstand the Gospels. Thus, a
certain number of critics put down on one side the agita
tion of the Agony in Gethsemane, as recorded by the
Synoptics. On the other side they take note of the
calmness of the words in the 17th chapter of St. John.
They then desire us to take our choice between the Jesus
of the Synoptics and the Jesus of St. John. Both, they
assure us, we cannot have. A year before His death, St.
Luke records an incident which might seem to have no
direct connection with His return to His heavenly home.
Yet the Evangelist speaks, with a strange and sublime
solemnity, of the days drawing on to their accomplishment
for His elevation into glory by the Ascension.1 The only
and sufficient explanation is in Bengel's profound remark,
' Stylus Evangelistse imitatur sensum Jesu.' Things
1 iv r<? avfj.ir\ripoSa6ai -ras T]fiipas ttjs avaAiityews alirov. St. Luke ix. 51.

38 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
which, if we could dare to conceive ourselves placed in
His position, would absorb our attention, seem to pass
over Him like shadows. Things which, in comparison,
appear to us almost trivial, plough deep furrows into His
soul. In the raising of Lazarus we should expect a
majestic shape to stand over the dead, as calmly as if it
were hewn out of marble. But in St. John's narrative
a travel-stained man, quivering with an emotion which
He almost encouraged,1 with silent tears streaming down
His cheeks, looked up to God. For His life on earth,
sometimes humbled to the dust, sometimes lifted to the
heaven, was one Hymn with various parts. The music
which accompanied it ranged through the compass of the
Psalms which were His, their rapidly interchanging lights
and shadows, triumph and wailing, pathos and majesty.2
1 irdpa£ev iavrdv. St. John xi. 33. laced that it is hard to say to what
A great writer, whose ' Christology ' historical period they belong. . . .
judiciously selected would form an in- We may take them as prayers made
structive record for Christian intellect into praises by the -irtoipotyopla of
and feeling, connects this incident with faith. .. . Some think these different
the whole principle of our Lord's elements are so interwoven, because
voluntary suffering. ' Siquidem ipse strains which the poet composed in
sese turbavit, . . . quia ipse voluit ob- the hour of danger he afterwards in-
latus est. Omnis enim ei infirmitas serted as appendices, and gave to
de voluntate fuit, non de necessitate.' singers, who marked the different
S. Bernard. Sermones de Div., Tom I., tones and shades of feeling by differ-
1154. ent music' (Eosenm., Scholia, Arg.
2 It is instructive to notice how in Ps- xxviii.) Eeuss, as usual, refers
this feature in subjectively Messianic the 28th Psalm to the collective
Psalms perplexes the acutest Bation- people, as \rptyQ (m'shiycho) ' His
al'stic critics. Por instance, the anointed,' v. 8; but he is hope-
triumphant cry in w. 6, 7, of a Psalm lessly perplexed by v. 6. After giving
so pathetic as the 28th. Eosenmuller Eosenmiiller's solution, he admits
observes : ' As the Psalm contains that it is extravagantly violent, and
partly prayers, partly bursts of thanks- adds: 'We prefer to suppose that
giving, we may well doubt whether it the distich in question is alien to the
was composed in a moment of peril original text, and must have been
or of deliverance. In many Psalms arbitrarilytackedon.' (P. 134). Is not
supplications and praises are so inter- this a confession of failure ?

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANIT Y.

39

The besb, the only explanation of the Psalms to which I
refer is this : that His Humanity found in them a collec
tion of appropriate devotions — Prayer-book, liturgy, hymn-
book, fitted and pre-harmonised for a Divine Sufferer and
Pilgrim. This is the clue to the transitions and alternations
of this class of Psalms. They are lyrics primarily of
the Humanity of our Lord, secondarily of ours. The
characteristics of His life, upon which we have been
dwelling, are mirrored with a perfect reflection. Bead
these Psalms without this thought ; they are petrifactions
for a linguistic museum. Bead them with this thought ;
they become like a texture of the finest lawn that moves
with every undulation ofthe form which it envelopes.1

May it be lawful to suggest that
for the appearance of Psalms of this
class, spoken in a sense by our suffer
ing Lord Himself, there is one special
reason? The ' tremendous, passionless
simplicity,' the awful reserve of the
Evangelists in the narrative of the
Death and Passion of our Lord, is sup
plemented by the pathetic intensity
of these Psalms. ' Voluerunt Evange-
listae declarare Passionem istam fuisse
voluntariam et summa constantia tole-
ratam. Sed, quoniam oportebat etiam
ut mundus intelligeret acerbitatem
doloris in Christo fuisse maximam,ideo
Spiritus Sanctus hanc doloris vehe-
mentiam multo antea Prophetis reve-
lavit.' Bellarm., Explan. Psalm, lxix.
1 Appendix. Note C. Let me
here quote a noble passage, which was
not in my mind when I wrote these
pages : ' What is it, again, that gives
to the rolling music of the Psalter,
which has echoed for above three
thousand years along the corridors of
the Jewish or the Christian Church,

its peculiar force and charm — a sweet
ness that never wearies, a power that
never fails — and has fitted it to record
the most various experiences of in
dividuals and of nations, to syllable
the deepest thoughts, whether of joy
or sorrow, which have stirred the
hearts, and shaped the destinies, of a
hundred generations of the chosen
people of God ? It is not only that
marvellous fullness and diversity of
human utterance, that profound spiri
tuality, that exquisite refinement and
tenderness of pathos, which strike a
responsive chord in our inmost being,
that have made the Psalter our most
cherished manual of secret devotion,
the most familiar and universal organ
of our public praise. It is this, but
it is more than this ; their inspired
sympathy with every phase of the
Eedeemer's life-long Passion, with
every sentiment of the Heart which
gathered up and recapitulated in It
self the collective heart of humanity,
has made the songs of Israel the right-

40 THE, WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
This view of these Psalms brings us face to face with
two questions of great importance.
1. In these subjectively Messianic Psalms, how are we
to understand those passages which speak of sin in con
nection with Messiah ?
The modern schools of Christian exposition, under the
influence of German thought, are nearly unanimous in
maintaining that the ancient writers were mistaken in
referring such passages to Christ. It is argued (1) That
the New Testament writers would have considered it an
awful profanation to have spoken of the sins laid on Christ
as His sins. (2) That as David's whole life was not
typical of Christ, so neither were all his words ; that as
the pollution which darkened David's life was not typical,
so neither were the words in which it was confessed
typical, predictive, or capable of application to our Lord.
But (1) Surely the writers of the New Testament, as a
matter of fact, did not consider it an awful profanation to
speak of our sins as in one sense His sins. One of them
certainly did not shrink from saying of the Blessed One
by Whom the blessing came, ' having become a curse for
us,' and of the Sinless One, that ' He made Him to be sin
for us.' 1 One of the most learned and accurate of com
mentators observes, upon the first of these two texts : ' It
[the victim] becomes, in a certain sense, the impersonation
of the sin and of the curse.' 2 (2) Without this, the Agony,
the exceeding great and bitter cry, can scarcely be re
fill heirloom and common ritual of ¦ Galat. iii. 13 ; 2 Corinth, v. 21.
Christendom.' Mr. Oxenham. Ca- " Professor Lightfoot, Epistle to
tholic Doctrine of the Atonement, pp. the Galatians, p. 138.
295, 296.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 41
conciled with the perfection of Christ. Unless some shadow
were projected over the orb of His consciousness ; unless
there were something beyond ' the want of all consola
tion' of which the author of the 'Imitation of Christ'
speaks, why did He cry, ' Eli, Eli ' ? Voltaire sneeringly
wrote to Bousseau, ' When you called His death in contrast
with that of Socrates the death of a God, you forgot the
sweat of blood.' If there were not something more than
pain, shame, and desertion, it might be difficult to repel the
taunt. We might have some sympathy with the faithless
ness which omitted from copies of St. Luke's Gospel
the Sweat of Blood and the strengthening angel. And if
He were in very deed to be made sin for us, why should
not the expression of this also be found in those Psalms
which are especially His ? (3) The author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, in the 10th chapter, solemnly applies a
long passage from the 40th Psalm to Messiah on His
entering into the world.1 But we cannot have exactly as
much as we like of a Psalm of this character referred to
Christ — exactly as much as will fit into our preconceived
theories, and no more.2 Let us read the passage as a
1 Hebrews x. 5-10. which it has risen, and at the 12th
2 Delitzsch remarks on the 40th verse the typically prophetic tone still
Psalm: 'The words of David are so lingering in vv. 10, 11 has entirely
moulded by the spirit of Prophecy died away.' Delitzsch, ii. 35. The
that they sound at the same time like view of this learned and spiritual
the words ofthe Second David passing expositor is now current in this
through suffering to glory, whose self- country ; but what it amounts to is
oblation is the close of animal sacri- just this. The 12th verse seems to
fice, and whose Person and work are contain a confession of sin. But that
the centre and star of the roll of the is unsuitable for the Messiah. The
Law. But we are not thereby forced authority of the New Testament,
to take the whole Psalm as typically however, makes a large part of the
predictive. Erom the 10th verse the Psalm subjectively Messianic. There-
strain descends from the height to fore, at the beginning and close of

42 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
whole. Surely, if the first portion of those verses refers
to Christ, the latter part must refer to Him also. The
word rendered ' iniquities ' ' is something more than patient
of the meaning of ' penal consequences of sin.' The verb
translated ' have taken hold of,' often picturesquely used
of overtaking by a flood, or reaching by the pursuer's
sword, is specially significant of being reached by punish
ment, by the incidence of a curse or of a blessing.2 (4)
When it is said that ' all David's words, expressive of his
consciousness of the sin which polluted his life, are no
more typical of, or capable of being, applied to Christ,
than all David's actions are capable of such an applica
tion;' it is to be remembered that the view before us
requires no such extravagant consequence. There is a
distinction, not difficult to instinctive reverence, between
expressions in subjectively Messianic Psalms which indicate
the bearing of a load of sin as part of the mystery of the
suffering ofthe Sinless One ; and those expressions, in the
Penitential Psalms, for instance, which imply a humiliating
consciousness of personal demerit.3 Writers in the ancient
the Psalm, David speaks of himself; the former in Hosea x. 13, the latter
but in the middle (vv. 6-10) Christ in Zech xiv. 19 ; Prov. xxi. 4. See
speaks! That this view is opposed to Fuerst's Lexicon, p. 1 026.
all sober laws of hermeneutics, seems 2 ^•IJ'SJT!) "• 12, Hiph. of Jt^J
to me to be proved by J. D. Michaelis = , to 'reach> of ths swordj of ^
(Cntisches Collegium iiber die drei lowing waTeg . tofall of a bles.
wwhtigsten Psalmen von Christo xvi. sing or curs6i Deut. xxviii_ % 15_ 4g .
-* ^ \, f Tf&T (BemffrkwnSm of punishment, Psalm xl. 12.' Fuerst,

der Psalmen und Genesis), ^^ oca
and^Eosenmuller, Scholia, Arg. in ' ? ^ 'of ^ Proper psalms for
,' ' .. . .... , „ Ash-Wednesday, no one ever takes
W v. 12, J1U is used for ^ mii _ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ for

of sin in Gen. xix. 15 ; subjectively Messianic strains. Psalm
Isaiah v. 18. The two synonyms cxliii., indeed, was widely understood
npiy and riXtan are so used, in that sense.

lect. n. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 43
Church, who had deeply meditated upon the Incarnation in
all its bearings, and were most keenly sensitive to anything
which could tarnish the glory of their Lord, interpreted
such passages, with Augustine, of Christ, either speaking
for His own Body the Church, or taking the punishment
of those sins upon Himself.
2. It is still more important to observe that the impre
catory portions of the Psalms can be seen in their proper
light from this point of view alone.
It has not been reserved for the superior ethical refine
ment of this century to discover the apparent contradic
tion between these passages and the spirit of Him who
says, ' Bless, and curse not.' Many of the revelations of
recent free handlers of the Scriptures, supposed to be the
new and marvellous results of a science unknown to our
ancestors, and of a moral tact unattained by their ruder
culture, happened to find their way into print more than
a hundred years ago. In the last century, Dr. Matthew
Tindal, a Fellow of All Souls, asserted, in his ' Chris
tianity as old as Creation,' ' that David bestows the
bitterest curses upon his enemies, and that the holier
men in the Old Testament are represented to be, the more
cruel they seem to be, as well as more addicted to curs
ing.' 1 Thirteen centuries before, the greatest of Chris
tian orators, in expounding the 109th Psalm, had said that
there are ' words in it which at first hearing cause very
deep pain and confusion to those who will not think atten
tively.' 2 Up to a certain point, Dr. Waterland, Tindal's
1 See Waterland, Works, iv. 318 sqq. ; Dean Mansel, Letters and Re
views, 322 sqq. 2 St. Chrysost., Expos, in Psalm, cix,

44 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
principal opponent, gives to us, in solid learning and
masculine good sense, what perhaps he wants in depth of
thought and delicacy of sentiment.
Few persons at the present day would feel justified in
taking their stand upon the apology of the excellent
Bishop Home.1 He observes that passages of this im
precatory kind in the Book of Psalms are grammatically
by way of prediction rather than imprecation, and that
the original verbs not only might be, but should be so
translated. Indeed, if this critical evasion were gram
matically valid, the real difficulty would only be pushed
one step further back.
Of these passages there is, it seems to me, but one
explanation which is not utterly fatal to the Psalms as a
real part of Scripture. I shall attempt to put it before
you, not without a reverential fear of causing unnecessary
offence, but with a conviction that my weakness is
sustained by the strong arm of Truth.
It is absolutely necessary for us, in the first instance,
to remind ourselves of the real character of our Lord.
That character is seldom fully delineated. ' That,' says
Bacon, ' is the true philosophy which gives back most
faithfully the voices of nature.' That is the true Christo
logy which gives back most faithfully the voices of Scrip
ture. Two schools which exercise a vast influence in
England have failed in this respect. The Latitudinarians
of the last generation but one drew a thin and meagre
sketch of the character of the Incarnate God ; the Chris-
1 Home, Commentary on the Ptsalms, Augustin, De Civ. D. xvii. 19, 'Hsec
Preface, and note on Ps. lxix. 22 ; non optando sunt dicta, sed optandi
following Hammond, who quotes St. specie, prophetando.'

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 45
tian sentimentalists of the present generation have added
some warmth of colouring, but they have not enlarged the
design. In Paley's sketch of the Character of our Lord —
the most defective portion of his useful work — that able
and lucid writer merely observes, ' We perceive traces of
devotion, humility, benignity, mildness, patience, prudence. ' '
On the other hand, we may turn to an admirable passage
in Athanasius' Epistle to Marcellinus. Athanasius there
traces an outline of the moral image of the Bedeemer, and
that with special reference to the predelineations in the
Psalter both of His Character and of the Christian
character. Many would, probably, be startled to find
dvSpsca mentioned by Athanasius as well as ipiXavOpmrLa.2
Yet, unquestionably, there are words and works of the
Holy One which can by no ingenuity be fitted into Paley's.
narrow frame. There are words and works whose justifi
cation is not to be attempted through a code of merely
human ethics. Say what men will, an unwelcome scowl
from distant clouds darkens whole fields of the otherwise
sunlit landscape of that most Holy Life, until the Catholic
doo-ma of the Incarnation shows us that the darkness
has as much business there as the light. If He be not
that which the Nicene Creed declares Him to be, we
shall be tempted to look for a solution in Eenan's theory
of the gentle Galilean transformed into the sombre giant.
But if we receive the dogma of the Incarnation, we
are spared long chapters of superfluous and irreverent
apology. It is futile to defend the destruction of the
swine by suggesting that just possibly the flesh might not
1 Evidences, Part II. ch. 2. 2 Appendix. Note D.

46 THE WITNESS 'OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
have been absolutely wasted. It is unnecessary to apolo
gise for the blasting of the fig-tree from general scientific
considerations of the economy of the vegetable kingdom.
The broad fact is, that He by Whom all things were made,
and without Whom not one thing has come into the field
of existence, deals with His creatures as He thinks fit,
and uses the swine for a warning, and the fig-tree for a
type. One was called by our Lord ; he asked, and was
refused, leave to bury his father.1 We are not forced to
conjecture, with a sigh very like despair, that the mean
ing of the request may perhaps have been ; ' The old man
is dying of very slow but very sure decay. Let me watch
the gradual flickering of the flame of life. Let me go
and wait, a month or two, a year or two, for the surely
approaching end.' We dispense with such a solution. It
was just one of those cases where the claim of the Lord
and Maker of the human soul imperiously asserts itself,
and overrides every other. None of these incidents
(and others might be mentioned) are those which, to
ordinary thought, would represent any of the qualities
which are ascribed by Paley to the Character of our Lord.
It is not a really solid objection to urge that He is
thus practically withdrawn from our imitation. These
incidents do, indeed, prove to demonstration that, if we
suppose Christ to have been manifested merely as an
example, His whole Character is utterly unintelligible.
But they only indicate that certain parts of His words and
works were the reflection of the Divine in the Human,
as truly as others were the reflection of the Human in the
1 St. Luke ix. 59-62.

lect ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 47
Divine. And all which follows is that in these particulars
He is withdrawn from the sphere of our imitation, just
as He is so withdrawn when He raises the dead or walks
upon the waters.
If, then, our Lord is the Word made flesh ; if His Will
is one with that of the Moral Governor of the universe ;
if He embodies for us the Character of God, and that
Character, at least as manifested to us, is not one of simple
absolute benevolence ; if ' what things soever the Father
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise ; ' and if He con
descends to endow that Divine purpose with the human
words which will best convey its import to us ; then it
should not surprise us into unbelief, if, in the prophetic
revelation of His Will, we find Him expressing this more
awful side of His Character.
It may be plausible to deny, not without bitter indig
nation, the Messianic application of the 110th Psalm, or
the subjectively Messianic character of the 69th or 109th
Psalm, on the ground that imprecation can never issue
from those gentle lips ; that images of war and carnage
have nothing in common with the Messiah of the New
Testament. A contrast between the conquering King,
who is to break the heathen ' with a rod of iron, and dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel,' and the gentle invi
tations and love ineffable of Him who is lowly in heart,
gives scope for much epigrammatic contempt or artisti
cally coloured eloquence.1 Tet, after all, who uttered the
sentence, 'Those Mine enemies, who would not that I
should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before
1 Cf. Psalm ii. 9 with St. Matt. xi. 29, xii. 20, xxi. 5 ; St. Luke ix. 55.

48 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. it.
Me ' ? ' Who is to say1, ' Depart from Me, ye cursed ; '
' Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity,' in the words
of the 6th Psalm ? 2 Is it not the Apostle of love who
warns us of the ' wrath, of the Lamb ' ? 3
We have reached the point to which I desire to bring
this discussion. If we believe that these imprecatory pas
sages are Divine ; that they belong to Him in Whose hands
are life and death ; the load is lifted off, and laid upon One
Whose love is strong enough to bear the burden of their
reproach. According to Scripture, evil, in the long course of its
development and reproduction, concentrates itself in suc
cessive principles, persons, systems, nations : — in Judas
Iscariot, who betrayed his Lord;4 in the Jews, who rejected
the flower and crown of all their history ; in that ordered
system of error and persecution, be it what it may, which
is called Babylon.
In return for all of which they have deprived us, some
prophets of modern science are -disposed to show us in the
future a City of God minus God; a Paradise minus the Tree
of Life ; a Millenium with education to perfect the intel
lect, and sanitary improvements to emancipate the body
from a long catalogue of evils. Sorrow, no doubt, will not
1 St. Luke xix. 27. custodiae committunt, sed qui obsti-
2 St.^ Matt. vii. 23, xxv. 41 ; cf. nata malitia excutiunt ejus jugum
Psalm vi. 8. See also St. Matt. xxi. sensuros quam terribili potentia in-
41, xxii. 7-13. structus sit.'
3 Apoc. vi. 16, 17. Of the 110th * ' The imprecations in this Psalm
Psalm, Calvin well says : ' Si quis (cix.), however literally meant, were
roget ubi ilia dementia etmansuetudo fulfilled in Judas Iscariot; and for
Spintus. . . respondeo, Sicut erga this reason, this Psalm was used in
ovesmansuetus est Pastor, lupisautem the degradation of a bishop.'— Dr
et furibus asper et formidabilis, ita Thomas Jackson's Works viii 129
Christum suaviter fovere qui se ejus

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 49
be abolished ; immortality will not be bestowed. But we
shall have comfortable and perfectly drained houses to be
wretched in. The news of our misfortunes, the tidings that
turn the hair white and half break the strong man's
heart, will be conveyed to us from the ends of the earth
by the agency of a telegraphic system without a flaw. The
closing eye may cease to look to the Land beyond the Eiver ;
but in our last moments we shall be able to make a
choice between patent furnaces for the cremation of our
remains, and coffins of the most charming description for
their preservation when desiccated. Amidst such improve
ments as these, ' ascendendo ad axiomata, descendendo ad
opera,' the long evening of the world will grow brighter,
until the inevitable day when the sun shall have become a
shrunken and blackened cinder, and the earth be frozen
into a ball of discoloured ice. Do not think that it is the
duty or inclination of a Christian preacher to disparage
the splendid and solid gifts which modern philosophy has
bestowed upon humanity. But this dream of one school
of modern thought is utterly at variance with Christian
eschatology. ' Ye have heard that Antichrist shall come,'
says St. John.1 The (Bosh yal-erets rabbah)
Head over much earth
in the 110th Psalm is the Prince of this world, the head
1 iiKoicare in fanixpia-ros ip%e- almost technically of the coming of
rai. ISt.Johnii. 18. Eather cometh. It Messiah; cf. St. Matt. x. 34, xi. 3;
is the word applied to the predestined St. Luke vii. 19, 20 ; St. John iv. 25,
entrance of any great presence upon v. 43, a. 8, xii. 27 ; 2 Corinth, xi. i.
the stage of history, and hence is used

50 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. n.
of a dark confederacy of evil which shall not be shattered
until the last dread struggle. The 109th Psalm peals out
its denunciations over Judas ; over the Jewish nation as
such ' ; over him who is to appear, the Son of Perdition.2
No passage in the Psalms has given more offence than
that which comes at the close of the tender 'Super
flumina.' O daughter of Babylon ! who art to be destroyed :
Happy he who shall reward thee as thou hast rewarded us.
Happy he who will take and dash thy babes against the rock.
But for the attentive student, the doom of Babylon
hangs in the air of prophecy. We close the Psalter for a
time ; and after many days, as we draw near to the end of
the whole volume of revelation, we are startled by a new
echo of the words of the old 137th Psalm. 'Babylon the
Great is fallen, is fallen. . . . Eeward her even as she re
warded you : and double unto her double according to her
works.' 3
No one at this time can, of course, be ignorant of the
impression which has been produced upon all later expo
sitions of these Psalms by the words of Herder, in his
' Spirit of Hebrew Poetry : ' ' Sectarians repeat the impre
catory Psalms as if each individual was yet wandering
across Judea, and pursued by Saul. They curse Edomites
and Moabites to their hearts' content. When these good
people are hard put to it, they place terrible anathemas in
the mouth of Him Who never reviled, because He allowed
1 Cf. Psalm cix. 18 with St. Matt. 3 Apoc. xviii. 2-6; cf. Psalm
xxvii. 25. cxxxvii. 8.
2 2 Thessal. ii. 3.

lect. il. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 51
Himself to be reviled, Who never threatened, because He
resigned Himself to suffering.' •
Yet I will ask those who reverence Scripture to con
sider whether any other solution meets the objections
which may be raised.
(a) That explanation which regards the ' enemies '
as spiritual foes has a large measure of truth. It con-
mended itself to a mind so far removed from mysticism as
Arnold's.2 It is most valuable for devout private use of the
Psalter. For, though we are come to Mount Sion, crested
with the eternal calm, the opened ear can hear the thunder
rolling along the peaks of Sinai. In the Gospel, the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodli
ness and unrighteousness. Sin is utterly hateful to God.
The broad gates are flung wide open of the city that lies
foursquare towards all the winds of heaven ; for its ruler
is divinely tolerant. But there shall in no wise enter it
anything that defileth, neither whatever worketh abomi
nation; for He is divinely intolerant too. And thus
when, in public or private, we read these Psalms of impre
cation, there is a lesson that comes home to us. We
must read them or dishonour God's Word. Beading
them, we must depart from sin, or pronounce judgment
upon ourselves. Drunkenness, impurity, hatred, every
known sin of flesh or spirit — these, and not mistaken
men, are the worst enemies of God and of His Christ.
Against these we pray in our Collects for Peace at Morn
ing and Evening Prayer — ' Defend us in all assaults of our
1 part II. ch. 9. 2 Sermons on the Interpretation of
Scripture, xiii.
e 2

52 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
enemies ' — ' that by Thee we being defended from the fear
of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness.'
These were the dark hosts that swept through the Psal
mist's vision when he cried, ' Let all mine enemies be
ashamed and sore vexed.' l
Here is one point from which we are to view the im
precations of the Psalmists. Conceive a created spirit
enlarged so as to embrace the will of God in relation to all
the children of men — a spirit looking from the margin of
an eternal world upon the petty histories of the past,
purified from personal hatred, partiality, and prejudice,
and measuring all things by the counsels of God — such a
spirit could say, without a taint of personal revenge, ' Let
all mine enemies be ashamed.'
Still, the exposition does not completely meet all the
exigencies of the case.
(b) The popular explanation of the day is, that in
certain Psalms we find the utterance of an inferior legal
spirit. It is instructive to see in the pages of Waterland
how deeply this theory wounded the reverential instincts
of Christians of that time.2 Is not this view, indeed, un
just to David, unjust to the elder dispensation, unjust to
Scripture, unjust to ourselves ?
1 Psalm vi. 10. not rather playing the droll with
2 'I had closed up this article, Sacred Writ? By whom does he
when, looking into Le Clerc's Com- suppose that it was thought lawful to
mentary upon the Psalms (cxxxvii.), hate an enemy? By the most excel-
I beheld with some concern his very lent men of the Jewish Church, pen-
crude or perverse way of expressing men of Holy Scripture, and writing
himself on verse 8. He says : " Hsec by the Spirit of God ? A profane
sunt eorum temporum, quibus odio suggestion ! Neither New Testament
habere inimicos et hostes fas esse pu- nor Old allows any such hatred ; it
tabatur: sub Evangelio fas non est stands condemned both by the Law
optare iis, nisi quod tibi ipse opta- and the Gospel.' Waterland's Works,
veris." Is this commenting upon iv. 324 sqq.
Scripture like a serious man, or is it

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 53
It is unjust to David.
There is little reason for considering these Impreca
tory Psalms as the utterance of David's longing for per
sonal revenge. When we remember his chivalrous absti
nence once and again from slaying the guilty Saul, we
must allow that, for his age and time, he was singularly
free from vindictiveness. It is not likely that he should
keep malice and anger hoarded up in his soul, and relieve
himself of it in the moments when he held communion
with his God ; cursing, just as he saw by faith the battle
ments of the city of Eternal Peace. It is very remarkable
that each of the Psalms in which the strongest impreca
tory passages are found contains also gentle undertones,
breathings of beneficent love. Thus, ' When they were
sick, I humbled my soul with fasting ; I behaved myself as
though he had been my friend or brother.' ' When I wept
and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my re
proach.' 'They have rewarded me evil for good, and
hatred for my love.' l
This view is also unjust to the elder dispensation.
That dispensation, indeed, had not the full revelation of
human duty, because it was not endowed with the full im-
partation of divine grace. But, if the Psalms in question
contain ' wild imprecations,' if a ' vindictive spirit burns
fiercely in them,' we are not justified in styling that the
' spirit of the elder dispensation.' That spirit said, ' Thou
shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart . . . thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself.' The best Jewish commen
tators understand neighbour to include both kinsmen and
strangers, both Israelites and non-Israelites. That spirit
1 Psalm xxxv. 13, 14; lxix. 10; cix5.

54 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
said, ' Eejoice not when thy enemy falleth, and let not
thy heart be glad when he stumbleth.' l
One well-meant, but desperate expedient we may pass
over, though supported by a few considerable names.2
It is maintained that all in the 109th Psalm, from the
sixth to the nineteenth verse, contains the maledictions
which are uttered by the Psalmist's enemies, and not by
the Psalmist himself. This apology, if available at all,
would only cover one single Psalm.
Finally, this view (that the imprecatory portion of the
Psalms is simply the expression of an unchristian and un-
spiritual element in the elder dispensation) is fatal to a
true reverence for Holy Scripture in our own souls. Let
men once be persuaded that this is the one possible expla
nation of these passages, and only one result can ensue.
They will not abnegate the logic of their moral nature.
They will reason in this way : These ' wild bursts of im
precation,' if they really be such, are not only unworthy
to be heard in the public worship of the Church ; they
are unworthy of a place in the Book which professes to
come to us from God. The mouth of the writers of these
Psalms is ' full of cursing and bitterness.' Not all the
golden commentary of the music of our Cathedrals can
reconcile us to texts so revolting. The Psalter in which
these hateful words stand shall not be our Psalter. The
Bible between whose covers they are contained shall not
be our Bible.
1 Levit. xix. 17, 18; Proverbs likewise Dr. Eowland Williams, in
xxiv. 17, 18; xxv. 21, 22. Appendix. Essays and Reviews, p. 63 (6th ed.).
Note E. Mr. Perowne disposes of this inter-
2 Kennicott, Mendelssohn, Mr. pretation with singular acuteness.
Taylor (Gospel in Law, p. 244). So The Psalms, vol. ii. pp. 278, 279.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 55
Much has been said, and more hinted, to excite odium
against the imprecations in the Psalms. It will be long
before we shall hear the last of the sad fact mentioned by
Calvin that certain Franciscans could be hired by indi
viduals to curse their enemies in the words of the 109th
Psalm. Yet, before quoting the passages in Scripture
which are the real key to the interpretation of these
denunciations, we may see, from one instance, that the
effect upon the hearts of those who receive these verses
as part of the Bible has not been evil.
The inscriptions and symbols in the Catacombs were
traced by the hands of those to whom the Psalms were
daily food, who, in their simple faith, read these portions
of the Psalter as the voice of Christ Himself. It appears
to be hinted that there is some mysterious connection
between the Imprecatory Psalms and the feeling that
inspired a burst of painful rhetoric in Tertullian, which
has been underlined with the darkest strokes of the ma
lignant pencil of Gibbon.1 We are entitled to observe, in
the same connection, that the most curious search in the
Catacombs has discovered (in Mr. Lecky's words) ' no
ebullition of bitterness, no thirsting for vengeance.' Con
sidering the use of the Psalms made by the primitive
Christians, we may safely infer that those cannot have
1 At all events, Tertullian's fierce sophers blushing in red hot flames,'
declamation (De Spectaoulis, e. xxx.) is not sung and said in millions of
is cited as strictly parallel to the churches. It is a strange defence of
imprecatory Psalms, and as a reason a passage in Holy Scripture to say
for moderation in denouncing the that an equally ' infernal description '
' fierce vindictiveness ofthe Jews.' But (to use Gibbon's word) is to be found
the fiery African was never held to be in an uninspired Christian writer.
a prophet, and his picture of ' magis- Decline and Fall, vol. i., chap, xv.,
trates liquefying in fires and philo- p. 480. Milman and Guizot's edition.

56 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
been ' seeds of hate,' which, in the heated air of persecu
tion, thus ' blossomed charity.'
On the other hand, in what frame of mind will they
be likely to use the Psalter who feel bound to be per
petually apologising to themselves for the Psalmists ? It
is not easy to reverence a book when dark stains seem to
us to be engrained upon its pages, which we can only
obliterate by the acid of our own conscious superiority.
How, above all, when they turn to the New Testament,
will they be able to receive that solemn interpretation of
St. Peter, ' This scripture must needs have been fulfilled,
which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before
concerning Judas ; ... for it is written in the Book of
Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man
dwell therein : and his bishopric let another take ' ? 1 How
will they bring themselves to agree with St. Paul, who
applies these words to the Jewish people, ' And the rest
were blinded, accordmg as it is written, God hath given
them the spirit of slumber . . . unto this day. And David
saith, Let their table be made a snare ... let their eyes
be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their
back alway ' ? a
1 Actsi. 16, 20; cf. Psalm lxix. 25; Lord; (b) to Judas; (c) to the Jewish
cix. 8. people, is confirmed as follows : —
2 Eomans xi. 7-10. It is hard
to understand how those who refuse (a) To our Lord.
to receive Psalm lxix. as subjectively By St. John, ii. 17 ; cf. Psalm
Messianic, and who accuse of un- lxix. 9 : xix. 28 ; cf. Psalm
spirituality all who view its impre- lxix. 21.
cations as more than simply expres- By St. Matt, xxvii. 34 ; cf. ibid.
sions of personal hatred, can receive By St. Paul, Eomans xv. 3 ; cf.
any interpretation whatever of the Psalm lxix. 9.
Old Testament upon the authority of By our Lord Himself: St. John
our Lord and of His Apostles. The xv. 25 ; cf. Psalm lxix. 4.
application of the Psalm («) to our

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 57
But, if these passages be understood as the elder
generations of Christians understood them, a burden is
lifted away from us. They are correlatives of the doctrine
of retribution. They are spoken, if we conceive rightly,
by One who expresses, as far as human language can, the
doom which is the sure decree of the Governor of the
world. Unless it is wrong and incredible that God
should punish terribly, it is not wrong or incredible that
His Son should give warning of it in the most vivid and
impressive way. Everyone has felt the force of the taunt
of the Jansenists against their oppressors, ' God is for
bidden to work miracles liere. By order of the King.' Is
there, then, a precinct in the Psalter round which a
circle can be drawn over which men are entitled to write —
' The King of kings and Lord of lords is forbidden to
use the Imperative, or any equivalent for the Imperative,
in the Hebrew language. By order of a popular senti
ment'? Yet He is not an angry man, uttering in one
Psalm twenty-six maledictions in rapid succession. He is
not like an accuser flushed with a natural indignation. He
is the Priest or Herald, standing upon the stairs of an
altar, draped in black, and pealing out to an assembled
world the interdict of God. He is the Son of Man, still,
as in the days of His flesh, ' looking round ' — not, indeed,
(b) To Judas. ^n litOD
By St. Peter: Acts i. 16, 20 ^ cf. (makhobh ch'alaleykha)
Psalm lxix. 25. , The sorrow of Thy wounded ones >
(c) To the Jewish nation. (v. 26). For further proof of Psalm
By St. Paul: Eomans xi. 9, 10; xxii. being subjectively Messianic
cf. Psalm lxix. 22, 23. throughout, those who receive the
Not the less for these Divine de- New Testament as an authority beyond
nunciations is it full of appeal should carefully read Hebrews
ii. 11-14.

58 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
upon a narrow circle in Galilee, but upon a vast throng of
the enemies of God, ' with anger, being grieved for the
hardness of their hearts.' ' He is as the Judge, who puts
on the black cap and passes, sorrowfully, it may be, the
judgment of a law, with which, in spite of that sorrow,
his own reason and conscience are in perfect harmony.
Then, finally, in the most awful of these Psalms, the
clouds of wrath fall in a rain of tears. The denunciations
die away into a strain which, in the original, falls upon a
modern ear with something of the cadence of pathetic
rhyme — '3"!i?3 bhn ^)
(v'libbiy chalal b'kirbiy.)
My heart is wounded within Me.2
ii.
The class of objectively Messianic Psalms is of tran
scendent importance, but it is not numerous. The 2nd,
45th, and 110th Psalms are its direct representatives.
1. At its head stands the 2nd Psalm. That Psalm is
related to the 1st something in the same way as the blessing
upon those who are ' persecuted for righteousness' sake ' 3
to the opening Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.
The ideal of righteousness realised in Christ wakens the
world's fiercest enmity against the Holy One. Great
tragic writers have a subtle art of imparting a dim fore
boding of a coming doom in the very first scene of their
dramas. And this dramatic Psalm, standing in the fore
front of the collection, echoes with voices of rebellion
against Him who is to have the earth for His inheritance.
1 St. Mark iii. 5. 2 Psalm cix. 22. 3 St. Matt. v. 10.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 59
But as He was anointed, or to be anointed, upon Zion, the
reference cannot be to David, who was inaugurated at
Bethlehem and Hebron.1 The mention of dominion over
Gentile nations and of conquest is not suitable to Solomon.
It is not, then, unreasonable to suppose with St. Peter,
St. Paul, St. John, and the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, that Messiah is described.2 ' The confederacy is
mentioned as if it were but one ; and it is but one ; for
it is ever, and hath ever been, and ever will be, until
Christ come again.' 3 The Promised One is here spoken
of as Anointed, King, and Son. The enemies of Christ
are on the scene. We catch a glimpse of fierce kings
resting upon the cushions as they plot in the Divan.4 We
hear the shouts in the crowded streets, at the muster, and
on the field, by which they encourage each other to war
against Messiah- From hence, observes Dr. Kay, in
Daniel's time the name had become so common a desig
nation of the future Eedeemer, that he employed it with
out the article — ' until Messiah Prince ' s — just as in Apo
stolic writings Xpurros occurs without the article. The two
chief titles of the Saviour, Christ and Son of God, are
found in it.
2. The 45th Psalm is the second of the class to which
it belongs. The mere verbal critic notices that the poet,
whoever he may have been, claims for himself a happily
conceived strain, a poem flowing with felicitous ease,
1 1 Sam. xvi. 1-3, 13; 2 Sam. ii. . 3 Edward Irving, Morning Watch,
1-4. i. 157.
2 Acts iv. 25, 26 ; xiii. 33 ; He- " "P" (^s'dhii), v. 2.
brews i. 5 ; Apoc. ii. 27 ; xii. 5 ; xix. 5 TJJ rW»"iy (yadh-masmyach
15. naghiydh), Daniel ix. 25.

60 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect, ii.
not soldered or laboriously hammered, but coming with
the exuberance of a fountain that boils and bubbles.1
The Christian will recognize the higher inspiration
of Prophecy. When the Psalmists sang of the national
history, of their own sorrow, or that of the people,
there was, probably, more of that which was personal
and subjective. In such strains as this the Psalmist
could recognize more of objective inspiration. His
tongue was the pen of a scribe, whose hand runs along the
scroll.2 The Psalm cannot, with the slightest show of pro
bability, be accommodated either to David, or to Solomon,3
or to any other of the princes proposed. The title of God
in the sixth verse,4 and the concluding clause of the Psalm,
rise far beyond the range of a created glory. All is in
telligible only upon two suppositions — (1) we must con
clude, with the Chaldee interpreter5 and the author of
' 2113 "13 1 ''S? ETHl standing within, in that robe of golden
(rachash libbiy dabhartobh.) chequer work (ant n'lV3^1?0 v- 13)-
Psalm xiv. 1. The three first of these reasons apply
2 TriO "©'ID Dy to Solomon ; but besides (4) Solomon
(yet sopher mahiyr), ibid. carried on no wars such as are spoken
13JJ is probably a pointed stylus of in vv. 3,4,5; (5) there could be
- " . , • i j i no idea of making his sons princes in
for cutting out characters m lead, rock, ,, , , , ,„= „ , r _ . .
., . • , , . all lands (v. 16). See the decisive
wax, or any other material ; but it is

, j j, -i. > ' mu remarks of J. H. Michaehs, Annott.
also used ot a writers pen. Ihe . _ . . '„
, , , , ,, ubenorr. tn Haqioqr. 1. pp. 283 sqq.
words are translated tcdXa/jos ypaiJ.jj.a- . J " ,
t™ 6lvypd0ov (LXX.), Stylus scribal ' 1J» Jy^V DTPS ^803- 0n
veloeis (S. Hieron.). the construction of this passage, see
8 Not to David. (1) David could further on, Lecture VI.
not be called God (vv. 6, 7) ; (2) his s ^ -KPW0 K3t,D -pDW
throne could not be styled 'for ever ^ L^ Thy beauty, 0 King
and ever' (v. 6) ; (3) no wife of his Messiah> is fairer than the sons of
received a gift from the daughter of men Eosenm-) SchoU^ in .„, 3.
Tyre (v. 12); (4) neither Miehal nor Scll0ettg6n (flor. Rehr_ ji. 227, 234)
Maacah, his two royal brides could tes nearly twenty pasaages from
have any of the glorious splendour of the Targumi applving thjs Psaim to
the peerless consort (?JB> v. 10) Messiah.

lect. n. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 61
the Epistle to the Hebrews,1 that the spiritual conquests
and kingdom of Messiah are the subjects of this splendid
burst ; (2) we must grasp the idea of Christ's Love for the
Church being shadowed forth under the image of the
bridegroom's union to his bride.2
3. The 110th Psalm possesses some main characteristics
of David's style. It is energetic, it is mysterious, and it is
concise. It lends a new touch to the picture, and gives it
a feature which was destined to be one of the greatest
of all. A Being is introduced so glorious that He becomes
blended with the Divine Majesty. Under the Law there
was an impassable barrier between the Eoyalty and the
Priesthood. Uzziah vainly attempted to bridge it over.
As fast as the incense rose from the censer in his hand,
' the leprosy even rose up in his forehead.3 ' It was reserved
for Messiah, and for Him alone, to stand forth and realise
the perfect type of the Priest-King before God a ad Man.4
He is addressed by God Himself as a ' Priest for ever,
after the order of Melchizedek.' 5 Eound Him is gathered
a host,6 at once priests and warriors, in holy vestments — a
nation of warriors in arms, following so gladly that they are
termed n3lJ (n'dhabhoth), willingnesses. Language, vague in
its magnificence, speaks of an eternal youth, fresh as the dew
and vast and glorious as the illimitable dawn, from whose
1 Hebrews i. 8, 9 ; cf. Psalm xiv. and dignity of Melchizedek, see Index
6; 7. to Schoettgen, Hor. Hebr. J. C. Wolf,
2 See Lowth's admirable remarks. Cures. Phil. Tom. iv. (Hebr. vii. 2, 5) :
Prselect. xxxi. -De Cantici Salomonis above all, Mr. McCaul on the Epistle
argumento et stylo.' De Foes. Hebr. to the Hebrews, pp. 68, 70.
pp. 347, 351. 6 ^0 (cheylekha) = Thy host,
3 2 Chron xxvi. 16-21. ^ imaril = ^ th(mce
* See Zechar. vi. 9, 15.

5 Psalm ex. 4. For the person

exercitus.

62 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
womb it derives its origin. In brief and rapid touches
there follows the subjugation of the head of a vast con
federacy of different countries. Yet the victor drinks of
the brook that flows by the ordinary path of man's trials
and sorrows, with a dark hint of some strange elevation
from the earth.1 iii.
A third class of Messianic Psalms we have termed the
ideally Messianic, and there are entire Psalms which are
such. It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that ideal
Messianism pervades all Messianic Psalms. All that is
bright a,nd glorious in Man as he came from God's Hand
finds its centre in the second Adam. All that is noble in
royalty and conquest is part of His adornment. All that
is sweetest and deepest in sorrow finds its perfection in
the Man of sorrows. All gentleness, goodness, purity,
truth, justice, are shadows of His. All the ideas of God
in His sanctuary and worship, in the history of David and
1 The Eev. G. Phillips, D.D., in words, rWDil h\£> ''J'jy. Again, 'on
his introductory remarks on Psalm ex., Psalm xviii. 35, " Thy right hand shall
writes as follows : ' By far the greater uphold me," the Midrash has the fol-
part of the elder Eabbis have deter- lowing note : —
mined that it (Psalm ex.) treats of the ,„, ^ -^"^nm DBO W m
Messiah. Thus the Midrash Tehil- Bahbi Jode^ in the R Ka^ ^
hm m Psalm n. on the words, Iwillde- that in the Ume to come<ie 'jn ^
dare the decree, &c, saith, DnSlDD age of Messiah, the Holy One (blessed
'\i\ rW»n \>V "rW DPI The affairs of be He !) will make King Messiah to
the Messiah are set forth in the Scrip- sit at his right hand, as it is said, "The
tares of the Law, of the Prophets, and Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 'on my
of the Hagiographa. In the Law, right hand." E. Gaon, on Dan.vii. 13,
Ex. iv. 22 ; in the Prophets, Isa. Hi. " He came with the clouds of heaven'}
13 and xiii. 1; and in the Hagio- saith, and this is |-pG?D 1jpiX, Messiah
grapha, Psalm ex., " The Lord said our Righteousness, as it is said, "The
unto my Lord." The Editor of the Lord said to my Lord," &c.' ' The
Venice edition, it must be stated, has, Psalms in Hebrew, with a Commen-
with a true Jewish spirit, erased the tary, vol. ii., pp. 417 4ig

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 63
of Israel, are summed up in Him. All the promises given
to the righteous rest upon Him, and dwell in Him. And
thus it is that Psalm after Psalm yields its witness to
Christ. His is the Ideal Manhood, Eoyalty, Conquest,
Suffering, Sainthood. He is Priest and Ark.1 And each of
these Ideals endows the Church with other Psalms in
which she may see Jesus.2 II.
It will be observed that so many Psalms, definitely
Messianised, are pregnant with the Messianic principle.
The ice is broken. It is morally certain that a discovery
so momentous will be expanded ; that a figure so tragic,
so majestic, so Divine, so loving, will again appear ; that
a voice so thrilling and so exquisite has not spoken its
last. Messianism becomes the central scheme, the key to
unlock the whole design.
I proceed to apply this, not so much to entire Psalms
which give us a complete delineation of Christ's Passion
or Glory, His Priesthood or His Kingdom, as to passages
on a different and smaller scale, which are applied to Him
in the New Testament, or instinctively and universally by
Christian consciousness. In this principle we find the
1 Ideal Manhood, Psalm viii. Boy- tion. Amongst men, He is Lord
alty and Conquest, xviii., xx., xxi. amongst captives, Eedeemer; amongst
Suffering, xxii., lxix. Sainthood, i., beasts, the Lion; of the great fabric
xv., xxxiv. 19, 20. Priest, ex., exxxii. of redeemed souls, the great Temple
[see in Lect. IV.]. , Ark, xxiv. [pos- of the Holy Ghost. He is foundation-
Ixviii.]. stone and chief stone of the corner.

2 'In order to describe the fullness He is the Sun in the firmament, the
of Christ, Holy Scripture takes simi- Light of the circumambient air, in
litudes from every department of one word, the All-in-all of Creation.'
nature and art, by perfection thereof Edward Irving, in Morning Watch,
to represent His all-including perfec i. 595.

64 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
colligation, so to speak, of isolated and separate Messianic
traits and incidents by the thread of this leading idea. It
is in this vast connection that we read the scattered
Messianic incidents in the Psalms ; it is from this central
point that they radiate.
These sporadic Messianic passages may be divided into
two classes — those which paint His Character, and those
which foreshadow His Life.
1. Those which delineate His Character are chiefly
these. He who is to be glorified through suffering is to wear
a stainless manhood. The Psalmist's word need not sig
nify a beauty of form and feature, standing out, as it were
obtrusively, in distinct and separate significance, as if the
Messiah were to be a Syrian rival of Adonis or Apollo.
But assuredly the Psalmists indicated moral beauty, per
fect sinlessness, when one of them exclaimed, ' Thou art
fairer than the children of men.' l His life is one long self-
denial. ' Christ pleased not Himself, but, as it is written,
' The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on Me.' 2
His career is marked by thoughtful considerateness for
the afflicted. Of whom could the words ' Happy he who
deals considerately with the afflicted ' be so truly used as
of Him who applies other words of the 41st Psalm to Him
self? 3 That tenderness and patience is not destitute of
the equipoise of sterner qualities. A passionate zeal for
God's glory consumes Him. ' The zeal of Thine house hath
eaten me up.' 4 He is necessarily a Man of Sorrows. ' I
' Psalm xiv. 2. See Hengstenberg and Dr. Kay in loc.
2 Eomans xv. 3 ; Psalm lxix. 9. * Psalm lxix. 9 ; cf. St. John ii.
3 Vv. 1, 9; cf. St. John xiii. 18. 17.

lect. il. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 65
beheld the transgressors, and was grieved because they
kept not Thy word.' '
2. The chief historically fulfilled prefigurations of this
class are these. Is it not significant that in the 22nd
Psalm the Sufferer speaks so plaintively, with such pro
longed cadence, of a human mother, while of a human
father no word is said ? 2
But Thou wast taking Me out from the body,
Causing Me to cling upon the breasts of My mother,
Upon Thee was I cast from the womb,
From the body of My mother My God art Thou.
In the 13 2nd Psalm the song mysteriously hovers over Beth
lehem. The careful reader, with the Second Lesson for
Christmas Morning, and the Greek version of the Psalm
before him, seems to catch anticipations of St. Luke's
narrative, and to hear broken snatches of 'Venite ad-
oremus ' floating in the air.3 As life goes on, that exhi
bition of perfect sinlessness must lead to the world's
groundless hatred ; in Him the word must be true, ' They
1 Psalm cxix. 158. father and my mother forsake me'
2 A critic, who accuses me of (xxvii. 10) is no exception. 'Quia
' mysticism ' has done me the favour post orationem Psalm, xxvi. magna
of referring to this passage. As I consolatione Davides affectus fuerat,
suppose from the school to which he et cognoverat ad majus regnum se
presumably belongs, that he holds the vocari ; ineffabili desiderio ad cce-
Christian interpretation of prophecy in leste regnum suspirare ccepit. Con-
reverence, I conclude that he must have venit idem Psalm, omnibus electis qui
forgotten Isaiah vii. 14 ; Micah v. 2. I inuncti sunt unctione gratise ; atque
have found since writing this lecture ad unctionem glorise, per quam vero
that an eminent scholar thus writes on regnare incipiunt, totaanimi devotione
Psalm xxii. 10: 'Twice He mentions suspirant.' (Alluding to the title of
His mother. Throughout the Old the Psalm in LXX. tov AavlS irph
Testament there is never any mention tov xP^Vvat.) Bellarm. Explan. in
made ofa human father to the Messiah, Psalm, p. 147.
but always only of His mother, or her 8 Psalm cxxxii. 7; St. Luke ii. 15 :
who bare Him.' Delitzsch, i. 314. see Dr. Kay on the Psalms, p. 422.
Psalm xxii. 9,10; cf. lxxi. 6. 'My

66 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. n.
hated Me without a cause.'1 The hidden wickedness,
in the circle of His friends, is to find itself concentrated
in a betrayer. 'Mine own familiar friend in which I
trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his
heel against Me.' 2 To that deep and tender Nature the
nature of children would respond, and from the praises of
infant-lips He would make a firm foundation on which
to build up a fabric of strength. ' Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings Thou hast founded strength.' 3 His
wisdom will naturally utter itself in Parables and dark
sayings, deeper than those of Asaph. It was characteristic
of the superhuman method of inspired Prophets not to
utter their thoughts in the forms of abstract philosophy or
transcendental speculation, but to clothe itself with the
flesh and blood of parabolic teaching. This method our
Lord adopted, and the Evangelist, whose nature was most
deeply saturated with the mystical interpretation of the
Old Testament, saw in it a Messianic coincidence.4 This
1 St. John xv. 25; Psalm xxxv. 67.) 'Domus lugenthim = carmen
1 9 ; lxix. 4. funereum. JEdificare de carminis
2 Psalm xii. 9 ; St. John xiii. 18. compositione accipit Bar - Hebrseus.'
3 W HID? Psalm viii. 2; St. (Ibid. i. 166.) Assemann also ob-
Matt. xxi. 16. 'Among the Arabs serves that the Eabbis borrowed the
glory is often compared to a build- metaphor from the Arabs and Syrians.
ing.' (Eosenm. in loc.) -It is a bold Every distich consisted, they said, of
conception to found God's power on tw0 members, of which the first is
that which is feeblest on earth ; the A/'J (BiPa)> tlle second -yiJp (kX£-
paradox has a noble poetic effect.' Bpov). Both together are termed
(Reuss in loc.) n,3 (oTkos) : cf. Milton's phrase 'to
™m^rVh^intetreStinf rhytITCal build the lofty rhyme.' Perhaps,
remains of Christian Antiquity in «,„ * .. j • t, , ••• „
r...i .j;..j v, n j- t t.F therefore, the words in Psalm vm. 2,
Greek edited by Cardinal Pitra, many „¦„,. .„ r .,
... OT,t;ti„,i „t „, rr, ' J point to Gods praise as a great poem,
are entitled oixoi. The usage is cer- £ ¦ » r •/,,.,¦ n
tainly of oriental origin. 'Domus ^?T* ^ ^ , ^ T ^
apud Arab„s et Syros est perfecta jf^f SaCra' SplCl1- S°leSm" L Pp"
metn structura ;— hinc Domus natalis
Domini.' (Asseman. Bibl. Orient, i. 4 St. Matt. xiii. 35 ; Psalm lxxviii.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 67
mysterious and divine Being is to move in an atmosphere
of wonder. Certain Psalms are Psalms of the miracles of
Jesus. The tone of the Evangelists, in speaking of our
Lord's authority over the storms and waters, is exactly
that of men whose minds were full of the awful and
glorious music of the Psalmists in singing of God's power
over the sea.1 We find the people, after the Miracle of the
loaves, owning Jesus to be the Prophet, and thinking of
coming and taking Him 'by force to make Him a King'
The reason was, that they had learned to apply the utter
ances of the 145th and 146th Psalms to the Messiah. Any
reader who will carefully compare the reply of our Lord,
sent back by the Baptist to His disciples with a portion
of the 146th Psalm, will be struck by the coincidence.
This coincidence is enhanced by one most significant dis
tinction. Our Saviour first relates the particular miracles,
and then appends to them the general blessing, ' Blessed
is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me.' The
Psalmist first prefixes the general blessing, ' Happy is he
that hath the God of Jacob for his help,' and then appends
the miracles which were to be signs to Israel of God
coming to help them :
Which giveth food to the hungry.
The Lord looseth the prisoners.
The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind :
The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down.2
' This peculiar manner of God's presence with His people
2. See Hengstenberg on the Psalms, cvii. 28, 29.
ii. 454. 2 St. John vi. 14, 15; St. Matt.
1 St. Matt. viii. 26, 27 (and paral- xi. 4,5, 6; cf. Psalm cxlv. 14, 15;
lels) ; cf. Psalm lxv. 7 ; Ixxxix. 9 ; cxlvi. 5, 7, 8.
f2

68 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ti.
by signs and miracles,' says Dean Jackson, ' was punc
tually and specially foreprophesied by the Psalmists.'
Again : — The worship of Israel was provided in the Psalter
with a song expressive of welcome to Messiah.1 The
train of pilgrims met our Lord on Palm Sunday, singing the
118th Psalm, with its refrain of Hosanna. The Messianic
consciousness of the elect of Israel had, doubtless, mused
for centuries on the Hymn with which they should greet
the advancing footsteps of the Anointed. No new Hymn
was needed. A strain had been given, in old times, for this
very occasion. ' There was,' says Dr. Jackson, ' a sweet
harmony between the Prophet's song and the people's
celebration.' That strain, our Lord seems to tell us, has
not expended all its riches on one brief triumph; it
waits to breathe out another welcome for another Advent.
' Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed
is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.'2 In
addition to four of the seven Last Words, and to the
incident of the mockery in the language of the 22nd
Psalm, two other references must not be omitted. In the
sublime and touching picture which St. Matthew gives, for
Hebrew readers especially, of the true Messiah King,
Prophecy weaves its marvellous coincidences round His
path. At each turn the Martyr King walks — and when
that last sad walk is ended, hangs upon the Tree — in the
light of a predestined sorrow, with the funeral bells of
1 ' Olim ad Messiam Psalm, rela- explicatum fuisse, atque inter preces
turn fuisse cognoscitur ex Matt. xxi. quibus adventus ejus petebatur, rela-
42, &c. Et Eabbinorum cum recenti- turn, id quod confirmatur Isetis illis
orum turn veterum non pauci de Messia populi acclamationibus.' Eosenm.,
Psalm, accipiunt ; testatur Hieron. Scholia, Arg. in Psalm cxviii.
ilium apud veteres Juda>os de Messia 2 St. Matt, xxiii. 39.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 69
Prophecy tolling in the distance.1 That suffering Hu
manity was like a lyre, with some soul of music living
along its strings and ranging over the whole compass of
the 22nd Psalm. And the 69th Psalm adds one line to
the picture of the Passion. In the mockery of that
dreadful Coronation, the King must have His festal cup
on Golgotha. ' They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled
with gall,' writes St. Matthew, and the Sorrower in the
69th Psalm wails —
Eeproach hath broken My heart ;
And I am full of heaviness 
They gave Me also gall for My meat :
And in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.2
And, finally, when the Body of Jesus is preserved from
the indignity of a broken limb, the type of the Lamb and
the utterance of the Psalmist about God's protection of the
Eighteous Man blend into one —
A bone of Him shall not be broken.3
It may be thought by some that such applications as
these are unworthy of the gravity of the occasion ; that
they are a mere play of mystic fancy ; that, at the best,
they are signs, not to them that believe not, but to them
that believe. Yet we surely obtain a very solid argument
for proving the existence of a general scheme and leading
idea in a writer's mind, when we are able to show that
1 In St. Matthew's narrative of our Note A.)
Lord's last days on earth (chh. xxi- 2 St. Matt, xxvii. 34 ; Psalm lxix.
xxvii.) there are to be found not less 20, 21.
than nineteen distinct references to the 3 St. John xix. 36 ; Psalm xxxiv.
Psalms alone; either made by Him- 19, 20: cf. Exod. xii. 46 ; Numb. ix.
self or applied by the Evangelist to 12. See Delitzsch, i. 413.
Him. (See Appendix to Lect. I.

70 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
there is a vast accumulation of passages capable of being
explained by that scheme.
In relation to this point, an interesting analogy is
presented by one class of human compositions. Bishop
Butler observes, that there are 'two kinds of writings
which bear a great resemblance to prophecy, with respect
to the matter before us — the mythological, and the satirical,
where the satire is, to a certain degree, concealed.' l An
example may be adduced. In an article in the ' Examiner '
Swift pours out the fullness of his wrath and scorn upon
the great General of the day. Swift was a consummate
master of style. He could, when he pleased, enshrine re
volting objects in crystal, or carve out tumours in alaba.ster.
Yet, in this satire, among sarcasms whose point is almost
undisguised, there are others which for generations have
conveyed little meaning to an ordinary reader, but whose
significance has lately been disclosed by the publication of
a volume of private letters. Previous to that publication,
a reader would have been fully justified in asserting
that these hints were applicable to Marlborough and his
Duchess, because he knew the satirist's general purpose,
although the form of the satire might here and there be
enigmatical.2 A yet more apposite illustration of the
colligative power of a known general purpose is supplied
by elaborate allegorical panegyric, like that in Spenser's
' Faerie Queen.' The allegory, indeed, becomes com
plicated by the desire of that exuberant genius to attain
a double end, one moral, the other personal. King
Arthur represents at once a living noble, and the ideal of
1 Analogy, Part II. ch. vii. 2 Appendix. Note F.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 71
chivalry ; Gloriana stands alike for the Queen of England,
and for the perfection which is to be sought by knightly
souls. The entanglement is increased by the variety of
typical figures, whose separate graces and virtues are
shadows of the peerless Lady, who is invited
In mirrors more than one herself to see.1
But, in the glorification of Elizabeth and of her court, we
have a knowledge of the author's leading idea and purpose.
It is the general scheme which he pursues. That leading
idea is always to be kept in view, as the one key which
fits all the intricate wards of the lock ; and, by a free use
of it, we succeed to a great degree, in spite of much com
plication and many difficulties in detail. Now, it may be
shown that Prophecy is a whole, of which Christ is the
object and leading idea. And, as regards the Psalms, if
some of them can be proved to be Messianic, and fulfilled
in Christ, then that object is of such transcendent import
ance that it clearly becomes the one which their writers
have mainly in view.2 He who distinctly grasps this idea
is forced to use it as a key, — forced to apply it to the
Psalter, — even where those who do not possess it may
consider such a use fanciful or unnatural. All the acute
ness of trivial objection cannot volatilise away this great
mass of coincidences. The applicability of so many pas
sages is a proof that the application was intended to be
made. It is not surprising to find that a current of mystically
1 Faerie Queen, Book iii. 5. book— Bishop Hurd on Prophecy, pp.
2 I desire to acknowledge large 115, 117.
obligation to an almost forgotten

72 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
Messianic thought is perpetually washing through and
through the Psalter, both in the Synagogue and the Church.
It is not a tenable position to maintain that we are de
barred from making any application of this kind which has
not been distinctly provided by our Lord and the writers
of the New Testament. For the whole atmosphere of
Jewish religious thought was heavily charged with mys
tical elements, when our Lord came. There was a mystical
pre-Christian, just as truly as there has arisen a mystical
post-Christian, exegesis.
If this principle of interpretation was false and fanciful,
it stood out prominently before our Lord and His Apostles;
and it would be strange, indeed, that they should not only
refrain from condemning it, but conform to it again and
again. As regards the Psalms in particular, the Epistle to
the Hebrews is the Psalter Messianised mystically. It is
the perfect efflorescence of that ancient stock of interpre
tation.1 How far this kind of exposition has commended itself
to pious spirits in all ages of the Church, Eeformed and
Unreformed, it is unnecessary to prove. Nay, in the early
Church there was an accepted science of mystic Christology.
Let any student run through the Orations of Athanasius
against the Arians, noting on the margin the references to
the Psalms alone, and he will be surprised by the result.
The principle of mystical interpretation was evidently
taken by both parties as admissible even into formal con
troversy. No doubt we feel in turning from the New Tes
tament even to Augustine or Athanasius, that we have
1 I know not where, this is brought out so fully as by Mr. McCaul on the
Epistle to the Hebrews.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 73
passed from an atmosphere which is Divine to one which
is human. As we read the vast and delightful collection
due to the genius and learning of Dr. Neale and the con-
tinuer of his work, we may find in many of the extracts a
want of perfect sobriety, a manifest incapacity of being
examined in the light of the Divine original. But in
many cases a new point of view is opened. A gleam of
flying light is thrown upon this Psalm, and a new vista
opened out into its depths. III.
In reference to this entire view of Messianic Prophecy,
there is one objection, drawn from its results, to which it
is needful to advert.
Christian writers have always dwelt upon the admir
able provision made for securing the memory of these
great Prophecies, by the fact of their being conveyed in
a poetry of Psalms, by means of which they passed into
the devotions of Israel. A tinge of Christian colouring, a
strain of Christian hope, was thus imparted to the prayers
and praises, public and private, enshrined in sacred pro
phetic song.1
But it has become a fashion to minimise the result of
this provision; to show how small a deposit was actually
left, at our Lord's Advent, by this constant flow of Messi
anic Psalms. What, it is asked, was after all the effect
when the Messiah came ?
A summary answer must suffice. The modern Jews
have toned down their expectations, from the bitter dis-
1 Davison, Discourses on Prophecy, v., pp. 201, 202.

74 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect.lt.
appointment of centuries, and from a controversial inter
est. With many of them, the hope of Israel has faded
into the common-place figure of a chief, who, when Israel
is restored, will stand upon the steps of the Temple, and
be hailed with the acclamations of a spontaneous homage.
This is an explaining away of the twelfth of the thirteen
articles of faith fixed by Maimonides, and drawn up in
the celebrated Canticle hip. (yighdal) which forms a part
of the daily prayer of every devout Jew. 'In the last
days He will send MOW (M'shiychenu) our Messiah for
the deliverance of those who wait for the appointed time
of His salvation.' 1 But in the years of our Lord's
Ministry it was far otherwise. Not only in their own eyes,
but in those of other nations, through the influence of
Psalmists and Seers, a sunlit haze gathered round the
Jewish people, and on it images were projected from the
central prophecy of Messiah, vast, incoherent, varied,
some sad and tragic, some dazzling or lurid. For some it
wore the thin outline of a metaphysical conception. For
others it came with the pomp of military splendour, and
beckoned the multitudes to revolution. For the Alexan
drian Jew it brought a lofty idealism. The Samaritan
believed that the Saviour should be the son of Joseph, and
after building a stately temple on Gerizim, and enlighten
ing the people, should sleep in the sepulchre of Joseph.
For the Jews of Palestine it was a floating picture, of
which the colours were borrowed from mingling traditions.
He would be the very Logos or Metatron, according to
inMK'.'1 Vp »3P|p Y&ge 5. Paris : 5628.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 75
some. Some believed that He would not die, but abide
for ever. For others the ignominy and death of the
Anointed lay 'in deep and tender distances behind the
foreground of that dazzling picture ; ' it was a recog
nised question whether the Messiah was capable of
suffering.1 Others chose unworthy or foreign Mes
siahs, and from fear or flattery gave the abused name
to Titus, to Vespasian, even to Herod. Strange to say,
in the community of Essenes, where we might have ex
pected to find the hope in its purest form — where histo
rian after historian has mistaken probability for fact — it
seems to have died out most completely. The sceptical
Pliny records an unwonted admiration for the solemn and
cloistered brotherhood, whom imagination associated with
the palms under which they meditated on the shores of
the Dead Sea. Pliny marvelled at the succession of gene
rations, swept in by the tide of life to the haven of that
austere discipline ; at a community which was perpetuated,
without the record of a birth, by the fruitfulness of a
penitential dissatisfaction with earth. But, as far as we
learn from Pliny, or from any authentic source of informa
tion, no yearning for a Saviour existed in hearts which were
schooled to be satisfied with themselves. No cry for the
Kingdom of God escaped from the lips of men who believed
that they enjoyed a monopoly of that Kingdom in their
narrow community. In the intense sectarianism of the
Essene, he disdained to look for the salvation of Israel.2 If
1 el ira07jT&s & Xpi<rr6s, Acts xxvi. Gospel from Essenism, I have been
23. confirmed, since the above was written,
2 Appendix. Note G. In the by finding that Professor Lightfoot
conclusion that the Messianic idea (Epistle fo the Colossians, p. 418) has
cannot have been derived by the arrived at the same result.

76 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
we turn to the Pharisees and Sadducees, their attitude
was one of impatience and ambition ; they taught their
disciples to wait for a Messiah who should be the pride,
and not the consolation, of Israel. Yet not in vain had Pro
phets lived and died. The Psalms which were chanted in
so many synagogues, and breathed in so many prayers,
did not waste their sweetness without producing the
intended result. Everywhere humble spirits were, at
that period, to be found, who expected One to heal the
wounded heart. Fragments of the true Messianic idea
were in the air. Many were ready to correct their erro
neous conceptions by the Divine reality, when it was pre
sented to them. The language of their souls, enlightened
by a sudden manifestation so different from every pre
judice of their lives, was, cos dXr/doos, iyoj 8' -rj/jLaprov.1
Nathanael had on his lips the great idea of the 2nd
Psalm, when he exclaimed, 'Thou art the Son of God;
Thou art the King of Israel.' The High Priest attests the
current interpretation when he asks, ' Art Thou the
Christ, the Son of God ? ' 2 Messiah came, at once ex
pected and unexpected. The flower on a shrub which we
have never known to blossom before may well have been
different from anything which leaf or stem could have led
us to expect. Prophecies and Psalms had done their work.3
From all that has been said two consequences follow :
1. It is entirely impossible to construct a Life of our
Lord without taking Prophecy into account. For that Life
1 Arist. Rhetor, iii. 11. 2 St. John i. 49 ; St. Matt. xxvi. 63.
3 Large use has been made in this section of Bertholdt. Christol. Jud.,
especially § 6, 7.

Lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 77
stretches into the past as well as the future. It is a day
which has had a dawn.
2. If the view which has been maintained is estab
lished, we are in possession of a general principle which we
are to apply in our interpretations.
Some critics tell us that we must take up those Books
which contain prediction like any other books ; that we
must apply to them the same rule of impartial criticism
which we should apply to a Greek philosopher or tragic
poet. There is a sense in which this is perfectly true.
But one of those rules is, to take into account the mind and
design of the author. We are told that the 22nd Psalm
has, and can have, no other meaning than that of him who
first wrote it, and of those who first received it. But such
an assertion is simply an astute way of begging the question
at issue, which is — Was the writer inspired or not ? If
he was inspired, God, and not the writer, was the Author ;
and the point to be inquired is, not what the writer may,
or may not, have designed, but what God designed. In
presence of such statements, many Christians, who pro
fess to believe that these writers were inspired, have
fallen into ' the curious confusion of Grotius, so acutely
analysed by Warburton.1 They set out with imagining
that they hold Prophecy to be Divinely inspired ; then,
when they are confronted with passages which appear
to contain superhuman prediction, they start back in
amazement, and conclude that, as the Prophets were
Jews, their prophecies must range within the narrow
limits of Judaism. That is, they first assume that the
1 Divine Legation, Book VI. s. vi.

78 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. ii.
Prophets are Divinely inspired, and then argue from the
premiss that the Prophets are not Divinely inspired.
We shall pass on, in the next Lecture, from the Witness
afforded by the Psalms to the Person of Christ to the
Witness which they give to Christianity. In the closing
Lectures of the series I shall attempt to present a sum
mary view of the result which we have obtained. Mean
while, I conclude by observing that we may be very sure
of one thing in relation to the Psalter.
There are many who profess to expel Christ from the
Psalms in the interest of the Psalms themselves. But
the Psalter as a living thing, and the association with
it of our Incarnate Lord, stand together. Those were
memorable words which Mr. Coleridge wrote upon the
margin of his Prayer-book, ' As a transparency on some
night of public rejoicing, seen by common day, with the
lamps from within removed, even such would the Psalms
be to me, uninterpreted by the Gospel.' l A living statesman
has spoken, in language of transcendent truth and beauty,
of the Psalter in one of its aspects, as ' the whole music of
the human heart, swept by the hand of its Maker.' But
not all the human universality of the Psalter ; not all its
unquestionable pathos, and cries from the depths ; not all
the mystic elevation of the ' Songs of Degrees ; ' not all the
ringing bells of its Hallelujahs, can alone preserve for
it its present place. A learned Brahmin Pundit has lately
become a convert to the Gospel. From his acknowledged
eminence as a Sanscrit scholar it was expected that he would
first study the Greek of the New Testament as its cognate
1 Miscellaneous Pieces, p. 211.

lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 79
language. But his love for the Psalter is so deep that he
has first devoted himself to Hebrew. For in the Psalter
he finds Christ, and the Gospel ; and, without that, he
would, no doubt, prefer the ancient Hymns of his race and
country. Without an intense conviction in the hearts of
God's children that Christ is in the Psalter, that it is in
sympathy with His Passion and His Glory, its words would,
after a brief season of deference to ancient custom, be
almost unheard in our Churches and Cathedrals. They
would be comparatively silent, for the future, in sick
rooms, and unbreathed by the lips of dying saints. The
voice of millions of Christians about them would be like
the pathetic cry of a simple old man, who said, when the
photographs of his grandchildren in a distant land were
presented to him, ' It is they, and it is not they ; take
them away.' The Psalms, for the future, might no doubt
remain, and be read, in a book, of which successive edi
tions might be called for. But the fitting symbol for
the frontispiece of that book would be, a broken lyre
dropped from a dead man's hand.1

NOTE TO LECTUEE II.
The following Christological analysis of the great ob
jectively Messianic Psalms may be found useful : —
Psalm II.
Cheist. ('irvtyp v. 2).
1. The King (v. 6).
2. The Son (v. 7).
(a) Eternally begotten (Hebrews i. 5, v. 5).
(6) Eaised from the dead (Acts xiii. 33 ; Eomans i. 4).
1 Appendix. Note H.

80 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS ETC. lect. ii.
3. The Shepherd-Destroyer (v. 9, iroijuaveis airovs, LXX.).
[Dy'in. the shepherd-word for king (Psalm xxviii. 9).
OaK*. the Shepherd's (Psalm xxiii. 4).
?t"13> terrible image.]
4. Blessedness of entire faith in Him (v. 12. The second benediction of
« the Psalms). Psalm XLV.
Christ.
[Thou lovedst righteousness !
Sin Thou hadst in utter detestation ;
Wherefore, 0 my God! Thy God '
Christed Thee 2 with oil of exultation
More than all companions of Thy station — v. 7.]
1. The Eoyal (vv. 1, 5) Bridegroom (vv. 9-16).
2. (a) His Divinity (vv. 6, 7).
(b) The ' gift of unction ' to His Humanity (v. 7).
(c) His Humanity, and its characteristics.
(i.) Spiritual beauty (v. 2).
(ii.) Power of word (v. 2).
(iii.) Power of deed (vv. 3, 4, 5).
(iv.) Graces and virtues (vv. 4, 7).
Psalm CX.
Christ.
1. David's Lord (v. 1).
2. On the Divine Throne (v. 1).
3. A King conquering the world (v. 2).
By an army of Priests in Holy Vestments (v. 3).
4. Priest and King, ' after the order of Melchizedek ' (v. 4).
5. His war, its toil, and suffering (vv. 5, 6, 7).
6. Its reward (v. 7).
7. The Judgment. History ends with the triumph of good (vv. 6, 7).
1 Tti^K ET&K llnxit Te> ° <"> s &*hs> 6 0e(is <rou. LXX.
Deus, Deus Tuus. (Eosenm.) exP'ff* 'lO^'O.

81

LECTTJEE III.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.
Psalm li. 5.
Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? ShaU Thy wonders be known in
the dark, and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness f
n;a»p ps? ^rijr-jvj I^P wna yij;q
Psaim Ixxxviii. 10, 12.
In the two opening Lectures of this series, I have at
tempted to collect into one point of view the Witness of the
Psalms to Christ. It remains for me to examine their Wit
ness to Christianity- — that is, to the Christian Character ;
Christian Worship ; the Christian Church ; and Christian
Theology. But before entering upon this examination, there are
two objections to a large portion of the Psalter — one from
the moxal, the other from the spiritual side — which are so
common and so far reaching that I am constrained to
consider them fully. The moral objection is drawn from
the character of David ; the spiritual from the indefinite
ness of the hope of immortality in the Psalter.
i. The objection to the most important portions ofthe
Psalter from the character of David leads us to speak, in the
first instance, ofthe Davidic authorship of eertain Psalms.1
1 An admirable summary of the facts and arguments bearing on this ques
tion is to be found in Dr. Pusey's Daniel the Prophet, Lect. VII., pp. 315-322.
G

82 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
There was a time, as we are frequently reminded,
when it was held by Fathers of the Church— as it is now.
held by Jewish Babbis— that David wrote all the Psalms.
There are critics at present who assert, with a more violent
exaggeration, that he wrote none.
Of the Psalms, eleven are ascribed in their titles to the
Sons of Korah,1 twelve to Asaph,2 and four bear other
names.3 Seventy-three are assigned to David in their titles,
two more (the 96th and 105th) in the Book of Chronicles,4
and two (the 2nd and 95th) in the New Testament.5 That
he was poet and musician, no one can doubt ; the fact is
grooved into the very substance of his history. Poems of
his composition are preserved outside the Psalter. The
fame of his music went down the course of ages, and was
enshrined in proverb and prophecy.6 The burden of disproof
rests with those who deny that any of his compositions
remain. The evidence afforded by the titles — once, no doubt, ex
aggerated — is, at present, often rejected with inconsiderate
contempt. The titles of Canticles and Hymns inserted in
other places of the Bible form a portion of the history
itself.7 The scanty respect paid to these inscriptions may
be regarded as one of those fallacies which arise from
reading Books in translations only. Few persons who
are in the habit of referring to the Hebrew Psalter would
1 In Book II., Pss. xiii., xliv— Jeduthun (? = Ethan) occurs in three
xlix. ; in III., lxxxiv., lxxxv., lxxxvii., titles, and that of Heman in one, in
lxxxviii. addition to some of those mentioned in
2 In Book IL, Ps. 1. ; in III., the text.
lxxiii.-lxxxiii. « 1 Chron. xvi. 7-33.
3 Of Solomon ; in Book IL, Ps. 5 Acts iv. 25. Hebrews iv. 7.
Ixxii. ; in V., Ps. cxxvii. Of Ethan ; e Amos vi. 5.
in Book III., Ps. Ixxxix. Of Moses; ' See 2 Sam. i. 17, 18; Isaiah
in Book IV., Ps. xc. The name of xxxviii. 9; Jonah ii. 1, 2.

lect. ill. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 83
be apt to describe these titles as ' deciduous, separable,
mere glosses.' In the original they contain several words.
In the case of the 51st Psalm the heading runs to the
length of any ordinary verse.1 That of the 102nd Psalm
is beautifully thoughtful and pathetic.2 The system of
accentuation was extended to them as if they formed a
part of the text. Yery many of these existed at the time
when the Septuagint translation was made. In saying
this, I do not, of course, forget that, in the Hebrew text,
some titles bear the name of David, which is suppressed in
the Greek translation ; while others (eleven) are assigned
to David, which are anonymous in the existing Hebrew.
The analogy between them and the subscriptions to the
Pauline Epistles is entirely misleading.3
Indeed one would suppose that a new chapter had
been added to Logic by some of our modern critics. When
these distinguished persons are pleased to enrich literature
by a brilliant essay, or to astound the sobriety of elderly
Bible readers by an original conjecture, they appear to
proceed by a new argumentative method which runs as
follows : — •' My theory of the impossibility of prediction
will be contradicted ; worse still — the whole colouring of
my article will be spoiled ; if I cannot assume that this
Psalm was written at a particular period, or by a particu-
1 See likewise the headings of Pss. 3 I here refer with pleasure to a
iii., vii., xviii., xxx., xxxiv., Hi., liv., book of rare learning and piety — Mr.
lvi., lvii., lix., Ix., lxiii., cxlii. Armfield On the Gradual Psalms,
2 fpTr^. ^ nWl pp. 31-33.
irv't? yh& nW \)zh] 7 ~~~ ~ ~
_ .i, /.i. \ i ';„' <„i^;„„ f|t3I? = to be covered or veiled
Prayer of the weary soul in folding 1^?
darkness faint,* about,' through the medium of the
Who poureth out before the Lord his idea ' to be darkened, put in gloom.'
thought of sweet complaint. — Fnerst, Lexicon, s. v.
G 2

84 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
lar person.1 But the title of this Psalm exposes me to
these inconveniences by assigning it to a period prior to
the event, or writer, necessary for my article. Therefore,
the title is totally mistaken.' The evolution of theories
of the time and place in which Psalms were composed
appears to be one of the imaginative compensations which
negative criticism has created, in lieu of the glories which
it has destroyed. All psychological fitness is violated.
For instance, two lovely songs of the Korahites (the 42nd
and the 84th) are ascribed to Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin.
That surely is the reductio ad absurdum of internal evi
dence.2 These theories glitter for a time. But they are
like a cloud of dust with the sunset behind it, which
pleases us with its play of colours while the illumination
of genius is there, but falls after a short time, by the
' sure process of self-subsidence.'
It may be instructive to show, in the case of two most
precious Psalms, upon what slight grounds Davidic author
ship is denied.
Of the 51st Psalm Professor Eeuss writes : ' We have
to get rid ofthe traditional interpretation, and to examine
if the Psalm — according to its original conception — was
directly and exclusively intended to serve as an expression
of individual repentance. As to the first point, every one
1 One critic, whose severity is gene- rant historiam.' — J. D. Michaelis,
rally reserved for orthodox commenta- Note in Prselect. xxvii. E. Lowth
tors, is provoked into some pungent re- de Poes. Hebr., pp. 588, 589.
marks : — ' Sunt qui ex historia Psalmos 2 See the character of these princes
interpretantes ita agunt ac si omnia and their probable aptitude for those
nossent, nee quidquam sub regno strains of Divine and unearthly
Davidis accidisset quod non memoriae yearning in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5-9;
sit proditum . . . Alii magna, utuntur Jeremiah xxii. 18, 19; ibid. 24-30.
fingendi licentia ; quamque ex commen- The Korahitic features of these pieces
tariis antiquorum haurire nequeunt, are well drawn out by Eosenmiiller,
solo se ingenio supplere pos^e spe- Scholia, in Psalm, xiii.

LEcr. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 85
knows by the inscription of the Psalm that, at a very
ancient date, the Jews referred it to the affair of Bath-
sheba. In the Middle Ages people also thought of the sin
recorded in 2 Sam. xxiv. But the text of the Psalm does
not contain the slightest allusion to one or other of these
facts. Surely, it would be rather singular if David, after
having basely caused the death of a faithful servant,
should protest that he had committed no sin but against
God, and should then pray for protection against being
murdered ! . . . . But we need only read the closing lines
to convince ourselves that we are far from David's epoch.
The poet prays God to re-build the walls of Jerusalem.
The walls, therefore, are broken down. This is so certain,
that it has been proposed to cut off the last lines, and
consider them as a later liturgical addition. We see no
necessity for this operation of despair.' '
Of the 32nd Psalm the same distinguished critic writes :
' This Psalm occupies an important place among those
which the ancient Church named Penitential. Theologians
have always made use of the first verse as a palmary
text in support of the dogma of gratuitous pardon. The
traditional interpretation which refers this poem to the
story of David and Bathsheba is in direct contradiction to
the narrative of 2 Sam. xii. That passage speaks of a
warning given to the King by the Prophet whilst he was
yet plunged in the security of criminal enjoyment. But
the Psalmist expresses himself as if he had been unhappy
up to the moment when he comes of himself to the humble
confession of his sin.' 2
As to the 51st Psalm it may be said, (1) The state-
1 Eeuss, p. 203. 2 Eeuss, p. 145.

86 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
ment, ' Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,' Thee,
separately and apart from all others,1 may appear ' sin
gular ' to some, but Penitence has always felt it to be
true. (2) The expression which it is proposed to render
' deliver me from being murdered,' 2 is literally ' deliver me
from bloods' The word ni (dam) in the singular is often
equivalent to blood-guiltiness; the plural CP^ (damiym)
is almost universally so. And the whole context speaks
of deliverance from the guilt and pollution of sin. (3)
The verb in the eighteenth verse, which the critic renders
re-build,3 and treats as an unanswerable objection to the
Davidic origin ofthe Psalm, more frequently signifies build.
In regard to the 32nd Psalm, a contradiction is alleged.
Bead, it is said, the misery of which the Psalmist speaks :
By day and night will be heavy upon me Thy hand.
Has been changed my freshness into the droughts of summer.4
Compare with this utterance of the writer of the Psalm
David's protracted silence until Nathan spoke, and the
contradiction between the poet's sentiment and the his
tory of the penitent king becomes obvious. But the
resolution of the difficulty is gained simply by ascer
taining the type of human nature to which the trans
gressor belonged. Of a guilty connection Bousseau ob
served that ' it stood to him instead of anything else ;
1 TU3? (l'bhadd'kha), v. i. But, however this may be, the theory
2 aiWrin ^i^.Vn *kat the two last verses were a later
' T' •'¦ - - liturgical addition to a Psalm which
(hatstslylemymiddamiym), v. 14. no 0Qe ever dreamed of attributing to
DlDin nj^n any but David, has long had currency
(tibhneh ehomoth), v. 18. in the Church and in the Synagogue.
. . Aben-Ezra says that he had heard it
In Genesis iv 17 we read of Cain, frora a learned Spanish Eabbi. Venema
T.V n.p WI Does that mean, or can and Rosemniiller (SchoHa, in foe.) ac.
it mean, 'and he re-builded a city'? cepted it. * v. 4.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 87
that the future did not touch him at all, or only as a
prolonged present.' In a very different volume of Con
fessions, the writer speaks of himself at a time when he
was placed in similar circumstances. He tells us that
' his heart bled trailing drops of blood,' and that ' he was
beaten as if with rods of burning iron.' ¦ David's nature
had in it more which was akin to Augustine than to
Bousseau. The 32nd Psalm must not be taken from David
by a piece of false and shallow psychology; nor the 51st
on the score of two most questionable points of verbal
criticism. It would be easy to go much further than mere
defence. Delitzsch, for instance, shows that the Psalms
of the time of Saul ' run into one another at manifold
points.'2 More especially the 56th, 57th, 59th, 108th, are
pervaded by constructions, turns of expression, and images,
1 St. Augustine, Confessions, III. Psalms attributed to the Korahites
i ii. have a more unbroken sublimity of
2 Delitzsch, ii. 173. The 31st style and sentiment, and a more unre-
Psalm bears the title in the LXX. strained emotional expression, than
\f/. T<f AaiiiS iKo-rda-eas. In the 22nd those of David, which are, from a
verse occurs the expression which literary point of view, pitched on a.
gives rise to this, elm iv tjj eKardaei lower key, and have the sententious-
fiot, (*j3n3)- But the same word ness and reserve of deeper thought
occurs in' reference to David, 1 Sam. and the depression of a larger ac-
xxiii. 26, 'David made haste to get <l™intance with life. We can well

away' (tSnj)- The manifold in-

believe that in the 116th Psalm
(though it does not bear David's name)
ternal and external correspondence of ^ cry rushed t0 his lips ^3 Q-,Kn-^3
the Psalm and the situation are well „„,,__,,_ ,..,,. " TT T T
drawn out by Eosenmiiller, in loc. (kol-haadham kozebh), v. 11.
[Cf. also the shepherd-word ^nffl „ f H,the human is deceiving*
L '¦-¦--¦ Hensler has given a list oi words pecu-
'Thou wilt lead me,' v. 3, with i;ar to the Korahitic, and unfound in
Psalm xxiii. 2.] To the other the DaTidic Psalms, in Bemerkungen
marks of individual characteristics %,. stellen der Psalmen, V. 68 nots.f
about the Psalms attributed to David 

may be added the habit of enhancing
the solemnity and importance of a »• U- Ct als° thls 'TpO? wlth
truth by putting it forth as the answer xxxi. 22, and with the question and
to a question, xv. 1 [hence called by answer in iw. 12, 13.
Luther ' the Catechism of Heaven']; t For individual characteristics in
xxiv. 3, 8, lp; xxv. 12; xxx. 9. The Psalms see Appendix, note A.

88 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
which indicate a common authorship. There is in them
a royal nobility of confidence in God which elevates even
the mystic subtlety of Jewish commentators to magnifi
cence. ' The dawn,' says Jarchi, ' awakens other kings.
But David says, I will awake the dawn.'1
But our interest in this question — important as it is
— is, at present, subsidiary to our concern with another.
There is a class of persons, greatly more numerous than a
handful of sceptical scholars, who reason from the point of
view of an acceptance of the Davidic authorship of many
of the Psalms. But then, they tell us that they are even
less reconciled to them for this very reason. They
remind us that the son of Jesse was a man of blood, half
condottiere, half Crusader — more like Henri IV. than St.
Louis. We know all that can be said of the passionate
and superstitious soldier — the Attic salt of the author
of the Dictionnaire Historique — the more concealed but
not less bitter hatred of a score of others, who smile at
the Bible, but smile with a dagger under their cloak. The
astronomer leaves gazing on his stars to pronounce the
condemnation of David. We know the edifying aversion,
the Pharisaical undertone, ' I thank Thee that I am not
as this man.' Such high spirits will not temper their con
demnation by thinking of David's almost unparalleled exal
tation, or the intoxication of that long prosperity. They
forget the temptations of an undefined power, the atmo
sphere in which the man was living. They take no
account of a state of society in which, for a king, the
stimulus of vanity was added to the seductions of sensu-
' ~\nf nTUN (ajflyrah shachar), Psalm lvii. 8 ; Delitzsch, ii. 178.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 89
ality in possessing himself of Bathsheba. Bestraints are
of two kinds, primary or moral, secondary or co-active.
For David there was the written law, and the law of con
science. But the law of the land, the law of honour, the
law of public opinion, scarcely existed for him. He was
above the first ; the second and third could find but a
feeble and interrupted utterance.
Most of us must have observed how misleading are
the parallels which may be drawn between the historical
characters of different epochs — how much may be done in
the way of convenient suppression in one direction, of con
venient enlargement in another. Yet, it may be suggested
that much of David's life and character becomes more in
telligible to us, as we look at it' in the light of the analogy
which may be derived from the genius and career of the
Emperor Charles the Great. It is singular that Charles
himself had some conception of the parallel, and ' among
his friends chose to be called by the name of David.' l
Charlemagne has been emphatically described as ' a spirit
of order.' He had to establish material order against the
Saracens and Barbarians. He had to consolidate ecclesias
tical order, and was crowned by the art or inspiration of
a Pontiff. He had to establish a scientific order reposing
upon religion, opened schools, and provided for sacred
song and psalmody.2 If, in these points, there are some
lines of likeness to him who was anointed by Samuel,
there are other aspects of the resemblance which, un
happily, can still less be disputed. There are spots of
blood on that strong right hand. The 4,500 Saxons,
1 Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, p. 66.
2 Cousin, Modem Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 11.

90 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
slaughtered in cold blood by the Emperor, far more than
match the measuring line with which David measured the
Moabites, or the harrows of iron and axes of iron with
which he destroyed the savage Ammonites. The passionate
nature of Charles leads him to divorces and liaisons with
a strange facility for one who lived under the Gospel.
There are tales of his personal strength and prowess. He
binds together the fabric of a compacted priesthood. He
finds an Abiathar in Adrian. At Frankfort he asserts a
more spiritual worship of God than that which leans upon
visible images. He loves gold, marble, and colour, alike
for bath, palace, and temple. At Aachen, the corpse is said
to have been found with a swojrd in his right hand as
proved as that which cut off the head of Goliath. As we
gaze upon the great sarcophagus in the gallery of the Basi
lica, before passing on to see the withered arm in the reli
quary, we may be reminded of words which were once used
of David, ' His sepulchre is with us unto this day.' ' The
tender grief of Charles over wife and children, for whose
loss he refuses to come forth from the sequestration of his
palace, and the remonstrance with which he is assailed,
remind us of David's absorption in sorrow and the rude
expostulations of Joab. His passion for church-music,
psalmody, and chanting — his special provisions that
Bishops should be acquainted with the Psalter — his alleged
authorship of the ' Veni Creator ' — form other points of
the parallel. The most singular resemblance of the whole
is, that an obstinate conviction of the inner sanctity of
the man, in spite of all drawbacks, pierces through the
1 Acta ii. 29.

lect. m. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY 91
scandals that darken round his path, and a cry goes up in
Christian Churches to that strange Saint, ' Sancte Carole,
ora pro nobis ! ' l
Certainly, it must be admitted that when, after reading
the life of David, we turn to the Psalms attributed to him,
we find a difference between the air which we feel in the
history and that which blows over the songs. The author
was one of the most splendid and successful of men, as the
world counts success ; the book is one which is suited for
each mourner in the mighty army of sinful, sorrowful,
dying men which is ever passing across the earth. On
the one hand, in the book we have the voice of the heavy-
laden, crying out to God in those broken words which are
so deeply tender ; on the other, we have the Shepherd
called to feed Jacob, circling his brow with a diadem and
founding a dynasty. No doubt the two apparently con
tradictory aspects of one life are harmonised by the hint of
a later Psalmist —
Kemember, O Lord, for David, all his being deeply afflicted.2
But the first superficial impression, when we think of these
Psalms as uttered by David, is almost as if we heard that
' Bock of Ages,' or ' When I survey the wondrous cross,'
or ' When wounded sore the stricken soul,' came from the
lips of one who had walked as their master by the foun
tains of Versailles, or in the glades of the forest of St. Cloud.
Let me close this part of my subject by citing a pas
sage, which has often been quoted, but not oftener than it
deserves. 1 See Appendix, Note B. 2 ini3V"^3 (kol-yiinnotho), Psalm cxxxii. 1.

92 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
' David,' says Mr. Carlyle, ' had fallen into sins enough,
blackest crimes. Unbelievers sneer, and ask, "Is this
your man according to God's heart ? " The sneer seems
to me but a shallow one. What are faults, what the out
ward details of a life, if the inner secret of it, the remorse,
temptations, true, often baffled, never ended struggle
of it, be forgotten ? Of all acts, is not for a man Re
pentance the most divine ? The deadliest sin were that
same supercilious consciousness of no sin ; that is Death.
David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms
of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever given of a
man's moral progress and warfare here below. All earnest
souls will ever discern in it the faithful struggle of an
earnest human soul towards what is good and best.
Struggle often baffled down as into entire wreck; yet
ever with tears, repentance, true unconquerable purpose
begun anew. Poor Human Nature ! Is not a man's walk
ing, in truth, always that : — a succession of falls ? Man
can do no other. In this wild element of a life, he has to
struggle onwards ; now fallen, deep abased ; and ever with
tears, repentance, with bleeding heart, he has to rise again,
struggle again still onward. That his struggle be a faith
ful unconquerable one; that is the question of questions.'1
With these words in our mind, let us think not only of
the depth of David's sin, but of the intensity of his re
pentance. Let us not only remember the graphic narra
tive of his transgression— the look, the lust (' mulier
longe, libido prope '), the adultery, the lie, the death
that was murder, the long silence of the miserable soul
1 Heroes and Hero Worship, People's edition, p. 74. See Appendix. Note C.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 93
— or, if we must look at that fall in sadness and amaze
ment, let us look at that fall, of another kind, when he
reels and flings himself, with all that load of sin and
sorrow, at the foot of the Throne of God. Let us remem
ber all that follows. Let us think of the white-haired old
man flying from his son, wailing in his palace for Absalom.
Let us hear him in the Penitential Psalms crying in words
which might have come from the heart of St. Paul.
But, if all which has been suggested should prove less
satisfactory than it may justly claim to be, let it be con
sidered that the darker the accusation against David,
and the more indelible the blot, the more the wonder of
his Psalms grows upon our view. No other book was ever
greater or better than its author. No hymns or prayers
by the unspiritual and unholy have ever had stamina to
live a protracted life. If David was a murderer, there is
no stain of blood on these gentle lines. If he were an
adulterer, no taint of sensuality discolours the virgin-snow
of pages which are so white and pure. If he were a bigot,
there is no narrowness in that ample vision, which takes
all the ends of the earth within its broadening range.1 If
he were a barbarous soldier, who sought from Jehovah
little beyond temporal prosperity and the establishment of
his dynasty, here is the utterance of hopes which yearn
1 This feature in the Psalms has des dieux nationaux et limites — le
struck many candid minds who are Jehovah du Mosaisme lui-meme est
far from receiving Judaism as Divine. a beaucoup d'egards un dieu national
¦ Thus, the lamented Emile Saisset et local. . . . Dureste, jene con-
writes: 'Hn Dieu spirituel, unique, teste pas qu'on ne trouve dans la Bible,
intelligent, libre et bon, qui aime notamment dans le Psal-miste, plusieurs
egalement tous les hommes . . . passages d'un caractere tout oppose,
il est clair qu'avant le Cbristianisme ceux-ci, par exemple (Psaume cxlv.
les hommes ne connaissaient pas ce 9-18).' Essais sur la Philosophie,
Dieu. Nous ne trouvons partout que p. 292.

94 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
for the Eternal and the Infinite as their only satisfaction.
Pregnancy of expression, beauty of illustration, power of
condensing maxims of spiritual life, have been shown by
competent judges to be' characteristic of the Psalms which
are attributed to David. May we not say that they are
also pre-eminently distinguished by that longing after rest
in God, which a great but unhappy spirit spoke of not
many years ago as ' le mal du pays, le mal du ciel ' ? '
Such a longing breathes in the words —
I in righteousness shall behold Thy face :
I shall be satisfied, when I am caused to awake, with Thy
likeness.2
It bursts into rapturous anticipation in the 36th Psalm :— ¦
The sons of man in the shadow of Thy wings shall trust.
They shall be watered with the strong abundance of Thy House :
And the river of Thy pleasures Thou shalt make them drink.3
It finds its softest and most exquisite expression in the
words which have filled so many eyes with tears,
Who will give me a plume as the dove ?
I will fly away and will be at rest.4
If David were cruel and bloody, here are touches tender
and pathetic beyond the tenderness of woman. For
instance — Forbear awhile from me that I may smile again,
Before I shall depart and be no more ;
the visual image of the smile being taken from the bright-
' Henri Heine, Revue des Deux 3 vv. 7, 8.
Mondes, Tom. xix. p. 30. < nji»3 ^ (gbher kayyonah),
2 Psalm xvii. 15. Psalm iv. 6.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 95
ening of the sky at dawn.1 'It reminds one,' says a
venerated authority,2 ' of the gleam of radiance that is
often seen on the face of the dying.' Or that other pro
mise to God's child —
All his bed Thou turnest in his sickness.3
As it has been touchingly paraphrased, ' Thou are wont
to soothe him as one soothes a sick man, who turns his
whole bed over and over, that he may lie softer and get
some rest.' 4 The soul of the writer of such songs as these
is as close to his lines as hot lips to the glass against
which they are pressed, but no breath of dimness is upon
the page-
What is true of David's Psalms is no less true of the
rest. It has been said that the genius of the Hebrews,
like that of other nations of Western Asia, is essentially
subjective. It has been made a matter of complaint that
the poets of Israel are precluded, by the fatality of race,
from producing any of those works in which the writer's
individuality is effaced, and in which he identifies himself
successively or alternately with different and opposite
characters.5 If it were so, this tendency was overruled
to make the Psalms fitted for the inner life of saints, first
in a Jewish, then in a universal Church. Believers under
the old dispensation used them as Jonah did, not merely
1 nV^nX (abhliyghah), Psalm on Psalm xxxix. 13.
xxxix. is':'" ' W '^W^
' Spare yet, one gleam, my feeble (kol-mishkabho haphakhta),
sight, Psalm xii. 3.
Ere I depart and vanish quite.' — * Bellarm. in loc.
Keble. s Eeuss, p. 8.
* Dr. Pusey, quoted by Dr. Kay,

9G THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
repeating them, but naturally interweaving phrase after
phrase into the - web of their own thought and language.1
To the Virgin-Mother the Magnificat proves that the
Psalter was Bible, Prayer-book, Hymn-book, all in one.
And when we pass to the Catholic Church, the different
moods of David and the other Psalmists answer to the
hearts of the saints. The soul, conscious of sin and
yearning after pardon — the soul, lifted from the dust
and ' liquefying into God' — the soul tempted and strug
gling, finds its history in the Psalter. The end of all
the Psalms is ' ut anima conjungatur Deo ' ; the Psalmists
run with a rapid hand over the whole scale of .the affec
tions of the human spirit seeking after God. -We may
pass the hardest judgment upon David ; yet the tenderest,
purest, saintliest, most virgin souls — Augustine, St. Louis,
Ken, Keble, Leighton — have found nothing more suit
able in life or death than words of his. Nay, it was
chiefly with them that our All-Holy Lord broke the silence
of Calvary. ii. The second great objection to the Psalter is one from
the spiritual side, and is drawn from the indefiniteness,
some would say from the negation, of the hope of immor
tality. The Book of Psalms is here so closely implicated
with the whole of the earlier portion of the Old Testament,
that it is necessary to examine the position of the question
generally. ' The Prayer of Jonah (chapter yet significant addition of tone or
ii.) affords a beautiful instance of the colouring as shows a living freedom
use of the Psalter by a believing of adaptation. See especially vv. 2,
Israelite of old. Every phrase is taken 5 8.
from the Psalms, but with such slight

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 97
A. It is well to bear in mind Ewald's remark, in answer
to those who asserted that the earlier Hebrew writers
ignored or denied immortality. If it were so, Hebraism
could not, in later times, have made that doctrine har
monise so perfectly with its higher truths.1 We may go
further, and ask, if Judaism had not this element, what is
the meaning of the vaunted capacity of the Shemitic races
for ' religious invention ' ? They have originated three
religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Mahommedanism ;
yet we are called upon to believe that the starting-point
and seminal principle of all religion is wanting to those
who gave to it its first and mightiest impetus ! Tradi
tion and continuity are as inseparable from every creed as
Progress. How could Christianity, all quivering with the
hopes and fears of another life, have issued from Judaism,
if Judaism had possessed nothing of the kind ?
1. Before proceeding to enter into details, it should
also be considered that, for Moses at least, there was a very
sufficient reason for caution and reserve. There are times
and seasons for the communication of religious know
ledge. The juice which is acrid in March is mellow and
delicate in July. There are forms of human life and
society, conditions of religion and morality, when it is
pernicious to withdraw the veil between this world and
the next too far. ' Scenes,' as Bishop Butler says, ' might
strike too strongly.' 2 The Egyptian worship might be
termed the religion of death, as truly as Judaism the
religion of life. The Egyptian Book of the Dead 3 shows
how necessary it was to guard Israel from a premature
1 History of Israel, i. 558. 2 Sermon xv. Upon the Ignorance of Man.
3 Ewald, ut supra, i. 557.
H

98 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
revelation; to shroud the world of spirits in an awful
reserve, and cover it with salutary shadows.
2. Further, we should study the Mosaic writings with
a conviction that we are not to expect to find the sanction
of immortality in the portions which are directly connected
with legal enactments. This observation, brought into
prominence by Michaelis, has, indeed, been controverted
by so considerable an authority as Mr. Davison.1 But
his censure would only apply to that view of the Mosaic
dispensation which looks upon it too exclusively as a
mere law of government. All which is maintained is
this — that the temporal sanctions "to be found in the law
are relative to that part of the Mosaic code which is of
the nature of a civil system. To statutes of that nature
the eternal sanctions of futurity would be incongruous and
unsuitable. It has been observed that in Geneva under
Calvin, and among the Puritans of New England, where
the lawgivers were 'intensely religious, the legislation
bears no impress of the idea of eternal penalty, much less
of eternal reward.2 It was this side of the question which
was probably in Lord Macaulay's mind, when he wrote in
pencil on the margin of his copy of 'The Divine Lega
tion ' — ' This has been called Warburton's paradox. It is
not a paradox, it ia a truism.'
3. But if we turn from the law in its narrower sense to
the History, and to the great line of sacred tradition, it
seems strange that the absence of the doctrine of immor
tality from the earlier portion of the Hebrew Canon should
have been so positively asserted.
' Discourses on Prophecy, IV. 2 Sermons par Eugene Bersier,
pt. l. (note). Tom. iv. 242.

leot. Hi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 99
For, the foundations of this belief are laid deep and
strong in the general teaching of the Pentateuch about
God and man.
In its teaching about God, two attributes of the Eternal
are perpetually revealed, His Omnipotence and His Love.
As to His Omnipotence. We are told by our Lord that
the Sadducees denied the Eesurrection upon two grounds.
' Ve do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power
of God.' * That is to say, they denied the fact of the
resurrection, and the possibility of the resurrection. But
the fact rests on Scripture, the possibility rests on the Om
nipotence of God. Abraham's trial shows that a belief in
God's Omnipotence is at the root of the belief in immor
tality. What was the stress of that trial ? Isaac was
the child of election — the son not only of Abraham's
heart, but of God's promise. The same knife, which killed
Isaac, would have stabbed Abraham's faith to the very
heart, had not that strong believer's conviction of God's
Omnipotence involved an assured trust in His power to
raise again from the very dust of death. ' By faith
Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac ; and he
that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten
son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be
called : accounting that God was able to raise him up even
from the dead.' 2
God's Love is also concerned in man's immortality.
God was their God. He was not like one who created
marvellous playthings to destroy them after a few years ;
who breathed out evanescent bubbles to break for ever
1 St. Matth. xxii. 29. 2 Hebrews xi. 17, 18, 19.
H 2

100 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
upon the summer air of life. All is settled when faith can
once say, ' 0 God, Thou art my God.' ' When the child is
settling itself to sleep, it is not afraid of being destroyed
by its mother in the dark. And he was not afraid who
wrote —
When I walk in the deep hollow valley ofthe shadow of death,
I will not tremble at evil.2
So that this question of immortality runs up into the
question of a personal or impersonal God.
If we turn from the Bible idea of God to that of Man,
we meet the great broad fact that, in the Mosaic account
of Creation, Death is not in the first draft of Humanity
which comes from its Maker's Hand. It is an after
thought and a disorder.
A rapid examination of Scripture itself leads to results
more satisfactory than any highly generalised views of
speculative scholarship.3
The Tree of Life, and the destiny of Eternal Life for
man, sufficiently indicate the idea of his Creator.4 Not
long after the Fall, Enoch, taken to the Eternal Home
without death or decrepitude, becomes a pledge and type
ofthe Everlasting Life of the children of God.6 The
gathering to their fathers so often mentioned — for in
stance, of Aaron on Hor and Moses on Nebo — can scarcely
be limited to sepulchral rest.6 The Angels of God who
ascend and descend cannot well be supposed to minister to
1 Psalm lxiii. 1. 5 Genesis v. 24.
2 TWch'i &W3(b'ghey tsalmaveth), " Genesis xi. 32 ; cf. xxv. 8, xxxv.
„ , VT.-: ": 29, xlix. 33. Numbers xx. 24 ; cf. 28.
Psalm xxm. 4. Deut_ xxxi_ 16 . cf- xxxii_ 50> xxxiv_
8 See Appendix. Note C. 5 6.
" Genesis ii. 9 ; iii. 22.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 101
creatures whose existence is limited to a little span, or to
return perpetually without leading companion-spirits to
their home. The word ?iNSf (sh'ol) is not merely the
tomb, but the place where the living spirits of those whom
we call dead are gathered. Again, necromancers,1 seekers
or enquirers after the dead, were forbidden.2 The his
tory of the witch at Endor stands out in strong relief.
The story and the prohibition alike give evidence to the
convictions of the Jewish people, not only that the dead
continued in personal existence, but that they acted
upon the living. The dead, therefore, in their opinion,
were not annihilated. The commandment against necro
mancers has often pointed sneers directed at the supersti
tion of Moses. But at all events, the superstition estab
lishes the belief of which it is a corruption or exaggera
tion.3 At a later period, Elijah revives the memory of
Enoch. B. Of the Psalter, with which we are now concerned,
it has been said by a most eloquent writer, that ' hardly in
the silence of the Pentateuch, or the despair of Ecclesiastes,
is the faintness of the hope of immortality more chilling
than in the 30th, 49th, and 88th Psalms.' 4 On the other
hand, Klosterman's profound examination of the 49th
Psalm, with the 73rd and 139th, lead him to the conclu
sion that the hope of immortality there expressed is strong
and beyond all possibility of candid denial ; but that it
is a sentiment, rather than an article of a Creed — founded
' DTlBiV^K tHI Du-ptmt'White, Revue des Deux Mondes,
"' T„ " , , Feb. 15, 1865.
(doresh el-hammethiym). t m&a ^^ ^.^ ^^
* Deut. xviii. 11. pt. n. Lect. xxv.
3 See a remarkable article by M.

102 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
on the idea of a relation to the Living God eternal as
God Himself, rather than upon objective revelation or
traditional doctrine. This view is expressed by Augus
tine : ' Junge cor tuum seternitati Dei, et cum Illo
seternus eris.' ' It appears to be quite in accordance
with our Lord's argument addressed to the Sadducees.2
. The Psalmist, for instance, exclaims in joyful elevation,
with thoughts that wander through eternity, in the 145th
Psalm — I will exalt Thee, my God, the King :
And I will bless Thy Name for ever and ever.3
He can say so, because the spirit, which is conscious
of love to God, carries within it its own assurance of
immortality.4 There are, it seems to me, two thoughts which we
should bear in mind, when we study these sadder passages
about death and immortality in the Psalter.
1. A book like the Psalter would be a most incom
plete devotional summary of the human soul without this.
Such a manual, failing to express that sadness with which
1 Enarrat. in Psalm xci. tament, those few pages remain unri-
2 St. Matth. xxii. 29 - 32, and vailed for clearness and pregnancy.
parallels. One significant phrase, however, may
3 v. 1. be added, 'the book of the living,'
4 'In all those places wherein David Ps. lxix. 28 ; cf. Exod. xxxii. 32 ; Is.
shows the shortness and vanity of this iv. 3 ; Ezek. xiii. 9 ; St. Luke x. 20 ;
life, and yet, with the same breath, Heb. xii. 23; Philipp. iv. 3; Apoc.
'sets forth the great happiness of the iii. 5; xiii. 8; xvii. 8; xx. 12-15;
faithful; I say in all those places Ac xxi. 27; xxii. 19. 'The expression,
evidently points his finger towards though perhaps confined originally to
heaven, and directs our thoughts to the temporal blessings, was in itself a
bliss of a future state. See especially witness to higher hopes ; and in
Psalm xxxix. 5, 6, 7.' Bishop Bull, Daniel first (xii. 1 sqq.) it distinctly
Sermon viii., Works, i. 193, 215, After refers to a blessed immortality.'
all that has been written upon the re- Lightfoot, Epistle to PhiUppians, p.
velation of eternal life in the Old Tes- 157.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST^ AND CHRISTIANITY. 103
«very better spirit, just in proportion to its thoughtful-
ness and nobility, is struck, as it compares performance
with aspiration and work with aim, would fail in one of its
most important offices. There are times when the words
of God's most believing children about this fleeting life,
and the shortness of our time for doing God's appointed
work, run in the mould of the Psalmists.
For there is not in death Thy remembrance.
In Sh'ol who shall give"thanks to Thee ? '
Not the dead shall praise tbe Eternal;
Not all who go down to the silent land.2
It is not only in the Psalms that there are such sad
passages as these. There was a point of view from which
life presented itself to our Lord Himself as a golden day,
and death as a cheerless night. ' I must work the works
of Him that sent Me, while it is day : the night cometh
when no man can work.' 3
2. Before patronising the Psalms out of the Bible and
speaking of the Psalmists in tones of pitying superiority,
it may be well for us further to consider another question.
What if the Psalmists were meant to teach us something
even in these ' chilling ' passages ? What if there be some
aspect of the great mystery of Death of which they are
intended to remind sinners, even in the Church which
numbers Easter among its festivals ?
From causes of different kinds, some connected with
very gross abuses in the history of the Church, the con-
1 *!3T ITiJSn J'X "13? of God. Psalm vi. 6.
(eyn bammaveth zikhrekha). 2 Psalm cxv. 1 7 ; cf. Ixxxviii. 1 1 .
In death as death, unredeemed, no 3 St. John ix. 4.

104 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
dition of the departed in the intermediate state has very
much slipped out of thought. Yet there are myriads of
mortal spirits, who have passed out of our day into a dim
and distant land. They are in safe keeping, iv <j)v\aicrj.1
They are in the Hand of God, and no torment can touch
them.2 Still, in this life, men dwell for the most part too
much in a realm of externals. A flattering veil is spread
over the world of sense, and hides its spiritual barrenness.
Voices of business, passion, art, amusement, sin, drown
with their manifold echoes the one eternal Voice, which is
ever speaking to the inner ear. Not of one race alone is
that true which has been said by one of England's deepest
and sweetest singers :
We see all sights from pole to pole,
And glance, and rush, and bustle by,
And never once possess our soul
Before we die.3
And so, the tendency of those spirits who are delivered
from the burden of the flesh is described, even in the New
Testament, so far as it can be brought under the category
of place, as inward and downward. For, if we may judge
from Scripture, they follow their Lord. And He (as St.
Paul infers from one Psalm) ' descended into the lower
parts of the earth' (as to. Kardnspa trjs 7»?s).4 They are
in a cloistered world ; — they are, as a great Lutheran
divine expresses it, ' in deep regions, ... in a still land,
where life, which has displayed its leaves and branches
above, bares its eternal roots.' 5
1 1 St. Peter iii. 19. * Psalm lxviii. 18 ; Ephes. iv. 9.
2 Wisdom iii. 1. 5 Bishop Martensen, Christian
' Matthpw Arnold — New Poems, Dogmatics, v. § 276.
' A Southern Night,' p. 127.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 105
That which the Psalms teach us is that the state of
the dead is not per se a state of joy. The Hebrew sacred
writers generally speak of Sh'ol with a shudder or a sigh.
The joy and brightness are in the future. The Psalmists
are like the bird of spring, who, as our great poet says —
Straggling up to the hill-tops,
Shouteth faint tidings of some gladder place.1
It may be well for us in the Psalter to have these echoes
of wailing over the silent land.
Think what Death is in itself. Without raiment, with
out money, we, our very selves, must pass the Biver. No
sound from the street or market-place ; no news of the
day ; no literature in any form to pass the time ; no
amusement to distract; no society to float us on from
hour to hour ; no excitement to colour the paleness of the
landscape. All disguises stripped off; all prejudices anni
hilated ; all errors refuted. However much luggage we
may have accumulated by the way, all is taken from us at
the Station, which is the starting-point from whence we
must walk towards the City ofthe great King, crowned with
light, or that other City, whose streets are full of misery.
Some forms of the modern doctrine of immortality re
move the sharp line which severs sin from peace. They
reject redemption but cling to Eternal Life, ta.king half
the message of the Crucified and Bisen Lord. They pro
claim a Heaven upon easy terms, the entrance into which
is secured by the act of dying.
If the view of Death, which I have above indicated,
be Scriptural, while firmly rejecting the doctrine of Pur-
1 Wordsworth, Excursion, Bk. II.

106 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. in,
gatory, and the degrading superstitions which are con
nected with it, need we scruple to find a large measure
of truth in the instinct which has led more than half
of Christendom to use the 130th Psalm at funerals ? It
was observed at the obsequies of the great Hungarian
patriot Deak, a few months since, that of all that touch
ing and solemn service the ' De profundis ' was the most
pathetic part. Certainly, we can well conceive that
Psalm to speak the language of a soul moved down to
a distance in strange depths,1 full of a sense of sin.
If Thou will keep iniquities, O Lord, who will stand ? 2
yet assured of the pardon, the mercy that looses,3 though
we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins.
And over all is that strange refrain, full of longing as of
watchers looking for the break of dawn in some dark
sky- More than watchers for the morning,
Watching for the morning.4
The sum of the whole discussion is this. It is said
that the whole tone of the Psalter about man after death,
the chilling and miserable misgivings which are mingled
with its loftiest presentiments, unfit it for being a
distinctively Christian manual. To which it has been
replied : —
I. That Judaism must have had that hope, or its latest
(mimmajj'amakkiym), (mishsh'om'riym labboker).

v. 2.

Psalm cxxx.l. ^ Qnp^

-l-^.-..- (shom'riym labboker), v. 6.
(hass'liychah), v. 4.

lect. in. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 107
developments could never have been so perfectly harmo
nised with its earlier rudiments.
Two general considerations have been suggested from
the study of the Mosaic Books. (1) That Moses had pecu
liar reasons for reserve in his disclosures about the future
state. (2) That the sanctions of immortality are not to
be expected in the portion of Mosaism which consists of
purely legal enactments. Indications of the idea of
immortality have been traced through the earlier portion
ofthe Old Testament —
(1) In its teaching about God.
(2) In its teaching about Man.
(3) In a great number of particular passages.
II. As to the alleged silence or denial in the Psalter of
man's hope of Eternal Life, it has been shown that the
Psalter would be incomplete without expressions of the
sadness which comes with the prospect of Death, and
that one peculiar aspect of the solemn mystery of Death,
salutary even for Christians, is thus impressed upon our
hearts and minds.
III. The general conclusion is, that the Witness of the
Psalms to Christ and Christianity is not impaired by its
tone in regard to death and immortality.
This conclusion is confirmed when we turn to those
other Psalms which (1) speak of the Eesurrection of our
Lord, or (2) rise to the highest notes of triumphant union
with God.
1. There is one among the subjectively Messianic
Psalms which is specially predictive of Easter.
The Eesurrection of Jesus is repeatedly spoken of as a

108 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi,
direct fulfilment of the prophetic Scriptures.1 Yet specific
texts are few. The explanation is, that when the spirit of
Christ forewitnesses the sufferings which are to be referred
to Messiah, and the glories subsequent to them,2 the
Resurrection is necessarily implied. It is the only bridge
by which He can pass from such a death to such majesty
and honour. But in the 16th Psalm we find a passage
specifically applied to the Eesurrection by St. Peter on the
day of Pentecost, and by St. Paul at Antioch of Pisidia.3
We may well regret that it does not form one of our Proper
Psalms for Easter-day, and is not referred to in any of
the Proper Lessons for that great Festival in the new
Lectionary." The argument which the Apostle draws is this — God's
promise cannot fail. To Him whose voice we hear in the
16th Psalm, His pledge is
Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One to see corruption.6
The strain rises to a marvellous elevation —
Thou wilt make Me know the path of life.6
It is as when one journeys in an Alpine or Pyrenean
valley. Looking up the long gorge, the traveller sees the
shadows beginning to gather upon the bases of the hills.
But far up the sunlight lingers unfaded upon the snows,
so that from them a line of light seems to stretch on,
world without end, into the infinite beyond. So, from the
valley of the shadow of death, up the dark mountain, God
1 1 Cor. xv. 4 ; St. Luke xxiv. 25- tion appointed for the Epistle for
27, 45, 46. Tuesday in Easter Week (Acts iii.
2 Tii eh Xpto-rhv irae^aTO Kal ras 26-41).
/xerd ravra 5d£as. 1 St. Peter i. 11. 5 Psalm xvi. 10.
» Acts ii. 24-32 ; xiii. 32-35, 37. 6 D\?n rn"K
4 It is found, however, in the por- (orach chayyiym), v. 11.

lect. hi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 109
shows His Son ' the way of life ' stretching into the future.
That the subject of the Psalm should not see corruption,
this was the promise. But David saw corruption. His
sepulchre was the proof that he knew the dishonour of the
grave. Therefore the Psalm is Messianic, and predicts the
Eesurrection. 2. Other portions of Psalms there are which belong,
not to our Lord,' but to His sinful yet redeemed and
believing people.
Such is the contrasted picture at the close of the
17th Psalm:—
They will be satisfied with sons, and will leave their plenty to
their babes.
I in righteousness shall behold Thy face : I shall be satisfied in
awaking with Thy likeness.1
Such is the statement, at once awful and consolatory,
of the 49th Psalm.
Like sheep in Sh'ol are they ranged — their shepherd shall be Death.2
The upright ones shall tread them down at the great Morning's
breath.3
i to,. 14, 15. i.e. ' a sentence, a maxim, a practical
2 The image is taken from sheep, truth, formulated in a, proverbial
penned at night, after enjoying them- shape,' in a sententious oracular
selves in the sunshine upon the form (Reuss). He also speaks of
pastures. So the wicked rich, after TnTl (chiydhathiy), literally, 'my
their long sunshine, are ranged in the knotted, involved saying ' (' my dark
dark and silent land. In that dim saying,' A. V.), 'enigma meum.'—
place Din* nip (maveth yiryem) s_ jjieron.
(xlix. 14). Compare the saying, ,M h uldt
MedwusmedeturMors A dim mysterious melody.'-
(yirdii bham y'sharlym labboker),
v. 14. Remembering v. 4, we The ' riddle ' here is of the Resurrec-
know how to understand this. The tion.
prophet speaks of his |?K»p (mashal),

110 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
Their frame in Sh'ol fades away ; without a house they roam.
From that dark place He will redeem me — for He will take me
home.1
Let us note, too, the expressions of the meditative
Asaph in the 73rd Psalm : —
Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and after to glory wilt
Thou take me home.2
Who is to me in the heavens? and beside Thee there is none
upon earth that I desire.
My flesh and my heart faileth :
The rock of my heart and my portion is God for ever.3
As we think of Psalms in connection with the blessed
hope of Eternal Life, yet others and others crowd upon
our memory. As we turn over the pages of the Psalter
we associate with them calm sweet faces, from which,
when our eyes see them next, the lines of pain and sorrow
shall be smoothed out, and they shall look fairer and
nobler than- they ever did. From the cross, the stake,
the faggot, the sick room, fragments of Psalms break
upon our ears, set to the music of Easter.4 We turn
1 ^np11 'S (kiy yikkacheniy), v. holy instructions, but such commemo-
15. ' Cum assumpsent me.'— S.Hieron. rations of God's mercies as may pre-
,,, , „ , ,„,-,,. serve, comfort, and confirm our de-
' My soul from touch of deadly doom . ., , . ,
_,/ _ . . „ Ft pendence on the power and providence
The Lord redeems — He takes me r , en*.
Tr , „ . , and mercy oi our Creator.
Home. — Heble. , , j ... • ,. , • j
' And this is mentioned in order
The very same word is used of the to telling that as the holy Psalmist
taking of Enoch and Elijah. Gen. v. sa5d) that his eyes should prevent
24. 2 Kings ii. 3, 5. both the dawning of the day and the
2 The same word again as in xlix. Eight etches by meditating on God's
15. vjnjja (tikkachemy.) Word . so >twag Dr. Sanderson's con-
s Psalm lxxiii. 24, 25, 26. sta,nt practice every morning to enter-
4 ' The frequent repetition of the tain his first waking thoughts with a
Psalms of David hath been noted to repetition of those very Psalms that
be a great part of the devotion of the the Church hath appointed to be con-
Primitive Christians : the Psalms stantly read in the daily Morning
having in them not only prayers and Service, and having at night laid him

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

Ill

to the 23rd and we think of Edward Irving, dying on
that Sunday in December, 1834, murmuring again and
again in Hebrew, Vi njir. (Y'hovah royiy). The 71st stands
in our own Office for the Sick ; it is the only Psalm with
its antiphon preserved : ' 0 Saviour of the world Who by
Thy Cross and precious Blood hast redeemed us, Save us

in his bed he as constantly closed his
eyes with a repetition of those ap
pointed for the Service of the Even
ing ; remembering and repeating the
very Psalms appointed for every day ;
and as the month had formerly ended
and began again, so did this exercise
of his devotion. And if the first-
fruits of his waking thoughts were of
the world he would arraign himself
for it. Thus he began that work on
earth which is now the employment
of Mr. Hammond and him in Heaven.
After his taking his bed about a day
before his death, he desired his chap-
Iain to give him absolution : and at
his performing that office he pulled
off his cap that Mr. Pullin might
lay his hand upon his head. After
this desire of his was satisfied, his
body seemed to be at more ease, and
his mind more cheerful ; and he said
often, " Lord, forsake me not now my
strength faileth me, but continue Thy
Mercy, and let my mouth be ever
filled wi^h Thy Praise." He continued
the remaining night and day very
patient, and during that time did
often say to himself the 103rd Psalm :
a Psalm that is composed of praise
and consolations fitted for a dying
soul, and say also to himself very
often these words, " My heart is fixed,
O God, my heart is fixed, where true
joy is to be found." '¦ — Izaak Walton's
Life of Bishop Sanderson, pp. 48,
49. ' W. H. T.' writes from Cleveland
to the Times, in 1877 :— ' Whatever

may be the state of John Locke's
tomb, which is 'I daresay carefully
kept in the churchyard at High Laver,
some of your readers may be glad to
know that the house in which he was
born at Wrington, Somerset, is in
excellent preservation, inhabited by
some parish official. I was there last
week. It would, indeed, be inexplic
able if one born under the very shadow
of one of the grandest church towers
in Christendom had not lived and died
a Churchman. "He was hearing
Lady Masham reading the Psalms,
apparently with great attention, until,
perceiving his end to draw near, he
stopped her, and expired a very few
minutes afterwards." See Lord King's
Life of Locke, p. 264.'
I venture to cite in this note one
use of a Psalm by a death-doomed
man of a very different stamp from
these : — ' Darnley, before or after the
Queen's visit, was said to have opened
the Prayer-book and read over the
55th Psalm, which, by a strange co
incidence, was in the English Service
for the day that was dawning [February
10th, 1567].' Such was the tale;
the words have a terrible appropriate
ness : — ' Fearfulness and trembling
are come upon me, and a horrible
dread hath overwhelmed me. .
It is not an open enemy that hath done
me this dishonour ... but it was
even thou, my companion, my guide,
and mine own familiar friend ' (vv. 5,
12, 14). Froude's History of Eng
land, viii. 369, 370.

112 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
and help us.' The fifth verse of the 31st Psalm rises from
saint after saint. It was spoken by Jesus first ; then it came
from St. Stephen, then (as Dr. Kay has mentioned) from
St. Polycarp, St. Basil, Epiphanius of Pavia, St. Bernard,
St. Louis, Huss, Columbus, Luther, Melanchthon. It was,
I may add, the last spoken on earth by Silvio Pellico. One
day in Januar}', 1854, he dictated the broken words :
' Adieu, sister ! Adieu, brother ! Adieu, dear benefactress !
Yes, adieu ! We all go to God, " In manus tuas, Domine,
commendo spiritum meum." ' ' A few instants after, he
fell asleep. The preciousness in God's sight of holy deaths
implies the glory which is beyond them.2 Why is it
that saintly souls turn to these words in affliction, and
are soothed by them as if by the voice of Christ ? That
St. Jerome records how in that great mourning for
Paula, Psalms were sung in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and
Syriac ? 3 That the solemn silence after Monica's de
parture was broken first by the cadence of a chanted
Psalm ? 4 No book which was without the hope of immor
tality could have cheated so many dying saints, and de
ceived so many generations of mourners. That hope, in
deed, does not in form outrun the date of the Psalter,
and stand forth in rigid distinctness, a dogmatic anach-
1 To those who have died with the une sienne amie dame etrangere, sur
words of Psalm xxxi. 5 upon their la morte d'excellente et vertueuse
lips, I might have added another— dame Leonor de Roye, Princesse de
the gentle and holy Eleonore de Roye, Conde.' 1564.
Princesse de Conde. On July 23, 2 Psalm Ixxii. 14 ; cxvi. 15. On
1564, ' la Princesse appela une de ses the full force of -\p<i, see Kalisch
femmes, et lui diet qu'elle lui estendit on ExoduS) 534_ "
les lambes, et soudain elle prononca » Q „. _ . ,
j • . ,. . ." F S. Hieron. Epist. cvm. Ad
ces dermers mots, "entre tes mams, p„„,„„i.- „. m .. , „ ,
„ . . . „ ! Eustoehium, Epitaph. Paula.
Seigneur, je recommande mon ame. t a^ * ,.¦ „ v •
.„..,, j ¦ „ . . , St. Augustine, Confessions, IX.
— ' Epitre a une damoiselle francoise a ¦¦

lect. Hi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 113
ronism on the page of Eevelation.1 Still there is not a
pall of darkness over the Psalms ; no odour of the charnel-
house exhales from them. The hopes of Eternity trickle,
like drops of light, from the pens of their writers. They
come to us, like the breath of violets in a letter which
reaches us from a land of sunshine.
Within the octave of Easter, one must add another
word-. Near Cathedrals or Churches which have fine peals
of bells, there are points where we are used to listen for
them at certain hours in our walks. But when the snow
is falling heavily, the chimes come to us with a muffled
sound. So, the Easter bells ever ringing in the Psalter
maybe muffled at times with the chilling thought that the
hope of immortality in them is dim, indefinite, even denied.
If there are hours when such suggestions are too
strong for us, let us turn to the Gospels and Lessons for
the Easter season. In them, indeed, there is a kind of
unity which we shall not find. If the Eesurrection were
a poem, it would have an artistic unity which the
Gospels do not possess. If it were a fabrication, it would
have a fictitious unity, from which, by the admission of
all, it is perfectly free. No mere lifeless harmony of regu
larly arranged facts, drawn up in the spirit of a Police
Beport, could be so true in the last result as the narra
tives which we possess. The Evangelists are lifted from
time into eternity. The angels are not stiffly carved like
the unmoving figures upon monuments. We have photo-
1 If the Psalms had been com- be much more precise and definite
_ posed, in great part, during the as regards the Resurrection than it
Maccabean Era, their language would is.
T

114 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iii.
graphs, if we like to say so. But not photographs of
statues, with their hard inflexible outlines. Not photo
graphs of figures painfully posed for effect. Not photo
graphs taken from a pictured landscape. There is here,
in contrast with the general quiet and passionlessness of the
Gospel narrative, as it were the confusion of trees tossing
in the winds — of waters wrinkled with their motion — of
forms with flurried hair, and faces blurred with quivering
lines and falling tears. But in spite of all this, or rather
because of all this, we see the way of life stretching
upwards from the sepulchre, and are sure that Christ has
trodden it. It is well. For strangely busy does Death
seem to have been in the last week or two. Not only is
there the usual record of the old dropping into the grave,
the bright and young called away. We mourn one l of
noble scholarship, high gifts, unselfish life, crowned by a
Christian faith — the chords of feeling and thought untuned
for a season by their very delicacy and sensitiveness, to
be harmonised again by the hand of the Maker of the
instrument, where the truer and fuller life of the Be-
deemed allows none of that dejection to come over the
soul, which is the portion of the purest and most holy
here. And as we turn back with these Easter thoughts, the
88th Psalm — that ' elegy of ancient Israel lamenting its
exclusion from the light of God's Presence,' 2 that ' prayer
containing a grievous complaint,' 3 finds its meaning. It
1 Lord Lyttelton, whose death he was so touchingly connected.
occurred a day or two before the 2 Dr. Kay in loc.
delivery of this Lecture, almost on 3 See heading of Psalm Ixxxviii.
the eve of the Consecration of the in A. V.
Chapel of Keble College, with which

lect. hi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 115
may begin with broken sobs ; it may end with the word
darkness. — Lover and friend hast Thou removed from me.
My intimates are — Darkness !
But it is an interspace of darkness between two glorious
gleams of light.
For the dead wilt Thou work any wonder ? ¦
Shall those great awful shadows of old 2
Rise and praise Thee? To those who are under
The grave shall Thy mercy be told ?
Thy Truth which is strong to confide on,
Is it known where the dead waste away? 3
Is Thy wonder of wonders 4 relied on,
In the darkness for ever and aye ?
Is Thy righteousness known in the land
Of forgetfulness ?
The question may wail from the depths. But hear what
follows : — I unto Thee
Have cried, O my Lord ! and in love
My prayer shall go forward to meet Thee,
When the Morning is breaking above.5
Surely a streak of Easter is in the sky !

NOTE TO LECTURE III.
On what slender grounds and obscure hints dates are positively
assigned may be seen in a lively form by the most modern and ad
vanced criticism upon Psalm 68. That Psalm is unhesitatingly
i x'pg (pele.) 4 ^3 (pilekha.)
2 0;«9"? (r'Ph^m-) . Psalm Xxviii. 10, 11, 12, 13.
3 'nSXa (ba'abhaddon.) *i2

116 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. hi.
declared to be of a late date, and pointed at particular monarchies,
for two reasons : (1) The mention of Benjamin and Judah, Zebulun
and -Naphtali (v. 27). It is argued that Judah and Benjamin come
as representing the ancient kingdom ; that Zebulun and Naphtali
are the Galileans, who, after the time of Ezra, met from time to
time at the Temple as a common rallying point (St. Matt. iv. 13),
while those who reside between (Samaritans), are discreetly repre
sented by significant silence, as remaining aliens from the sanctu
ary. Thus a selection of names, otherwise utterly unintelligible,
serves to determine the date of the Psalm. (2) The ' beast of the
reed' is the crocodile, the symbol of Egypt (Isaiah xxvii. 1 ; Ezek.
xxix. 3), and the 'troop of buffaloes' the symbol of the power which
then dominated the Lebanonian Alps, and the plains of Mesopota
mia — the two empires of the Ptolemies and Seleucida? fighting
with mercenaries (v. 30). This, it is said, proves that the Psalm
was written in the time of the wars of Antiochus III. and his sons
with the Macedonian kings of Egypt. If only we knew enough of
the personal appearance of the tyrants of the day, the "lyt? Ip'lp
(kodhkodh seUar) ' hairy scalp ' of verse 21, would be a touch
of angry satire ! Two simple facts, however, overthrew the whole
of this plausible theory : (1) The obvious geographical suggestion
that Benjamin and Judah were nearest to the sanctuary, Zebulun
and Naphtali farthest from it (Schniirrer, Dissert, in Ps. lxviii.)
(2) In the 31st verse Egypt is distinctly mentioned, (DV}V»)
in no unfavourable terms; while the meaning of njp nin
(chayyath kaneh) is most doubtful.1 Such are the grounds on which
we are invited to surrender, not only the traditions of the Syna
gogue and the Church, but that conviction of antiquity which
breathes from the rugged sublimity of the song of God's mountain.2
The following excellent note on the so-called Maccabean Psalms
is extracted from Dr. Dank's useful compendium : ' Sunt interpretes
(Hitzig, Olshausen) qui plerosque, alii (ut Lengerke die fiinf Riich.
1 rots e-npiois tov Ka\d/j.ov, LXX. ; bear that meaning in v. 10 of this
| bestiam calami,' S. Hieron ; ' alii ex- Psalm, there rendered ' congrega-
istimant aprum sylvestrem,' Rosenm. ; tion.']
' a company,' A.V. [The word must 2 Reuss, on Psalm lxviii.

lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 117
M. Ps.) qui multos, alii (Bengel. Diss, ad Introd. in Lib. Psal. Suppl.
in Op. Acad. ed. G. Presul. pp. 13-19) qui aliquos, ut Ps. 44, 74,
76, 79, 83, 119, ad Machabaica tempora referunt. (Ita etiam H.
Hesse de Ps.) At vero, si Psalterio carmina Machabaica inessent,
in canonem — utpote quem altero medio seculo ante Christum Natum
omnibus numeris absolutum esse constat — vix dum edita, etiam re-
cepta (quoniam vetustas originem obliterare tunc nondum poterat),
vera auctorum nomina in fronte haberent. Cum autem in nullius
ex his Psalmis inscriptione, ne levissimum quidem Machabaicse sstatis
indicium cernatur, eos qui carmiua Machabaica tuentur, in errore
versari apparet. Cf. Gr. Gesenium in A. Erg'a'ns. z. Hal. 1. 2, 1816,
p. 642. Hassler, Comm. cr. de Psalmis Mach., quos ferunt.
Ulmae, 1827, 1832. I. 9-11, II. 47 de Wette, Comm. p. 10. Eiusd.
h. k. Einleit. ed. sept. BeroL 1852, p. 365. Bottcher, de Inferis,
p. 219. Neque a Josepho Piavio unquam Psalmi huiusmodi comme-
morantur. Argumentum Psalmorum liorum — qui ut Machabaici
habentur — ita est comparatum, ut nihil tempus Machabaicum
requirat ; hinc qui recentissime de hac re commentatus est P. de
Jonge (Disquisitio de Psalmis Machabaicis, Lugduni Bat. 1857,
pp. 4, 12, 32) Psalmos Machabaicos ad exiguum numerum, quatuor
sc. 44, 74, 79, 83, reduxit. Sed his ipsis Hengstenberg (Commen-
tar iiber die Psalmen. ed. ii. ; Ps. 44, ii. 382 ; Ps. 74, iii. 304 ;
Ps. 83, 433) tempus ante Machabaicum solidis usus argnmentis
assignavit. De Psalmo vero 79, ipse de Jonge 1. c. p. 35, fatetur
ex argumentis internis nil quidquam, quod indubitatum quis ducat,
effici posse. Accedit huic opinioni quoque Ewald, in Jahrb. der
bibl. Wissenschaft. 1853, 4, pp. 20-32. Ueber das Such en sogenann-
ter makkabaischer Psalmen. Bleek, Einleitung. p. 619 s.1
1 Hist. Rev. Div. V. Test., a Josepho Danko. Tom. i. pp. 279, 280

118 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. i v.

LECTUEE IV.
The people which shod be created shall praise the LORD.
Psalm cii. 18.
' The Psalms may be called a prophetic manual of Christian Prayer.'
Dean Milman.
I enter, this morning, upon the second general Division
of the subject proposed for our consideration in the present
series of Lectures.
My contention is, that we may find, in the Book of
Psalms, predelineations not only of the Person of Christ,
but of Christianity ; not only of Christ's Character, but of
the Christian Character ; not only of the Founder of the
Church, but of the Church which He founded, of its wor
ship and teaching. In whatever degree previsions subtle
and manifold of a character not yet, in fact, matured — of
the peculiar wants of an institution not yet existing — are
miraculous, in that degree the Psalter involves a Mind
foreknowing. It is a Miracle in writing. We have, on
the one side, a literature possibly ranging through a thou
sand years — songs which are attributed to David, Solo
mon, Asaph, the Korahites, certain anonymous Israelites —
and which are undoubtedly several hundred years older

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 119
than the Christian era. We have, on the other side, the
Character, the organised Community, the Worship, the
Theology of us on whom the ends of the world are come.
We find innumerable traces of fitness to, and correspond
ence between, the one and the other. This correspondence
leads us to conclude that the fitness was designed, and the
adaptation one of a conscious prevision, which moulded
and framed, for a higher end, and for a future morally as
well as chronologically remote, utterances that, in many
cases arose from a variety of occasional events. But if so,
it follows that we have in the Book of Psalms a vast vati
cination. And that vaticination is more convincing than
if it were confined to isolated texts, and, ' as it were, pre
mature allusions to particular facts and circumstances.' !
It is a great standing Prophecy of the Gospel itself.
In tracing out the Christian Character in the Psalter,
it will be observed that I am not now dealing with a
merely moral ideal apart from any distinctively Christian
application of it. Such an ideal is presented to us, for
instance, in the picture of ' stainless chivalry ' (as Mr.
Perowne has finely called it) in the 15th Psalm; or in the
gentle, steadfast, generous 2 nature delineated in the 1 1 2th.
This is presupposed. We deal with the lineaments of the
spiritual ideal of Christianised humanity.
I. Let us look at the Christian Character in its relation
to God, to the Church, and to Self.
' Dean Milman's Oxford Sermon (LXX.), (cf. St. Matt. xxv. 24). -Ver
on Jewish Prophecy. bum generosum! ' Bengel on 2 Corinth.
•2 1-TS? (pizzar), v. 9, eauip-nusev ix. 9.

120 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
i. First, in its relation to God.
1. Eeligion, for the Psalmists, is a present joy. The
purest pleasure is in the exercise of the affections which
have God for their object. 'God to the Psalmist,' writes
Herder, ' is never a scientific abstraction, mere immaterial
immensity.' The 36th Psalm may be taken as a speci
men. Turning from the darkness of the unregenerate
heart, David, the servant of the Lord, looks upon the
objects which are most glorious and most beautiful in
nature — the strong mountains, the great deep, the heavens
— as shadows of God's beauty. He thinks of a joy as in
the coolness and music of the Eiver. God is at once a
fountain and a light. There is neither thirst nor darkness
for those who know Him.
The poetry of the Psalms has with justice been de
scribed by Herder, and the description has been beauti
fully amplified by a living writer,1 as ' a poetry of friend
ship between the spirit of man and the spirit of God.'
Among the opening words of a sublime strain to en
courage a Church in danger are two which concentrate the
spirit of the whole Psalter — ' God is greatly to be found.' 2
The gods of the heathen are gods whom their votaries
desire to pacify, but to keep at a respectful distance.
In bis very Hymn of Praise, the Psalmist of Eleusis
speaks of them as beings who despise men,3 and bestow
with grudging the fatal gifts which we must endure, be
cause those who offer them are stronger.4 The instinct of
1 The present Dean of St. Paul's. 3 NTji'Ses dvBpwnoi, d<ppd§ixoves. —
2 "IKD NVD3 Words of Demeter, 256.
(invenibilis valde ; Rosenm). '' eeSlv /"" S&Pa Kal <>-Xvvl>-<L'">'<- *CP
Psalm xlvi. 1. ^WV

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 121
the unsanctified heart, even under a dispensation of Grace,
is pourtrayed in one of Shakespeare's most terrible but
least observed touches. The dying Falstaff ' cried out,
"God, God, God!" three or four times;' the wicked
woman adds, ' Now I, to comfort him, bid him he should
not think of God ; I hoped there was no need to trouble
himself with any such thoughts yet.' l
For such the Presence of God is simply terrible. Sup
pose that as we went out from Church one of us were
suddenly taken ill, and that the physician said — ' You are
a doomed man, you have not many hours to live ' — how
would it be then? We know. It would seem as if, all
our lives, we had been looking at objects through the
sailor's night-glass, which, as it sweeps the horizon, in
verts them upon the retina. Shadows and realities would
change places. The things which hitherto seemed real
would then resolve themselves into shadows. The things
which had formerly appeared shadows would fix and
condense themselves into the sternest reality. And, in
that new world, all flooded by the eternal light, there
would be, as a great Christian thinker has said, ' but two
objects, God and our own souls.'
This reality of God and the soul is the conviction of
those of whom we now speak. The Psalmist, as such,2 speaks

Ter\dfiejj avdpctiiror eirl yap £vybs and understood argument of the
a8xevi Keirat. Psalms. When the Psalmist addresses
Homeric Hymn els Anfi-qrpav, man, he uses some emphatic call to
214,215. bespeak his attention, e.g., the start-
1 King Henry V., Act ii. Scene 3. ling summons
2 15V "©« "& Psalm xxvii- 8- WW^—ai D"J« \33"DJ
' To Thee said my heart.' The heart's Tarn filii Adam quam filii viri.
talking with God. This is the general Psalm xlix. 2.

122 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv,
to God : the Psalmist, as such, speaks to man. Psalm after
Psalm is a monologue of the soul with God, or a dialogue
between it and God. There is a distinction between medi
tation, however devout, and real prayer. In meditation
God is present, but, so to speak, in the third person only.
In prayer God is present, but present in the second per
son, the personal Thou corresponding to the personal I.1
Bishop Ken's line,
And thought to thought with Thee converse,
coupled with another line of an old English sacred
poet, Who art, while all things else appear,2
express between them the spirit of the Psalms. Yet they
are filled with a joy which is at once solemn and childlike.
In spite of all their sighs and tears, for all their tender
sympathy with the Passion of Christ, and with the
sorrows of His people, ' the power of light lives inex
haustibly ' in them. One only begins and ends with a
sob.3 In all the rest joy sparkles, if not on the crest
of every wave, yet along the line of every tide. The
superb contempt of Tacitus branded the religion of the
Jews, in contrast with the festal and sparkling rites
of the god of wine, as ' mos absurdus sordidusque.' 4
His researches could tell him nothing of the stir and
Thus the very existence of the Psalms Occasional Papers, pp. 95, 96.
as the Book of Divine Poetry con- ' Bishop Martensen, Christian
tradicts Dr. Johnson's assertion 'that Dogmatics, V. § 246.
supplication to man may diffuse itself 2 Habington.
through many topics of persuasion, 3 The last word of Psalm lxxxviii.
but supplication to God can only is "nBTIO.
cry for mercy.' See Mr. Keble's * Hist v 6

lect. rv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 123
buzz • of the festal throng of pilgrims, in the anticipation
of services whose solemn and awful purity was consistent
with all happiness that was not impure. He had never
heard the music of the ' Lsetatus sum.' He had none to
tell him of the light of joy upon the face expressed by its
opening word.2
An English Philosopher has spoken of the consolation
which the hope of Heaven affords to the selfish. He has
deliberately argued that Christian morality is marred by
the fatal element of calculation which is interwoven with
it. He admits that the saint may, indeed, have the pure
love of God which belongs to finely moulded spirits. But
tie asserts that such an one, without forfeiting Christian
sanctity, may, with equal probability, be a mercenary who
is bribed by the anticipation of a shadowy crown in the
Utopia which is called Heaven. The truth which under
lies this supposed objection to Christian morality has been
vindicated and maintained by Christian moralists. ' It is
undeniably true,' says Butler, 'that moral obligations would
remain certain, though it were not certain what would,
upon the whole, be the consequences of observing or vio
lating them.' 3 The fine-spun morality of Mr. Mill may, '
on one side, affect the philosophy of Paley ; it does not
affect the philosophy of Psalmists. To many in this
. audience Aristotle's picture of the Brave Man must be
familiar. For him, more than others, life is golden and
1 Jjj'in toil, (hamon chSgeg), nius s.v. In xxx. 1 , Keble translates
Psalm xiii. 4. fen from fflOn ono- ^ ^me word, ' Nor o'er me lit the
1 T T T foe s glad brow.
matop. Compare hum, hummen. , Anaiogyt pt. T. eh- 7_ Cf- Davi-
• 2 ipinp'B> 'A light of joy was in son> mscourses on prophecy, IV. (pt.
my face,' Psalm cxxii. 1. See Gese- 1) iv.

124 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
worth living. Therefore, when the hour which demands
his death has struck, he faces his doom with a pathetic
composure. He does not accept it cheerfully. Who knows
the value of life half so well, who makes such noble use
of it ? He is not sustained by the anticipation of fame,
nor comforted by the hope of Heaven ; but simply for
the sake of attaining that which is the true end in itself,
he deliberately gives up all that is fairest and dearest.1
And this is, probably, the conception, which has been
worked out in our own day by one of the strongest hands
(though it be a woman's) that ever held the pencil of
romance. Of its sublimity there can be no doubt, but it
is marred by its conscious strength and cold self-satis
faction. Now, in the Psalms (as we saw last Sunday),
immortality, to the Psalmists themselves at least, is the
consciousness of the spirit, — feeling and knowing itself
to be eternal, not in Spinoza's sense of that phrase, but
because its deepest roots are in the Living Personal
Being Who is Eternal, and from Whom it cannot be
severed. It is, at least, based upon this, rather than
upon a distinct objective Eevelation. It is the germ of
dogma rather than dogma fully made. It is a conviction,
shaping itself toward and ready to coalesce with a Creed,
rather than an actual article of a Creed. The Psalmists,
therefore, are, from the nature of the case, free from this
1 'O )J.ev edvaros Kal ra Tpavimra rep Toluvrcp -yap fj.d\iffTa frjr a^iov.
\1m71pd t$ dvtipeiip Kal &kovti earai, Ethic. Nicom. iii. ix. 4. See Grant's
tmofLeyei 5e abra in Ka\bv, ^ in Ethics, i. 242, who quotes "Words-
alo-xpbv to fxi). Kal 'Atrip av imXXov tt\v worth's ' Happy Warrior' :
apfrV exV ™<rav Kal evSaifioveffTepos ' More brave for this that he hath
p, naWov eV! rtp Saudrui KmrjiS-ficrtrai- much to lose.'

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

125

imputation of a mercenary adjustment of duty to reward.1
But their eiyd-in-itself is not the abstract idea which
shone, like the cold bright star in the grey sky of
his transcendental world, before the haughty spirit of
the Greek philosopher's avSpslos. It is Law as God's
Law, it is the Personal God Himself. Ancient philosophy
had its infinite speculations on the summum bonum.
' They are a kind of Theology for the Pagans,' says
Lord Bacon.2 Here is that of the sententious and medi
tative Asaph : ' As for me, nearness to God to me is good.'3
To men who thus felt and thought inner unbelief in the
Living God is the deadliest sin.4
This high and distinctively Christian element of the
spiritual ideal is brought out in the Psalms as in no other
book of devotion.

1 Reuss quotes Psalm xix. 11,
with its 3"| Ijjy (jjekebh rabh),
' great reward in the end,' as a thought
rigidly within the narrow ' sphere of
Judaism.' Does not Keble here, as in
so many other cases, give us the
real meaning ?
' . . . but to keep them all
Is great reward'.
2 De Aug. Scient.Fii. 1. Augustine
(De Civ. D. xix. ii.) quotes Varro as
remarking that in his time there were
288 opinions on the summum bonum.
3 D'n'^ nrni? »jsi
'Mihi autem propinquare Deo
bonum est.' (S. Hieron.) 'Sed me
quod attinet, propinquitas Dei mihi
bonum.' (Rosenm.) ' Moi, etre pres de
Dieu, e'est mon bonheur.' — Reuss.
' And I — that God is near
Is all my joy.' — Keble. Psalm lxxiii. 28

4 See especially Psalm x. 4.
Reuss and other modern critics give a
very striking interpretation of the
verse by thus dividing it
EhT.-'pa *
D'r6x ffc? t
lTfeTD-^3 t
* God will not require, will not
look to it.
t There is no real Personal God
as living Law and Power.
I Such is the sum of his unuttered
thoughts.
Such men as these are the X1E> 'TID
(m'they shav), Ps. xxvi. 4, feebly
rendered by 'vain persons.' They are
those who (1) are rooted in nothing
more lasting than their own mortality,
and (2) who are unreal men, as living
in the phenomenal, separated from
Him Who alone is real.

126 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
2. As regards the relation of the soul to God ; a deep
sense of sinfulness is a second distinctive feature in the
Psalms — of such, I mean of course, as belong to us, and
are destined for application to ourselves. Never has the
condition of a stricken soul been drawn with such pathetic
tenderness. Few realise all that is conveyed by the words
of the first of the Penitential Psalms used on Ash
Wednesday. It is the picture of a wan face, thin,
and prematurely old ; of a form like some flower pale and
withered in the fierce sunshine of the wrath of God.1
And, conjoined with this, a deep sense of the peace and
blessedness which flow into the hearts and souls of those
who personally appropriate God's pardoning grace. The
joy of penitence fills the 32nd Psalm. It is the idea
which was clothed in flesh and blood by Him who cre
ated the Parable of the Prodigal. The ' songs of de
liverance' of which it speaks mingle with the deep
swell of the Angels' joy, and the refrain that rushes from
the Father's lips. When the great musician, Haydn, was
asked why his sacred music was so joyful, he answered,
that it was ' because God was so good, that he would set
the 51st Psalm in allegro.'
The first word of the Psalter, like that of the Sermon
on the Mount, is a Beatitude — ' Blessings of the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.' The next
Beatitude of the Psalter 2 is that of him whose sin is con-
1 prions Psalm vi. 1, 'in the ' is become old.'
sunshine glare of Thy wrath ; ' v. 2 2 That is, standing prominently
»JX ^D!* ' I fade and drooP like a at the °eginning of a Psalm, for
flower;5 o'.7 RWl) ' is lean and thin ; Psalm »¦ mds with 'Blessings!'-
T : IT ' 1 2
*W probably here ' my face ; ' r\pT)V

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 127
fessed, forgiven, subdued. It will be remembered how St.
Paul mentions David as describing the declaration of bles
sedness of those whose iniquities are dismissed, and whose
sins are veiled off from sight by one great act of amnesty.1
Not without reason did Luther speak of this and three
other Psalms as ' right Pauline Psalms.'2 With yet deeper
reason has the Church marked out the seven Penitential
Psalms, as those in which the deepest sense of sin is com
bined with the profoundest sense of reconciliation.
Here we may well note the richness" of the sacred
language of the Old Testament in words which bear upon
the great ultimate ideas of the religious life, as embodied
in the Psalms. The 119th has lately been spoken of as
' not poetry at all, but simply a litany, a species of chap-
let.' 3 Be it so. Let us grant to the critic 4 that it may
have been a confession from some saint or martyr in
prison, who whiled away the long dark hours of his cap
tivity by interweaving this lengthened chain. But verse
after verse in the long and colourless distances of those
176 verses, with one exception,5 rings the changes upon
the Law of the Lord. There is a distinction between
crimes, vices, sins. They are. the objects of three sciences
respectively — jurisprudence, ethics, Theology; and these
sciences correspond to three representative races. The
Hebrew could not express the strong lines of Eoman juris-
1 Xeyei rby fj.aKapiafJ.bv rod ay- lightning-like force of the inspired sen-
6pc!iirov $ k.t.A. ixaKdpioi av a<p48-ritrav tences throughout the 1 1 9th Psalm.'—
Hal iireKa\i(p8Tio-ay. Rom. The Psalter (Oxford), Preface, p. ix.
iv. 6, 7 (see Dr. Vaughan in loc); 4 Hitzig. The idea seems borrowed
Psalm xxxii. 1. ' frora Hndinger. See Rosenm. Scholia
2 li., cxxx., cxliii. (Arg. in Ps. cxix.)
3 Reuss in loc. ; Keble, on the 5 v. 122.
other hand, speaks of the 'direct,

128 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
prudence, or the subtle distinctions of Greek ethics. Nay,
for him the word conscience does not exist — it is the
honour of the Greeks to have first used a special term to
designate the conception. For the Hebrew it must be con
veyed by the simpler and more sensuous lebh (heart), or by
the more spiritual and elevated ruach (spirit). But the lan
guage which is so poverty-stricken on the side of Earth is
exuberant on the side of Heaven. ' The words crime and
criminal,' says Joseph de Maistre, ' belong to every lan
guage ; but sin and sinner belong exclusively to the voca
bulary of Christian Eevelation.' x At the beginning of the
32nd Psalm there are three words for the idea of sin, three
for God's remedial acts.2 In the 51st one equivalent after
another for sin and for pardon strikes upon the ear, is
beaten into the heart and memory upon alternate pulsa
tions, as the strain wails out its successive parallelisms.
ii. Secondly, in its relation to the Church.
The one great element of Christian character on the
side of Church Life which is to be noted in this connection
is the delicate equipoise and adjustment of the rubrical
and spiritual elements in devotion.
Through the wide range of a religion which asserts its
supremacy over the whole domain of human nature, the
various constituents of that nature have a sphere of legiti
mate action. But there is also a point beyond which their
exercise is an abuse or an usurpation. The Imagination,
1 Les Soirees de St.-Petersbourg, Tom. ii. 51.
Sin. ' Pardon.
(a) JJE»S (h) m:
nxpn npa
Psalm xxxii. vv. 1, 2.

lect. IV. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 129
the Sentiment, the Eeason, the Will, are appealed to by
true religion : that which cannot exercise and satisfy all
is a religion which is not truly Divine, because it is not
truly Human.
The Will has its sphere of action in the reign of
Duty ;— its abuse is self-righteousness, or the cold morality
which Pelagianism engenders.
The Eeason developes itself legitimately in specula
tion ; — its abuse is heresy or rationalism.
The Sentiment appeals to those emotions without which
religion . can never achieve its loftiest triumphs. The
tempered enthusiasm (of which St. Paul says ' whether
we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we be
sober, it is for your cause,' ') degenerates into fanaticism
or mysticism. The Imagination invents an earthly, or appropriates a
heavenly, ceremonial. The highest and most heavenly
form of ceremonial is the Sacrament. The abuse of the
ceremonial or the Sacrament is formalism.
On the one hand, then, the religious character for
which the Psalmists provide expression is not merely
formal or ritualistic. The ceremony, or the sacrifice, is
not the end in itself. On the other hand, their hearts and
imaginations are tinged with the endless beauty, and drink
long draughts from the unfathomable significance of their
ritual. Light and colours overflow from the ordinance and
sanctuary upon history, life, feeling, personal experience.
The ceremonial is transfigured, into thought, the thought
into prayer. In the intense flame of their spirituality the
1 2 Cor. v 13.
K

130 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
ordinances ofthe law are taken at white heat. Its rubrics
are made transparent.
Instances readily suggest themselves. The love of
God's House is ardent, the pain of separation from its
services keenly felt.1 This is especially true of the Korah-
itic Psalms.2 Those services do not merely stimulate the
imagination ; they lead men at once to the enjoyment of
Beauty and the search after Truth, to the elevation of
devotion and the reverential exercise of the intellect.3
In an Asaphic strain, the light which had never fallen
upon one of the great problems of life in the world or
even in the chamber streams in through the sanctuary.4
Eubrical observances, elevated and transelemented into a
higher sphere, meet us at every turn. David speaks of due
and thoughtful prayer in the morning ; the word which
comes to his lips is taken from the lower range of ritual
appointment ; — he thinks ofthe arrangement of wood or the
sacred loaves, and cries ' in the morning will I direct my
prayer unto Thee.' 5 The Shepherd Psalm speaks of an Eu-
1 Psalmxxvi.8; lxiii. 1,'2; cxxii. 1. ipav. The first implies enjoyment,
2 xiii. 1-4, xli'i. 3 ; Ixxxiv. 1-10. the second simply recognition. (St.
1 xxvii. 4. nitnS r°v 6eaipe7y John i. 14, vi. 36, 40 ; 1 St. John i.
fie tV repawn. t'oB Kvpiov, LXX. J' 2') TrS siSnifies '*«<>&¦*<*.
ta'na -Ii?3^ eTno-Kemea-eai rby yabv meditative, enquiry.' Cf. lxviii. 25,
,T ^ : " : where the presence both of that which
'  is beautiful and that which is edifying
• With the eyes of all my heart js symbolically denoted, with a pre-
Devoutly there to view ference for the latter.
The glorious Beauty of the Lord,
And search His Temple through.'

4 lxxiii. 16, 17.

Keble. 5 v. 3, "'nlyX from the remark-
nitn> as is well expressed in these able sacerdotal word THy 'con-
translations, is the clinging, eager, nected with the Semite- Sanscrit
enchained gaze with which men be- root, rak, rag, to dispose in order,
hold that which is beautiful. So in e.g., wood, paits of victims for
Greek OeaaQai or 0ewpe7v is fuller than the altar, shew-brcad, lights. De

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 131
charistic gift ; ' Thou preparest ' a table before me ' — that
is, the Divine Shepherd does that which in the Law was ap
pointed to be done with the table of shew-bread.2 A laver
was appointed, wherein Aaron and his sons were to wash
their hands, when they came near the altar to minister.
God's people were to do so in spiritual realitj-. ' I will wash
my hands in innocency.' 3 The supernatural beauty and
splendour of the new-born people, that follow the Hero of
the 110th Psalm, is represented under the symbol of a
Priest-King at the head of a sacramental host of priests in
their holy vestments.4 The soul's 'longing' for the courts of
the Lord is rendered in the LXX by the very word which
St. Paul uses of his spirit's longing after the ' house from
heaven.'5 Was one ofthe Psalmists struck by the tenacious
life of the ordered ritual of his Church ? He yearned for
his prayer to be taken up into, and, as it were, incorporated
with, established with it. ' Let my prayer be set forth
before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice.' 6
From this point of view, the Hebrew Psalmists were
to their people as the hymnists are to those among us
who love font, and altar, the graceful rite, the white-robed
gathering, the soul-subduing Sacrament; they were as
elocutione ordinate, orationis.' Fuerst, consciousness of Priesthood in the
Concord., p. 863. Hebrew laity, founded on Exod. xix. 6.'
'Set my prayer Delitzsch, in loc.] Cf. Exod. xxx.
In order and array.' — Keble. 18-21.
> The same word again ^n /;Psalm. «* 3; S" . Eosenm.
1 ¦ - IScnolia, m loc. ; Delitzsch, m loc.
from •qny. s Psalm Ixxxiv. 2. (nSD3J ). Cf.
" Psalm xxiii. 5. Cf. Exod. xl. 2 Corinth, v. 2, 6rnra9oiW«. See
22, 23. Appendix, note A.
3 Psalm xxvi. 6, lxxiii. 13. [' A « Psalm cxli. 2.

132 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
Ken, Crashaw, Herbert, Williams, Keble. They are the
Hebrew Church poets.
Yet combined with this there is a sense of inadequacy
and imperfection — nay, a sacred scorn of ultimate trust in
sacrifice and ritual as such. The 51st Psalm is not, and
cannot, be aimed at pagans, but at men who affected a
hyper-orthodox Judaism. It has been well said, that the
New Testament, especially the discourses of our Lord
to the Pharisees, forms the most eloquent commentary
upon it.1
There is too much a disposition on the part of many ex
positors to bring the spiritual and ethical elements in the
Psalms into the sharpest contradiction with the rubrical
and sacerdotal. There are somewhat morbid imagina
tions to which priesthood and priestcraft are convertible
terms ; for which there is a black Clerical International
running through Judaism as well as through Catholic
Christianity. It is an exaggeration to say that in
A'Kempis there is no sacerdotalism ; it is an exaggeration
of the same stamp to assert that in the Psalter there is
nothing but depreciation of sacrifice, of ritual, or of priest.
The Psalm which proclaims the great Evangelical truth
that ' the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,' may ' soar '
as high as it will, but it ' never roams ' beyond the margin
of God's appointed ordinances. The 116th Psalm ex
presses the purpose of the rescued soul by a resolve to re
ceive the Paschal cup in memory of a great deliverance,
in words which have always fitted themselves to the Chris
tian Eucharist.2 The Great Hallelujah closes with a call
1 Reuss., in loc. 2 Psalm cxvi. 12, 13.

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 183
to sacrifice : 'Bind the sacrifice with cords.' ' The 134th
Psalm, of which we shall have to speak again, is a beauti
ful call to praise, closing with a form of priestly Bene
diction. Still there is, no doubt, a pervading sense in the
Psalter, that (to borrow eloquent words) ' the priest is
an imperfect representative, with an imperfect sacrifice, in
an imperfect sanctuary.' 2 This strain of thought is espe
cially prominent in three Psalms.3 The often repeated
assertions that the 110th is the only Psalm of Messianic
Priesthood, and that that Priesthood is never Aaronic in
the Psalter, appear to be inaccurate. If, as we believe, the
16th Psalm is proved to be subjectively Messianic, then, in
the 4th and 5th verses, Messiah speaks in His capacity
as Priest.4 The 132nd is quite decisive on the point.
Its last words of the Anointed One so mysteriously
connected with Bethlehem, the successor of David, are
these : — But upon Himself shall His crown flourish.5
Even Eeuss asserts that ' the hopes which breathe through
this Psalm are those which Theology calls Messianic' So
clear is it to him that the diadem here spoken of is that of
a spiritual chief; that it represents the Theocratic power,
and refers to Aaron's crown, glittering on the brow of
Messiah; that he finds it necessary to close with this
1 Psalm cxviii. 27. (v'jjalayv yatsits mzro). pyn Hiph.
2 Perowne. fut. wvt =-. to put forth blos-
2 See especially xl. 6, 7 ; 1. 13 ; li. ' T
.fi .- soms, bring forth flowers. -)y =
' Dil'SDJ 'SpDS »¦ 4> is sacrifi- Aaron's crown, Exod. xxix. 6 ; px
cial. See Rosenm., in loc. - flower [' plate,' A. V.], ib. xxviii.
* Psalm cxxxii. 18. n?J p?J vbV) 36 ; see also xxxix. 30.

134 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
conjecture: 'Might not the Psalm have been composed for
a solemnity, presided over by a Pontiff invested at the
same time with civil power, in consequence of glorious
successes which appeared to ensure national indepen
dence ? ' ' We may safely assert that the Anointed
King in the 132nd Psalm wears also the Aaronie
Priest's plate of gold,2 which shall not fade or fall,
but put out flowers for ever.3 All, therefore, that can
truly be said is that, in the grandest and most often
quoted Priestly Psalm, the figure of the Priest-King
at God's right hand is not taken from the Aaronie
Priesthood, but from the august and mysterious Mel
chizedek. Thus the Psalmists were the Evangelical as well as the
Church poets of the elder dispensation.
But it is of no small interest and instruction to remark
how they dealt with the formalism that necessarily en
crusted a ritual which, though divinely ordained, was so
minute and so complicated. One thing is certain. They
did not agitate for a revision of Leviticus.
There is one sect in Christendom, justly honoured for
the philanthropy of its members. Its founders began with
a horror of formalism. They would have no bells, no
liturgy, no Sabbath, no stately Minster, for all the
spiritual life is one long Sabbath until its sun goes down ;
and the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings that cannot be uttered ; and all the organs of
1 Rruss., in loc. 3 "E^ayHiifft i, LXX. 'Super Ipsum
- ireiaXoi', LXX, = J"V, Lxod. ut autem florebit diadema Ejus.' —
tvpr. S. Hicron. See Dr. Kay, in loc.

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 135
every Minster fill the aisles in vain unless a softer and
holier music is sounding in
The upright heart and pure,
which God ' prefers before all Temples.' Sublimely true !
Yet we happen to have bodies as well as souls, imagina
tion as well as reason ; and we do not happen to be
angels or spirits just yet. And so these worthy men,
who began by hating formalism, come to be the most
formal of the sons of men. We cannot get rid of sacer
dotalism by deposing the ministry, or of formalism by
eliminating forms. The Psalmists teach us that the true
course is not to abolish, but to spiritualise.
iii. We proceed to consider the Christian character in
relation to Self, as delineated in the Psalms.
In arguments for Christianity drawn from the mora
lity of the Gospel, great stress has justly been laid upon
the thoroughness of our Saviour's teaching on the regula
tion of the thoughts.1 It is a part of the Gospel which is
distinctively Christian.
Experience shows us the dangers and the fascination
of the region of thought. There is an inner world of sin.
There the ambitious can surround himself with the images
of a splendour and power which he can never attain.
There a feeble hatred can exchange its pointless pen and
blunted sarcasms for epigrams which make an enemy's
face blanch and his nerves quiver : the eloquence de Vescalier
of the dislike which is at once feeble and bitter. There
the voluptuous can scent the bouquet of the wine of sin,
1 Paley's Evidences, PartlL, chap. ii. § ii.

136 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
without the vulgarities and disappointments which are
the portion of those who drain the cup to its burning
lees. That which we look upon as the first deadly sin of
a particular kind is often not the hundredth. In the
terrible chronology of sin, we should date from the concep
tion, not from the nativity. And the night is the season
when such temptations especially occur. ' The mind is
turned in on itself, and its true character revealed.' '
Nox conscia novit.
Hence in a manual like the Psalms, night must constantly
be mentioned.2 ' It is a great chapter,' wrote Joseph de
Maistre, ' to which David often recurs.' On the one hand,
the Spirit of Holiness whispers His finest tones under the
veil of its august silence ; on the other,
Transgression's oracle to the wicked man saith, ' Within my heart.'3
Outside there may be piercing light ; within, there is a
closely guarded spot where I can think and do as I will.'
The characteristic of the wicked is,
He deviseth mischief upon his bed.4
Our nights are spiritual tests, perhaps truer and subtler
than our days. The deepest prayer for purity which the
Minister of God is taught by the Church to utter is,
'Almighty God, unto Whom all hearts be open, all desires
known (Cuiomne cor patet, omms voluntas loquitur), cleanse
the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy
1 Mr. Alexander Knox. lxxvii. 2, 6 ; cxix. 52.
2 Psalm iv. 4 ; xvii. 3 ; xiii. 3, 8 ; ' xxxvi. 1. 4 v. 4.

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 137
Spirit.' Is even that more unequivocally a prayer refer
ring to one of the most distinct claims of our Lord over
our souls, than such verses as these in the Psalms ? —
' Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. . . . Create
in me a clean heart, O God. . . . Search me, O God, and know
my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts.' '
The ideal of -the spiritual character in the Psalter is
crowned by other traits which are, if possible, still more
marvellously in advance of their day.
Such are ' the broken spirit ; the broken and contrite
heart.2 ' Such are those, who are described by a word —
so singular for such an age and people — as the ' quiet of
the land,' that is earth's sensitive spirits, those who shrink
into themselves.3 Such, above all, is the character painted
in that perfect miniature, the 131st Psalm, the ' lay of
the humble.' It is the abnegation of pride in its secret
springs, in its visible expression, in its sphere of action.4
The lines of Keble, The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all I ought to ask,
are but the translation of
Neither have I walked in great matters.5
1 Psalm li. 6, 10 ; cxxxix. 23. Have I not hush'd me, calm and mild,
2 \\ 1 7. And sooth'd my soul to rest?
3 y"l8~"l17}1 (righyey-erets). I lay as calm as weaned child
' ' xxxv 20 Upon his mother's breast.
4 Keble's translation of a Psalm, Like a weaned child, behold me staid
so entirely at one with his own heart, Prom mine own heart and will.
is characteristically true. Thou, Israel, trust the Lord, thine aid,
-_ . ,,. , i • •„„ From henceforth, ever still.
0 Lord, no swelling heart is mine,
Nor lofty-eyed I stalk; 5 VWPlITO (lo-hillakhtly).
Not in deep counsels or divine, cxxxi. 1 .
Too high for me, I walk.

138 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
He has diligently lulled the disquietudes and levelled the
aspirations of the proud yet grovelling human heart, and
conformed it to the type of a little child. The Psalm
remained. It was like a string of a Christian ' Lyra
Innocentium ' placed among its chords out of due season ;
silent until Christ gave it utterance by setting a little
child in the midst, and saying, ' except ye be converted,
and become as little children.' Its undying echoes are
awakened whenever the Baptismal Gospel is read beside
a font. By whomsoever composed, from whatever heart
this ' Song of the Upgoings ' may first have issued, it is
equally ours. It may have been, as modern critics incline
to think, a strain of pilgrims, content to be left alone,
happy enough in seeing Jerusalem. It may have been
a Psalm of David, first uttered when he was heart-sick
under misrepresentation. But Augustine's words are
equally true : — ' This should be received not as the voice
of one man singing, but as the voice of all who are in
the Body of Christ. This Temple of God, the Body of
Christ, the congregation of the faithful, has one voice. It
is as it were one man who chanteth in the Psalms.' '
It would be easy, taking up the image of saintliness in
the Beatitudes, to show that each line has its anticipation
in the Psalms.2 But enough has been said to indicate
how strong is the witness of the Psalter to that pecu
liar character which is one element of Christianity. It
is a character (1) as regards God — finding its joy in Him.
(2) As regards the Church — using and prizing forms and
ordinances, without resting in them. (3) As regards Self—
1 S. Augustin., Enarrationes in Pss., in loc. 2 See Appendix. Note B.

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 130
combining a sense of sinfulness with a consciousness of
reconciliation — full at once of a conviction of unworthi-
ness and of a yearning for inward purity — exhibiting
gentleness, childlike humility, and all the graces of the
Beatitudes. II. Our estimate of the marvellous guidance at work in
the prevision of, and provision for, the Christian character
is heightened, when we consider the fitness of the various
experiences of David to suit the various phases of the
Christian life. Those experiences 'were in a manner,
necessary, that he might become,' as Edward Irving once
wrote, 'the full-orbed man needed to utter every form of
spiritual feeling.'
David's story, in its spiritual aspect, may be looked
upon as being traversed by four great lines of division.
(1) We have a young existence, pervaded by a certain
consciousness of innocence, with a clinging trust in God,
and a something of chivalrous generosity, very rare in
his age and country. In the Psalms of this period we
may expect to find images taken from battle, or from un-
faded reminiscences of the shepherd's work. (2) Between
his accession to the throne, and the period when his great
sin darkened his soul and led to shame and misery in his
family, he is a king who forgets not that he is royal.1
(3) From David's fall to his flight before Absalom, a
change occurs which has been well likened to St. Peter's.2
(4) This is closed by the last period. The landscape
which lies around him is now steeped in the quiet of
life's sunset and the not unmixed sadness of a bright
' See Psalm ci. 2 St. Luke xxii. 32.

140 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
autumnal evening. To this period the 139th Psalm has
not unnaturally been referred.1 There is not about it the
exuberant joy of innocence, or the confidence of strength,
or the agony of penitence, but thoughtful humility and
self-knowledge. Even in David's Psalms, then, the whole range of
Christian life, along the whole extent of its most varied
phases, is provided for. Christians walking in something
of the freshness of Baptismal grace ; Christians fallen into
sin, and waking from the brief transport to the agony and
self- degradation ; accepted penitents, calmed and soothed ;
all find their appropriate music in ' this lyre of widest
range, struck,' not indeed ' by all passion,' but by an ex
perience which comprises the rudimentary forms and out
lines of all possible experience.
These strains of prayer or praise spring freely from the
stock of David's life, and are coloured in some degree by
the soil in which their roots are plunged.2 Yet they are
not exclusively the record of one life or of one spirit. We
know the names of the shapes that move across the stage
of that fevered life ; Saul, Doeg, Ahitophel, Shimei, Joab,
and the rest. Yet they are not mentioned. ' Something
sealed his lips.' Some restraining influence was at work
as effectually as if a voice had said — ' These Psalms are
to be sung in centuries inconceivably distant. They are
to be used at funerals grander than Abner's ; in temples
1 I am quite aware, however, of to modern critics.
the marked differences in style be- 2 So it has been remarked that
tween this Psalm and David's compo- in the Asaphic Psalms Joseph is
sitions, and of the almost Chaldaic frequently mentioned : lxxvii. 15,
tinge of some of its language, according lxxviii. 9, 67 ; lxxx. 1,2; lxxxi. 5.

lect. rv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 141
vaster than your imagination has dreamed of. They are
to be set to music such as you have never heard, under
skies upon which you have never looked. They are to be
the heritage of man wherever there is sin or sorrow ;
wherever there is a sigh of penitence, or a voice of yearn
ing, offered up to God. Keep them free, therefore, from
that which is merely local and personal.' To take an
example. It has been well pointed out by an eloquent
writer,1 that one day of David's life has been more fully
chronicled than any other day in the Bible 2 — the day
when he halted after Shimei's curses, and the King and
all the people rested, weary and heart-sick.3 The next
morning ' David arose, and all the people that were with
him : by the morning-light there lacked not one of them
that was not gone over Jordan.' 4 To that night, in all
probability, belongs the 4th, to that morning the
3rd, Psalm.5 Yet, while those Psalms arose from the
occasion, while there are utterances in them which pene
trate into and twine round the great predicted Life, they
suit every Christian generation.
This characteristic of the Psalter is naturally, from
their point of view, pressed as an argument against the
Davidic origin of the Psalms, by those who reject this
witness to Christianity in them. ' We may say without
1 Dean Stanley, Jew ish Church,!!., statuamus.' (Ps. iv.) ' Hebr. interpp.
Lect. xxiv. unanimi fere consensu hunc quoque
- 2 Sam. xv. 13, et sqq. Ps. habent priori aiyxpovov esse.
8 2 Sam. xvi. 14. Ejusdem plerique ex nostris sunt sen-
4 2 Sam. xvii. 22. tentiEe.' Rosenm. Argg. in Pss. iii., iv.
» (Psalmiii.) ' Quum fugeret Absa- Venemarejects this on the same ground
lonem filiuni (2 Sam. xv. 16 sgj.)hunc taken afterwards by Reuss, but re-
Ps. a patre deeantatum esse dicit fers it to the exact historical circum-
Hebr. inscriptio. Neque inest Psalmo stances, 1 Sam. xxx. 6-S.
quidquam, quod nos moveat, ut aliter

142 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
contradiction,' says the celebrated foreign critic already so
often quoted, ' that there is not in these pieces (the 3rd
and 4th Psalms) the most distant allusion to the facts
supposed to be indicated ; not a proper name of person
or place to recall them. Conceive a king, chased from
his capital by his own son, finding only the pale and in
significant phrase, " Lord ! how are they increased that
trouble me," to paint a situation so tragic. Of the re
bellious son ; of the treason of his officers ; of the flight
of the dethroned king ; of the picturesque and striking
details which we know from history, not one single word."
Strange, certainly, and unaccountable, if a great royal
poet were working off his emotions in measured words, or
elaborating a lyrical ode for the admiration of posterity.
Not strange, if the Master of the human soul, who uses it
— not as a dead and passive instrument, but freely — di
rected and moulded David's spirit for a higher purpose.2
It will add force to our argument if we dwell upon the
rareness and preciousness of the gift which Christianity
has inherited in the Psalter.
Each great race, which has played a conspicuous part
in the history of the world, has possessed a peculiar
1 Reuss, in loc. p. 50. security. 'In pace simul reguiescam
2 Note (1) the perfect calmness of et dormiam..' S. Hieron. Ps. iv. 8.
trust, (2) the truly royal spirit, in (2), How worthy of a Shepherd of the
Psalms iii , iv., making them fit for the people, of a King with a Priest's
Ideal Saint of Saints and King of heart, and so how worthy of Christ,
Kings, when He lay down in death, before His royal sleep of death, and
awaiting His Resurrection. (1), 'I waking on the Easter morning, that
will both lay me down in peace and priestly and kingly benediction, 'Upon
sleep,' i.e., In peace I will simul- Thy people be Thy blessing,' Psalm
tunioushj (Hn! yachdav) lie down iii. 8. Cf Acts iii. 26. See Dr. Kay,
and sleep. I will lie down and sleep at in loc.
tho samemoment, in my sense of perfect

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 143
characteristic, and left behind it a legacy in writing
appropriate to that characteristic.
The peculiarity of the Hebrew race was not literary
genius. It so happens that the two greatest Fathers ofthe
Western Church have fearlessly left us their testimony on
this subject. St. Augustine tells us that in his pride he
resolved to study the Scriptures, that he might see of what
sort they were. His conclusion was, ' that Scripture was
unworthy to be compared with the majesty of Tully. ' ' The
other, as inferior to St. Augustine in genius as he was su
perior in learning — St. Jerome — devoted himself to Hebrew
studies, partly for the purpose of quelling the passionate
fires of youth by the restraints of an austere discipline.
Under the tutorship of a Hebrew Christian, he was con
strained to compare the flowing eloquence, the point, the
gravity, the softness of one or other of the Eoman orators,
with pages on which were written the uncouth letters of a
strange alphabet, and the haunting sounds of words which
he vividly describes as 'stridentia anhelantiaque verba.'2
But the great spirit of Augustine afterwards spoke of the
Scripture which he had once contemned, as his ' chaste
enjoyment, honeyed with heaven's manna and luminous
with its light.' ' And as Jerome looked down the vistas
of Law and Brophecy, he began to see spaces, broadening
into golden distances such as had never been opened by
the genius of Eoman literature. He tells us, in his own
words, that ' from the bitter seed of these studies he con
tinues to derive abiding harvests of exquisite fruit.'2
1 S. Augustin., Confcssiones, ii. 5 ; Bened.], Ad Rusticum Monachum:
ix. 4 ; xi. 2. See also Prcefat. in Danielem.
¦ S. Ilieron., Epis/. xcv. [Ed.

144 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
The great characteristic of the Hebrew, after all, was
not an endowment of genius, but a gift of grace. It was
summed up in the grand words that come of old pealing
out from the oracle in the mountain, ' Ye shall be unto Me
a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.' ¦
The Hebrew race left behind it a written legacy cor
responding to this characteristic. And of that volume the
portion which in some respects is the most absolutely
xmique is that which the Jews with a true instinct call
D^nfliap (sepher t'hilliym).
For, if we measure the value of products by their
rarity, then prayers are the most precious of all products.
The barbarism of the Hebrew people was one of the
favourite topics of the last century : it is not unheard
of now. Be it so. Yet the prayers of these barbarians
are reasonable, profound, pathetic, interesting, sublime.
At times they bring tears to our eyes. At times they
lift us from the earth. True prayers are not compositions.
They are not rhapsodies. But they are effusions. There
are only two uninspired utterances of devotion which
can compete with the Psalms in universality of use, in
depth and extent of effect. Of these the ' Te Deum ' has, by
a sort of instinct, been said to be improvised by Ambrose and
Augustine. The other is the wonderful anthem or se
quence — ' Media, Vita '—so often mistaken for a Psalm or
text. It came from the heart of Notker, as he watched
the samphire gatherers at their ' dreadful trade ' on the
cliffs of St. Gall. As the dirge rose before his soul, it
moulded itself round a form of the Trisagion. In speaking
of the rareness of prayers as a product, I must draw a dis-
1 Exod. xix. 6.

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 145
tinction. In the places of worship of our Separatist
Protestant brethren in this country, the gift of prayer is
exercised without the trammel, as it is supposed to be, of
a book. When we pass into Scotland, we come to a land in
whose parish churches prayers which are called extempora
neous are offered up publicly every Sunday. Who doubts
that they are sincerely offered, with pure lips and from
holy hearts, through the one Mediator, and have brought
blessings upon millions of souls ? But, viewed as words to
be employed by men, they have died away as they floated
out of the Church, and left no traces behind. Is there a
single prayer which has been used in these communions
that has found its way into the hearts of men ? In our
own land the press teems with manuals of devotion. But,
after meeting a temporary demand, they are left upon the
publisher's shelf. To-day they are, and to-morrow are cast
into the oven. Parliament, Prelates, Convocations, Synods,
may order forms of prayer. They may get speeches to
be spoken upward by people on their knees. Tbey may
obtain a juxtaposition in space of curiously tesselated
pieces of Bible or Prayer-book. But when I speak of the
rareness and preciousness of prayers, I mean such prayers
as combine three conditions — permanence, capability of
being really prayed, and universality. Such prayers Pri
mates and Senates can no more command than they can
order a new Cologne Cathedral or another Epic Poem.
For, the prayers which we now contemplate are those
which have come from some individual spirit, but from him
have passed into the sanctuary, leaving echoes there that
never cease to reverberate ; and which from the sanctuary
L

14C THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. iv.
again have been wafted like seeds on the wings of every
wind. Prayers, which, when once they have been learned,
mingle with the memory in other years like the music
of a nursery song ; — prayers, which like some mysterious
vestment fit every human soul in the attitude of suppli
cation ; — prayers for every time, place, circumstance ; for
the bridal and the grave, the storm and the battle, the
king and the peasant, the harlot sobbing on her knees on
the penitentiary floor, and the saint looking through
the lifted portals into the city of God ; from the solitary
soul on the Hospital stretcher, and the thousands crowded
in the great Minster ; — prayers for the seasons when the
Church looks upon the Crucified, and for those when He
bursts the bars of the tomb, and ascends to His Father's
Throne. Such Prayers the world has never seen but once.
Thus, in the Psalms, we have a Prophetic Manual of
Prayer, providentially prepared for the peculiarities of that
character with which Cod intended to gladden the earth.
In Egypt, the traveller is amazed, as he notes, in the awful
silence of sepulchres whose walls were covered with paint
ings in the remotest centuries, the pictured type of features
startlingly resembling those which he has seen in the busy
throng immediately before. The features and face of the
soul which we see delineated in the Psalter are of the
same permanent and unchanging type as those of all the
children of God who are now living upon earth. No
wonder that Psalmists speak of ' a generation to come,' —
A people to be created which shall praise the Lord ; '
A seed to serve Him ;
A people that shall be born.2
1 Psalm cii. 18. * xxii. 30, 31.

lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 147
One practical thought may be briefly suggested in con
clusion. ' The rank and quality of the religious frame,' it has
been said by a distinguished statesman, ' may in general be
tested, at least negatively, by the height of its relish for
the Psalms.' They may, indeed, be made to form a deli
cate spiritual Thermometer, exquisitely sensitive to the
atmosphere of our inner life. We have the Psalms, and
repeat them, in the College Chapel, in the Parish Church,
sometimes with the elevating accessories of Cathedral
worship, sometimes Where no organ's peal
Invests the stern and naked prayer.
If we have no sympathy with their tenderness or se
verity, their penitence or joy, their words of prediction or
invitations to prayer ; — if all their sighs for Passiontide
and their songs for Easter touch no responsive chords in
our souls ; — if the Divine Hero of the Messianic Psalms
speaks to us from the Cross and from the Throne, and we
are deaf alike to His pathos and His majesty ; — then we
may doubt whether our character is moulded after the type
of saints, whether all is well with us. More than fifty gene
rations of Christian believers bear witness that, when we
sing the Psalms with fair weather in the soul, we still
hear sweet voices from distant hills, and the soft sighing
of an eternal sea that flows towards the spot on which we
stand.1 1 See Appendix. Note C.

L 2

148 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS

SUPPLEMENT TO LECTURE IV.
Remarks on the Contemplation of Nature in the Psalms.
There is one element in the Psalter which scarcely
fits into the logical frame-work of my design, but without
which any general consideration of the collection must be
greatly deficient ; — I mean the spirit in which the Psalmists
contemplate Nature. And yet this subject is not altogether
without its bearing on the Psalms as a witness to Christi
anity. For Christianity opened a world of feeling as well
as of fact. It influenced sentiment and emotion as well
as principle. Part of the new character with which it
endowed humanity was a tenderer and more subjective
way of looking at Nature, which had become a transpa
rent symbol of things spiritual and eternal.
Does the Book of Psalms provide in this respect also
new songs for the new people whom God was to call into
existence ?
The contemplation of Nature in the Psalms is distin
guished by four characteristics : (i.) serious sensibility, (ii.)
grandeur, (iii.) direct reference to God, (iv.) typical and
spiritual transparency. i.
The Psalms are declared by Humboldt to ' afford un
questionable evidence of a profound sensibility to Na-

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 149
ture.' l Their mode of contemplating it, he goes on to
say, is a reflex of Monotheism, and embraces, in its
unity, the life of the terrestrial globe and of the world of
space. On the whole, they enter little into details ; look
at Nature in the mass ; and view the natural almost ex
clusively in relation to the supernatural. Grandeur,
solemnity, sublimity, awful thoughtfulness about man, not
colour, softness, or warmth of sentiment, are their cha
racteristics. 1. A Divine reserve, it may be added, guards their sub
limity from extravagance. Such writers are too serious
to be fanciful. The finest image of devotion in the Koran
is that which speaks of ' the very shadows of things fall
ing in adoration, morning and evening.' We feel that
this thought, with all its nobleness, is too far-fetched for
the Psalter. An accomplished botanist travelling in the
Holy Land the year before last, gives the following pictu
resque description of the scarlet anemone : — ' One of the
finest sights I ever beheld was the morning of the 20th of
March, on my journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.
During the night the snow had fallen (an exceedingly rare
occurrence) to the depth of some inches. The morning,
however, was bright and clear, and the sun's rays having
somewhat depressed the snow, the dazzling scarlet ane
mone had forced itself through the white sheet, standing
erect, with its large petals flatly expanded, and no other
plant or flower being visible. In some places they lay
closely together in nebulous clusters, while the whole plain
' Cosmos, ii. 44-46.

150 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
as far as the eye could reach was thickly dotted over with
the bright star-like gems. The scene was indescribably
beautiful, and one not easily forgotten.' 1 David must
have seen this; but an instinct tells us that it could
not have found a place in his Psalms. The spirit of
the Psalter may rather be traced in the 90th Psalm,
with its ' devout and hopeful melancholy ' — in the 104th,
with its picture of the Cosmos drawn in a few grand
strokes.2 Two Psalms may here be quoted as illustrating two
different moods of the poetical sentiment for Nature.
(a) The first of these is the 29th Psalm. Let me
quote the commentary of Eeuss, who nobly appreciates
the poet's song of the storm.
' There are in this Psalm, properly speaking, two scenes,
each of which is the pendant of the other. One passes
upon earth, where we see the hurricane raging in a way
unknown to our climate. The colossal cedars of Lebanon
are split in pieces ; their gigantic trunks are torn from the
ground, and leap as lightly as the ox in the meadow. The
mountain itself groans and trembles, scourged by the
tempest. The lightnings furrow a sky darker than the
deepest night. Vast deserts such as that of Kadesh, in
the south of Canaan, where nothing stops the element,
are swept by the hurricane. Their sand becomes a moving
sea, the atmosphere an ocean chasing over its tossed
bed and sweeping with it all which it meets in its passage.
1 The Garden, 1875. in Genesis. It begins with light
* The 104th Psalm is evidently (v. 2), and ends with a reference to
founded upon the account of Creation God's Sabbath-rest (v. 31).

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 151
The trees which can resist are peeled and stripped bare.
Beasts are seized with terror, and their convulsive shudder-
ings make them anticipate the hour of nature. Man is
nowhere in this description. He is mute, and retires
before the terrible majesty of the spectacle. But we
feel, in contemplating it with the poet, that an involun
tary anguish is mixed with that other impression of
which man alone is capable. Above the horrible turmoil
the Lord is seated majestically upon His throne. The
flood which is about to sweep over the earth is the footstool
of that Throne. He contemplates it with a serene eye,
and with His royal Hand He will stay the elements when
He pleases. Bound Him the Powers, which are His
Messengers, almost the Priests of His Heavenly sanctuary,
clad in their sacred robes, press on to glorify Him. What
a magnificent antithesis in a few lines ! '
This seems to me a truer view than that which speaks of
the 'wild exhilaration' of the Psalmists in the contempla
tion of the more awful side of creation. ' Like the Scot
tish poet,' says a delightful writer upon the 29th Psalm,
' who looked up from the heather, and at each flash of
lightning clapped his hands and cried " Bonnie ! bonnie ! "
they clap their hands in innocent pleasure. ' ' But the
beautiful comparison is inapplicable. The Bsalmist is not
wild. He is not exhilarated. He does not clap his hands.
He says, with solemn and awe-struck tones : —
The voice of the Lord is cleaving 2 the flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord will cause the wilderness to tremble,3
1 Stanley, Jewish Church, IL, 25l 2 25?n (cn°tsebh), as one who
(referring to Lockhart's Life of Sir cleaves wood or stone.
Walter Scott, i. 83). 3 ^OJ (yachll).

152 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
The Lord will cause the wilderness of Kadesh to tremble.
The voice of the Lord will cause the hinds to tremble to the
birth,
And strip the forests bare :
And in His palace, all of it saith ' Glory.' '
The poem is made more beautiful still by the contrast
at the close. It begins, as has been finely said, with
Gloria in excelsis, it ends with Pax in terris.2 As we look
back over its landscape of stormy forests and dark waters,
the peace with which it closes spans it like an unfading
rainbow.3 (b) For another aspect of Nature, from another side, take
the 36th Psalm. As if reeling from a cavern, the Psalmist
looks out from his heart at the cupola of the deep blue
sky overvaulting the hills, and at the great deep. They
remind him of his God ; he thinks of an unchanging
youth and fulness of beauty. The same thought was in
his soul when he wrote
Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures —
as his who, more than two thousand years after, cried to
the new-born cataract —
Unperishing youth !
Thou leapest from forth
The cell of thy hidden nativity ;
Thou at once full-born,
Madden'st in thy joyaunce.4
Then follow words whose depth and beauty no thought
can fathom — the blended images of the fountain rising
' Psalm xxis- 7, 8, 9. with the Peace,' v. 11. (DibtS'S)
' Delitzsch. , _, , . , ,,T
2 ' The Lord will bless His people C°l6ridge (after Stulbw'g)'

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 153
with drifted spray and delicate shadows cast on the silver
jet : the light in which it sparkles ; the life which is
the sum of all we yearn for, which the great sculptor
Carpeau cried for in the death agony — ' La vie ! la vie ! ' —
those images which reach their height only in the Chris
tian Theology of the Holy and Blessed Trinity —
With Thee is the fountain of Life,
In Thy Light shall we see Light.1
2. I will venture further to say .that Humboldt has
scarcely done justice to the delicacy of the apprehension of
Nature by the Hebrew Psalmists ; to the brief but signifi
cant touches which indicate their subtle sympathy with
it ; and to the softer strokes which their strong stern
pencils throw in, as if with a Divine relenting.
The aspects of the light and the sky fill them with de
light. We do not, indeed, suppose that the 8th Psalm is
a song of the Shepherd-King's boyhood ; the New Testa
ment has no Gospels or Epistles written before Pentecost,
and the Psalter has no strains of David before his anointing.
But the strain is a night-piece, and the world has never let
it die. Those who look at the original, in a language where
almost every substantive is a picture, will find ample poetical
treasure to reward their search.2 The epic of the 18th
Psalm is succeeded by the lyric of the 19th, with its imper
ishable youth and freshness.3 The Poet speaks of the sun
1 Psalm xxxvi. 9. which speaks of the glory of the sun
2 For instance, nT (v. 3). One we have one ancient torso, and in the
of our earliest translators, Lord Sur- other> which sPeaks of the glory of
rev, renders this ' wannish moon.' the Law' a seco?d and more modem
* Some critics, ' enfranchised from one> arbitrarily joined together. Such
the bondage of the Rabbis,' think liberty ls scareely to be eDT'ed-
that in the part of the 19th Psalm

154 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
going forth radiantly as a bridegroom issuing from his
chamber in the intoxication of his happiness. The waters
are ever rolling and gleaming through these songs. Some
times the rivers, with parted streams, and the greenery of
trees planted beside them,1 or the waters of rest flowing
through pastures of young grass.2 Sometimes the sadness
which is borne in upon the soul with the sound of distant
waters among the hills —
Rushing wave to rushing wave is calling,
At the voice of Thy cascades.3
In the 46th Psalm, that grand hurried verse of triumph
— the Veni, vidi, vici, of the Psalter — is preceded by a
noble image of a river.4 But chiefly do the great floods,
or the ocean with its depths and the glory of its breakers,
find an echo in their song. That Psalm, which is, perhaps,
the noblest, poetically, in the collection, has attracted too
little admiration. Lifted up the floods, O Lord ! in anger :
Lifted up the floods, the voice they have.
Yea, the floods will yet lift up a stranger
Music on the rushing of their wave.
Voices of the waters manifold,
Bright, majestic ! breakers of the sea !
Brighter, more majestic, on those old
Eternal heights the Lord, than even ye.5
Moreover, of the ' two voices ' of which our great poet
speaks : —
1 t^p-^a-^y Psalm i. 3. * xxiii. 2. » xiii. 7.
' xlvi. 6. Cf. v. 4. s xciii. 3, 4.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 155
One is of the sea,
One of the mountains,1
the last has found its way to their spirits also. The scow
ling look 2 of the great mountain ranges ; the intense
gleam of snow new fallen 3 upon Salmon, with its dark
forests ; the vapour floating from Hermon, and falling in
dew upon Zion,4 are lovingly mentioned. This love of light,
rivers, oceans, mountains, valleys, is no unimportant fea
ture in a book of strains meant for Christian use.5
1 "Wordsworth, Sonnets to Liberty, broken tusks ; the waters hurrying
I. xii. away ; the arrow snapped upon the
2 J-lTVlPI nB? Psalm lxviii. 16. string ; the snail melting, until it is
Such is sa"id "by the Rabbis to be the shrivelled and wasted ; the abortion
meaning of the rare word "i-^") that never sees the sun ; the whirl-
3 litobva Jpvm iwia. 'i*. wind spoiliig ^,e ro?er's fea6!': and
1 : - : '¦ ¦¦ - sweeping off alike the green living
Psalm cxxxiii. 3. branch and the angry, heated ember.*
5 Note also such a minute and
beautiful touch as that in lxviii. 13.
Remark again the rugged and terrible * fnir'lD? *0iO3 (k'mo-ehay
energy of the hurried images in the k'mo-charon), v. 9.
58th Psalm — the young lion, with his See Rosenmiiller in loc.
Come shiver with strong arm
The lion's jaws, 0 Lord.
This way and that to shame and harm
As water they are poured.
Each arrow they would shoot
Palls shiver'd from the bow ;
They pass like melting snail, or fruit
Of some untimely throe.
They ne'er saw morning ray : —
Yes — ere your cauldrons know
The thorn — His winds shall sweep away
Green wood and brands that glow.
Iviii. 6, 7, 8. (Keble.)
For power of concentrated pathos, And again, 'We spend our years
even from a human point of view, nJiVlDS (xc. 9)
what ever equalled these two words ? as a g }- ^'> '
3^? nf?| ''WZf: Such is the literal meaning— 'Anni
xxxi. 12. nostri tanquam syllaba et vox una
' I am forgotten as the dead, out of prolata evanuerunt,' says Agellius,
the living heart of human kind.' who takes it in the sense of medita-
ene\ria8riy wffel yeKpbs aire KapSias. tion. Not even that !
LXX.

156 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
ii.
The Psalms are distinguished by grandeur in their
contemplation of the Universe.
It is often said that the discovery of Copernicus has
destroyed the traditional way of looking at heaven. The
assertion is undoubtedly true, if by ' traditional ' is meant
mediaeval. But it is not true, if by ' traditional ' is meant
Biblical. Think of the ample, spaces which must have
extended before the spirit of him who said in the 139th
Psalm —
If I took the wings of the Dawn,
And made my home in the uttermost parts of the sea.1
Think of the 8th Psalm, with the vastness of its concep
tions of Thy heaven, the work of Thy fingers,
The moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained.2
Let science reach as far as it will, the Psalmists see the
undiscovered margin beyond. It may have been this
feature in the Psalms which made them so dear to Mur-
chison — who was not without doubts and hesitations as to
some things in Scripture — which drew from him smiles and
tears when his lips could not frame words, and the pencil
no longer obeyed his feeble hand.
iii.
The view of Nature in the Psalms is distinguished
by distinct reference to the Power and Wisdom of God.
They contain the cosmological argument for the existence
of God. This feature the Psalms possess to a certain degree in
1 Psalm cxxxix. 9. - viii. 3.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 157
common with the Sanscrit Hymns, and the higher utter
ances of Pantheistic religions.
In the Classics, the Greek and Eoman writers are not
very serious in connecting Nature with the gods. The very
' Psalmist of Eleusis' ' gives an account of the origin of its
sacred mysteries, destined to be used in devotion, in lines
which do not quiver with prayer, but are splendid with
the colouring of Homer. The charm of ever-fragrant
Eleusis — 'EXevalvoe. dvoio-ffrfe —
is celebrated. The glory of the goddess when she throws
off the disguise of old age, and beauty breathes around her—
Tijpas cnrujcrapivT}, irepi r apipi re /caXXoc arfro — 2
her golden hair flowing over her shoulders; the house
filled with light, and the earth becoming heavy with leaf
and fruit and flower ; — all this is told beautifully, but
without a sigh or tear of prajrer. Here, as in all the
Homeric Hymns, there is an epic cast, with the action,
variety, and manners of Epic Poetry.3 I believe that in
Cicero's treatise ' De Natura Deorum,' man seems for the
first time to lift his eyes towards Heaven as the peculiar
habitation of a creative Power, with something like real
religious awe.4 The second Book of the treatise bears most
upon the subject. In that Book Balbus developes the
Stoic idea, while the third Book gives a formal refutation
of it by Cotta, who represents the Academic view, presum
ably Cicero's own. But Cotta so manifestly fails in his
1 The expression is Mr. Grote's. 4 Du Sentiment de la Nature en
2 Hymn eh A-qfi^rpay, 276. VAntiquite Romaine. Par Eugene
3 Ilgenius, quoted by Rothe, Secretan.
Homerus.

158 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
task, that we are led to infer that Cicero's heart was with
Balbus. It is Cicero himself whose soul is prostrating
itself before a Divinity external to the world. When
Balbus asserts that nothing but the deadening influence
of custom can blind us to the evidences of design in
nature, it is Cicero who exclaims, with the triumphant
air of one who cannot be answered, ' These things not
only needed reason to call them into existence — it cannot
even be understood how great they are without the highest
reason.' The passages in the ' De Natura Deorum ' are, in
deed, too undecided in tone, too deficient in argumentative
precision, too contradictory and too rhetorical, to prove
absolutely whether the Divine Power which Cicero seeks is
Personal or impersonal, one or multiple. But, at all events,
he reasons to a creative and organising Power. After
Virgil, there was an affectation of a mode of contemplat
ing nature which approached to modern sentimentalism.
The poet who aspired to a reputation must absolutely
attempt an aurora, or go into ecstasy over a spring. But
there is an unreality about the performance. How different
from Shelley's exquisite sentences. ' This poem was chiefly
written upon the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Cara-
calla, among the flowery glades and odoriferous blossoming
trees which are extended in ever-winding labyrinths upon
its immense platforms and dizzy arches suspended in the
air. The bright blue sky of Eome, and the effect of the
vigorous awakening of spring in that divinest climate, and
the new life with which it drenches the spirits even to intoxi
cation, were the inspiration of the drama.' • In Cicero the
1 Preface to Prometheus Unbound.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 159
Eoman intellect first ceased to trifle with nature, and
breathed its earliest prayer of genuine adoration in pre
sence of the evidences of a Divine design. But with
Cicero this ceases. Hindu Pantheism, no doubt, carries
the religious contemplation of nature much higher, to
the confines of the region occupied by the Psalmists.
But the ideas which inspire them are colossal rather than
sublime. They are subdued and overwhelmed in the pre
sence of a Universal Life, rather than rapt into devotion
by the spectacle of Universal Order. Do they ever cry to
the Personal God ? —
How manifold are Thy works, O Lord !
In wisdom hast Thou made them all ;
The earth is full of Thy riches.1
iv.
The contemplation of Nature is distinguished by spiri
tual transparency. The natural is often introduced as the
type of the supernatural.
The 102nd Psalm (composed in all probability by Nehe
miah) rises from the ruin of the city to the ruin of the
Universe. It is on the same line of thought with Shake
speare, when he passes from the wreck of ' the cloud-
capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,' to that of the 'great
globe itself,' 2 thus (may we dare to say it, without irre
verence ?) reminding us of the words of Him Who made
the downfall of the Temple the occasion for a transition
to the destruction of the world.3
How different the choking sobs of the 102nd Psalm
from the rapture and the movement of that grand Pro-
1 Psalm civ. 24. 2 Tern-pest, Act iv. scene 1. 3 St. Luke xxi. 5, 6, sqq.

1G0 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
cessional, the 147th, chanted round the walls of Jeru
salem at the restoration under Nehemiah ! The general
subject is the excellence of praise.
It is good to make melody to our God ;
For it is pleasant, and praise is comely.
This is the germ which expands into the glorious
flower common to all Liturgies — ' Vere dignum et justum
est.' But the great peculiarity of the Psalm is this.
Others are as rich in images taken from nature and history.
But this specially uses the natural as the type of the su
pernatural — the historical and actual as the mirror of the
ideal and spiritual. So with the various natural objects
which are mentioned. ' The stars ' point to Abraham's
seed; not one star in the fields of space is missing ; not one
of Israel's outcasts is unknown. He calls each by name.
This was in the Good Shepherd's heart when He said
to, t'Sta nrp6)3ara tycovst /car ovofia.1 The ' clouds and rain'
are the images of dispensations at once dark with sorrows
and rich with blessings. If the ravens are heard with
their harsh cries, how much more His Holy Dove ! If His
word ' runneth very swiftly ' in nature, we are to pray
also that in grace ' it may have free course (may run)2 and
be glorified.' ' He giveth forth snow like wool ; ' that is,
chilling dispensations of God's severe Providence, coming
down on His Church, yet forming a mantle to preserve it
from more intense cold. Each image from the region of
nature is transfigured in the realm of grace.3
1 St- John x- 3. > gee throughout Dr. Kay on
" Ps. cxlvii. 15. Cf. Vko 6 \6yos Psalm cxlvii., and especially his quo-
to5 Kvpiov rpexn, 2 Thessal. iii. 1. tation from Dr. Pusey.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 161
There are other Psalms which the Chuich is able to
read with the new and higher significance imparted to
Nature by the teachings of our Lord, and the work of His
redemption. Let us take a few instances.
The 29th Psalm was used in the Synagogue Service
at Pentecost, and has been largely applied — not, perhaps,
without significant hints in the New Testament1 — to the
wonderful working of the Holy Spirit in dealing with the
hearts of • men — outwardly, in the establishment of the
faith ; inwardly, in the conviction and subjugation of re
bellious human spirits.2
Or again, we may read the 65th Psalm with the appli
cation which has been given to it by deeply believing
Christian souls. That Psalm in many Western offices is
attached to the Services for the Dead. For God is ' the
Hope of all the ends of the earth ; ' 3 of those who rest be
neath the soil in lands that are far away ; and in the ear
of faith a shout, as of harvest time, is rising over the graves
where God's seed has been buried in the furrows. We
look for the great Harvest, when
1 Cf. 'The voice of the Lord is avrov, is a sort of summary of the
in strength' (n'33) xxix. 4, with Psalm. See also the tjxuval Kal fjpovrat,
the l\6yos iv b.noUl\ei vvei/mros Kal the a/ ilr™ Ppovral i\d\v<rav of
Swdpews . . . . iv Svvdfiei ®eov, 1 AP°C- 1T- 5 '• Tlli- 5; x. 3, 4 ; xvi. 18;
Corinth, ii. 4, 5 ; and the rb eiay- xlx- 6; .,*„,,
yi\iov iv Svvdfxei, 1 Thessal. i. 5; ,_ * (^alm xxix. 5.) ' CM™ homines
i . _ obstmati. Has omnes cedros Evan-
also the m nuq? 3Sn «¦*• 7, gelicaprsdicatio magnified confregit.'
with the Siaiiepi£6fj.evai y\md(>7.i teael (;,. 7.) < Vox Domini — i.e. Evang. pree-
mp6s, Acts ii. 3 ; and the tyh6ya irvp6s dicatio divi&it flammas ignis dum per
in the rendering of the v&rse !by the earn Spiritus Sanctus in cordibus
LXX. with the iv <j>\6yi irvpSi of 2 hominum jaculatur ignem Divini
Thessal. i. 8. The expression iif 2 Amoris, in cujus rei signum, Act. ii. 3.
Thess. i. 9, dirb rijs 5i!{ijs ttjs icrxvos Bellarm. in loc. s lxv. 5.
M

162 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
The hills shall be girt with their flowers like a laughter,1
And the walks with their sheep shall be white ;
And the lawns be corn-muffled. Thereafter,
The hill and the walks and the corn-lands
Shall raise music — yea, psalms2 of delight.
To a mind permeated with Christian thought such appli
cations have no extravagance. Our Lord Himself made
the wind the representative of the Holy Spirit. Even in
the realm of Nature, it is the doer of His Word.3 The
grain of corn or wheat, the hidden symbol in the mysteries
of Eleusis, the darkest and grandest parable in Nature, is
interpreted by our Lord to the Greeks of His own Death
and Life, His life through death.4 St. Paul pushes the in
terpretation further, so as to include all the Eedeemed.5
When the Psalter is placed in aChristian'shandas a Divine
gift, he takes Nature at the highest point from Christ's
teaching. In an inspired song the wind is for him the
symbol of the Spirit, and the harvest of the Eesurrection.
Or again, if we take the 93rd Psalm in its most literal
signification, it is a hymn — perhaps, with all its brevity,
the noblest, poetically, in the Psalter — glorifying God as the
sure Lord of Nature. In the Hebrew it has no heading,
but in the LXX. it appears as being ' of David, for the day
before the Sabbath, when the earth became inhabited.' 6
' ro-ijnn nijna ^ji i*v. 12. * st. John xii. 24.
'Exultatione colles sese accingunt ... 5 j Corinth, xv. 36, 37.
vel, colles laetum exhibent vultum, c , _
dum undique arrident floribus.' Ro- a E' s ^" "'"f"' "" y<""f^rml
, ore KCLTQKiffTai n yri, aivos qiotis to)
senm. in toe, * ' ' , T ' „
z ,-,,.^,-f.sj v 13 Aauld. See Bellarm. Explan. p 700,
•' ' and Rosh-ha-Shana (31 *), quoted by
3 "n;n n'B>j> nnyp n-n Delitzsch, iii. 74.
Psalm cxlviii. 8.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

163

It would seem that it was sung in the Synagogue
on Friday as a memorial of the Creation, especially of man.
But, in the Christian Church, this Psalm has been very
widely used for the early morning of the Lord's Day,
because Christ completed the new Creation by His Eesur
rection, and clothed Himself with Majesty and Strength.1
It is in these four respects that the mode of contem
plating Nature in the Psalms seems to be adapted to the
new character which Christ has called into existence.

1 This view was taken by many
interpreters, who used not to be
thought extravagantly mystical. ' Do-
cet Christi regnum esse fixum et
durabile.' — Muis. Jarchi is quoted

as saying, ' Hie Ps. ad tempus Messiae
pertinet,' to which Kimchi adds, ' Sic
et reliqui usque ad Ps. c' See Pol.
Synopsis Crit., ii. 1159.

m 2

164 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.

LECTUEE V.
¦His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.
Q^gn "vy ^3 ")|np n'na??
Psaim lxxxvii. 1, 3.
We were occupied last Sunday morning with the prede-
lineation of the Christian Character in the Book of Psalms.
But the Bible does not only speak of individual souls.
Our Lord came to gather His elect into a community.
That community, as I shall contemplate it through this
Lecture, is one that is marked out by the characteristics
which have been so firmly drawn by the hand of Pearson.1
(1) One Lord, (2) one Spirit, (3) one Faith, (4) one Baptism
of the New Birth, (5) one Sacramental Bread and Cup, (6)
one Hope, (7) the lines of one great Organisation. These
are the notes of that community which is known his
torically as the Catholic Church.
When some great and noble Church was to be built
in the Middle Ages, the simple legends of the time often
tell us that, after long meditation, the plan was projected
before some gifted sleeper's vision in lines of light, or
found traced in dew upon the sward from which the
fabric was to rise. Can we trace such anticipated outlines
in the songs of Israel ? Do we find the spiritual fabric,
the Church of Christ, thus prepared for in the Psalter ?
1 Exposition ofthe Creed, Art. ix.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 165
I.
The images under which the Church is described
in the Psalms are principally three : (i.) It is a City ;
Sion, or Jerusalem, (ii.) It is a Kingdom, (iii.) It is a
Bride.1 (i.) The Church is a City.
And here we may well begin by studying the Psalm
from which the text is taken, We may justly say with
Augustine, that it is ' brevis numero verborum, magnus
pondere sententiarum,' and exclaim when we have read
it, ' In small bulk great heart.'
There is a curious contrast between the spirit in which
this Psalm is criticised by an eminent modern scholar,
and the deep insight with which an ancient Father
pierced into its meaning. ' This little piece,' writes the
critic, ' is only a fragment — the beginning and end are
wanting. In fact, the first line in our translation does
not join on very well to that which follows. Its literal
signification is His foundation on the holy hills.
Critics have been authorised in concluding that it is only
the second part of a distich, in which the Psalmist had
been speaking of the Holy City which God had founded,' 2
We may be tempted to think that there are critical
scholars to whom
1 I do not consider the image of the ' typical designation of Israel to
the Vine among the principal Church be the vine of the nations.' Lange,
images of the Psalms, because this Life of Christ, iii. 158.
symbol in Psalm lxxx. 8 is rather 2 Reuss, in loc.

166 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
A fine and microscopic sight was given
To inspect a mite — not comprehend a heaven.
How much more justly and truly, with all his ignorance of
Hebrew, the great Augustine — ' " Fundamenta ejus in mon-
tibus Sanctis." Whose foundations ? No doubt they are the
foundations of some city. Therefore that citizen, filled
with the Holy Spirit, and revolving inly much of the
true love and deep heart-desire of that City, as if meditat
ing more in his soul, broke out thus — " Fundamenta ejus,"
as if he had already said somewhat of her. How had he
said nothing of her, who in the deep language of his heart
had never kept silence of her ? . . . . But, as I have
said, having given birth to many a thought concerning
that City in silence within his soul, now as he cried to
God, he burst forth also to the ears of men — Fundamenta
ejus in montibus Sanctis.' ' This view of the first verse,
given by Augustine, is not without its defenders among
eminent Hebrew scholars.2
But, even if Augustine's construction be based upon
a grammatical inaccuracy, he grasps the real idea of the
Psalm. For here (as in the 46th and 48th Psalms) we
have "Vy iylyr) a City of God, enclosed and fenced, situated
on the mountains, with strong foundations. This implies
elevation, glory, strength, organisation. The gates point
to a place of justice, a forum for strangers or guests,
1 St. August. Enarrationes in Pss., in termination. Thus the suffix
m 'oc- ini-lDS as in many other instances,
2 Rosenmiiller translates it, 'Her points, not to God, as the antecedent
foundation,' i.e. Zion's. He explains understood, but to the subsequent
the masc. suffix by saying that Zion, noun, Zion.
though fem. in signification, is masc.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 167
courts for trial and conversation. Let it be noted how
over against this ' strong City ' stands another ' strong
City ' in the Psalms : —
Who will bring me into the City of strength 71
how in the later strains of prophecy down to the
Apocalypse, the destruction of a strong City is one great
theme of joy ; 2 — how ' of every revelation since Abraham's
time, a City is part.' 3 Promises weighty and glorious4 are
spoken of the City of God. Eahab, Babylon, Tyre, Phili
stia, Cush, are mentioned by God, as among the number
of those who know Him and His Christ. A mysterious
voice cries out, as a registration of nations goes on in long
succession — ' This man was born there.' Then the Poet
himself takes up the strain : —
And to Zion it shall be said, ' A man and a man were born in
her :'
And He shall stablish her- — the Most High.
The Lord shall count in writing down the nations,
' This one was born there.'
'A man and a man,' i.e. many a man, was born in her;
men of every race, all written in the catalogue of citizens,
each citizen enrolled by an act of new birth. The
least poetical of commentators 5 exclaims, ' lseta et hilaria
omnia in hac urbe.'
Here then the City of God stands out in her strength,
elevation, and glory, spoken to (or possibly ' bespoken')
1 Psalm lx. 9 ; cviii. 10. Cf. lv. * n'HjpJ (nikh'badhoth). Niphil
9-11 • of 133 = to be pressed, heavy. Pro-
2 Isaiah xxvi. 5, xxiv. 10, xxv. 2.
Apoc. xvi. 9; xvii. ; xviii. hah}7 the origin of St- Paul's PdPos
» Edward Irving on ' Unfulfilled sifrs> 2 Cor- 1T- !?•
Prophecy ' in The Morning Watch. 5 Rosenmiiller, in loc.

168 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
with promises of exceeding weight. She becomes the
centre of some strange and resistless attraction. The
most hostile and remote nations seek to be enrolled
among her citizens. A thrill of exultation runs through
the Psalmist's style. The words become obscure from the
transport which possesses them, but their general mean
ing is obvious. His heart overflows with joy, and warbles
like those fountain-springs whose name in Hebrew l is
derived from their being ' the glistening eyes of solitude.' 2
This Psalm establishes Sion as the word for the Church
in the language of Prophets and Psalmists.
Along with the image of the Church, one of her
attributes is here powerfully described. This Psalm
represents Sion from a point of view which is in startling
contrast to Jewish isolation. ' Lo, the people shall dwell
alone,' said the Seer of old, ' and shall not be reckoned
among the nations.' 3 Israel inhabited a sacred country,
the spiritual centre of the world. Well might our Lord
say of the Vineyard, that the Householder (ppcvypwv avrm
¦n-spiedrjicev,* drew a hedge round about it. It was ' hedged
off' from the rest of the world, morally, spiritually,
socially, by its peculiar institutions, by the incommunicable
hope of its people, by much that was worst, and much that
was best in them. A thought which is now familiar to us,
the kinship of all the sons of men, the brotherhood of the
nations, wakened an outburst of applause even in the
Eoman Theatre. But this thought was long unfamiliar to
the Jewish people. There existed no command for them
1 ])V (yayii)- 2 Appendix. Note A.
" Numbers, xxiii. 9. " St. Matt. xxi. 33.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 169
to bring other nations into the pale of their own religion.
Our Lord, indeed, seems to speak of the attempt as arising
from self-will. ' Ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte.' 1 No doubt later Prophets tell of a marvellous
attraction which turns the full tide of humanity to Sion.
' All nations shall flow unto it.' 2 It is not a compression
like that of a mailed grasp ; it is the magnetic drawing of
love . The 8 7th Psalm marks a turning-point in Eevelation.
It stands possibly alone up to its own time, and almost
unsurpassed even afterwards, in one important particular.
It shows that the unification of nations is to be effected
by the welding power of a spiritual influence hitherto
unknown. And it becomes more remarkable if we at
tribute it to the times of Hezekiah, and (with the
inscription) to the sons of Korah. ' The Korahite author
of the Psalm, himself a chief singer in the sanctuary,'
writes the Bishop of Lincoln, ' does not grudge the
admission of foreign nations into its sacred choir, but
with generous and large-hearted sympathy rejoices in the
prospect.' It was from this Psalm that the Jews learned
to teach- — ' A stranger who becomes a proselyte is like a
little child that is newly born.' It is important to observe
that our Lord was developing its central thought when
He said, ' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. . . Except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' 3
And thus the Psalmist here touches one distinctive
peculiarity of the Christian Church. This is a great Mis
sionary Psalm. St. Luke possibly had it in his mind in
1 St. Matt, xxiii. 15. 2 Isaiah ii. 2, 3 ; Micah iv. 1. » St. John iii. 3, 5.

170 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
the list of nations mentioned upon the day of Pentecost in
the 2nd chapter of Acts.1 This is the distinction between
the Church and the communities of other religions. Much
is said, for instance, of the beauty and liberality of the
Indian systems. The eye of him who enters the Parsee
burial-ground at Bombay is struck by the triple coil in
the white cotton girdle of the Parsee. The stranger looks
at it enquiringly, and the wearer tells him that 'it is a
symbol to remind every one who bears it, every hour of the
day, to aim at pure thoughts, good words, holy deeds.' But a
man must be born a Parsee or a Brahmin. The devotee
knows of no new birth by which a stranger can be brought
within his fold. Neither religion can make proselytes.2
' Nothing,' says De Maistre, ' strikes me more than the
vast ideas of the Psalmists in matters of religion. The
religion which they professed, though locked up in a
narrow point of the globe, was distinguished by a marked
disposition and tendency to universality.'
Thus ' the City ' stands out in the Psalms as the type
of the Church in her objectivity. Sometimes the City is
termed Sion, sometimes Jerusalem. Many of the ancient
Fathers drew a very beautiful distinction between the
two names, holding that Sion was the standing type of
the Church Militant, Jerusalem of the Church Triumphant.
No doubt this distinction gives an admirable fulness of
1 The ' Parthians, Medes, and Apostolic record of the first conver-
Elamites ' of Acts ii. 9 are prefigured sions to the Gospel ; Acts viii. 27, 40 ;
by Babylon (v. 4). 'Egypt and. the ix. 32, 43 ; xxi. 3, 7. Bishop Words-
parts of Libya about Cyrene' repre- worth's Commentary, in loc.
sent the Egypt of the Psalm. The 2 Prof. Monier Williams's Letter
Ethiopia, Philistia, and Tyre of to the Times, February, 1 876.
the Psalm are also found in the

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 171
meaning to many passages, but it has been shown — and
by none more cogently than by Dr. Neale — that it is a key
which often fails.1 As Messiah is termed David, so His
visible and organised polity on earth is called by the old
names of Sion and Jerusalem. The New Testament leads
the way in this application. ' Ye are come unto Mount
Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem.' 'I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the
Mount Sion.' 2
Three Psalms, the 46th, 47th, 48th, (bound together by
the royal clasp of the 45th) are the great hymns of the
City of God. They speak of the security, the victory, the
stability of that City. Conjecture has busied itself in vain
in attempting to discover a historical point to which the
46th may be precariously attached. A tradition of
mysterious dangers, of a storm gathering in the distance,
hung over the elder Church, as it hangs over the Church
of Christ. To this the strain has been referred by
Aben Ezra and Kimchi.3
The commentary of Calvin upon the 48th Psalm, which
has received the highest praise from Jackson, brings out
the prophetic type of the Church with much clearness.
' The Prophet,' says Calvin, ' commends the situation and
beauty of Jerusalem. " Walk about Sion, mark ye well
her bulwarks, consider her palaces." Estimate them
according to their dignity. So it will be seen that the
City is Divinely elected. But the Prophet, by marking as
a definite end that the beauty and splendour of the
1 See Psalm cxxxvii. 5, 7; lxxix. 1, * Heb. xii. 22. Apoc. xiv. 1.
where Jerusalem must mean the literal 3 See Rosenm., Arg. in Psalm
city, or the Church Militant. xlvi. Cf. Ezekiel xxxviii., xxxix.

172 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
Holy City should be related to posterity, seems tacitly
to hint that a time was one day coming when these
glories would no longer be seen. Why tell of that which
was before every one's eyes ? For, — though he had spoken
of " God establishing Sion for ever,"— now he hints that
this perpetuation was only to be until the time of the
renovation of the Church. , We, we are that posterity,
that " generation following," of whom it is said, " Mark
well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell
it to the generations following." ' '
(ii.) The Church is also spoken of in the Psalter as a
Kingdom, and the Psalms of the Kingdom are the Psalms
of Christ as King. Of these the 72nd is the principal.
All which we read in it points to Solomon as its
author; the rich images from nature, the mention of
Sheba and Tarshish, the prominence of peace as a blessing,
the many coloured and yet translucent parabolic form.2
' In any other [than the Christian] sense,' wrote Mr. Cole
ridge, ' it would be a specimen of more than Persian or
Moghul hyperbole and bombast, of which there is no other
instance in Scripture.' 3 If the type of that glorious
Kingdom were originally taken from Israel, it was mise
rably marred and broken. The fulfilment is in the Church
as the Kingdom of Christ. The ideal King must have an
ideal Kingdom of righteousness and peace. M. Guizot has
been aptly quoted, in illustration of the Character of the
King and kingdom as painted in the Psalm. ' Through
all the differences and contests of the modern world, a
1 Jackson's Works, viii. 450. Calvinus in Ps. xlviii. 12.
2 Bishop Lowth, Prwlect. xi. 3 Coleridge, Miscellaneous Pieces, p. 207.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 173
deep and dominant unity lies in its moral life, as in its
destinies. Let us call it Christianity. This great fact has
produced the formation of a public law; the essential
maxims of which are few in number. Among the principal
of these are the following : — Peace is the normal condition
of nations and governments. War is an exceptional fact
which requires a distinct justification.' 1
But that which is most to our present purpose is to
observe what is directly involved in the notion of the
Church as a Kingdom. The people of the New Birth by
the Messiah are not destined to remain in isolation. An
institution is prepared for their reception. That institu
tion is not merely a school with a set of accidental
teachers. It is not merely ' a method ' of piety remark
able for ' its sweet reasonableness.' It is an organised
body, in which the redeemed are knit together ; it is a
community, ordered by social laws and defined subordina
tions, in which each subject has his own place. Above all,
it is guided and directed by one royal Will and purpose,
which pervades and animates the whole. It is a Kingdom,
not a democracy or a school. From the very nature of the
case, it must in some respects present the appearance of
an earthly institution. The truths which are seen by
philosophers ' dwelling apart in their transcendental
world' may content themselves with that realm of
shadows. But the Truth of God is not satisfied with so
little. It will take visible possession of the world. The
Kingdom which the Psalms mention so often, and which
1 Guizot, Memoirs of his own Time, vol. iv., quoted by Dr. Kay, on
Psalm Ixxii. 4.

174 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
our Lord claims for His own, is David's kingdom perfected
and idealised ; all its earthly grossness ennobled and
transformed ; in the world, though not of it — not so hidden
in God as to be absolutely invisible to men.1
This would appear to be the opportunity for consider
ing the bearing upon the Christian Church, and the place
in it, of the references to the sacred history of the people
of God which occur in many Psalms, and occupy entirely
three of great length.2 Are we to grudge their privilege
to these divine songs ? Are we to consider them out of
place and superannuated in the Church of Christ ? Before
answering this question in the negative, let two considera
tions be weighed.
1. History is the fullest field upon which the' human
intellect can trace the workings of Personality. An
historical Eevelation is the correlative of a Personal God.
Those who once accept the Personality of God are generally
disposed to look for that which has been well called ' a
history within history, in which the acts of man are as a
transparent medium through which we may see the
workings of the Will of God.' The Old Testament is the
history of an election, leading on to the more sacred history
of Christ. It is thus a record which exactly inverts Mytho
logy. Mythology is the fancy of Man ascending to God,
The Bible history is the history of God descending to

1 See Riggenbach, Vie de Jesus, p. have two sides, one prophetical the
276. other historical, and hold up ancient
2 lxxviii., cv., cvi. It has been history as a mirror for the present and
observed that these retrospective the future.
Psalms are mainly Asaphic. They

lect v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 175
Man.1 Such a history must be a miraculous history, and
the people with whom it is mainly concerned must be
a miraculous people. For the natural course of things
gives occasionally a man of great goodness and even holi
ness. The human spirib in its development finds some
marvellous voice of almost prophetic power. But such
men appear with intervals of centuries between their
lives. But, along the whole mountain-line of Bible his
tory, there stands out a succession of peaks on which — as
travellers relate of the Himalayas — there is the gleaming
of a dawn before the dawn, even when the stars are still
in the dark-grey vault above and the earth below is
wrapped in shadows. Such early-lighted points are
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — Sinai, Egypt — David's kingdom —
Solomon's Temple. The old songs on these subjects are
set to the music of the new. The history is marked by
words which are typical and predictive, which pass with a
fixed significance into a spiritual language, which cannot
be expressed without them, or interpreted without under
standing them. Prophet, Priest, and King, point on to
Christ. The Temple not made with hands, the Heavenly
Jerusalem, the Catholic Church, hover above the lines
which pass before our eyes. The facts and the history are
Jewish ; but there is a typical in the actual. The pro
phecy rises like a silver column from the fountain of
the history.
Thus the Psalms are pervaded by a principle of reversion
which is important, not only in itself, but as affording the
basis of an argument for the date of many of the Psalms.
1 See Bishop Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, p. 14.

176 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
Prophecy is not sporadic and isolated. It is an organic
development from a primitive sporule under the direction
of a Divine Mind. The future stands in organic con
nection with the present and the past. Words are spoken;
as if at random and before the time ; they come back after
many days. Strokes are added to the Martyr or Eoyal
Image by a hand which lets the pencil fall, and does not
resume for centuries the part of the picture which has
last been touched. Threads of golden lustre are dropped,
and generations elapse before they are taken up again,
and woven into a tissue for which we see they were
destined, and which would be incomplete without them.
Thus the Protevangelion finds no exposition until the
91st Psalm, 'The young lion and the dragon shalt thou
tread under thy feet.' ] Thus in the 110th Psalm the prin
ciple of reversion leads us back to Melchizedek.2 In this
way, each great form and exemplar of the sacred history
moulded by God recurs in its great essential principles.
As time goes on, the language of Prophecy is thus per
petually being enriched. David, Sion, Jerusalem, Babylon,
Edom, have as truly a symbolical sense, though they are
washed in by the waves of History, as the Sacrifice and
the , Priesthood which come through the Levitical books
from direct revelation. Indeed, all predictions of the
future must adopt some such system of shadowing forth
events by other events, constituted to be their types ; —
otherwise, they must be moulded in a mode of expression
which would, almost of necessity, defeat one of the pur-
1 xci. 13 ; cf. Gen. iii. 15. 2 ex. 4.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 177
poses of Prophecy. The future is thus written in the
dark but magnificent language of ' a function or form of
the past dealings of God's Providence.' l ' The Hebrew
Prophets,' says Bishop Lowth,2 ' employ images taken
from the history of past events which have a conspicuous
place in their annals ; and thus in colours which though
different are very like, depict and illustrate the future
by the past, the new by the old, the unknown by the
known.' 3
The feeling of Christians is that which was expressed
by Mr. Coleridge to an honoured Israelite friend. ' Could
I but make you feel what grandeur, what magnificence,
what an everlasting significance and import Christianity
gives to every fact of your national history ! ' 4 A book,
therefore, like the Psalms, if it be Divinely pre-arranged,
will naturally allow 'a considerable space for the facts of
the history of the elder dispensation. Let us instance the
114th Psalm. The mere critic, from his point of view,
may content himself with tracing its merely national
application. He will expand Bosenmiiller's argument.
' A brief narrative of the principal miracles which God
wrought when He brought up the Hebrews from Egypt
into the land of Canaan. A Paschal Psalm, sung with
1 Edward Irving, Morning Watch, Jeremiah's life. That Prophet gives
i. 157. to Pashur the name of
2 Prated, ix. S'OBt? "HXQ (maghor missabhlybh),
3 Eorgetfulness of this principle (Fear round about).
has led to strange assertions of the But these words are a literal quotation
date and authorship of the Psalms. from the 31st Psalm, which is thus
Thus a famous critic — Hitzig — attri- shown to have been already in exist-
butes twenty-seven Psalms to Jere- ence, and well known in Jeremiah's
miah, overlooking the reversion which time. Jerem. xx. 3; Ps. xxxi. 13. See
characterises Prophecy. Of this we Appendix. Note B.
have one most remarkable instance in 4 Miscellaneous Pieces, p. 211.

178 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
the 113th before the Paschal Supper, as the Psalms from
the 115th to the 118th were sung after it. It is excel
lently adapted for the purposes of that festivity.' But,
those who have seen the element in Jewish history to
which we have just adverted have found a more Christian
and spiritual significance in the Psalm. In the Purgatorio
of Dante,1 that great and thoughtful poet places ' In exitu
Israel de iEgypto ' in the mouth of the spirits who see
the shores of heaven from their bark ; and a passage is
cited from one of Dante's prose writings which showed
that he read the 114th Psalm as the voice of thrilling
joy, fitted for the lips of all who are emancipated from
the bondage of sin, and therefore especially of those who,
delivered from the bondage of the flesh, are passing into
rest.2 This, too, is the ground of a much more sure
application of one of the noblest and darkest of all the
Psalms, the 68th. 'It is,' cries Herder, 'the glorious
summary of all God's marches from mountain to mountain,
from victory to victory.' 3 The ascent of God for His
Church, the royal rain of gifts shaken out upon it,4 form
a pledge and prelude of His manifestation in Christ, and
of the fulness which He is to bestow. It is the applica
tion of the principle of reversion, which justifies the
Church in singing the 68th Psalm upon Whitsunday,
and which justified St. Paul in the exposition that he
gives of it in the Epistle to the Ephesians.5

1 Canto ii. 46. * S]ijfi n'l3"!3 t>&i lxviii. 9.
2 See Bishop Wordsworth on 1 s Ephes. iv/8, 9, 10. The taste-
Corinth x. legg sneers 0f some critics against the
3 Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, pt. ii. 68th Ps. may be silently rebuked by
ch. 3.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 179
2. A further reason for the retention of Jewish words
and ideas in the book which was destined to be the great
Manual of the Christian Church may be gathered from
a study of some passages in St. Paul's Epistles more
especially. The Jewish dispensation had been moulded and formed
by the wisdom which knew what was in man. There was
much in it which was beautiful and captivating, and which
addressed itself to the best parts of human nature. ' The
raciness of Old Testament piety,' writes Mr. Alexander
Knox, ' especially in the inimitable and ever-blooming
Psalms ; upbraiding our Christian chilliness with a warmth
which few even pretend to rival, and a happiness which
in some modern divinity it has been a principle to dis
card ; all this implied a system of things, and an instru
mentality very unlikely to be wholly set aside. We must
resolve [St. Paul's] concern [for the dissolution of Juda
ism] into some sense of its worth and benefit. His language
on this has been the wonder of the Christian Church.
Much passed through his mind of Jewish history, cele
brations, prospects. The melancholy reverse of all that
the Old Testament describes, and the Psalms exemplify, of
God's own people filling God's own House with voices of
joy, lowered before him like a night of clouds. If such
his feelings, with what delight must he have penned Ephe
sians ii. ? Every expression here gives evidence that the
Gentile Church, as now contemplated by him., presented
the language of a learned Rationalist cseleste sacrarium describi ; sed nihil
of the last generation. ' Jam ver6 satis explorati habeo.' J. Dav. Mi-
caligare mihi oculos sentio : suspieor chaelis, Epimetr. de Ps. lxviii.
equidem ascensum in sublimius et

180 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
delightful compensation for all that was to be parted with
in the literal Judaea. It is here— I mean in the systematic
transfer and establishment of all that was permanently
useful and intrinsically valuable in Judaism, that I find
the Apostle's mysterious sense of the calling of the
Gentiles.' >
In the Psalms more especially we have in a concen
trated form all 'that is thus permanently useful and
intrinsically valuable in Judaism.' And, if this be so, we
have no reason to wonder that the language should so
far be tinged with Judaism.
(iii.) A third image under which the Church is repre
sented in the Psalms is that of a Bride.
This image is one of the most conspicuous illustrations
of that law of condescension in the language of Holy
Scripture, under which God deigns to shadow forth His
character and relation to us by terms derived from human
feelings. Not only the thoughtful tenderness of paternal
affection is constantly thus employed, but the strength, the
ardour, the solicitude, the very jealousy of conjugal love.2
One marked feature in the Old Testament is the way
in which this great idea is slowly elaborated.
1 Alexander Knox's Remains, iii. ageret amor, isque vehementissimus.''
236-238, (abridged). -—Lowtb, DeSacr.Poes. Hebr.,Praleet.
2 ' In S. Scripturis descendit quo- xxxi. De Cantico Salomonis Argwm.
dammodo in terrain Deus . . . mortali et Stylo. Lowth proceeds to show
similis — ii/j.kv Sifjas 7)Se koI avS-qv. that the image referred to in the text
Hanc allegoriam dvBpwTroirddeiav ap- is an example of Aristotle's Analogical
pellant. Neque sane est ulla menti Metaphor. Pour terms being pro-
humanae commotio, quae non plane posed — 1 : 2 as 3:4, and the terms
Deo tribuatur; nee minimum ese, quse can be interchanged. Thus (1) God
multumterrenaefaecissecumadmistum is to 2 (the Church) as (3) the
habere videntur, iracundia, dolor, Husband to 4 (the Wife). 1 is 3 of
odium, ultio. Pieri non potuit, quin 2 as 2 is 4 of 1. — Arist. Poet. cap.
suas etiam in hac veluti fabula partes xxii. ; Rhet. iii. 3.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 181
God's love is early imaged by that of spousal affection.
' Thou shalt worship no other god : for the Lord, Whose
name is Jealous, is a jealous God.1 Idolatry is spiritual
fornication or adultery. The sweet and solemn idea of
God's spousal love clothes itself in poetry, more especially
in the 45th Psalm : —
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.2
Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ;
Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house.3
After its first prominent use in the Psalter, this, image
fastened on the popular mind, until it was worked out in
the Song of Songs, that ' noble and gentle history,' with
its ' types and echoes of the actings and emotions of the
highest Love . . . foreshadowings of the infinite conde
scensions of Incarnate Love.' 4 It was referred to by
Prophet after Prophet.5 In Hosea the Song of Songs
is given back in sighs.6 Hence follows in the New
Testament all that wealth of allusion to the Marriage
Feast, to the Bridegroom, to the Bride, by the Baptist,
by St. John, by St. Paul, by Christ Himself.7
1 Exod. xxxiv. 14; cf. xx. 5. ' See Introduction to the Song of
2 Let us note that if the autho- Solomon, in the Speaker's Bible.
rity of Gesenius be against this ren- 5 See Isaiah liv. 5 ; Ixii. 4, 5 ; Je-
dering, that of Rosenmiiller is strongly rem. iii, 1-20 ; Ezekiel vi., xvi., xxiii.
for it. Historically, ' because there is 6 ' In the Hebrew canon of Scrip-
no reason for doubting that even the ture' the Prophet Hosea follows next,
more ancient Hebrews looked upon ;n order of time, after the Book of
Messiah as having a nature greater Canticles.' Bishop Wordsworth, Com-
than human.' Grammatically, because mentary upon the Minor Prophets.
it is most natural to take ?''n^K as See Appendix. Note C.
vocative. See below, p. 199. ' St. Matt. ix. 15 ; xxii. 1, 2 ; St.
3 vv. 6, 9, 10. John iii. 29 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; Ephes.

182 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
If this view of the Psalter be true, we have in these
three images the Church as God's City, Kingdom, Bride;
her visibility, organisation, and unity.1
To those who thus feel, the 132nd, 133rd, and 134th
Psalms will be no merely historical or national strains.
They assume an abiding import. They are not beads
strung at random. In the first, we have the Priesthood of
Christ ; in the second, we have the Body of Christ, the
Church in its unity, the drops of grace, flowing down to
the least and lowest through a fixed and appointed
channel. In the last, we have the voice of the people
and the Benediction ofthe ministry. The 132nd Psalm
ends, as we have seen, with words which speak of the
Messiah under the image of the Aaronie priesthood ;
On Himself shall His crown flourish.
In the 133rd is one of the most beautiful images in the
Psalter — an illustration of the blessings of unity, drawn by
one who had looked upon the mountains with the eye of
a poet, as well as upon the sanctuary with the eye of a
saint. For thus he speaks of the grace which lights
upon and blesses souls through a common priesthood and
common ordinances : —

v. 22-32; Apoc. xix. 7; xxi. 2; xxii. 12, where the words of Ps. xxii. 22
1 7. are adopted in a. Christian sense.'
1 ' The very rapidity with which [ip.-jp ^j-^ ps. xxii. 22. iv fj-eaf
iKK\-r]<ria acquired its new meaning is , T, T / :T -^-,r j tt i_ ¦ • i o .
j: j! ?l ,¦* n ,?, eKKXrjalas, LXX. and Hebrews u. 12;
a proot ol the life and grace which, ,T ,. ,. ijurria
,.,„,,, .,.,,.- In medio ecclesi* laudabo le, o.
Irom the first, the thought of com- ,
munion with one another must have Hieron. Cf. xl. 9, 3"J ?n|??> iv ilc'
exerted on the minds of the earliest Kh-n<jl<f fj.eyd\-n, LXX ; ' In ecclesia
believers. Some indication of the multa,' S.Hieron.] Jowett, Epistles of
transition is traceable in Hebrews ii. St. Paul. i. 40.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 183
Behold, how good and how pleasant,
The dwelling of brothers all at unity.
As the oil, the precious oil, on the head,
Descending on the beard, the beard of Aaron,
Descending on the hem of his robe.
The dew which falls on the parched hill of Zion may
fitly be called dew of Hermon ; for the great mountain is
constantly gathering and sending off clouds which float
down thither, and the melting snows produce a vapour
which is taken up and falls there. Well may men use this
Psalm when a new church is consecrated — with deeper
enjoyment if they see the full meaning of the image : —
As the dew of Hermon which is descending on the mountains of
Zion.1
The exquisite beauty of the Eitual in the 134th Psalm is
often unperceived. Two separate threads of devotion may
be disentangled in it. The first is the blending of many
voices early in the morning, as the faithful ascend the hill
of the Lord. Its sound is wafted onward in unison, and
through the gates the Hymn comes to the waiting priests.
Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,
Ye who stand in the house of the Lord in the nights,
Lift up your hands in holiness,2
And bless ye the Lord.
The choral song draws out a response. The answering
(k'tal-chermon sheyyoredh)
(yal-har'arey tsiyyon). — Psalm cxxxiii. 3.
* EH'p Q5in^
(s'u-y'dhekhem kodhesh) cxxxiv. 2.

184 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
Benediction is chanted, and the people collectively are
blessed as one man.
Bless Thee the Lord out of Zion,
The Maker of Heaven and Earth.1
II.
At the close of a discussion like the present, we are
constrained to compare the conception of the Church as
it has been drawn by Pearson 2 with the current theory
of the Church. Anglicans believe the Church to be a
great human society, composed of visible elements, under
an invisible King. Eomanists believe it to be a great ¦
society, composed of visible elements, under a visible King.
Many of our Separated brethren believe it to be not a
visible society at all, but an invisible society under an
invisible King.3 If we were arguing against the preten
sions of Eomanists, we might easily answer their favourite
appeal to the grandeur of their conception of a Church
with a visible Head. Which is the grander of two
columns — one which rises from the ground a few feet, and
is crowned by a figure which we can examine minutely,
or one which should tower up so high that its top would
be almost lost in the upward distance ?
Let us speak of the harm and the good of the popular
view. The harm is that it leads to self-contradiction intel
lectually. Many good men who support it say — ' We look
1 Delitzsch, Commentary on the > See a Charge delivered in 1875
Psalms, in loc. by the Bishop of Winchester.
2 See beginning of the Lecture.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND- CHRISTIANITY. 185
round Christendom. We pronounce ourselves, we vaunt
ourselves, to be sestarians. We Baptists are Baptist, we
Methodists Methodist, we Episcopalians Episcopal, sec
tarians.' The remedy for this is a strange one. A grand
gathering of sectarians is announced. They meet for a
few days on what is called an undenominational platform.
And then, after certain meetings and speeches, they go
back — the Baptist to be Baptist still, and the Episcopalian
to be Episcopal still. That is to say, they go back to
admitted and glorified sectarianism.
Further, this notion leads to something worse than in-
• tellectual contradiction. It leads to spiritual deception.
What should the language of true Christians be, in
sight of our miserable divisions — in sight of Christendom
rent asunder, here by the arrogance of Eome, there by
the narrowness of sects '? Should it not be this ? The
seamless robe of Christ is torn. Whether we belong to
the East or West, whether we call ourselves Lutherans
or Calvinists, whether we are members of the great
Eeformed Anglican Church, or separated from it, we have
sinned. Sometimes by persecution, as one or other party
had power. The Eoman Catholics, indeed, pre-eminently
so. Tet be it not forgotten that the calm and accurate
Hah1 am spoke1 of intolerance as the 'original sin' in which
the Eeformed Churches were cradled. Sometimes by the
narrowness which was far more of the heart than of the
intellect. By the nails of our passions and the thorns of
our controversies we have torn it.
This should be our confession. But the theory of the
1 Constitutional History, I. ch. ii.

188 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
Evangelical Alliance would lead us to exclaim, ' We have
not been guilty of this great sin, we or our fathers. The
robe is not rent at all.' '
I need* only add three things: (1) The very word
Alliance implies a contradiction of unity. Separate
nations or Powers, which never can or will be united,
enter into alliances. But the Church is one. (2) This
view leads to a novel idea, and a newly understood, if not
newly expressed, Article of the Creed. (3) We cannot
pass from our system, either to Eome as she was in the
Middle Ages, nay, thirty years ago, or to Nonconformity
as it was at the Eeformation. The first has altered-
Theology and organisation ; the second has altered
Theology. Tet the conception of the Evangelical Alliance is not
without theoretical grandeur, or the fact without practical
good. It is the witness of holy men to the inestimable
blessing of unity. It is the confession, in the sight of
men and angels, of all that is noblest in sectarianism,
sick of itself, and desirous of being healed of its chronic
disease. In great gatherings of long-sundered religious com
munities (such as that which took place at New York a
few years ago) men feel the pulsations of a larger life.
' How,' asked Arnold, ' is it possible to teach boys who
have never seen the sea ? ' How is it possible, we are
tempted to cry, to get men to grasp the idea of unity who
1 I feel how much of the last and Messenger (New York), by my gifted
following page is due to an article friond, the Rov. Hugh Miller Thomp-
in The Church Journal and Gospel son, D.D.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 187
have been brought up within the narrow boundaries of a
sect, and have never seen the vast expanse of the universal
Church ? But, in such gatherings, men's souls rise above
the valleys within which they have been girded, and be
yond the villages which have bounded their conceptions.
They see for a moment, with the Korahite Psalmist, that
the praise of the city is inseparable from that of its Archi
tect and Founder.1 They catch a glimpse of the shining
of the ocean. They see the crown of light over the
City of God. The old Song of the TJpgoings rushes to
their lips :—
I was glad because of those saying to me,
' To the house of the Lord we will go.'
Standing have been our feet in thy gates, O Jerusalem !
Jerusalem that is builded as a city which is compact together.2
Jerusalem and Sion become living and real. They find
that the old words are deep and burning still. ' Very
excellent things are spoken of thee, 0 City of God ! ' 3
If we stand aloof from such schemes, and feel a pro
found distrust of such theories, it is right for us to consider
in what spirit we ought to do so. Not with words of
taunting and bitterness. Not, as St. Peter says, ' speaking
evil of spiritual glories.4 It may not always be easy to
discuss with becoming meekness theological systems
which, though historically young, are already super-
1 ' Great is the Lord, and greatly to yvupiaBrj . . . Sicfc T7Js iKKKn<rlas r)
be praised in the City of our God' iroKv-n oixtKos aofyia toC ®eou, Ephes.
(Psalm xlviii. 1). ' Laudaturus aedi- iii. 10.
fieium incipit a laude Architecti ; " Psalm cxxii. 1, 2, 3.
magnificentiaDei,undelaudandusest, 3 Psalm lxxxvii. 3.
conspicitur in ecclesia ' (Bellarm. in * 8<j£as $\ao<p-np.ovvTes, 2 Pet. ii.
loc.) This is St. Paul's thought : W 10 ; S. Jud. 8.

188 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
annuated. But, at least, when we see noble aims, high
gifts, heavenly works, d^ep faith, pure lives, holy deaths —
when we name Chalmers, Macleod, Livingstone — we will
bless God for His grace in His servants, and abstain
from personal judgments.
If we be asked what hope we have, surrounded, as we
are, by a sectarianism which grows more sectarian, and a
tradition of separation which becomes more inveterate,
we can only say that we turn to the prayer of our Great
High Priest : ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on Me through their word ;
That they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us ; that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.' " Volumes are
written upon the Philosophy of Eeligion. Successive
systems lay hold of the youth of a great University for one
or two generations of students. The older among us
remember days when the philosophy of some particular
preacher appeared to be the formal Philosophy of Eeligion.
' Systems having the appearance of universal knowledge
have a tendency to engender acquiescence.' Each system
has risen upon the death of a successor, to go down on its
turn before a subtler and keener edge; —it holds the
shrine by a precarious tenure, like
The priest who slays the slayer,
And shall himself be slain.
Volumes of evidences are written, convincing in them
selves, but which do not convince. Yet the proof of proofs
1 St. John xvii. 20, 21.

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 189
— the Unity of which our Lord spoke as the argument
whereby to extort the world's belief— that Christendom
can scarcely show. ' But,' it will be said, ' Christians are
one invisibly. They are bound by threads too fine to
be seen by worldly eyes, by cords which are as light as
air and as strong as adamant.' Thank God, there is a
truth in this. But the unity of which Jesus speaks is
visible. It is a unity which even the world can see. If
we were as the Angels of God ; if we were disembodied
spirits ; if we had the sight which, as some assert, can
perceive the flame which runs along the magnetic threads
that go from heart to heart ; this invisible unity might
be enough. But it was of material and concrete beings,
who see through eyes of flesh, that our Lord asked that
by the sight of the unity of believers they also might be
brought to believe. And therefore an invisible unity is
not enough. III.
For us, the Psalter, with its grand anticipations, with
its predelineations of the Church, speaks out against the
notion that Christ was to become Incarnate merely to
teach a doctrine or found a school of philosophy. The
Christian Church is in the Psalter as really as Christ, the
Body as really as the Head, Still there is one standing
before us who looks up with eyes of loving admiration,
and exclaims inn-ID) (y'sudhatho), 'His foundation is in the
holy mountains.' The City of God — that City of which we
are all citizens in so far as we are Christians — is no airy
sketch, no unsubstantial form. It is not a chain of
Lecture Eooms or Sunday Schools — a democracy swayed

190 ' THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
by rhetoricians. It is the 'grand Church,'1 the 'people
of strength,' 2 the city that is ' compacted together,' 3 the
' city of strength,' 4 ' the city of the Lord of Hosts, the
city of our God.' 5 That city is built up by its citizens.
'Ipsi sunt lapides, qui sunt cives; lapides enim vivi sunt.' 6
Thus the Psalter has varied tones. Some prophesy of
Christ Eisen and Glorified. Some, we have dared to
affirm, are the voice of His agony or triumph. Some
contain the germs of great dogmas. Some, as their name
implies, are for thoughtful meditation. Some have words
of fire for the praises of God. Some are cries of peni
tence. But there is one continuous strain, ever prophesy
ing of the Church and of the relation of the individual soul
to it, and through it to God — of grace, which is, indeed,
intensely personal, but which is bestowed upon the indi
vidual as a member of a favoured city and a great organi
sation.7 There are certain images recurring again and
again. We might well wonder at their meaning being
hidden from the spiritual perceptions of good men, if we
did not know what local influences are round the sectarian
1 3T ^>nj53 e> iKKX-nFia. TroAXfj, * ssxi. 21. s xlviii. 1, 8.
LXX ; ' In ecclesia grandi,' S. Hieron. 6 S. Augustin. Enarrat. in Ps.
Psalm xxxv. 18. lxxxvii.
2 D-1SU UV Hid. i Five words (Psalm xxxi. 21)
3 "HIV n^'mBPIK'' cxxii. 3 (")3n contain in nuce the whole theological
Pual ofnnn), is'understood by Ge- df ^ of Srace' and the re!atl0DS
" T of the personal and ecclesiastical in
senius of a city joined together after religion : (1) Grace is supernatural,
ruin. But nearly all versions and au- /
thorities are against him. cvvd^etav *F?V ' He hath miraculously
exovaa 6p.ov, Symm. ; lis ti fieroxh wrought.' (2) Gratuitous, faDO
ai-rijs i-nl -rb «W, LXX ; ' Quae con- 'Mercy of benignity.' (3) Personal,
iuncta sibi est una,' Rosenm. ; 'Which Jt . Tr. , ... T .,
¦ , j . ,, . .. , . 17 'His grace to me. (i) In the
is bound together vn its houses, i.e. ¦ v '
whose houses stand closely together,' Church, livp "Vya ' In a city of
Puerst. strength.'

lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 191
life. There are times when the keenest eyes cannot see
St. Paul's in the fog. These images tell us of a Com
munity, attractive, popular, peaceful, universal. It is the
old dispensation transformed and glorified. Its origin is
pointed out by Sion and Jerusalem ; — -its organisation
and objectivity by the city of God; its splendour, sway,
and union under Christ its Lord by the Kingdom. It is
true that for every soul religion is a personal thing ; that
without conscience feeling a burden, and faith laying it on
a Saviour, we can neither fitly sing the Psalter below nor
chant the new song above. But do not let us say that
nothing, after all, is lost by the Christian incivisme which
drops out of sight this element in the Psalms. Every
Article in the Creed neglected or denied, like every Article
exaggerated, has its revenge. There are often for com
munities four degrees in the descent: — No dogmatic
Christianity, no historical Church, no historical Chris-
tianit}7, no Christianity at all. If we lose nothing else,
we lose the courage given by the sense of being members
of a great host, with a glorious history and magnificent
prospects. In 1859, after Magenta, a vast army marched
through a country thickly covered with shrubs and small
trees. As the soldiers plodded wearily on, none could see
more than a few hundred comrades on the right or left.
Then at last a vast open plain was reached ; instead of
marching, corps after corps, they were deployed across
the plain simultaneously in line of battle. The setting
sun gleamed upon miles of burnished arms and glittering
standards ; and the eye of every soldier flashed and his
cheek flushed at the magnificence of the spectacle. They

192 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. v.
were really as strong and as close before ; but each
fraction had a depressing sense of isolation. They now
became aware of their strength. The next day was Sol-
ferino.1 Such courage is given to the soldier of Christ
by the visible unity of the Church to which he belongs.
And the Psalter is the music of that great host as it
marches on to victory. Psalm after Psalm peals grandly
out of the Kingdom, the City, the Bride — of Sion and
Jerusalem. One string is mute or broken for those who
do not bear within them the idea of the living Church.
For such, as they read, or hear, or sing, one great thought
fades into the shadows of the past; subsides into the
dust of antiquarianism ; falls back into the pigeon-holes
of history ; recedes from the Catholic, the Spiritual, and
the Eternal, into the local, temporary, sectarian, and
national. The accomplishment shrinks into the type, the
reality into a distant memory. ' See,' cries St. Augustine,
'of what city he sayeth that very glorious things are
spoken of it. The earthly Jerusalem is destroyed. It has
endured the violence of its enemies ; it is laid even with
the ground ; it is not what it was ; it expressed the image
of what it was to represent, and passed away like a sha
dow.' 2 Psalm after Psalm (pre-eminently the 46th, the
48th, 87th, 122nd, 133rd) bears witness to the Church.
As we hear, our hearts may pass onward from the historical
Jerusalem, the Church Militant, to the city of the Living
God; — and upward to the Church Triumphant, to
Jerusalem the Golden, to
Where beyond these voices there is Peace.
1 Due d'Harcourt, Speech at Falaise, 1875. 2 Enarrat. in Ps. Ixxxvii.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 193

LECTUEE VI.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
Psalm cxlv. 13.
Va\fibs . . 'EKK\T]0-las (pwyfi . . oZtos tcls eoprds (paiSpiivet.
St. Basil, Homil. in Ps. i.
A traveller has observed that the great Cathedral of
Damascus is still standing. But the Christian Church
has been turned into a mosque. Over one magnificent
portal remains legibly inscribed in Greek characters the
thirteenth verse of the 145th Psalm, with the addition of
one single word —
'H fiao-iXela. auv, Xpicre, (iaciXiia. Travrwy tSjv alwvtuv.
There stands the clause, in letters unobliterated by time
or hostile hands ; unheeded by the haughty ignorance of
the Moslem ; saddening, for the moment at least, every
Christian who can read it as he passes by, ' Thy Kingdom,
O Christ ! is an everlasting Kingdom.' '
This inscription at least affords evidence how those who
reared the Church interpreted and applied the 145th Psalm,
and with it many other parts of the Psalter. It was for
them an act of worship addressed to our Incarnate Lord.
To one employed in the task which occupies us at present
1 Tristram, Holy Land, p. 618.
0

194 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
the question may naturally occur — Is the interpretation
to which this inscription gives evidence driven from the
intellectual and spiritual world by criticism ? Does the
Theology from which the application issued belong to a
fallen cause, like the Church over which it is engraved ?
The Christian life has two aspects. One concerns the
Christian as an individual soul, the other as a member of
the Christian community. And the spiritual life of this
community expresses itself in appointed seasons, in ser
vices of worship, in churches appropriate to such seasons
and services. We have found in the Psalter abundant
witness to the Christian character, and to the Christian
Church. Can we discover in it a correspondent witness
to Christian worship : i.e., both to the adoration of our
Lord himself, and to the general system of worship which
the Church connects with that adoration?
I.
Before entering directly upon the answer to this
question, we should observe that the Psalter is a witness
to the reality of the spiritual world, and to the reality of
religion in the more general and indefinite sense of the
word. Many of us are living in an atmosphere where con
jecture is, for the present, running in an opposite direc
tion. The course of philosophy, it is whispered, tends not
so much to the refutation as to the reversal of the teaching
of the Bible. For the summary of the view of Man's con
dition in Scripture is that it is a fall; the summary
in modern philosophy is that it is a rise. The Bible

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 19.5
doctrine is that man has descended from a higher state ;
the doctrine of historical and positive truth is that he
has ascended from a lower state. And in so doing it is
urged that scientific enquiry has made the world poorer
and richer; poorer by the annihilation of the sunlit
dream of Paradise, richer by the refutation of the sombre
drama of the Fall. But with the same stroke of his pen
which dissipates the possibility of the Fall the philosopher
has also cancelled the whole idea of necessity for re
demption. The Tree of Calvary is uprooted with the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As the first
Adam melts into the mist of legend, the Second Adam is
dispossessed of His Throne, and is only a single sufferer
bleeding upon a Cross. And there is reason to believe
that progressive thought will banish illusion after illusion,
until the glorious Minster, surmounted by its cross, shall
be saved from becoming as ruinous and deserted as the
Temple of Jupiter at Ostia, only upon the ignominious
condition of lending itself to public utility as a lecture-
hall or museum.1
Now the Psalms are, to take them at the lowest, an
evidence of the existence of a spiritual world. Some in
this audience will remember the beautiful proof, by the
present Dean of St. Paul's, of the existence of a world
of music from the existence of faculties for music, and
its application to this part of my present subject.
More than two hundred years ago a great English divine,
Dr. Jackson, argued upon the same line. ' We maj' feel
the pulses of our Psalmists' passions beating in their
1 See Mr. Martineau's Address at Owens College upon Materialism.
o 2

196 THE WITNESS OF' THE PSALMS lect. vi.
ditties, if we would lay our hearts unto them. As ethnic
poets' passions, expressed in their writings, bewray their
experience in such matters as they write of; as of their
delight in love enjoyed, or of earthly sorrow for their
exile, death of friends, or other like worldly crosses; so
do these sacred ditties witness their penmen's experience
in such matters as they profess — as of spiritual joy, com
fort, fear, confidence, or any other affection whatever.'
And he proceeds to argue that, when we compare Ovid's
Elegy to Augustus with David's penitence or yearning
after God, the last implies reality of desire and of object
quite as much as the first.
It should be remembered that Man brings into the
world and bears about with him a Prophecy as well as a
History. We are told — and some of us are content to
acknowledge that we are at least unable to contradict the
assertion — that Man has a natural history written on the
nipple of his breast, and on the bead of flesh which repre
sents the folding of the ear that belonged to his distant
progenitors. But he also brings into the world with him
a Natural Prophecy. It is asserted that all our faculties
are the outcome of the slow, sure fitting of our organi
sation to our circumstances. Yet the lowest savages have
a brain, and with it a capacity, indefinitely beyond their
present wants. And we, ' the heirs of all the ages,'
have spiritual capacities, yearnings, possibilities, for which
the present and the visible afford no adequate satisfaction.
Our Natural History may be written in flesh and muscles ;
our Natural Prophecy is written on the pathetic pages
of prayers and rituals. To this Prophecy there are

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 197
witnesses in many lands. We shall know its import
more accurately when a great philologist of this University
shall have carried out his gigantic task of translating
the Sacred Books of the great and original religions which
profess to be founded upon such Books. The promised
translation of the Hymns of the Eig-Veda, with explana
tions to enable those who are unacquainted with Sanskrit
to understand the thoughts of the Vedic poets, will afford
materials for a comparison with the Psalter, of which I
can say nothing. Yet thus much may safely be asserted.
It has been said that there are four words of man as
man. In one he declares the primary fact given to him
in consciousness, and incapable of other proof — ' I am.'
In one he asserts his power of moral determination —
' I can.' In one he sums up his conviction of an ultimate
law from which there is no appeal, the august conception
of virtue and duty — 'I ought.' In one he states a
fact which no outward impediment can change or con
strain — ' I will.' Surely there is a fifth utterance of man
as man, whether it be expressed as a verb — ' I pray,' or
abbreviate its yearnings in one touching cry — ' My God ! '
For if the tree of our poor humanity has roots that go down
deep ' below the cabin of the savage,' even to the lair of
the brute, yet aloft it has tendrils that uncurl themselves
and stretch forward to a mysterious light. Of this
Natural Prophecy, this yearning after the Eternal, there
is surely no such record as the Psalter. Think of those
words of the 73rd Psalm : l —
1 vv. 23-26.

198 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
And I — with Thee, O God ! I am always,
Through the extension of the days.1
Me — my hand holden — Thou wilt guide along
With counsel sweet and strong ; 2
And, when life lies behind,3 take me therefrom
Magnificently home.4
Whom have I in the boundless heavens above ?
On earth, what other love ?
Faileth and is foredone my flesh and heart.
Eock of my heart,
And portion evermore, O God, Thou art !
II.
But the purpose of the present Lecture is to consider
the witness afforded by the Psalms (i.) to the worship of
Christ, or (ii.) in forms and conditions specifically Chris
tian. i.
The worship of Christ in the Psalter is unequivocally
recognised by the New Testament. The Author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, in his 1st chapter, quotes two
addresses to God. The first is from the 45th Psalm : —
Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever.5
It is, indeed, urged that the translation adopted by the
Apostolic Writer is untenable, and the great authority of
Gesenius is triumphantly quoted. For Christians there is,
1 T>I3FI (tamiyd), Psalm lxxiii. 23. *|'n3 in ace. adverbially (Gesen.),
2 T|r)p:3 (bay atsath'kha), v. 24 ^ ^ vpoffeKdpov ^ LXX. On
The root, yy\ implies a notion of v,^, see note in Lecture III. p. 110.
command.  u ]s the verb used of EnQch and

-IPIN (achar).

Elijah.

4 Wj?fl TU3 (kabhodh tlkkache- , ^^ ._ g . ^ F^m ^ Q
my)-

lect. vt. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 199
of course, no appeal from the New Testament. But
Eosenmiiller may teach us that on critical principles we
have no reason to be ashamed. ' Our poet,' says that
scholar, ' calls the King whom he glorifies God, not as a
supreme magistrate, but because he really conceived Him
to be a greater than human monarch, which the mention
of eternity also denotes. Gesenius, indeed, denies that
the more ancient Hebrews had any such opinion of the
Divinity of Messiah, and contends that the conception
was introduced by the later Jews, not very long before the
Birth of Jesus. He interprets the place in the 45th
Psalm as follows : —
lUl oVlJJ Cn^X ^ND3 (kis'akha 'elohiym jjolam vajjedh).
"Thy Throne of God," i.e., Thy Divine Throne, the
throne on which God hath seated Thee, " shall be eternal."
Aben-Ezra compares, " Then Solomon sat on the throne
of the Lord as king" (1 Chron. xxix. 23). But no one
can possibly deny that the sentence runs more easily if we
take Elohim as a vocative than if we adopt the interpre
tation of Aben-Ezra and Gesenius. Nor is there any reason
for doubting that the more ancient Hebrews conceived the
Great King, who, they supposed, would bring with Him
the world's golden age, to be of a nature more than
human. Such a way of thinking was far more suitable to
the minds of men in remote antiquity than to the soberer
and more rational cast of later contemplation.' J
The second passage from the Psalter in which the
1 Scholia, in loc. — On the part of Schoettgen well observes that, if
the citation from Psalm xiv. in He- Christ were God only, He would have
brews i. 9, the following note will be no fellows or associates. Since, there-
useful : — ' Tlapd tovs fier6xovs <rov. fore, His fellows are spoken of, He

200

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.

Epistle to the Hebrews recognises the worship of Christ
as God in the Psalms is taken from the 102nd Psalm,
where the abiding character of Messiah's kingdom is
hymned in lofty strains as a consolation for the shortness of
human life and the vanity of things created.1 ' And, Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the

must be either man or angel. But He
is not an angel, because He took the
seed of Abraham ; and He is the son
of David, and therefore human as well
as divine. The superabundant unction
of the Messiah is in reference to the
special manner in which the High
Priest was anointed with the holy oil.
It was poured upon his head (Exod.
xxix. 7 ; Levit. viii. 12; comp. Ps.
cxxxiii. 2), and ran down upon his
beard, even to the skirts of his gar
ments, whilst the ordinary priests
were only anointed by sprinkling.
Thomas Goodwin says, " Secundani
Sacerdotes tantum adspergebantur
oleo isto unctionis admixto sanguine
qui erat super altari (Levit. viii. 30).
Hinc Sacerdos Summus in fonte
legitur Sacerdos unctus (Levit. iv. 5).
Jonathan habet ; Sacerdos magnus vel
summus. Diserte Aben-Ezra ; Sacer
dos magnus ipse est Sacerdos unctus.
Lyranus adhuc clarius ; Sacerdos unctus
est Sacerdos magnus, quia inferiores
Sacerdotes non ungebaniur. Per hoc
denotata fuit unctio nostri Salvatoris,
uncti oleo alacritatis supra consortes
suos, Ps. xiv. 8. Unctus fuit supra
consortes suos extensive et intensive.
Extensive, nam etsi Aaron fuerit
Sacerdos unctus, Saul rex unctus,
Elisa propheta unctus, Melchizedek et
Rex et Sacerdos, Moses Sacerdos et
propheta, David Rex et Propheta;
nemo tamen nisi solus Christus,
Xpio-ros, fWD, simul et Rex et Sacer
dos et Propheta fuit. Intensive ; Ipse
est unctus, nos adspersi ; Ipse plenus

gratia, et veritate, nos ex Ipsius
plenitudine accipimus gratiam pro
gratia, xtipiyoi'Ti x&Pir°s\ Joh. i. 14-
16. Et omnes Christian!, prseprimis
ministri, sunt Xpio-Tov evuilia rip &ef,
fragrantia Christi Deo; 2 Cor. ii. 15."
(Moses et Aaron, pp. 77, 78).'
1 ' This Psalm cii. looks forward to
the time when the ' heathen shall fear
the name of Jehovah, and all the kings
ofthe earth His glory' (v.15). Andalso,
' When the peoples (D»!3J? plur.) are
gathered together, and the kingdoms,
to serve the Lord' (v. 22). In other
words, it is Messianic in its consola
tory exhortations. The application of
vv. 25-27 to the Divine Messiah is no
forced interpretation. Jacob had fore
told that 'to Him should the gather
ing of the nations be.' The Targums
of Onkelos, Jonathan, and Jerusalem,
with one consent, interpret Jacob's
prophecy concerning Shilo, of the
Messiah; as also of the Babylonian
Gemara, Sanhedrim, col. 970 (Ugolin.
Thes., vol. 25), where a variety of
opinions are given as to Messiah's
name,\CrV xbw »"1DK tfW '3"l 'IT
n w tor '3 ~iy -idk:e>
1 The disciples of R. Sila said, Shiloh
is his name, for it is said, " until Shiloh
come.'" See also The Messiaship of
Jesus, by Alexander M'Caul, D.D.,pp.
142-1 45. Both these notes are taken
from Mr. M'Caul's profoundly learned
Commentary on the Epistle to the He
brews (pp. 21, 22), a hook which few liv
ing men can be competent to criticise.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND -CHRISTIANITY. 201
earth.' ! The Church is thus taught the principle of referring
to Christ certain Psalms which are yet addressed to God.
The Psalter leads to the worship of Jesus indirectly
and directly, (1) by way of general preparation, and (2) by
a special provision which runs through it.
1. The general preparation consists in that tone of
tender condescension which permits the glorious God so
often to allow Himself to be spoken of in the Psalms
under attributes derived not only from the affections, but
even from the corporeal portion of our humanity. The
greatest of ancient Theologians are full of warnings
against erroneous and degrading conceptions derived from
such expressions. ' Whatever of mere corporeal simili
tude,' writes St. Augustine, ' occurs to you when you
think of such passages, abige, abnue, nega, respue, abjice,
fuge.'2 'The essence of the Divine Nature,' concludes
John Damascenus,3 ' ought not to be represented, since it
never .was revealed to mortal eyes. But He permits the
Son to be figured, because He took upon Him our nature,
our natural body, the form and colour of our flesh.' And
St. Jerome warns ordinary readers against degrading the
magnificence of God by referring passages in which these
symbols occur to human imbecility. We read in the
Psalms of the wings, the hand, the eye, the foot, the face
of God. But wings are mentioned, which we have not,
to save us from mistake, and symbolise Brovidence, while
the face symbolises knowledge. ' God,' he adds, ' is all
eye, all hand, all foot. All eye, because He sees all
1 Hebrews i. 10 ; cf. Psalm cii. 25, 26, 27. 2 Epist. cxx. 13.
3 Orat. III. De Imaginibus.

202 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
things ; all hand, because He works all things ; all foot,
because He is omipresent.' This feature in the Psalms
might be mistaken superficially for anthropopathy or
anthropomorphism. But it is one of tenderness and
childlike feeling, not of Creed, which would be utterly
inconsistent with the pure spirituality of Hebrew faith. i
2. It will be seen that this beautiful and loving con
descension in speaking of God forms a general prepara
tion for the worship of the Incarnate Lord, a framework to
which it might be fitted when the fulness of the times was
come. But a special provision for the worship of Jesus
occurs in the Psalter.
The so-called Adonaic style in the Psalms is the special
sign of the worship of Christ. The Hebrews call Adonai
the 'key' by which access is opened to Jehovah; the
' treasure ' in which God's gifts are laid up ; they teach
that He is the great steward, that no one can approach
Jehovah but by Adonai. So the cry in the 51st Psalm —
O Lord, Thou wilt open my lips,2
is addressed to *J*i£, ('adhonay) . This name, which, when
we read with a believing Jew, we pronounce instead of
the tetragrammaton, thus exactly fulfils the deep saying
of St. John, 'The Only Begotten Son, Which is in the Bosom
of the Father, He and no other (sksivos) hath interpreted
and expressed Him (s^yrja-aTO avrov).' 3 This conception
1 On the prayer, ' Bow down thine intellectual conviction — the anthropo-
ear to me' (Psalm xxxi. 2), Hengs- morphism which is emotional and
tenberg remarks how for old believers, that which is dogmatic. Hengsten-
God, as it ¦ were, took flesh in such berg was anticipated in this line of
prayers before the Incarnation. He thought by Jackson.
distinguishes between the anthropo- 2 v. 15.
morphism of devotion and that of 3 St. John i. 18.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 203
answers with wonderful closeness to the Church's prayers,
addressed to the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It may be said, with one important qualification, that
Adonai in the Psalms is a peculiar title of the Son of God.
It is not, indeed, so peculiar as Logos in the New Testa
ment ; for it frequently refers to the Godhead or to the
Divine Nature. When used in this more extensive sense,
Adonai is to be considered as equivalent to the ineffable
name of God, unless the context limits it to the Son. 'In
many passages both names are expressed, and in all these
places Adonai refers to the Son, the tetragrammaton to
the Father.' ' MtfiS r\\r\\, (y'hovah 'adhoneynu), God our
Lord,' continues Jackson, ' was the peculiar title of God
the Son, or God to be manifested in our flesh.' '
Thus the direct worship of Jesus, as the Eternal Word
and the Incarnate God, is prepared for in the Psalter.
ii.
When, however, we speak of the Witness to Christian
Worship in the Psalms, we do not limit the term to direct
adoration of Christ. We understand it as including the
whole of the general system of worship which radiates
from, and is connected with, that adoration.
The first two Lectures of this series were occupied
with the Messianic interpretation of the Psalter. That
established, this follows as a corollary.
The Christian seasons, and the use of sacred songs
exquisitely appropriate to them, have thus been provided
for by anticipation. The Prophecy is cast in the form of
1 See Appendix. Note A.

204 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
a Eitual ; the Prediction is a Liturgy ready made. Given
the Life, Death, and Glory of the Son of God ; given also
the existence of the Church as a community, with an out
ward expression as well as an inward character ; — then the
prophetic songs are also at the same time Church songs.
The best practical proof of this is simply to turn to the
' Proper Psalms on Certain Days ' appointed by our Church
to be used on Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and
Ascension Day.1
Applications of this kind may not rarely be suggested
by the very order of the Psalms.
In speaking of such an order it is impossible to avoid
feeling how surely the charge of mysticism will be raised.
About two hundred years ago, in the Sorbonne itself,
under the influence of the school of Calmet, the following
propositions were accepted as undeniable : ' In the collec
tion of Psalms it is useless to look for any order, either
of subject-matter or of time. The ancient fathers, Hilary,
Augustine, and the rest, wasted labour in looking for any
such order in the present arrangement of the Psalter.'
For such readers the Psalms are little more than
irregular pieces of devotional Poetry. A few are to be
literally interpreted of Christ, at least in detached passages;
but with this one (no doubt very important) exception,
1 The list might, of course, be very trumpets, and vials in the Apocalypse,
largely increased. Most readers of end with an anticipation of glory in
the Bible, for instance, would at once the 15th Psalm. And each of the
point to the 72nd and 87th Psalms as intermediate Psalms is a vision of
appropriate for the Epiphany. Por Judgment from different points of
the Advent season, again, they would view; sometimes on the nations, some-
turn to the glorious and terrible oc- times on prosperous godlessness, some-
tavo from the 8th to the 1 5th Psalm. times on the persecutors of the Church,
For these Psalms, like the seals, sometimes on hypocrisy.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 205
they are to be referred to the accidents of the lives of the
Psalmists, and to the varying fortunes of Israel as a
nation. That this is almost accepted as the exegesis of
the dajT, there can be little doubt. To assert that there is
in the Psalter an order — not, indeed, of chronology and
composition — but a unity of subject, the development of a
thought, the progress of an action, the contemplation of
one idea from different sides, is regarded as a mystical
exaggeration, a plausible but fantastic theory. In such
an order, Christian Antiquity firmly believed. In their
eyes the Psalter, divided into five books, is one Divine
poem, whose hero is Christ, Christ whole and entire, and
His Spouse, the Church, as associated with Him. They
find a certain unity of action in the hundred and fifty
Hymns of this Christological Epopceia ; the victory of
Christ and of His Church over their enemies, and the
triumphal ascension of all the children of God into the
glories of Heaven. This is summed up in four lines of the
old Church hymn — Mors et vita duello
Oonflixere mirando —
Dux vitae mortuus,
Eegnat vivus.1
However this may be, those who accept the Messianic
interpretation of the Psalms at all will find it difficult
indeed to resist the conviction that some idea of the kind
interlaces whole groups of Psalms.
The Jewish feeling of reverence for the very order of
1 Appendix. Note B.

206 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
the Psalms is illustrated by the striking story in the
Midrash on the 3rd Psalm. It is there told how, when
Joshua-ben-Levi was busily employed in arranging the
Psalms upon a new and apparently more rational principle,
a voice from Heaven cried, 'Disturb not the slumberer!'
that is, David in the grave. Now, that there is a thread
of connection apparent in many instances no one pro
bably will deny. The 14th and 15th give us the con
trasted characters of the wicked and the holy. The
18th is the revelation of God in history; the 19th
in nature and the law. The last word of the 48th
(' unto death ') is the transition to the solemn theme
of the 49th. The 111th contains the character of
God; the 112th of the holy. Persons will, therefore,
feel inclined or disinclined to this view of the order of
the Psalms exactly according to their view of the pur
pose and meaning of the Psalter. If this be Divine and
prophetic, there is just the same probability of a Messianic
order, as on a different hypothesis there is an order on
subjects of a lower scale. Given the Messianic interpre
tation, it seems an irresistible conclusion that the group
from the 21st to the 24th inclusive forms a connected
whole— the 21st a thanksgiving for the Victory of the
King;1 the 22nd, the Agony; the 23rd, the Death and
Descent into hell ; the 24th, the Ascension.
We have maintained, in the two opening Lectures, that
' The language of Psalm xxi. in the 2nd Psalm. ' In quo consentientes
vv. 5, 6, 7, seems too august for David habemus priscos Hebraeos, qui, Chal-
or any earthly monarch. Rosenmuller dseo prseeunte, hoc Ps. Messiam cani
thinks that it clearly belongs to the statuerunt.'
same victorious prophetic strain as

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 207
the Psalms bear witness to Christ Crucified and Glorified.
In the fourth Lecture we examined their testimony to
the Christian Character. Last Sunday we saw their pre-
delineations of the Church. But a Christian community,
foreseen by the intelligence which moulded the Psalter,
and provided with Messianic Psalms, is, by that very act,
equipped for its chief Festivals and celebrations, and this
again involves an implicit approbation of the system
whose characteristic feature it is so to employ them.
For the Gospel, according to the New Testament and
the Church, is not the proclamation of one doctrine in
stantaneously received. It is the glad news that for us
men and for our salvation the Word of God has taken the
Manhood into God ; for us lived, taught, wrought miracles,
died, rose again, ascended, sent down the Holy Spirit.
Such is the use of the word Gospel in the beginning of St.
Mark — in the forefront of the Apostolic Epistles — in the
opening passages of the Epistle to the Eomans — such,
again, in the first verses ofthe 15th chapter of the first
Epistle to the Corinthians, where the Apostle declares the
nature of the Gospel which he had preached unto them.
Such, precisely, is the substance of the most effective
Christian sermon which was ever preached — that which
was delivered by St. Peter on the Day of Pentecost. No
thing else but this view of the Gospel can account for or
justify the structure and character of the four Gospels. Of
that slender book, the New Testament, nearly a half is
occupied with memoirs of our Lord's earthly life. The
Gospels are not ' Lives of Christ.' Those who have written
the noblest of such books are the first to proclaim the im-

208 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
possibility of performing tho task. They feel most deeply
Lavater's answer to an invitation to prepare a Life of
Christ. 'J write Christ's Life! Never! St. John has
done that.' Nay, even of the days of His flesh, even
of that earthly existence and visible sojourning, these
Gospels are not complete chronicles. We desire to know
much which we are never told. Full of a curiosity
which we cannot censure, we ask why we are put off with
different versions of the same discourses, different narra
tives of the same miracles. The true answer is, that lite
rary completeness is sternly subordinated to a higher end ;
that the Gospels are thus moulded in order that our souls
may be saturated with the Gospel.1
And as the Gospel signifies in the New Testament pre
eminently the Gospel facts, so the Church reflects the
mind of the New Testament. By her seasons she preaches
every part of it. The way before us lies
Distinct with signs, through which in set career,
As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year
Of England's Church. Stupendous mysteries !
Which whoso travels in her bosom eyes,
As he approaches them, with solemn cheer.
Upon that circle traced from sacred story
We only dare to cast a transient glance.2
Against her constant recital ofthe Creed it is objected
that a Creed like the Apostles' is a bare historical sum
mary, a corpse of the Gospel, packed in ice. But she
persists in the recital, because she knows that in doing so
she recounts the facts which are the Gospel. Her worship
1 See Mr. Sadleir, Church Doctrine Bible Truth, Chapter I.
2 "Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sonnets, -pi. III. 15.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 209
turns round the Gospel thus understood. The ' Te Deum '
is the Creed, touched into music. The obsecrations in the
Litany take up the Gospel facts in intense supplication.
In the Proper Prefaces in the Communion Oflice the great
central mystery of the Eedeeming Death — once offered on
Calvary, for ever presented in Heaven, represented from
day to day by the Church below — entwines itself with the
Incarnation, Eesurrection, and Ascension. Thus, by her
annual commemorations ; by daily recounting these facts ;
by daily and Eucharistie worship ; the Church proclaims
the Gospel.
If this view of the Gospel be true, then the Psalms,
as a manual of Christian worship, answer, by a marvellous
prevision and ordainment, to the Gospel facts. They not
only prophesy those facts ; they celebrate and sing them.
They hover over them with music. And thus they imply
the Catholic as distinct from the sectarian Ideal, the
following ofthe Christian mysteries, the Church-life, like
the individual life, moulded after that type, and tran
scribing the ideal which is presented to it to copy.
I shall not enter upon any lengthened examination of
other public uses of the Psalter for the Christian com
munity, or set them down among those fore-intended
employments of it in worship which would lead us to a
conviction of the working of a Divine purpose. The
utterances of the Psalms, indeed, have exercised a great
influence upon Christian devotion.
Evening, and morning, and at noon,
Will I pray and cry aloud :
And He shall hear my voice.
P

210 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
So cried David in the 55th Psalm. And another
Psalmist, in his grand panegyric upon God's law, in the
119th Psalm-
Seven times a day do I praise Thee : because of Thy righteous
judgments.1
These two verses gave birth to the devotion of the
Canonical Hours.2 Dr. Neale has pointed out that in
religious communities the use of Psalms has not always
been a free offering, but has degenerated into a sad
taskwork, the Psalter being recited twice, five, even
eight times a day ! In many of our English Cathedrals,
over the stall of each Prebendary the numbers of certain
Psalms are still painted. The reason some of us will
be glad to hear from Donne, in a sermon on the 64th Psalm,
which he entitles, ' The Third of my Prebend Sermons
upon my Five Psalms.' ' Our predecessors in the service
of this Church have declared such devotion to this par
ticular Book of Scripture as that, by distributing the
150 Psalms into thirty portions (of which number the
body of our Church consists), and assigning to every
one of those thirty persons his five Psalms, to be said
by him every day, every day God receives from us
(howsoever we be divided from one another in place)
' Psalm lv. 17; cxix. 164. rium erat, delevit; nona, cum cruorem
2 The theory of the Canonical effudit, ac Spiritum tradidit. Ad solis
Hours is thus given by Bona: ' Opti- occasum, quod etiam lucernarium ap-
mi quique quovis die stationem ad De ¦ pellamus, quia tunc ob diei transitum
um septies faeiunt. Primumnoctuvigi- Deo gratias agimus. Postremo ciim
lantes. Deinde ad solis exortum Deo, ad somnum nos conferimus. QuEe
qui diem invexit, gratias agunt. Hora quidem omnia collecta in unum septe-
tertia, cum Spiritus S. ad Apostolos narium efficiunt.' Bona, De Divin.
accessit; sexta, ciim Christus Deus Psalmod. p. 36 (after Chrysost. ad
noster carne cruci affixus est, ac chi- Psalm, cxix., and Horn, lix, ad Pop.
rographum illud, quod nobis contra- Antioch).

lect. VI. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 211
the sacrifice of praise in the whole Book of Psalms.
And, though we may be absent from this quire, yet,
wheresoever dispersed, we make up a quire in this service
of saying over all the Psalms every day. As the whole Book
is manna, so these five Psalms are my gomer, which I am
to fill and empty every day of the manna.'
In Western Christendom the Antiphon has been largely
used. There can be no doubt that, in many cases, this has
been the noblest of all commentaries upon the Psalms for
the purpose of public worship, and the best means of
drawing out their manifold significance. We may take
the 1st Psalm as a very favourable specimen. On any
ordinary day, the Psalm was applied to the Christian's com
mon duty in life, by the Antiphon ' Serve the Lord in fear.'
If it were the commemoration of a Saint or Martyr, the
true root of the saintly character was signified by means
of an Antiphon taken from this very Psalm, ' His delight
is in the law of the Lord.' On Passion-Sunday it was
declared that it is Christ, who, when hanging on the Cross,
made it ' like a tree which brings forth fruit in due season,
and whose leaf will not wither.' At Easter the Antiphon
is, ' I am that I am, and My counsel is not with the wicked,
but in the law of the Lord is My delight. Alleluia.' ' The
ancient liturgies very grandly illustrate the Christian sig
nificance of the Psalms for public worship, especially by
Antiphons for the various seasons of the Christian year.
These Antiphons — in some cases noble touches of interpre
tation, in others stiff and unelastic enough— have passed
away, with one exception, from our English Prayer-
1 See Bishop Wordsworth's Commentary, on Psalm i.

212 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
book. For a people like our own the want is better
supplied by other means. Due instruction in Scripture
will give them the interpretation of the Psalter by our
Lord and His Apostles. A properly catechised people has
the key to about fifty Psalms in the Proper Psalms
appointed in the Prayer-book.
In the fitness of the Psalms for Christian worship we
have a prophetic fact which will bear to be confronted
with all the tests of Prophecy. The Psalms were written,
from time to time, by David and others. They may be
supposed to have sprung from the occasion as much as the
most exacting critic can demand. But the fact remains,
the more inexplicable in proportion as the circumstances
attending the composition of these sacred songs approach
to the level of the common-place. Solomon and all his
glory, David's line, the sacrifice, the ritual, the Temple,
pass away. A new world of thought and feeling comes
in. New races possess the world. New languages are
spoken. It is strange that Hymns should pass on at all
from one dispensation to another, with the slightest pros
pect of life and influence. Such things are like fruits of
the last season, which are observed to shrink and waste
away, just when the sap is rising in trees of their own
kind. But every language, and every section of Christen
dom, has its own peculiar delight in the Psalms. The
awful pomp of the Latin Church ; the homelier forms of
Teutonic Christianity ; the speculative subtlety and exube
rant rhetoric of the Greek even before the altar; the
sober and reserved reverence of the Anglican Church ; the

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 2LJ
austere severity of sectarian devotion ; find their expres
sion in the Psalter. No amount of make-believe, of pre
determination to force the Psalms to suit,1 could ever have
succeeded in winning for them this hearty acceptance and
loving use. They must have exactly fitted the wants of
the Universal Church. In the Messianic Prophecies of the
Psalms we have an argument for their superhuman char
acter. In their Prophecies of the Church, we have another
argument of the same kind. In the suitability of these
songs for the worship of the Church we have a marvellous
coincidence. iii.
But this coincidence would have been incomplete with
out another condition. It would not have been sufficient
for the Church to possess in the Psalter any poetry em
bodying the same truths, any Hymns impregnated with
the same ideas. In order that the Psalms may be fitted
for the worship of the Church, their form must be as
unique as their substance.
For the Church is Catholic, languages are particular.
And this difficulty arises. Poetry is somewhat impatient of
translation. It is a wine which is too delicate to cross
the sea. Few poetical translations have ever been popular,
and those few have scarcely been correct representations
1 At the close of the 31st Psalm, culiar to the Jewish nation, lend
Reuss observes, 'Here the prayer themselves to the expression of
ends by tranquillising the soul, by Christian sentiment, which has little
making it see that things are not des- more to do than strain out impreca-
perate, God being ever present to pro- tions antipathetic to the spirit of the
tect His own. This sentiment, in the Gospel.' — Reuss, in loc. Could any
end, overcomes grief and impatience. such process ever have secured a place
This is the way in which poems of this for prayers in the affections of Chris-
kind, sprung from circumstances pe- tendom ?

214 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi,
of their originals. The severe remark which Bentley is
reported to have addressed to Pope about his version of
Homer 1 expresses a truth of wide application. Now, it is
certain almost to demonstration, that the Hebrews never
possessed the notion of metrical art, as it was practised
among the Greeks and Eomans. It is, of course, by no
means impossible that some of the subtle richness of
the Hebrew poets has been effaced by a system of
vocalisation which is not much older than a thousand
years. With a pronunciation which apparently must
have been modified since the days of St. Jerome, har
monious cadences, sonorous accentuations, light and
delicate balances of sound, may have evaporated. That
which has been said of quantity is equally true of rhyme.
The hexameters which may sometimes be detected are as
little premeditated as those in our translation of the
Bible. The rhymes which occasionally touch the ear
with a sudden and winning softness, more especially in
pathetic passages, are, probably, as accidental as those
which we may amuse ourselves by discovering in Virgil or
Horace. There is nothing of the same kind as the artis
tic and delicate prosody of the classical languages. Those
rough and guttural sounds contrast strangely with the
silvery chime of Greek verse. That ' gulf of verbs ' : those
singular forms 'in which the Hebrews expressJby one sound
persons, numbers, and actions, like children who wish
to say everything at once,' 2 do not admit of such refined
elegance. But after all, the principal elements for forming
1 'A very pretty poem, Mr. Pope, 2 Herder, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry,
but not Homer!' pt. I. Dial. 1.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 215
a judgment upon the question are still in our possession.
To those of us who first direct our attention to the sub
ject they are surprising enough. There is little or no
discoverable symmetry of measure or concurrence of
sound, addressed to the ear. There is a symmetry of
sense, addressed to the intellect. In the memorable Lec
tures of Bishop Lowth, delivered from the Chair of Poetry
in this University, in 1763, parallelism was — not dis
covered — but re-asserted to be the sole true basis of
Hebrew poetry. This fact had been clearly stated by
Eabbi Azarias more than two hundred years before, after
students had long followed the wrong track upon which
St. Jerome was put by the authority of Josephus and
others, on which he rests his assertion that the Psalter
was composed in the metres of Horace and Pindar.1 It
was shown by Lowth that there are three kinds of
parallelism, synonymous, antithetic, synthetic. The most
frequent form of parallelism is the simple sequence of two
following verses which reproduce the same idea in other
words. But the parallelism sometimes extends to three,
or even four verses ; occasionally the first two and the
last two rhyme by the idea or thought, occasionally the
third corresponds with the first, or the fourth with
the second. Strophes are employed, and in some in
stances Psalms are markedly divided by a refrain. The
variations are as subtle and manifold in their way as those
of the rhymes in the English sonnet.
1 S. Hieron., Praefat. in Job ; 12), is that David S/jvous avvetdlaro
Prcefat. in Chron. Eusebii; see also fxerpov -noiKiXov robs p.ev yap Tpi/xeT-
Epist. ad Paulam (De Alphabeto). povs, -robs Se irevTanerpovs i-irol-nirev.
The statement of Josephus (Antt. vii.

216 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
This characteristic of Hebrew poetry has been severely
criticised. A metre, not of feet or of syllables, but of
contrast or agreement, variety or identity, of proposition
and statement, appears sufficiently strange. M. Eeville
has, within the last few months, referred it to a radical
intellectual deficiency of the Hebrew race. The period,
he argues, is the form of written discourse, which is natu
ral to all developed Indo-European languages.1 It is
the expansion of thought in words which is required
alike by logic and by taste. It permits human thought
to give evidence of its internal riches by organising its
multiplied relations in a manner which is at once har
monious to the ear and to the mind. The result of
structure by periods is, that thought co-ordinates diversity
by a presiding unity without concealing it. But that
great and necessary organ of expression, the literary
period, does not find in the Semitic languages a syntax
adequate to its complete evolution. Hence discourse,
oratorical or other, proceeds in Hebrew by continuous
juxtaposition. 'Ideas,' says M. Eeville, 'succeed like
clouds pushed by a regular wind, preserving their dis
tances, not seeking to group themselves, to form them
selves into a mass or picture. Each presents itself in
1 His remarks, indeed, are little magna varietate, utpote quae in tanta
more than a free translation of Micha- particularum egestate vix teneri possit ;
el is. 'Huic defectui tribuendum est, numeri autem nullam omnino curam
quod periodorumconfirmationeetarti- suscipit.' J. D. Michael. Praefat. in
ficio universa lingua Hebraica caret. Lowth., (abridged) ; cf. Lowth, Pra-
Prolixiores periodos, cum concinnitate lect. xiv. Michael, suggests trying the
et perspicuitate sonoras, earumque experiment of substituting the most
miram et numeri et reliquse distri- elegant words for the Hebraisms and
butionis varietatem . . . oratoribus de- Alexandrianisms ofthe Septuagint. The
buisse Graecia videtur. At Hebraica style, he says, would still remain any-
lingua breves amat periodos, non thing but Greek.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 217
turn, in its rank, without the writer's feeling the need of
marking the relations of dependence or superiority. Long
phrases in Hebrew are rarely more than bare enumerations.'
The accomplished critic goes on to show that this mode
of composition is one indication of that mental incapacity
for the simultaneous intuition and subordination of
numerous details which prevented the Hebrew from
attaining the first rank in philosophy, metaphysics, and
art, especially architecture. In individuality alone was
he very strong. And this appears in his Lyrical Poetry.1
It has been said that ' three great forms of poetry answer
to the three persons of the verb — the epic to the third, the
dramatic to the second, the lyric to the first.' Hence the
highest poetry of Israel is lyrical and subjective ; but the
intellectual element, the generalising faculty, is wanting.
Other objections to parallelism are taken from the
side of taste. By M. Quinet it is likened to ' the swaying
of a leaf.' Against this we may set Ewald, who compares
it to the ' alternate beat of wings.' 2 And Herder, who
speaks of it as ' that language of the heart, which has
never said all, but ever has something more to say.' 3
But the greatest excellence of the ' thought-metre ' in
relation to our present subject is one which does not lie
upon the surface, but which, more than anything else,
1 The Psalms have, however, epic Psalm. But Bellarm. says, of Ps. xci.,
and even dramatic fragments as well ' Eorma Ps. dramatica : nunc loquitur
as lyrical pieces. The 1 8th Psalm has Propheta, nunc homo Justus, nunc ipse
something of the epic, the 19th and Deus.'
68th are very nobly lyrical. The 2nd 2 Non sequabili tractu ducentes
and the 91st have something dramatic, orationem sed veluti geminatis ictibus
voices of different interlocutors sud- contorquentes. — Lowth, Prcelect. xii.
denly breaking in. Delitzsch gives s Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, I. 1.
Michaelis and Maurer the credit of See Appendix. Note B.
first perceiving this as regards the 2nd

218 THE WITNESS OF' THE PSALMS lect. vi.
has enabled the Psalms to occupy their place in the
worship of the Church.
All other poetry loses by translation, almost exactly
in proportion to its excellence. If nothing else, a tone
is given which is out of keeping. In rendering Virgil,
a measure which Scott has indissolubly connected with
the modern and the romantic baffles even the refinement,
the industry, the consummate knowledge of one of the
most gifted translators. ' The excellence of verse,' says
Mr. Coleridge, ' was to be untranslatable into any other
words without detriment to the beauty of the passage :
the position of a single word could not be altered in
Milton without injury.' 1
But, while all other poetry thus loses by translation, it
need not be so with Hebrew poetry at all to the same
extent. Poetical translations of the Psalter, indeed,
postulate their own failure. Parallelism cannot be
cramped into eights and sixes. Swift's fierce and coarse
remark, written in pencil in a copy of Gibb's poetical
version of the first eighteen Psalms, is as true as it is
fierce. ' I warn the reader that this is a lie, both here
and all over the book ; for these are not the Psalms of
David, but of Dr. Gibb.' Of the two men whose names
are given to the ' New Version of the Psalms,' which so
long appeared in our Prayer-books, that of one, Nahum
Tate, suggests a remark. That writer produced an adap
tation of ' Lear,' smoothed and expurgated for the public
of his day. It is characteristic that the same hand
1 Table Talk, p. 340 (3rd edition).

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 219
should have unbeautified the Psalms for a shallow gene
ration. It has never been given to any one man beside
to mar the highest work of human genius and travesty the
sweetest gift of Divine inspiration. Tbe exquisite deli
cacy and thoughtful scholarship of Keble did all that
could be done. To read many Psalms with Keble's ver
sions is to obtain a new and profound insight into the
beauties of the original. But this ' thought-metre ' does
not admit of being successfully transfused into modern
rhymes. And thus other poetry translated verbatim loses
the very essence of its poetical character, because it loses
the measure and cadence of its words. But Hebrew
poetry can only be given in exact translation. It is de
stroyed by being turned into verse as much as other
poetry is destroyed by being turned into prose. Of course,
the prose into which the Psalms are rendered should be
admirable. Thus the Psalms may not only be understood,
but even profoundly felt, by those who have not earned
the privilege of following them in the divine original.
The Psalter in the Vulgate has lately been characterised
as of ' a vague and passive melancholy, which is certainly
not wanting in majesty, but which is not conformable to
the vivacity and coloured precision of the original.' Vet
the Psalms, in their Latin or English prose, may be tasted
far more truly than any other translated poems. That
which is local in this respect passes away. Their very
form suits them for the purpose for which they were
destined. Their mortal puts on immortality.
III. In this preparation for worship is implied and

220 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vr.
involved a preparation for the music and the Cathedrals
of the Church.
With scarcely any other human faculty are the advo
cates of development from the lower animal forms so
fairly perplexed as with the faculty of music. The capa
city for music and the enjoyment of it are of no direct
use to man. The most fearless and positive of philosophers,
as he contemplates this, lets fall the word which the Theo
logian is so often blamed for employing. They are, he
says, ' amongst the most mysterious faculties with which
he is endowed.' 1 . . . ' Music arouses dormant sentiments,
of which we had not conceived the possibility, and do not
know the meaning ; or, as Eichter says, it tells us of things
we have not seen and shall not see.' 2 But curiosity must
try to pierce this veil of mystery. The capacity for
musical development is — it is suggested — perhaps due to
our semi-human progenitors having acquired organs of
mavellous flexibility. The orator (Pitt, for instance, with
his voice swelling like an organ), or the accomplished singer,
little suspects that he uses means by which his half-human
ancestors lured their mates. From inherited associations,
musical tones used during seasons of courtship, in the
days when man was still brutal, excite vaguely the strong
emotions of a past age. It must at least be owned that
it is a long ascent from the howlings of the Hylobates
Agilis to the choirs which we hear in Minster fanes when
A storm the high-built organ makes,
And thunder-music rolling shakes
The Prophets blazon'd on the panes —
' Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. ii. 2 Ibid. p. 336 (quoted from Her-
P- 333- bert Spencer, Essays, 1858, p. 359).

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 221
from the imitations of animal passion to Mendelssohn's
setting of the 22nd Psalm. Bead the 150th Psalm, where,
having risen, as it were, by five steps, the Psalter hovers
over its summit. ' There,' as Gregory of Nyssa says,
' all creatures, after the disorders of sin have been
removed, are harmoniously united els p.iav ^opoo-rao-iav,
and the chorus of mankind in concert with the angelic
choir becomes one cymbal of divine Praise, and a final
song of victory peals out to God : ' ' and the Psalter, after
all its depths, dies away, not as the first three books in
Amen, not- as the fourth, in Amen Hallelujah, but in
Hallelujah. Is this a development of the inarticulate cries
of brutal wooers, yelling from the branches ? —
Let all breath praise the Lord.2
Nor should we forget the relation which is borne by
the Psalms to our Cathedrals.
Of the many works that are done by an English
Cathedral, there is one which is strangely and unaccount
ably forgotten. Our Cathedrals are so many shrines for
the Psalter. Take York Minster. Through ' all its reign
and its might, and the times that went over it ; ' through
all its history, from the first wooden fane where Edwin
was baptized on Easter Day, 627, to the consecration of
the finished work on that bright summer day in July,
1472 ; and then through all following changes in Church
and State — for ages in a rugged but expressive Latin, for
the last three centuries in noble and most musical
English, the tide of Psalmody has flowed there daily with
1 S. Gregor. Nyss., In Psal-morum 2 pp ^nfl HEB'Sri ^>3
Inscriptiones, Traetat. I. ch. 9. (k51 hgnn'shamah t'billei yah).

222 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vi.
almost the regularity of the ocean. Amongst the many
blessings of the Eeformation, it is not the least that it
gave the English people an entire and unmutilated
Psalter, by laying upon the English Church the light
yoke and easy burden of daily Psalms at Morning and
Evening Prayer.
How great those Cathedrals are ! — Great in their
bearing on such a type of the spiritual life as has been
indicated in this Lecture ; great in their attestation of the
power of man's spiritual nature.
The influence of Cathedrals on such a form of the
religious life as is produced in our Church is difficult to
estimate with exactitude. It is not mensurable by
statistics. It is assumed by some that few Christians
ever come to Cathedral worship for religion — just as few
persons visit flower-shows for the sake of the flowers.
But Herbert and Hammond have many like-minded.
There are those who ' love the habitation of His House,'
who cry : —
And He built His sanctuary like hills lifted up.
As the earth He founded it for ever.1
The very foliage cut by the loving hands of the old
sculptors ; the very colours that come streaming through
the windows, in buildings some of which are so exquisitely
sensitive to the changes of the sky ; possess some subtle
but real influence. The very chance sentences from the
Psalms drop into their souls, as if from some great Poem,
broken fragments of the epics and lyrics of God.
The Cathedrals are great also as outward and visible
1 Psalm lxxviii. 69.

lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 223
trophies which man's spiritual nature has erected. The
population of this England is ever increasing. Our cities
are spreading In darker, incessanter lines.
But in many of them, far above the highest houses and
the factory chimneys, the Minster's lofty towers can
always be seen — its pinnacles sometimes flushed with the
light of a setting sun, while the shadows of the winter
evening have begun to gather over the houses below.
There they stand. He who looks upon them with love
will not readily believe that the alliance between Church
and State will soon cease. But the Cathedral is a type of
something of which even that noble alliance is but a
secondary result. It is a type of that spiritual Church
which shall last for ever. Still above the smoke and
storm ; above the din of noisy streets ; above things
which are fair and beautiful, and things which are base
and mean ; above the selfish multitude, whose motto is
' to cheat and be cheated,' and the scenes of honest Eng
lish industry ; above the joys and sorrows of this life ; —
the Cathedral rises into purer air, and points to the
Heavens above. The unspeakable grandeur and beauty
of these buildings, which sometimes seem almost patient
and pathetic, is but a shadow of the fuller beauty in the
life beyond. There are times, it may be, when we are
tempted to say that prayer is but a feeble thing after all,
a passionate utterance from a breaking heart and white
lips, that can do nothing. There are times when we are
tempted to feel that praise is but the relief of a sentiment,
but an appeal to the imagination. But evermore the

224 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS leci, vi.
Minster without and the Psalms within bear witness that
prayer is man's strongest worker, and praise his noblest
language. We may well go further, and add — The songs which,
day by day, are chanted in the Cathedrals are suited to
them as if written for them. For the Church connects
them with the worship of Jesus. In days when faith has
waxed cold, even those who profess to be Christians ask,
'Is it meet to worship and invoke Christ directly ? ' It
may be replied — 'Christ is risen and at God's right
hand.' And He shall live : and one shall give to Him of Sheba's gold.
And He shall make intercession continually for him ;
All day long shall He bless him.1
The Church's perpetual worship acknowledges that per
petual blessing. The Psalter is her manual. Still as she
chants — Thy Throne, O God, is for ever,
she bows before Him as her God. Still, as the 22nd Psalm
is wailed with its pathetic music, she bends before the
Pierced Hands and Feet. The 16th Psalm is addressed
to Him as Eisen — the 24th, as King of Glory — the 110th,
at God's Eight Hand. Christmas, Epiphany, Advent, Lent,
Passion Week, Easter, Ascension-tide, are marked in a
marvellous manual of worship. Without that collection
of sacred songs the Church would have been like a
Cathedral, whose special function it is to express a nation's
joy and sorrow before God and man, left furnished with
no peal of bells. 1 Psalm Ixxii. 15.

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 225

LECTUEE VII.
The Scripture, foreseeing.
Galat. iii. 8.
If we have conducted our examination of the Psalter
fairly, we have obtained from it a threefold witness — to
the new character called into existence by Christianity,
to the new organized community which was destined to
embrace all races, and to the new worship which was to
ascend to the Throne of Grace. One condition more is
wanting to make this testimony complete. Men of this
character, welded together in this society, expressing their
adoration in this form, must have a common stock of
religious conceptions. They must be possessed of common
ideas about the nature and character of God, about the
mystery of their own origin, about the nature of the
Messiah whom they worship, about the significance of
His sufferings, the mode of acceptance with God, and the
value of the great ordinances which they possess. In
other words, they must have a common Theology.
I.
We proceed, therefore, to examine the witness to the
great conceptions of Christian Theology which is to be
found in the Psalter. This examination may conveniently
be arranged under four general heads : (i.) the Theistic,
Q

226 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
(ii.) the anthropological, (iii.) the Christological, and
(iv.) the scheme of Eedemption, as efficacious with God,
realized by man, and conveyed to him. through special sa
cramental channels. i.
The Theistic ideas of the Psalms.
It is often said that the sublime idea of one spiritual
God came to the Hebrews from Nature. But why did
not other races see His Name in the starry heaven, like
David ? When Israel was given up to his own instincts,
he was always revolting to Baal and Moloch, to the
cruelties and obscenities of alien altars. The chief
witnesses of Jehovah were His martyrs. Israel was the
prophet of Theism, not because of race instincts, but in
spite of them — not by the inspirations of the voice of
nature, but against them;
For the critical distinctions between the Jehovistic and
Elohistic Psalms, I must be content to refer you to others.
What I now insist upon is that the Psalms, under these
and other names, give us that idea of the Living Personal
God, never confounded with His creatures, which is the
' preamble ' of Christian Theology.
God, in the Psalms, is not only Creator, King, and
Judge. He has the Eye that guides, the Wing that shelters,
the Hand that sustains. Their tone is eloquently con
densed into a few sentences by Donne. ' If He be our
Eefuge, what enemy can hurt? if our Defence, what
temptation can subdue ? if our Eock, what storm can
overwhelm? if our Salvation, what melancholy can de
press ? if our Glory, what calamity can hurt ? '

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

227

God's attributes, too, are distinctly mentioned, that we
may reason from them.1 For instance —
Once God spake, yea, twice have I heard the same,
That power belongeth unto God.
Also unto Thee, 0 Lord, belongeth mercy.2
Again — Compassionate and gracious is the Lord,
Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
As far as sunrise is from sunset,
So far hath He removed our sins from us.
As a father hath compassion on his children,
So hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him.3

1 When presented with certain
extreme doctrines men say — ' Such
views contradict the best idea which
we can form of God's justice.' They
are sometimes told in answer that
they really know, and can know,
nothiDg about God's justice, i.e., that
God's justice may become injustice.
It is quite a different thing from this
to say that, with larger knowledge,
relations might be discovered which
would prove the thing objected to to
be just. A moral attribute becomes
infinite, not by being changed into its
opposite, but by taking in all of
which it it susceptible. Take any
quality in man. Eliminate from it all
that is partial, evil, ambiguous. Con
ceive it made superlative. And it
will give us a conception, inadequate
indeed, but perfectly true, so far as it
goes, of the same attribute in God.
Thus, for the wrath of God. Take
from the notion of wrath all that is
blind, capricious, and merely vindic
tive. Thus, for God's compassion. In
human compassion there is always an
element of suffering. We project
ourselves into the sufferer's place, and
suffer with him. Take this from
sympathy, and we have then the tran
quil goodness, the love without emo

tion, of God. 'In passing up the
scale of the finite subject,' says Mr.
Davison, ' in order to approach the
properties of the Infinite, we must
pursue the enlarged idea taken from
the properties of the first, and not
adopt the contradictory or any alien
idea, to make the approximation to
the Infinite in question.' * Pan
theistic writers may object that we
thus form for ourselves the conception
of a limited God : but then He is
self-limited. Personality (they may
argue) contradicts absoluteness ;
for Personality is limited and con
ditioned. But the limitation is not
such as clashes with perfection : for
it is self-limitation. Such thinkers
are enamoured of external extension,
not of inward completeness. f
2 Psalm Ixii. 11, 12.
3 ciii. 8, 12, 13.
* Davison, Discourses on Prophecy,
pp. 513-518. (Note on Discourse vii.)
f See Bishop Martensen, II. § 42.
On our conceptions of the Divine
attributes, and their validity, see S.
Augustin, De Div. Queest. ad Sim-
plicianum, II. Quasi, ii. ; De Trinit.
lib. v. cap. 1 ; Confess, lib. i. cap. 4.
Cf. Nourrisson, La Philos. de S.
Augustin, Tom. i. pp. 275, sqq.

228 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vn.
Faithfulness strong as the rock, and love to redeem
and liberate, are His, who is the soul's ' Strength and
Eedeemer.' ]
The natural proofs for the existence of God may be
divided into two general classes. Man rises to God (1)
from himself, (2) from the world. The first includes the
two arguments which, in modern pliilosophy, are univer
sally known as the ontological and moral. The second
includes the two others, now generally styled cosmo-
logical and teleological. The last is peculiarly Western.
It leads us to look upon the world, not as a, mere pageant,
but as ' a reality rich in meaning — a grand and fruitful
combination of rational ends and proper means.'2 Its
practical importance has been pointed out by Leibnitz in a
recently discovered manuscript, only printed within the
last few years. ' Meditations which are not in some
degree based upon reason,' said that great thinker, ' are
but arbitrary imaginations which vanish with the least
sensation. Accustom yourself to find everywhere some
subject for worship and love ; for there is nothing in
nature which may not furnish something whereof to
make a hymn to God. Accustom yourself to remark the
links, the order, the fair progression in everything; and, as
we can never have enough experience in matters moral,
political, theological (for God exercises our faith in the
mists and cloud), we shall do well to establish our minds
by sensible experiences of God's greatness and wisdom,
found in the marvellous harmonies of the masterly and
inexhaustible mechanism of the inventions of God which
1 ^B'UJ n-IX Psalm xix. 15. * Bishop Martensen, II. § 40.

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 229
appear under our eyes in Nature. For nature combines
excellently with grace, and physical marvels are a fitting
aliment to keep up, without intermission, the divine
flame which warms, happy souls. Thus we see God by
the senses, otherwise only by the understanding. I have
often remarked that those who are never occupied with
beauties of this kind are scarcely sensible of that which
may truly be called the love of God.' •
These obvious proofs of Natural Eeligion find inimit
able expression in the Psalter. It is well to note the
great importance of this in a book providentially designed
for the widest circulation and most constant use in
Christian worship. We, at least, live in an age when the
very idea of a Personal God is assailed from various
quarters, ultra-material and .ultra-spiritual, when the
truths of what used to be called Natural Eeligion are
little heard ' among the heart-piercing, reason-bewildering
facts of the world,' little able to stand against the ' fierce
energy of passion, and the crushing scepticism of intellect.' 2
The Psalms, in their deeper significance, waken echoes in
a land far off. They prophesy of another worship and
theology. But in their most literal and superficial ex
pression, in words which no one can mistake, they set to
music the first article of the Creed, ' I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,' and supply
it with an exuberant and attractive commentary. This
many-voiced republication of Natural Eeligion, this vivid,
1 Dialogue sur les sujets de Re- premiere fois, par A. Foucher de
ligion, entre im habile politique et un Careil, ii. 512-536.
ecclesiastique d'une piete reconnue. * Dr. Newman.
CEuvres de Leibnitz, publiees pour la

230 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
impassioned, picturesque assertion of the Existence and
Attributes of God, is of priceless value.
An objection to regarding the Psalms as in any sense
a field for Theological truth must here be considered. It
is argued, from different points of view, that they are not
capable of Theological construction at all.
An eminent historian and thinker, lately taken from
the Church, speaks of Bishop Lowth's Lectures, noticed
last Sunday, in a way which leaves no doubt that this is
his conclusion. 'Bishop Lowth's Lectures,' he writes,
' revealed to an unstartled world that a large portion
of Holy "Scripture was pure poetry, addressed to the
imagination, or the reason through the imagination, and
making a very different demand on the faith of believers.'
The venerable writer goes on to say — 'This appears to
me what I venture to call the religious problem of the
day. We have had a Hooker who has shown us what
truth is received from Eevelation, what from the earlier
unwritten revelation in the reason of man. We want a
second Hooker, with the same profound piety, the same
judgment, to show — if possible, to frame — a test by
which we ma,y discover what are the eternal irrepealable
truths of the Bible, what the imaginative vesture, the
framework in which these truths are set in the Hebrew, and
even in the Christian Scriptures. Theology has too long
demanded the same implicit belief in metaphor, apologue,
allegory, as in the sublime verities or plain precepts of
our Lord. It has refused to make any allowance for
poetry, and endeavoured to force upon our slower and less
active minds all the Oriental imagery, all the parabolic

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 231
creations, as literal objects of Christian Faith. In these
investigations the Oxford Professor of Poetry unknow
ingly led the way.' '
One who in poetical genius at least may be named
as superior to Milman, has brought this objection to a more
definite point. His argument appears to be substantially
this — What is said in Hebrew poetry, and more especially
in the Psalms, is due to the passionate personification of
Oriental poetry. It is not literal. It is not even serious.
Much less is it scientific or theological. God stands for the
Eternal Something not ourselves making for righteous
ness. All wliich implies in God will, thought, conscious
ness, ideas, knowledge, love, tenderness, sympathy, is
poetry. God is no doubt a thousand times over apostro
phised, hypostatised if you will. But that is simply as
Nature is addressed by modern poets. The intelligent
reader is to take all that for what it is worth. In analysing
the Psalms really, he may brush it away. All that is
to be understood literally is that which is said of right
eousness, of moral good.
But to this it may be replied : — All this personifying
language about God we are told by superior critics is mere
froth and flowers. It is poetical varnish. It is the imagi
native investiture of thought. But if all this Theological
language about God is unreal, why may not all this moral
language be equally unreal? No doubt righteousness is
defined with something of the precision of modern ethical
science in the 15th and 112th Psalms. But God is spoken
of a hundred times oftener, and in language, so to speak,
1 Dean Milman, Annals of St. Paul's, pp. 467, 468.

232 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
more technical. The attributes of the Most High are men
tioned again and again. The various kinds of proof of
the existence of God which form the staple of Natural
Theology are in the Psalter in simple lines — the ontological
and moral everywhere; the cosmological in the 19th, 104th,
135th, and 139th Psalms ; the teleological in the 94th Psalm.
Now, we have no right to make the morality of the Psalter
serious, rational, dogmatic — the Theology of the Psalter
sentimental, lyrical, extravagant. We must either evapo
rate both or admit both. We have no right either
to the Theology without the morality, or to the morality
without the Theology. We may reject both alike if we
will, and say that the Psalms contain nothing but words.
But we have no right to say that intense faith in the Living
Personal God, the Creator of all things, and the sympa
thising Hearer of prayer, is not in the Psalms equally
at least with an intense conviction of the moral signi
ficance of righteousness in man.1
1 If it were possible to draw a M. Godet's remarks on our Lord's
distinction Letween Scripture and quotation from Psalm lxxxii. 6 (St.
Scripture, it might be said that, in John x. 34, 35) are worthy of study.
the New Testament, ampler dogmatic ' The argument is valid, notwith-
testimony is given to the Psalms than standing the different sense of the
to any other single book. Bengel word God in the two applications,
compresses much into a few lines, because the difference of sense corre-
when he writes, 'Vide autem, quanta sponds to a difference of nature and
Psalmorum sit auctoritas. Jusjurandum position in the persons to whom the
Jehovcs factum est eo ipso tempore, title is applied. Still this observation
quum Ps. ex. factus est : Heb. vii. should be connected with one general
28. lnvitatio solemnis ad populum fac- reflection upon the religion of the Old
ta est, quum Ps. xcv. factus est : Heb. Testament. Biblical Monotheism has
iv. 7. Declaratio Filii facta est, quum nothing in common with the cold dead
Ps. ii. factus est: Act. xiii. 33. Sic Deism which Jewish orthodoxy had
Messias Leo Se facturum esse volun- extracted from the sacred books. The
tatem Ejus promisit turn, quumPs. xl. petrified Monotheism which forms the
factus est : Heb. x. 3 sqq. ' (Bengel, connecting link between actual Juda-
Gnom. Nov. Test, iu Hebr. x. 18.) ism, Christian Rationalism, and Ma-

lect. vii.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

233

To the wonderful coincidences of the Psalter with
Christian Theology may be added its Trinitarian antici
pations. Of that strange threefold vibration in the bless
ings and ascriptions in the Old Testament ' it abundantly
partakes. A Psalm like the 146th . scarcely needs the
Gloria at the close to bring it fully into unison with our
Christian worship. It contains a threefold Three in One.
It has a heart of adoration which beats in threes.
ii.
We next consider the anthropological ideas of the
Psalter. My present purpose leads me especially to that
view of human existence which is contained in a part ofthe
139th Psalm.2 Our examination of it must be preceded
by a survey of the region of thought to which it belongs.

homedanism; is but a gross caricature
of Scriptural thought.Everytheocratic
function, exercised in the name of
Jehovah who conferred it, placed him
to whom it was confided in living re
lation with the Most High, and made
him an organ of His influence. Hence
such a man — whether King, Judge,
or Prophet — became the precursor of
One who, by His Incarnation, was to
abolish the separation between God
and His creature (Zech. xii. 8). The
Old Testament, then, is in full advance
towards the Incarnation. This is at
the root of the argument of our Lord.
If this advance has nothing blasphe
mous, the final point to which it con
sistently tends can have nothing
derogatory to the Divine Majesty.
The quotation is from Psalm lxxxii.
6. Asaph, addressing himself to the
Theocratic Judges (v. 1), describes
their sublime function, as organs of
Divine justice. God Himself sits in
the midst of them, and from Him
their sentences emanate. Asaph op
poses the sad reality (vv. 2-5) to the

ideal grandeur of their functions. At
v. 6 he returns to the intimation of
v. 1, that of official dignity ; and the
phrase, " I have said, Ye are gods," re
fers to Asaph's own expression in v. 1
— for clearly the second term God (v.
1) includes the person of judges. Vv.
7 and 8 remind judges that one day
they will be judged themselves. Jesus
draws from the language of the
Psalmist a conclusion a minori ad
majus. The basis of this reasoning
is the principle that Scripture cannot
blaspheme. By those irpbs ofis S \6yos
iyevero tov &eov, Jesus signifies the
judges, to whom the Holy Spirit ad
dresses Himself in the words which
He has just cited. The expression ob
Svvarai \v8rivat ti ypaQr) shows the
boundless confidence which Jesus re
posed in Scripture : ' we may add,
and more especially in the dogmatic
character and truth of the Psalter.
Commentaire sur VEoangile de 8.
Jean, ii. pp. 310, 312.
1 Numbers'vi. 22, sqq. ; Isaiah vi.
3. 2 vv. 13-17.

234 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vn.
Most of us are familiar, in a general way, with the
argument from Design. Certain effects strike us as un-
mistakeably resembling the results which we have ob
served to follow from reasonable combination. They have,
therefore, a cause proportionably like the designing cause
which we know as Mind or Intelligence.
This argument extends over two great regions — (1)
Nature and (2) History.
(1) It extends over the region of Nature.
Some men of great ability, indeed, treat this concep
tion as a Theological superstition, or metaphysical specu
lation, which must disappear in the merciless light of
positive knowledge. They disenchant supposed 'exacti
tudes of adaptation' of the admiring and adoring awe
with which they have hitherto been invested. The insect
seems to us to flit in his little ecstasy of freedom about
the flower. The flower is only less than a miracle of
spontaneous sweetness and grace. But the insect, we are
told, is drawn to the plant by cords which are tighter
than stiffened steel. 'The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth,' but it ' fades into a necessity ' in the inexorable
glare of scientific observation. And man himself — with
all his achievements in the past, and all the promises that
dawn on the far horizon of his future — man himself was
never designed for his great destinies, but, alike in the
mechanism of that which is called his conscience, and in
the structure of his frame, has been slowly and blindly
moulded by the fatalities which environ him. Yet such
arguments, however picturesquely and variously illustrated,
scarcely reach the depths of the human spirit ; and the

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 235
solemn sneers with which they are pointed are shivered
against the rock of an irreversible conviction. For, if it
could be shown that the method which has evoked and
equipped the universe is so immethodical that no mind could
ever have groped and staggered along its dreadful mil
lennium of confusion, then, indeed, religion would be anni
hilated, but science would be annihilated also. But to
this it can never come. For the ascertained relations of
the world are relations of thought ; and thought cannot
exist out of a Mind which thinks. If Mind alone can
construe the universe — the question is as old as Cicero
— how can Mindlessness have constructed it? 'Natura
mentis expers hsec efficere potuit, quse non modo ut fierent
ratione eguerunt, sed intelligi qualia sunt sine summa
ratione non possunt ? ' l
(2) This argument from design extends to human
History also ; and that it does so is one of the main dis
coveries of the larger part of the Old Testament, and of
much of the New Testament also. From instance after
instance we are led to the intended correspondence be
tween the individual and the age, between the men and
the work which was appointed for them to do. The high
est type of this is, of course, in the manifestation of our
Incarnate Lord. 'The Lord hath called Me from the
womb : from the bowels of My mother hath He made
mention of My Name.' 2 But examples are not wanting
1 De NaturA Deorum, II. xliv. it require the negation of mind to
' The universe as known, being constitute it ? ' — Religion as affected
throughout a system of Thought-re- by Modern Materialism, by James
lations, can subsist only in an eternal Martineau, LL.D., pp. 11, 12.
Mind that thinks it. . . .If it takes 2 Isaiah xlix. 1.
mind to construe the world, how can

236 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vn.
along the whole line of sacred history. Samson, St. Paul,
the Baptist, immediately occur to our minds. Not less
remarkable is Jeremiah. God's people must have a Pro
phet of wondrous mould— alone upon the earth— alter
nately hooted through the streets and feared by Princes—
alternately startling the land with words that rang like
a trumpet, and winning by the tender pathos of entreaties
that fell like tears. We find him at the outset of that
long ministry of forty years. With locks still unsil-
vered clustering over the bright eyes of youth, he sighs,
'Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a
child.' But he is assured that one Eye had been upon
him before his mother's, and that a Designing Hand had
shaped him for his glorious destinies. He is encouraged
by the declaration of that which is ordinarily a secret of
Heaven shrouded in its sternest reserve. ' Before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee.' l
This law of historical Coincidence between certain men
and the circumstances of their age leads us to a problem, '
which, when rightly studied, is not a mere scholastic
subtlety.2 1 Jeremiah i. 5, 6. given time. In whatever proportion
2 When we turn our serious atten- great and gifted men have exercised
tion to any crisis-period of history ; an influence, in whatever degree men
and compare the men who have bad do the right work at the right time,
any considerable part to play, their in that proportion is it probable that
whole disposition, character, and these coincidences were ordered by
training, with the surroundings in a Hand that drew the chafrt of the
which they are placed, and the mission future ; that souls and bodies were
which they have to fulfil ; the adap- woven and fashioned in the womb
tation of the one to the other can be and onward for their proper work.
accounted for on no other principle. It may be said of course that the
If there were no superintending and contexture of a myriad circumstances
directing Mind, it would be perfectly which we call the spirit of the age
indifferent what gifts and aptitudes makes every man to be what he is.
came forth from the darkness at any But this gives no explanation of the

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

237

' Of those vast monuments of Theology which amaze
and appal us,' writes Dean Milman, 'the amazement is
the sole remnant for posterity.' I am persuaded that any
one who turns his attention to the question which I am
about to indicate will think otherwise.
It is known to students of Theology and Philosophy
that a controversy was carried on in the Middle Ages, and
renewed at the Eeformation, as to the view which was to
be taken of the bringing into existence of every child of
man. One school held that not only the body, but the
soul, came from the parents, and that souls were trans-

difference of genius and disposition
which is prior to any influence of the
kind. A celebrated critic tells us in
the life of a true poet, that in the
window of his mother's apartment
lay a volume of the ' Paery Queen.'
When the winter days were darkening
to their close, in the long light of the
summer evenings, the imaginative boy
read on, till the music of the verses
steeped his spirit in its charm, and he
became irrecoverably a poet. ' Such,'
adds Dr. Johnson, ' are the accidents,
which, sometimes remembered and
perhaps sometimes forgotten, produce
that particular designation of mind,
and propensity for some certain
science or employment, which is
commonly called genius. The true
genius is a mind of large general
powers, accidentally determined to
some particular direction.' Pew per
sons, probably, will accept this defi
nition of genius, even upon such
authority. Would a volume of Spenser
have made Nelson a poet, or a residence
by the sea have turned Cowley into a
heroic admiral? It is undeniable
that there are vigorous and original
natures which mould the age rather

than are moulded by it. A blind
spirit of the age, or genius of Nature,
if it blundered upon consummate
tools, would constantly be producing
them at wrong times and places. The
coincidence between the age and the
men of the age — between the work
and the workers — between the re
quirements of the epoch and the
instruments raised up to effect them
— is as proper an instance of the
argument from design as the coinci
dence between sleep and night in the
realm of Nature. When the hour
has struck and the man is wanted,
the man comes. Jerusalem is to be
rebuilt, and the decayed places of Ju
dah to be raised up, and the oracle of
God says of one as yet unborn, ' Thus
saith the Lord to His anointed, to
Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, I have even called thee by
thy name, I have surnamed thee
though thou hast not known Me. I
am the Lord, that saith of Cyrus, He
is My Shepherd, and shall perform all
My pleasure.' — On the whole question,
see the profound discussion by Bishop
Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, III.
§74.

238 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
mitted through generation to the children. This doctrine
was termed Traduciauism, or Generationism. The other
school maintained that each soul must come by an act of
Creation from God, and that souls are ever being created.
This doctrine was entitled Creationism. The question
may be put in a pointed form by asking — Are individuals
created, or are they simply born ? 1
Most Christians have felt that Creationism is the theory
which commends itself alike to their reverence and to their
reason. Allowance, indeed, must be made for such ele
ments of truth as are unquestionably contained in the
other hypothesis. Science and experience tell us that each
individual is one link in a long series of successive develop
ments of a particular type. It is vain to deny that every
individual is profoundly influenced by peculiarities of
family and of race. Whatever other heritage a father
may bequeath to his son, there is one which he must leave,
call it brain inheritance or what we will. On the one
hand, sweet tempers and gentle bearing pass on from
generation to generation ; on the other, the family scowl
is not only a thing to be read of in the pages of ' Eed-
gauntlet.' There is rage in the blood, lust in the blood,
brandy in the blood.2 But faith, nay, we may say, ex-
1 See J. A. Moehler, Symbolism, wiped out. We have traced in this
i. p. 72, sqq. class of disease, in diseases originating
2 ' I do not speak now of diseases in the manner described, many very
which are developed simply in the definite maladies, — scrofula, consump-
offspring while in the womb of the tion, cancer, rheumatism, gout, insa-
mother, but of diseases which go nity, chorea sancti Viti, syphilis, and
further back than this origin, which the whole and varied train of alcoholic
go back three and even four genera- affections.' — Inter-relationship of Cler-
tions, and which, once implanted, re- ical and Medical Functions, by B.
quire another relay of three or four W. Richardson, Esq. M.D. Clergy-
healthier generations hefore they are man's Magazine, January, 1877.

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 239
perience also, shows us that the natural birth is, after all
deductions, moulded, directed, superseded, by a higher
purpose, and by a Diviner action. Each human being,
made in God's image, is a new manifestation of that
Divine image. Each true human life is a fresh syllable
of that Divine language in which God is speaking from
age to age. Now, in the Psalms both these points of view
are recognised. But Creationism is the Psalmist's creed.
On the one hand, David says, ' Behold, I was shapen in
wickedness ; and in sin did my mother conceive me.' '
But on the other hand, we turn to the glorious 139th
Psalm. Of the age and authorship we need raise no serious
question. It may be, as great authorities consider,2 that
the style has a strong tinge of the Aramaic colouring of
the tongue of the Babylonian kingdom — of a ' retrograde
movement of the language of Israel towards that of the
ancestral patriarchal home.' 3 Not impossibly there may be,
in the substance of the piece, an historical reference to
the moulding and shaping of Israel for his destinies by the
Hand of God. It may also be, as profound Christian
thinkers have held,4 that the highest and ultimate subject
of vv. 13-17 is not generation, but regeneration, not the
natural, but the mystical body— that Aben-Ezra is jus
tified in calling the Psalm the deepest and most sublime
of all. Some see expressive hints in it of the mystery of
the Incarnation, and suppose that the Psalmist hymns the
i psalm li. 5. true> the inscription of the Psalm
2 Ex. gr. Gejer, Eosenmiiller, and ('a Psalm of David'), must be incor-
Delitzsch. Eosenmiiller points to J?3T rect.
. . ... ,  ' 3 Delitzsch, in loc.
for van tt. 3, and to a similar change '
\*i ' 4 Ex. gr. Pearson, Exposition of
of y for v in "II? »• 20- If this be the Creed, Art, v.

240 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
preparation of that Body, which was framed and moulded
for the habitation of the Eternal Word in the Virgin's
womb.1 Still, the spiritual subject is given to us under
the literal and apparent subject, and the sacred Poet makes
himself responsible for it — just as, by the imagery in the
vision ofthe resurrection ofthe dry bones, the Prophet com
mits himself to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.
The words of the Psalmist in the 139th Psalm run
thus : 2 —
For Thou — Thou hast possessed my reins,
And interwoven3 me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks, for that I have been made
Solemnly wonderful.4 Wonderful Thy works, . i
And my soul knoweth it exceeding well ;
And not concealed my substance was from Thee,
When in the secret covert I was made,
Down in the dim depths of the under-world,5
Wrought with a manifold broidery Divine.6
The germ that was myself 7 Thine eyes have seen,
And in Thy books these things were written all.8
— The days were outlined ere one day had dawn'd.
This teaching admits of no dispute, for those who look
upon the Psalms as theologically serious. A thrill of awe
passes through the Psalmist's soul as he contemplates the
1 Cf. the iv toij KaTUTdrois t5js ' ifltpjp-| (rukkamtiy).
7?)rof the LXX. (Psalm cxxxix. 15) Y '
with Ephes. iv. 9 (where St. Paul is * *W| (g°lmiy)-
speaking of our Lord's descent, a The ^ is probaWy to be re-
whether that of the Incarnation or T '•-
into Hades). Dr. Kay, in loc. ferred to all that is mentioned in the
2 vv. 13-17. verse Just preceding. The accent
3 ''JSpPi (t'siikkemy). (merca) of the intervening word
A tWF\\l (noraoth). *Jp^5J •1303^ in the Masoretic text is dis-
(mphleythly). tinctive and closes the sentence.
5 HK n'VFinrja KVi) D^J (yamlym yiitstsaru)
(b'thachtlyyoth arets). commence'another proposition.

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 241
mystery of his being. The plaited and interwoven tissue
that fenced him round in the womb is God's handiwork.
•Man, in the very rudiments of existence, is a miracle of
design. The threads of a strange embroidery are shot
through the wondrous woof that covers the spot where life
sleeps folded in its ante-natal cell. A marvellous work
goes. on. The man, iv aKOTOiai VTfZvoc, Ttdpappevoe,1
corresponds to his days. The Divine Artificer sees that
which is rolled up in the embryo. And while He sees
it, the days fitted for its development are outlined be
fore His gaze, as the sculptor knows what shape will come
from the unhewn block, as the architect has the out
line of his work before him. God's Mind is God's Book.
There is a secret laboratory, where birth as a natural fact,
and creation as a supernatural fact, coincide. There
is a point where various laws meet and interwork har
moniously. (1) The fatal and mechanical law which
regulates the continuation of the species. (2) The law
which presides over the free individual life, the awful and
beautiful gift of the living God. (3) The historical law
which adapts the man to his time. The point of recon
ciliation we cannot find. We see but broken segments
of the perfect arch. The womb is as mysterious as the
grave. Birth shrouds its secrets with a veil as impene
trable as death. But the Eevelation which throws some
radiance upon the sombre mystery of life's close flings
back, in this Psalm, one ray at least upon the portal of
its beginning. 1 .iEsch. Eumen. 665..

242 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
iii.
For the Christological ideas of the Psalms I content
myself with referring to the opening two Lectures upon
the Witness of the Psalms to Christ. But I must add
that, if any student desires to see the profound conviction
of the great masters of ancient Theology of the . witness
to the first principle of Christian Theology in the Psalter,
he can scarcely do better than refer to Athanasius's
' Orations against the Arians.' A few hours' study of
the edition by Professor Bright, with its accurate margin,
will show in how many places Athanasius saw the co
equal, co-eternal Godhead of the Lord. Thus on the
words of last Sunday's text, ' Thy kingdom is an everlast
ing kingdom.' ' That which is said does not permit us to
reckon the smallest distinct mensurable interval (Sta<rr?7/4a).
in which the Word was not. Por, if all mensurable in
terval is measured in the ages, and if the Logos is King
and Maker of all ages, it follows that, there being no such
smallest Bidarrifia before Him, it is madness to say rtv itots
ote ov/c rjv 6 almvios.' 2 One may, indeed, be tempted to
say with Thilo that both parties count rather than weigh
texts. The strong hand of Athanasius sweeps all the
chords of the Psalms, masterfully indeed, but with a
strength which, at times, is too careless. But on the
whole, the conviction remains that, if any Psalms be
Messianic, the leading ideas of the Theology which har
monises them are in those Psalms also.

1 Ba<ri\ela irdvruv rav aliivuv. Psalm cxliv. [cxlv.] 13 (LXX.).
2 Athan. Orat. I. 12 (edit. Thilo, p. 942).

lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 243
iv.
We proceed to examine the witness of the Psalms to
three great elements of Christian Theology : (1) The
ground of the efficacy of the Passion of the Divine Suf
ferer ; (2) the mode of acceptance with God ; and (3) the
means by which, as instruments, men are born again, and
spiritually nourished — in other words, the Atonement,
Justification, and the Sacraments.
(1) The 40th Psalm, being subjectively Messianic,
gives us the inner meaning of the Passion. It is, so
to speak, the Theological counterpart of the 22nd. The
22nd gives us the Atonement in the realm of fact, the
40th in the realm of idea.
The first speaks of the Crucifixion of the Body in the
sight of man, the latter of the Crucifixion of the Will in
the sight of God.
And this great Psalm occupies a place in Eevelation
which is not always perceived. 'Lo, I come,' says the
Eedeemer, ' in the volume of the Book it is written of
Me.' l What is the scroll of which He speaks ? 2 Scarcely
the Pentateuch ; and there was no other prophetic Scrip
ture to which David could have referred in his day. David
had another volume in his eye, and head, and heart, as
the Messiw syngrapha — the very Psalm which was just
written. Prom that moment it was bound, as it were,
1 "by »n3 "1S0"1"&3P3 Psalm part of the Pentateuch ; or (3) Job ;
I - T ' or (4) 1 Sam. xv. 22 ; or (5) previously
" 2Many answers have been given, composed Psalms; or (6) Scripture
suchas (l)TheBookof Jasher, or some generally; or (7) the ideal Book of
otherlostwiiting; or(2) theMessianic God, (Ps. cxxxix. 16).
K 2

244

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vn.

with a new incumbence on Him Who was to be our Sacri
fice, to do God's Will. With that eye of His which reads
all spiritual truth through and through, He sees the inade
quacy of sacrifice, the Divine weariness with it. Humanity
in its highest idea presented before God ; the sacrifice of a
perfect human will ; this was God's way of bringing man to
Himself. An obedience without flaw in mortal flesh was
required.1 ' Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God ' — ' in the

1 'In these verses' [Psalm xl. 7,8]
' there is an apparentdifficulty arising
from the citation of certain words in
the Epistle to the Hebrews [x. 7]- The
original text has i1? )V"D Wl\& which
our translators have rendered " mine
ears hast thou opened." The LXX.
and Epistle to the Hebrews, a&fja 5e
Karnprlaai ixoi, " A body hast thou
prepared for me," a rendering which
sounds very different. The only fair
way to compare them is to ascertain
first the sense of each : I. Then, with
regard to the Hebrew, the literal
sense of the words is, " Ears hast
thou digged or perforated for me."
Now, what would a Hebrew under
stand by digging or perforating the
ears? To answer this question we have,
first, 1. Similar expressions in the
Bible. In Isaiah 1. 5, " The Lord hath
opened the ear for me," ]TK i7"nfiB,
"and I was not rebellious," from
which it appears that to open the ears
is to make obedient ; and, again, an
other passage of the same Prophet,
xlviii. 8, where the ear not being
opened is connected with disobedience :
" Yea, thou heardest not ; yea, thou
knewest not ; yea, of old thy ear was
not opened: truly I knew thou didst
deal very treacherously: even trans
gressor wast thou called, from the
womb." 2. We have the interpreta
tion of the Jews. The Chaldee says,
" My ears, in order to listen to thy

salvation, thou hast perforated for
me." Hashi says, " Mine ears hast
thou perforated, saying, Hear ye my
voice. Perforated means, ye have
made holes that ye might hear."
Kimchi says, "Ears hast thou opened
for me, that I might hear thy voice ; "
and so E. Isaac explains, by reference
to Exod. xix. 5, Jer. vii. 23, and 1
Sam. xv. 22, that the opening of the
ears signifies obedience. According,
then, to Bible usage, and the inter
pretation of learned Jews speaking
and writing Hebrew, the meaning of
the words, " Mine ears hast thou
digged, or opened," is, " Thou hast
rendered me obedient." 3. To con
firm this interpretation, we have the
parallelisms :
' " Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire."
' " Mine ears hast thou opened."
' " Burnt>offering and sin-offering
thou didst not require."
' " Then I said, Lo, I come ... to
do thy will, 0 my God, I did desire."
' " The antithesis to burnt-offering
and sin-offering, in the latter clause,
is obedience. The antiparallel to sa
crifice and offering must be synony
mous — i.e., perforating the ears must
mean obedience. II. Now, then, let
us examine what the Greek translators
intended by aafia Kart\prlaw pun, " A
body hast thou prepared me," or "My
body hast thou prepared." It is clear

LECT. vii.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

245

volume of the Book it is written of Me.' By the very
words, written upon the very scroll, the pledge was given.
The Messiah's motto is chosen; that motto is* I come.'1
It is the Ich dien of the Heir of all things, the Everlasting
Son of the Father. It is the secret of His sacrifice, and
His Father's acceptance of it. ' Non mors, sed voluntas
sponte morientis.' The theology of the Atonement in the
Psalms is at one with that of S. John and of S. Augus
tine.2 From the 40th Psalm two great watchwords of the
Gospel have passed on, and from the 32 nd another.3
2. The heart and intellect of all who are imbued with
Christian theology grasp one humbling but blessed truth

that they did not mean it as a literal
translation of the Hebrew words. The
idiomatic meaning of " digging or
perforating the ears " was peculiarly
Hebrew. They therefore gave what
they considered as an equivalent, " The
preparation of the body," as more
pleasing to God than sacrifice and
offering. That by the preparation of
the body they meant obedience is to
be gathered from the context, and
from the fact that they understood the
Hebrew phrase (to dig or perforate),
as appears from the parallel passage,
Is. 1. 5, where they have t) vaiSeia
Kvpiov Kvplov dvoiyet fiov to Sira,
iyi, Se ou/c iwreiflaj. That the words
conveyed this meaning to a person ac
customed to speak and write Greek is
seen from the Commentary of Theo-
doret, who says, on the place, " To
these words agrees the apostolic ad
monition, / beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacri
fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service; for instead
of the sacrifices of the Law, God has
commanded us to consecrate our

bodies." He understood the words to
signify obedience. The sense, there
fore, of the Hebrew and of the Greek
words is substantially the same. They
both signify to render obedient.'
This explanation is given by the
late Dr. McCaul in ' The Messiahship
of Jesus.'— Pp. 161-163. For the
citation I am again indebted to Mr.
McCaul's Commentary on the Epistle
to the Hebrews.— Pp. 146, 147.
1 TJX3 (iifcco.LXX.). 'Veniosym-
bolum quasi Domini fuit.' — Bengel,
Gnomon, on Heb. x. 7. Cf. S. Matt.
v. 17 ; x. 34, 35; xviii. 11 ; xx.
28. S. Mark i. 38. S. Luke v. 32;
ix. 56; xii. 49; xix. 10 (1 Tim.
i. 15). S. John vi. 38; ix. 39; x.
10; xii. 46; xviii. 37.
2 S. John x. 18.
3 eirnyyehiadfi-nv diKaioffvvriv. Ps.
xl. 9 (LXX.).
' Thy righteousness aloud,
Good tidings of great joy, I tell.' —
Keble.

ou pii) AoyiVjj-rai
xxxii. 2.

Kvpios afxaprtav,

246 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii,
— that of gratuitous Justification. This may be almost
said to be the peculiar doctrine of the Gospel. And here,
again, the voices which we read or chant in the Psalter
are at one with our Hymns and Lessons from the New
Testament. Of passages which may appear to border on
self-righteousness or moral self-consciousness, some are in-
subjectively Messianic Psalms. Ofthe other, Delitzsch well
says that ' the self-righteousness is merely apparent.' The
righteousness of the Psalms is ' not the merit of works,'
but that consciousness of ' a godly direction of will and
form of life which has its root in entire self-surrender
to God.' 1 The Penitential Psalms express at once the
sense of sin and the sweetness of pardon in a way which
no hymn has ever equalled. Christians who differ as to
the way in which the announcement is made, agree in this.
' What is untying of earthly bonds,' asks Mr. Keble,
' compared with the sense ... of that absolving sentence ?
It can only be expressed in the words of the Psalm
constantly used in reference to Christian confession, and
inspired no doubt for that very purpose.' 2 Pious men of a
different school would say the same.
It will be remembered how S. Paul refers us to the
32nd Psalm. When David goes to the root of his accept
ance with God, he can place no confidence in his sin-
stained works : ' To him that worketh is the reward not
reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also
describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God im-
1 Commentary on the Psalms, Introduction, § 10. 2 Occasional Papers, p. 332.

lect. vn. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 247
puteth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not
impute sin.' l Again and again is our forgiveness brought
up to the same source —
There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.2
Enter not into judgment with Thy servant :
For in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.3
There is a marvellous statement of the doctrine of
Grace in the 63rd Psalm : 4
My soul followeth hard after Thee :
Thy Right Hand upholdeth me.
The well-known line —
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee,
does not adequately express it. All controversies oh
Grace and Free-will are hushed and folded up within it.
The soul is always clinging, yet ever moving; always
holding, yet always held. We grasp, or we should not
•have the hearts of children ; but we are safe, as the child
is safe, not on account of its tiny grasp, but because it is
held by the strength of a protecting love. It is set on the
same key with S. Paul's burning question, Quis separabit -
It finds its highest realisation in the promise 'They shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
Hand.' 5
1 Bom. iv. 4-8 ; Psalm xxxii. 1, 2. 4 ^nnX »t?'S; rtjja'JI lxiii. 8.
2 cxxx. 4. ' My soul
3 cxliii. 2. It has been said that past to Thy skirts would cling.'
the last Une of the 19th Psalm with Keble.
the first verso of the 32nd is S. Paul ' Bom. viii. 35 ; S. John x. 28,

in nuce.

29.

248 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
3, The great sacramental ideas of the Gospel are also
provided for in the Psalter. It has strains which imply,
and go forth to meet, the conception of entrance into the
new community by a New Birth, and of the continual sus
tenance of the spiritual life by an Eucharistie Feast.
In the 87th Psalm we have the threefold asseveration
that, in the days of the Church expansion into all lands,
every citizen of the new Sion can only be introduced into
it, and registered among its people, by an act which is
looked upon as nothing less than a new birth.
This man was born there.
And of Zion it shall be said,
This and that man was born in her. . . .
The Lord shall rehearse, when He writeth up the people,
That this man was born fhere.1
How deeply this thought sank into the heart of the
people is witnessed by the Talmud and the Cabbalists.2
The saying of the Great Teacher to Nicodemus, ' Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God —
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can
not enter into the kingdom of God,' floods the 87th Psalm
with light ; the font is its best interpreter.
It is remarkable that our Lord's teaching on the other
Sacrament of the Gospel also includes a reference to the
great Passion Psalm. All the benefits of the Agony
which is chronicled in the 22nd Psalm are exhibited in,
and conferred by, a mysterious rite, which is imaged by a
Feast, and connected with worship.
1 Psalm lxxxvii. 4-6. Cf. S. John iii. 3-5.
2 See note at close of this Lecture.

lect. vn. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 249
The poor shall eat and be satisfied. ...
Your heart shall live for ever.
Have eaten and bowed down all the lusty ones of the earth.
Before Him shall bend all those who descend to the dust.1
Our Lord's words in the 6th of S. John answer to
this. ' I am the Living Bread, which came down from
Heaven : if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for
ever.' 2 ' How natural,' cries Delitzsch, ' is the thought
of the Sacramental Eucharist, in which the Second David,
like the first, having attained to the Throne through the
Suffering of death, makes us partakers of the fruits of
His Suffering!'3
And here, once more, the Psalms present the Christian
worshipper with a wealth of strains which fit themselves
into every part of his convictions. The 84th Psalm is his
preparation before — the 150th his thanksgiving after. The
23rd is literally his Communion Hymn. Its words — 'I will
fear no evil : for Thou art with me. . . . Thou shalt prepare
a table before me against them that trouble me ... my cup
shall be full ' — set themselves to ' the full sweet peal and
melody that he hears ' in the Communion Office, and form
an antiphon which fills other Psalms with Eucharistie re
ferences. The 34th was peculiarly the Communion Psalm
of the early Church, on account of the verse ' 0 taste, and
see how gracious the Lord is.'4 The 111th Psalm was
1 Psalm xxii. 26, 29. Ibid. 50.
2 .pdyovTai -niv-nres . . . i-haovrai al » Commentary, on Ps. xxii. 27.
KapStai avrZv els alSva al&vos. Psalm ' «JJ» ft""*' (LXX), xxxiv. 8.
xxii. 26. See Constt. Apost. viii. 13; S. Cyril,
idv tis fydyy e'/c tovtov toS &prov Catech. Myst. v. 17 ; and the other
tfioerai eh rbv aliiva. S. John vi. 51 ; citations in Bingham, Antiquities,
'tva tis e| auToi) tpdyri Kal piij dirodavri. XV. V.

250 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect, vii.
that of the Church at the celebration, for the ' food ' *
which it speaks of is incorruptible, the Bread of God
which cometh down from Heaven — the food which none
but the merciful and gracious Lord would give. He will
be mindful of His covenant and redeem His pledge.2
The 116th Psalm has furnished the Church with a
great Eucharistie motto : —
What shall I render unto the Lord
For all His benefits towards me ?
I will lift up 3 the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
As the 145th Psalm supplied ancient Christians with
the daily grace upon their chief repast, so the same verse
was perpetually repeated by communicants at the altar : —
The eyes of all on Thee will wait,
And Thou art giving them their food in season.4
II.
The sum of my argument is this. In the Psalms we
not only find ourselves in the same atmosphere of reli
gious feeling which we are accustomed to breathe. The
Mind which moulded the Psalter has unrolled a map
whose distances are measured by the same scale of re
ligious thought which we have been taught to use. The
Theistic ideas of the Psalter are those which we find in
1 119 Psalm cxi. 5. rpo^v 3 n^»k Psalm cxvi. 12, 13.
(LXX.). The word signifies food as " cxlv. 15. rh p-fiuara ravra fatep
well as prey. See Gesen. s. v. oi fuefivripievoi <rvvex°os vnoifid\\ov:Ti
2 ' Nee totum dedit, qui pignus Keyovres, Oi &<j>8a\/j.oi . . . k.t.\. — S.
dedit.' S. Augustin. Enarrat. in Chrysost. in Ps. cxliv. [cxlv.]
Psalm, cxi. 5.

\ lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 251
our Creeds. The Attributes of God are laid down, and
reasoned from, as Augustine might have done. And no
sufficient cause can be discovered for considering the
Theistic teaching of the Psalms to be the mere poetical
adornment and imaginative vesture of thought. The view
of the mystery of Man's conception, birth, and destiny,
taken by these writers, is precisely that which has com
mended itself to Christian thought. The Christological
ideas of the Psalms supply a key which unlocks the whole.
The soul, turning from these speculations to questions
which more immediately concerns its own salvation, and
enquiring the grounds of its acceptance, can find no
answer in S. Paul more profoundly Evangelical than
those which are given by David and other Psalmists. In
the words which I chose as a motto, Scripture is spoken of
as a living thing, with a living eye of foresight. As we
turn from the great Theological principles of the Christian
Church to the Psalms, we see in those old pages an eye
that is fixed like a living thing upon the Creeds, and a
mind that frames its utterances accordingly — and we say,
irpoiSovcra r) >ypa<f>r) TrposvrjjysXto'aTO. The principle of
the great Atonement between God and man in the offering
up of an obedience perfect by the sacrifice of the perfect
Human Will of the predestined Sufferer, is in David no
less than in S. John. The worthlessness of human feel
ing or human effort by itself; the necessity and blessed
ness of Eepentance, yet its inefficiency, except so far as it
is the gift of God and made effectual by Him ; the sweet
inter-working of the Grace of God and tbe will of man ;
vitalise the Psalter as they do the Epistle to the Eomans.

252 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
The Font and the Altar have Psalms that are appropriate
to them, and express the ideas which belong to them.
The Psalter thus bears witness to Christian Theology,
When we turn from the Dogmas of faith to the means
and channels through which grace is conveyed to us, it
might be shown that each great branch of the Church
perceives its own favourite portion of Christian thought
and experience anticipated in the Psalter. Along those
ample ranges, each great school of legitimate Theology
finds a place. To the manifold peals of those silver bells,
each ear fits the words that are dearest to it. The great
Theology, more strictly so called, which dwells upon
the objective Creed, cries with S. Basil, svravda hi
OsoXor/la raXsta. The Mediaeval Schools, sometimes so
subtle and so arid, speak with such tenderness upon the
Psalms, that Luther owns, ' Some fragrance of life comes
to men of good-will — from words, not always rightly un
derstood, pious souls draw something of consolation, and
feel a soft breath blowing from the Psalter as if it had
passed over a garden of roses.' ' To Luther himself, and
to Bellarmine, as we read them at a distance in which the
sharp angles of controversy are rounded into a heavenly
calm, the Psalter is equally dear. As we study their
Commentaries, Bellarmine is little less Evangelical than
Luther, and Luther little less ecclesiastical than Bellar
mine.2 In our own Church it is as dear to these fof
what it witnesses of Justification as to those for what
1 Preface to Bugenhagen's Latin justitia Fidei, quam Deus donal gratis
Psalter. credentibus in Christum, quae vere
1 inpiy •VT^I. Psalm xxii. 31; facit homines justos. Hoc enim prae-
' Vocatur autem justitia Dei cipue docuit Evangelium, omnes esse

lect. vn. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 253
, it witnesses of Sacraments. As we read such passages we
can understand Hooker's beautiful anecdote of Bellar-
mine's words on his death-bed ('tutissimum est post
omnia solam fiduciam in Christo Jesu reponere'), and
trace the source which purified his faith.
It may be doubted whether the Psalter is sufficiently
studied and used for instruction in Theological principles
by those who are necessarily engaged in the struggles of
religious thought. In rougher days, a Psalm once did
much to decide the fortune of a battle. In 1589, Henri
IV. with his little army was overtaken by the host of
Mayenne at Arques, near Dieppe.1 His forces were
almost crushed by the weight of superior numbers. The
Huguenots of Dieppe had only been able to raise two
strong companies to help their champion — ' Come, M,
le Ministre,' cried the King to Pastor Damour, ' lift the
Psalm. It is full time.' Then, over all the din, a cadenced
melody marked the stately tramp of the strong soldiers.
It was the 68th Psalm, in the version of Clement Marot, set
to an austere melody.2 Slowly moving on, the two com
panies split the army of the League like two iron wedges.
At that moment the fog which had rolled in from the sea,
and hung over a castle which commanded the position,
peccatores, nee posse viribus propriis 2 ' Que Dieu se montre seulement,
justificari, sed a solo Deo, per Christi Et Ton verra soudainement
fidem veram justitiam expectandam.' Abandonner la place,
— Bellarm. in Pss., in loo. Le camp des ennemis epars,
' Innocentiam intelligimus non Epouvantez de toutes pars,
naturalem vel operibus propriis sine Fu'ir devant a face ;
dono Dei acquisitam, quae nulla est.' Dieu les fera tous enfui'r.'
— Ibid., in Ps. xxxii. 1, 2. — Les Pseaumes mis en rime francoise%
> I owe this illustration to a recent par GUm6nt Marot et Tbiodore de.
article by M. Eeville. Beze.— See Appendix. Note A,

254 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
cleared away. The artillerymen of Henri could take aim.
The swing of the Psalm was timed by the long roll of the
guns. And the Leaguers were scattered. Strange to find
this Psalm playing such a part in modern France, and again
at the Battle of Dunbar (1650). l But, stranger still, after
so many revolutions of thought, to take up these old
songs, and find in them not only encouragement to wage
the war of Truth, and music to cheer us on the way, but
the very weapons with which we are to win the victory !

NOTE TO LECTURE VII.
The Talmud distinctly states the necessity of Baptism, both in
adults and infants, before their admission into covenant with God.
When the convert is fully admitted into the Jewish Church, he is
to be considered as an infant newly horn, as completely regenerated.
And this has uniformly continued the doctrine of the Jewish Bab-
bins unto the present day. So entire is the work of Begeneration
supposed to be, that every species of consanguinity previous to his
proselytism is said to be annihilated, and all his former relatives,
whether allied by blood or marriage, declared incapable of inherit
ing his property. He is regarded to all intents and purposes as per
fectly a new creature.
Such appears to have been the Jewish doctrine upon this sub
ject, certainly not long after, and most probably at, and even^we-
vious to, the commencement of the Christian aera. And we may
perhaps correctly infer, that it was the notoriety of these opinions
which induced our blessed Lord to rebuke the ignorance of Nico-

1 ' Over the German Ocean, just arise, let His enemies be scattered." ' —
then, bursts the first gleam of the level Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell, vol. iii. p.
Sun upon us, " and I heard Nol say, 49 [3rd ed.].
in the words of the Psalmist, Let God

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 255
dermis in the following expressions, ' Art thou a master in Israel,
and knowest not these things ? '
I am aware, that some writers have considered the Talmudical
doctrine upon this subject as probably borrowed from the institution
of Christ. But those, who thus argue, wholly forget the deep-
rooted abhorrence and ineffable contempt in the Jewish character of
everything Christian.
Eegeneration therefore in the time of our Saviour was universally
supposed to be an effect necessarily resulting from the rites of proj-
selytism. im "i^j'Ofcy |Dp3 T^rOB* "13- A proselyte, who has been
admitted to the rites of proselytism, resembles a new-born infant.
Jebammoth, p. 48. col. 2. Ib. p. 22. col. 1. Ib. p. 97. col. 2.
Theregenerating effects of proselytism, in dissolving every previous
tie of consanguinity, according to the judgment of the Jewish Church
recorded in the Talmud, is distinctly stated by Maimonides, who ia
so highly esteemed by Babbinical writers as to be reputed inferior
only to Moses, in conformity with a well-known observation applied
to him TWOI Dp vb HCS'to 1JJ1 nWfi12,from Moses to Moses there has not
arisen one equal to Moses. Maimonides, in his great work entitled
nptn IS Yad Chazakah, a voluminous and full digest of Talmudical
doctrines, laws, and traditions, thus expresses the established opi
nion upon the subject : -|t»a -|tfK» ¦?:» "6,oe> pp3 Kin nn 1"jn3B» 13
"\&2 1NK> |VK uJ NlfflSO l1? VftW- ¦&¦ heathen, who becomes a proselyte,
resembles an infant newly born ; and all the consanguinity, which he
had, while a heathen, is now no more. Lib. v. nKO niDX, Issure
Biah, cap. xiv. p. 145, ed. Amsterd. 1702.
Such was the new state of existence, into which a proselyte was
supposed to enter, according to the established code of Talmudical
jurisprudence. But the ancient philosophers of the Jewish nation,
better known under the denomination of the Cabbalists, appear to
have contemplated it rather as a literal and personal, than as a me
taphorical and civil, Eegeneration.
In the well-known allegorical commentaries, entitled Eabboth,.
the conversion of a proselyte is represented as completely a new
creation. Genesis xii. 5. 11 -|Tj£>K "IN 'pro TO 1K»K PE^n TIKI
pi-it1? ybw j^x nnR put k^bk k"o^> tbwn *«3 ba pd:dtid dk trm

256 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS
j3 dsi n«jB> dmn ibx aba '\w ik»k tra^n dkt iok Tiki now o
wjoi najn nx 3-ipo Kins? »o !?3£> t^ k^>k 'to iok no1? n»*it?
1K13 l^KS- And the souls that they had made in Haran. Ji.
Eliazer the son of Zimra says : If all who come into the world (i.e.
all mankind) were collected together to create even a single fly, they
would not be able to infuse a soul into it : yet you say, and the souls
which they had made. But these are the proselytes which they had
converted. If then the meaning be, which they had converted, why
is it said which they made ? In order to teach thee, that whosoever
approaches a stranger and converts him, it is precisely as if he had
created him.
Upon the whole, then, it appears from the earliest records of
Jewish opinion extant, that Eegeneration was always regarded as a
necessary consequence of proselytism ; and that this was represented
by the Talmudists as principally consisting in the annihilation of all
preceding natural and civil ties, with an admission to others arising
from a totally new state of existence, and by the Cabbalists as a real
act of creation, as an absolute infusion of a new soul into the body
of the proselyte. Both decorated the doctrine according to their
respective tastes. But in whatsoever peculiar garb the legal refine
ment of the former, or the philosophical extravagance of the latter,
induced them to array it, still I presume the fact of its general re
ception at the time, and for more I do not contend, seems indis
putable. — Archbishop Laurence's Sermon on Baptismal Regenera
tion, January 29, 1815, pp. 8, 27-35.

lect. vm. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 257

LECTUEE VIII.
Sing unto the Lord with the harp ; with the harp, and the voice of a
Psalm.
mot Vipi iiS33 11333 nin»5 -"not
Psaem xcviii. 5.
It is necessary, at the close of a series of Lectures like the
present — even at the risk of wearisome repetition — to re
capitulate the whole argument.
The subject has been the Witness of the Psalms to
Christ and Christianity. Under the head of Witness to
Christ, six criteria were laid down for testing the super
human origin of Prophecies (1) Known prior promul
gation. (2) Sufficiency of correspondence. (3) Bemote-
ness, chronological and moral. (4) Non-isolation. (5)
Parsimonious but characteristic particularity. (6) Worthi
ness of spiritual purpose. The 22nd Psalm was first
examined. The two great schemes of interpretation,
Bationalistic and Christian (represented by Eeuss and
Bossuet) were discussed. Our conclusion was, that the
general view of Christian interpretation satisfied all the
criteria proposed.
If, then, the facts disclosed in this Psalm were promul
gated several hundred years before the Crucifixion ; if a
natural and unforced interpretation brings out with suffi
cient clearness what those facts are ; if the fulfilment was
s

258 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vm.
separated from the prediction, morally by a chasm of cir
cumstances which no anticipative sagacity could bridge
over, and chronologically by ' a deep abyss of years ;' if
the Prophecy does not stand alone, but is part of a great
whole ; if the outline is coloured and clothed with circum
stances enough to enable us to recognise the scene when
it has become history, but not enough to ante-date his
tory ; and if the end for which it was given is worthy of
the justice and love of God ; — we are led to the conclu
sion, that an influence was at work in its production of a
higher kind than that which presides over the ordinary
works of human intelligence. »
But this is not all. The 22nd Psalm does not stand*
alone. The Messianic Psalms were referred to three
classes: (1) the subjectively, (2) the objectively, (3) the
ideally Messianic. It was argued that the true explana
tion of passages which seem to connect sin with Christ,
and of the imprecatory passages in the Psalter, is to be
found in the existence of subjectively Messianic Psalms.
But the establishment of the prophetical character of even
one Psalm makes it unlikely that it will stand alone.
Hence we are led to the principle of the colligation of
Messianic coincidences in the Psalter, divided into (1)
Those which delineate His character; (2) Those which
foreshadow His life.
One intermediate Lecture was devoted to the considera-
'tion of two objections to the use of the Psalter as a
Manual for Christian worship : (1) from the character of
David ; (2) from the alleged indistinctness or negation of
the hope of Immortality in the Psalms.

lect. vm. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 250
The Witness of the Psalms to Christianity includes
four elements — their witness to
(i.) Christian Character.
(ii.) The Christian Church.
(iii.) Christian Worship.
(iv.) Christian Theology.
Under the head of Christian Character, the sum of
our argument is this. In the Psalms, taken as a whole,
we have a gift, quite exceptional in its kind, viewing the
book merely as the Manual of Prayer. But there is some
thing far beyond this.. These leaves might seem, at first
sight, to have dropped from the clouds, and to have been
stitched together at random. Yet not only do we find in
them predictions of the Saviour's Life and Death, Eesur
rection and Ascension. We can trace throughout another
Prophecy, which may be submitted to the tests originally
laid down. The Psalms lift us into -a purer air than
Psalmists themselves ever breathed. The authors of
these sacred songs touched the chords of a finer human
heart than that which beat in their own breasts or those
of their contemporaries. The Psalms presuppose men to
use them, full of the sense of sin and the blessedness of
reconciliation — rejoicing in God — seeking for inward
purity — gentle, tender, childlike. This anticipation of
the Christian Character, so long before Pentecost— this
provision of fitting utterance for all the moods of Chris
tian sanctity— is a continuous Prophecy ever fulfilling
itself in the Church. Every single Christian man who
thus, as St. Athanasius wrote to Marcellinus, '* thoroughly
s2

260 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
perceives and learns the affections of his own soul in the
Psalter,' 1 finds in himself a separate witness of the Psalms
to Christianity. ' The Psalmists,' said Donne, ' were not only clear
Prophets of Christ, but of every particular Christian. They
foretold what I, what any, shall do, and suffer, and say.'
St. Augustine tells us of one new man in Christ Jesus, with
one great voice of surpassing music and one deep heart
of love. ' Et tanquam unus Homo cantat in Psalmis.' 2
Many portions of our Lord's teaching were addressed,
through an audience which could not receive or under
stand them, to those far away in time and place. They
presuppose such hearers and readers : they imply the
kindling of a light in which they could be read, the
existence of natures to which they should become intelli
gible. Iu the same way, the Psalms presuppose an audi
ence for which they were suited, and a tone of feeling
and devotion which should answer to them. If these deep
sighs and unutterable yearnings were intended to be used,
they imply the knowledge of a character not yet perfected
by the Holy Ghost ; of souls with finer gifts and higher
susceptibilities, to be moulded out of our fallen humanity.
They may well call themselves new songs. They are new
songs for new men.
But further. The Psalms are not only Prophecies of
a Character which, in its perfected lineaments, did not
yet exist, of souls to be created, a people to be born. They
are Prophecies of a Community, whose members were to
1 See the passage cited from Ep. ad Marcellin., in Appendix, Note C, Lect. IV.
2 Enarrat. in Ps. cxxx.

lect. vm. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 261
enter within its precincts by a new birth — a community in
its inner relations to its Lord a Bride ; in its relations to
the elder Church, another Sion or Jerusalem ; in its or
ganisation, a City ; in its union under one Divine ruler, a
Kingdom. They are Prophecies of a worldwide worship —
of a music slumbering in its shell — of a ritual year moving
from festival to festival.
Under the head of the Witness of the Psalter to Chris
tian Theology, my argument last Sunday was that, in
the Psalms we find ourselves in the same atmosphere of
thought, as well as of feeling, which we habitually breathe.
And this was examined in relation to the great leading
ideas of Theology. I.
The Witness which may thus be collected from the
Psalms is of real value and solidity.
For the case stands thus, as between us and the un
believer in Scripture. Here is a Book, used every day in
the Christian Church and in the private devotion of its
members. It has passed from the Synagogue to our Lord
and His Apostles, and from them to us. Of course, those
who think lightly of the line of argument which we have
pursued will reply : ' These poems are, after all, far from
' being as mysterious as Christians think them. As for
' their antiquity, we more than suspect that David wrote
' few or none of them. As for their contents, they are
' patriotic, or battle, cr satirical, or love songs, stretching
' down to the Maccabean times. But they are pervaded by
' a strain of national religious sentiment ; and some of them
' were either liturgical in their conception, or have been

262 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
' made so by subsequent additions. Christians are able to
' use them, simply because the Jews, who first composed
' them, possessed, in a remarkable degree, those aspirations
' and yearnings, those refined sorrows and joys, which are
' part ofthe religious instincts ofthe human race. We sing
' them because they were sung by Jews who were peculiarly
' gifted in the expression of religious feeling in words. We
' eliminate certain elements of savage wrath and all self-
' righteousness, adapt them to our superior enlightenment
— and that is all.' To which we reply. Nearly all that is
said about the date and object of these songs of Israel
seems thoroughly uncertain or false, even upon critical
grounds. But, as all must allow that they were in exist
ence some centuries before the Advent of Christ, look at
them from our point of view for a short time. It is a
fact that Christ was crucified. Take the 22nd Psalm, read
it — leaving your theory of a representative Israel aside
for the time ; — better still, hear it chanted to Mendels
sohn's music, and then ask whether it does not look very
like the Crucifixion — more naturally so than any conceiv
able scene through which Israel personified can ever have
passed. Glance over the Psalms, which we venture to
call subjectively, objectively, ideally, Messianic, and see
whether they do not fall naturally into their place,
whether they do not give a connected view of a sufferer,
persecuted and dying for sin not His own, yet with the
prospect before Him of an unspeakable elevation — of a
Conqueror, King, Priest, Divine and Human, in whom
all that is best in man is concentrated — and all this, ac
companied with hints of a life and character very like the

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 263
narrative of the Evangelists, and the view taken of the
Saviour in the New Testament. Let certain points be
eliminated (explicable, we think, according to our ex
planation of the Psalter), and let it then be fairly
asked whether the general religious tone and spirit to
God, to man, to the religious community, presupposed
throughout is not very like the Christian Character.
Again, that community which stretches through all lands
and times, now a city, now a kingdom, now a bride, the
Church in the Psalms, is it not very like the Church in the
world — as like as the image of a building in a river, the
outlines dimmed by the dark waters below and broken by
the quivering surface, is to the building above ? When the
people are gathered in Church, can any one who possesses
himself with the idea of the Cross and Ascension, help
thinking of them when he hears certain passages in the
Psalms — so that their application seems to him, for the
time, natural and almost irresistible ? And when, once
more, we turn to scientific Christian thought drawn out
in its logical connection, its leading propositions (the
Divinity of Christ, the Character of God, the Atonement
of Jesus Christ, the influences of Grace, the mode of ac
ceptance with God, the nature of Justification,) are very
like those which are received in the Church. The intel
lect of St. Paul, for instance, or of St. Athanasius, was at
home in the Psalter. There is absolutely nothing else, I
will not say to justify, but to explain, the imposture which
the Book would otherwise have unconsciously practised —
the enormous disproportion and yawning chasm between
the part which it actually has played and the influence

264 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vii.
which it wields, and its own intrinsic worthlessness and
incapacity for such influence. I do not say that all these
likenesses will by themselves, or even that by themselves,
they ought to convince an unbeliever in the Divine autho
rity of the Book. But they may lead such an one to
think that these manifold representations of some one
who is very like Christ — if He be not Christ — and of
something which is very like Christianity — if it be not
Christianity — is one more of those marvellous coinci
dences which make Scripture unlike any other Book.1
II.
But I must confess that, in the preparation of this
series of Lectures, I have had before me something more
than the collection of materials for a section in a Chapter
upon the Evidences of Christianity. In the honoured
audience which I address, I speak to many who can learn
nothing from me. But there are some who have not long
entered upon their Ministry; there are many who are
likely to take Holy Orders ; there are many more who will
remain Laymen of the Church. I should be deeply thank
ful if I could, in any degree, impress upon these, my
younger brethren, some sense of the vast practical import-
1 If this argument shall to any kind, and of other kinds. If the
appear to he valid, let it he considered Psalms, suppose, and some other parts
that it is after all hut one single line of Scripture, belonged to different
of proof in a great contexture of con- systems ... as 14-1 7th of St. John,
verging probabilities. ' I am reading St. Paul's Epistles, Isaiah ... we
the Psalms just now,' writes Mr. might, were this the only proof
Wilberforce in his Journal (1803). afforded, be divided and puzzled. But
' What wonderful compositions ! what how unaccountable, except on the
a proof of the Divine origin of the true hypothesis, that each should in
religion to which they belong! There itself be so excellent, and should
is in the world nothing else like them, belong to, and be connected with, the
And that this proof should exist where others.' — Life of Wilberforce, iii. 134.
there are so many others of the same

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 265
ance of some real knowledge of the Psalms for the Clergy
and Laity of our Church.
Let me try to draw out the line of thought — traced
many years ago by the^ands of a learned and pious lay
man ' — which proves (i) That the use of the Psalter is a
test of the Church's spiritual life ; (ii) That the Psalter can
really be used by the Church, only as is directed in our
own Services. i.
It has already been urged that the Psalms form an im
portant test of the spiritual life of the individual soul.
But they form a no less discriminating test of the
point at which the spiritual life stands in any particular
Church. Mr. Coleridge is reported to have said, in one
of his least felicitous moments : ' In that particular part
of the public worship in which, more than in all the rest,
the common people might, and ought to, join ; which, by
its association with music, is meant to give a fitting vent
and expression to the emotions ; in that part we all sing
as Jews ; or, at best, as mere men in the abstract, without
a Saviour. You know my veneration for the Book of
Psalms, or most of it; but with some half-dozen ex
ceptions, the Psalms are surely not adequate vehicles of
Christian thanksgiving and joy ! ' 2 In Mr. Coleridge's day,
no doubt, the chanting of the Psalms was rather uncom
mon, except in formal Cathedral service. But it is curious
to contrast with the frigid and grudging admissions of
this passage, the often-quoted panegyrics of St. Jerome,
Sidonius Apollinaris, Hooker, and a host of others.
1 Mr. Alexander Knox, Remains, i. 222-5. 2 Table Talk, p. 90 (3rd ed., 1851).

266 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viil.
Let us proceed to consider how it is that the Psalter
has never really beon used and enjoyed but within the
Church. The Jews of the present day employ a large number of
Psalms in their Manuals of Prayer. But, on the whole,
it may truly be said that the Synagogue cannot bend
David's bow. His lyre falls from its nerveless grasp.
Among the separated Protestant bodies there is deep in
dividual study of the Psalms, devout appropriation of their
Gospel meaning, pious and meditative reading, hallowed
learning. But the Psalms are used by these latter commu
nities, as such, only in fragmentary portions, and in im
perfect because versified renderings. ii.
It seems to me to be unquestionable that the Psalter
as a whole has never been really enjoyed by any body of
Christians, except in the historical Catholic Church, and
especially in our branch of it. In the separated commu
nities, the ordinary poetical versions are only sung by
piecemeal and capriciously ; and such versions are not
Psalms at all. For the songs of Sion (as we have before
seen) have a structure of their own. Their matter is given,
in a poetry not of words, but of ideas — in a connection not
of sound with sound, or syllable with syllable, but of
thought with thought, idea with idea. Other poetry, when
it is translated into literal prose, loses its essence as poetry.
Its form is gone. Its life is measure and cadence, and these
have evaporated. But in Hebrew poetry it is otherwise.
A verse translation may, indeed, throw a gleam of beautiful

lect. vm. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 267
light upon a single clause, or form an exquisite commen
tary upon a single passage. But, taken as a whole, a
Psalm is destroyed by being turned into verse — even when
Milton or Keble attempts the task — as much as Homer,
Virgil, or Dante is destroyed by being turned into prose.
And this is one of the many threads of the great contex
ture of coincidences which the Wisdom of God has woven
into the woof of the Psalter. He who inspired the Pro
phecies of Christ and of His Church in the Book of Psalms
— Who provided that Church with a Manual of Worship —
provided also that it should be conveyed in the only form
of poetry suitable to make it universal. Therefore, the
Psalms can pass from tongue to tongue without destruc
tion of their essential character. It is not, of course, a
sin to imitate, or paraphrase, Holy Scripture in rhyme
or measure. Bishop Lowth's translation into Latin
hexameters of Isaiah xiv. has been considered by some
scholars one of the finest pieces of modern Latin; but
no Church or sect gives it as Isaiah. Dr. Watts was,
perhaps, at 'liberty to produce Psalms in what he and
others considered as an ' elegant and evangelical dress.'
But, if it was intended to use these pieces in the sanctuary
as Psalms, it was not justifiable to strip them of that which
has been well termed ' their divinely significant drapery.'
Of all the Prophecies of Messiah in Scripture, the 22nd
Psalm is nearly the most pathetic, the most sublime, the
most indisputable. The only passage which can be sup
posed to equal or surpass it is the 53rd chapter of Isaiah,
How grotesquely absurd it would appear to cut out the
prose translation of that chapter from the English Bible,

268 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
aud to insert in its place an elegant rhymed version, to be
substituted on all occasions of public worship for the
Divine original ! The Psalms, therefore, can only be
really employed in Public Worship by taking them in
such a form as that in which they stand in the Prayer-
book of the English Church.
Nor let it be said that something more than a compen
sation for this deficiency is found in the substitution of
Hymns. Hymns cannot really and adequately replace the
Psalter. To Psalms as compared with Hymns, we may apply the
analogy of the inspired Apostolic writings compared with
those which follow them. As we enter upon them, we
feel that we breathe a different air. A creative epoch has
passed away. The flood-tide of Divine Life has fallen.
No new thought is expressed. There is, indeed, some
times a more exciting and heated air, more that is mo
mentarily striking and impressive, in the Apostolic Fathers
than in the Apostolic writings themselves. The inspired
is often compressed, constrained, obscure. The soul is
on fire, but the flame is silent. The language is calm as
eternity, of a deep august simplicity. An omniscient
Wisdom is sphered in it. There is as strange a contrast
between many modern Hymns and the Psalms as between
many modern preachers and the Epistles of St. John or St.
James. Who can measure the distance between the vapid
moralising of many Funeral and New Year Hymns and the
90th Psalm, ' that Psalm of eternity ;' between the 22nd
and 23rd Psalms and certain Eevival Hymns ? No one can
ever say with literal truth, as Donne once wrote, ' this is

lect. vm. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 269
the last beating of the pulse of the Psalm, the last panting
of the breath thereof.' Of many hymns, with their shal
lowness, we are tempted to echo the complaint of gar
deners — ' there is no body in this soil.'
It may be added that, in a laudable desire to secure all
that is best from various parties, we may be a little blind
at present to possible dangers from Hymns. There used
to exist in our Church an old-fashioned jealousy about
supplanting Psalms by Hymns, which has been somewhat
too much ridiculed. I, for one, sometimes fear, lest in
our desire for variety and warmth in Hymns, we may be
piling the Church with combustibles which will explode
in different directions. Hymns are not necessarily Catholic,
or tending to a piety which is manly, rational, according
to the analogy of faith, because they are heated, sensa
tional, exciting. St. Augustine ' tells us that the African
Donatists mocked at the Catholic Christians, because the
Catholics chanted nothing in their Churches but the Divine
songs of Prophets and Psalmists, whilst the sectarians
intoned hymns with voices that swelled and rang like
trumpets — human compositions, which were flushed with
the strong wine of their fierce fanaticism. At all events,
it is high time for us to exercise a discriminating caution.
There are Hymns which are beautiful, Scriptural, Catholic
— others are luscious and hysterical. Many, of which this
cannot be justly said, have a voice wanting in resonance
and limited in compass. They are incapable of expressing
1 ' Ita ut Donatistse nos reprehen- rum humano ingenio compositorum
dunt quodsobrie psallimns in ecclesia quasi ad tubas exhortationis inflam-
Divina cantica Prophetarum, cum ipsi ment.'— Epiat. LV., xviii., Adlnquisit.
ebrietates suas ad canticum Psalmo- Januar. n.

270 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
depth of thought or height of aspiration. They are the
doggrel of self-satisfied narrowness. They brighten with
a selfish assurance, or quiver with a selfish fear. They
utter no cry of profound yearning ; they speak of no con
tinuing conflict ; they acknowledge no mystery of Sacra
mental Grace. They breathe the atmosphere of sectarian
souls, without breadth of horizon or nobility of devotion.
I believe it to be high time to face this phenomenon of
contented acquiescence in the practical deposition of the
Psalter from its place. Let us ask ourselves, as loyal
Churchmen, to consider the space which the Psalms fill in
the Prayer-book. Let us recall the glowing words of
Christians of former ages. We learn from the letters
addressed to Mareella by St. Jerome,1 and by Paula and
her daughter, that in their days the Psalms were to be
heard in the fields and vineyards of Palestine. The
ploughman, as he held his plough, chanted the Hallelujah ;
and the reaper, the vine-dresser, and the shepherd sang
the songs of David — ' aliquid Davidicum canit.' A glow
of the poetry of spring passed through the old man's
frame. 'The meadows are covered with the flowers.
Inter querulas aves Psalmi dulcius cantabuntur.' Sido-
nius Apollinaris 2 represents boatmen, as they worked their
heavy barges up the water3, singing Psalms till the banks
echoed with Hallelujah, and applies it to the voyage of
the Christian life.
Here the choir of them that drag the boat,
— While the banks give back responsive note —
1 S. Hieron., Epp. xliv., xiv. [Ed. Benedict.] ; Ad Marcellam.
2 Lib. II. Ep. x.

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 271
Alleluia ! — full and calm
Lets the bidding from the waters float —
Christward lifts the Psalm.
Christian pilgrim ! Christian boatman ! each beside his rolling
river,
Sing, O pilgrim ! sing, O boatman ! lift the Psalm in music
ever.
Our object is not to repeat such testimonies again and
again with an unprofitable wonder. It is to ask ourselves
how the Psalter was so loved and popular then, how it is
listened to so coldly now ?
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Can the old affection and enthusiasm be revived, and
how? I believe that it can. Not, in the first instance,
by services, however beautiful. We must begin from the
beginning. We must teach our people, after teaching
ourselves, something of the Christian meaning and spirit
uality of the Psalter. It must form a part of our cate
chising. I should be the last to deny the ultimate value,
even practically, of passages not always or immediately
apprehended— a value which might be impaired by forced
and premature exposition. But, it must be confessed that,
of all men in the world, Englishmen are the most unlikely
to prize that of which they know nothing, and which they
must take altogether upon, trust. Let us learn a lesson
from the old ecclesiastical copyists.
In the Utrecht Psalter, the artists evidently possessed
themselves with the images and ideas of the Psalms, and
then produced their illustrations on the vellum. A twofold
thread of thought runs through the exuberant pictorial

272 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
commentary. Or rather, the great foundation of Christian
and Catholic interpretation is assumed, and harmonises the
whole. Christ Incarnate, Crucified, Eisen, Eeigning, ia the
central subject. But the numerous illustrative drawings are
pervaded by two characteristics. The rugged limestone
hills, the palm and the olive, with the gnarled trunks which
they exhibit in Palestine — the square-blocked and embat
tled walls — represent a landscape which is essentially
Hebrew and Syrian. But the numerous touches of subordi
nate and secondary accessories are considered by many to
prove, that if the landscape be primarily Palestinian, it is
seen through the Egyptian surroundings of men who,
living in that country, devoted themselves to a living
exposition of the Psalter, after the fashion of their day.
Whether this conclusion be accurate or not, I am unable
to say ; but, in any event, the illustration remains. Let
us hope for such a knowledge of the Psalms, making
allowance for the difference of age and race. Let it be
based upon an acceptance of the old Christian and Catholic
interpretation of the Psalms. Let the light of the Syrian
skies, under which they were mostly written, lie upon the
landscape, and its unchanging features be fully in our view.
But, as the Book is a universal Book, let it be richly illus
trated from the objects upon which our people look in
their every-day life. Our clergy must propose to them
selves two means by which to compass the great end
of restoring the Psalter to its proper place in the affec
tions of the English people.
(1) They must aim at educating and catechising the
young into something like intelligent knowledge of the

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 273
Psalms. The whole Mosaic institution was more than a
blaze of ritual pomp. It was a profoundly conceived
and admirably arranged plan for enshrining, diffusing,
and perpetuating its central truths. The ordinance of
Psalmody was more than an accompaniment of national
poetry for national music. It was part of a provision for
national religious education.
Hear the didactic song of the grave and meditative
Asaph : ' — I will utter dark sayings of old :
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide Irom their children,
Showing to the generation to come
The praises ofthe Lord, and His strength.2
It seems to be assumed that enough is done in the
Sunday School and elsewhere when the young are pro
vided with a summary of Bible history. Our schools are,
as it were, ' in the midst of a valley full of bones — and, lo,
they are very dry.' Yet surely the Psalms, livingly taught,
are well fitted to interest the young. To take one point
alone — the references which they contain to the beauty
and grandeur of nature may colour many pages of geo
graphy and natural history.
(2) Above all, and without this everything else will
be in vain, our people must be taught habitually to see
Christ in the Psalter, His Church, the worship of that
Church, the outlines of their Creed, the way of acceptance
with God, the thought that should mould a Christian's
i »Dj^> ^13E>D * Psalm lxxviii. 2, 3, 4.

274 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. vni.
life, the words that they may use upon a bed of death.
There blows round the Psalms a breath of heaven ; they
must be made to feel it play upon their cheeks. As our
pious peasants read the Psalter at home, or follow the
chant in the village Church, they must be able to say
almost instinctively — In this Psalm is the voice of the
Sorrow and of the Love of Jesus. This Psalm speaks of
His Passion. His are the Pierced Hands and Feet. He
is the Divine Shepherd. Here I find Him reigning in
Glory. This is He who comes to Judgment. This Sion
and Jerusalem which is spoken of is the Church. This
Feast is the Eucharist, this Table the Table of the Lord,
this Cup the Chalice, this Bread the Body of Christ. The
peace of which the Psalmist speaks is the peace that
passeth all understanding, the peace to the weary when
the long day's work is over, the peace of Heaven.
Let me here refer to one passage in the ' Enarrationes '
of St. Augustine upon the Psalms — that collection which
(I hope it is not disrespectful to say) sometimes dis
appoints us so strangely, sometimes touches an unsus
pected word with such subtle beauty.
St. Augustine was preaching on the 147th Psalm in
the Basilica at Hippo. In the course of his exposition he
read the thirteenth verse, ' Benedixit filios tuos in te.' A
pause, and he proceeded, ' Benedixit guis ? ' ' Qui posuit
fines tuos Pacem.' There may have been some tenderer
cadence in that grand and pathetic voice. But, without
a single additional word, without one sentence of the
preacher's exposition, a thrill ran round the Church, and
sighs of aspiration and voices of joy were heard among the

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

275

people. ' I have said nothing,' cried the preacher ; ' I did
but pronounce the verse, and you exclaimed. What have
I shown to you? Why do you cry out, if you do not love?
Why do you love, if you cannot see ? Peace is invisible.
What is that eye wherewith we see it, that it may be
loved ? You would not cry out if you did not love. These
are the sights which God lends us to things which are
unseen. With what beauty hath the understanding of
peace smitten your heart ? Why should I now speak of
peace or of its praises? Your affections go before my
words. I do not fill up — I cannot — I am weak. Differ-
amus omnes laudes pads ad illam patriam Pads.' Is it
impossible for the Psalter to possess something of that
power in the nineteenth Century for Englishmen, which
it possessed for the fishermen of Hippo in the fourth
century ? I believe that it is not. The result of deeper
sttfdy of the Psalms, of critical science brought to bear
upon its contents, may be a new enthusiasm, more sub
dued and less demonstrative, but not less real than that
of which St. Augustine speaks.1 The days when this new
enthusiasm for the inspired Psalms shall have passed from
the English clergy to the English people will be days of

1 In the African Church a Psalm In Joann. Evang., Tract, x. Cap. i.
was often appointed to be chanted by This custom was thought even to have
the Lector alone, and then explained. a spiritual meaning. ' In Psalmis ali-
St. Augustine says : ' Ipsius servi vox quando plures cantant, ut ostendatur
est ilia evidensquam in lamentationi- quia de pluribus fit unus; aliquando
bus audistis in Psalmo, et movebamini unus cantat, ut ostentatur quid fiat de
cum audiretis, quia inde estis. Quod pluribus.' Tract, xii. Cap. iii. Might
cantabatur ab uno, de omnibus cordibus not this practice be profitably tried
resonabat. Pelices qui se in illis voci- in some of our own churches ?
bustanquam in speculo cognoseebant.'

276 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
new life for the Church, as regards (1) her own services,
and (2) the best separatists from her.
(1) The English Prayer-book will have attained more
than one of the great ends which it proposed. The
Psalter will be continually used. Its words will become
intensely popular, because intelligently sung or said. The
Daily Service to which the Prayer-book gives perpetual
witness will be revived, and become delightful. The atti
tude and bearing during that portion of the service of
worshippers who should be taking part in it, will not be
those of persons patiently submitting themselves to some
minor surgical operation. For the Psalms, says Mr.
Alexander Knox, 'are, as far as words and thoughts can
be, the very green pastures and still waters which they
describe ; and the stated use of them in the Daily Service
tends, as much as means can, to the accomplishment of
their own lovely promise, " They shall be satisfied with
the plenteousness of Thy house ; and Thou shalt give
them to drink of Thy pleasures as out of the river." ' '
(2) Thus also may we hope, that many holy spirits,
now separated from us by misunderstandings, will be
brought to feel the true Scriptural character of our ser
vice. They will see the superiority of the Church's use of
the very Psalms from God's very Bible to lengthened
confessions of depravity, languid common-places of devo
tion, and humanly composed hymns.
If any think that the Psalms are too symbolical and
imaginative for a people like our own, let me read some
remarkable words of one, who, after all deductions for
1 Remains, i. p. 227.

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 277
his aberrations, brought to Hebrew poetry almost the
spirit of a Hebrew. ' When I say symbolical,' wrote
Edward Irving, ' I do not say unintelligible, but intelligible.
Without a symbol, nothing spiritual can be made intel
ligible, and nothing prophetical could be stamped as real
and sanctioned as certain. What do these ignorant railers
against symbols and mysteries mean? Is not Baptism a
symbol ? What is the Lord's Supper but a symbol ? Both
of the mysteries of the invisible world made intelligible by
symbols, and without such symbols unintelligible.'
III.
Before closing these Lectures, there are yet two forms
of the Witness of the Psalms to Christianity to which I
must advert, (i.) Their Witness to individual Christianity
^their inexhaustible appropriateness to the most varied
circumstances and needs, (ii.) Their Witness to the Hopes
of the Church — their recognition of the glorious, but as
yet unfulfilled promises which await the people of God.

The Witness of the Psalms to individual Christianity,
their abiding use and appropriateness.
This is an inexhaustible and ever-growing chapter, to
which every preacher and commentator upon the Psalter
may add one beautiful section. Three of these have lately
been contributed by Professor Delitzsch, by Dr. Kay, and
by Mr. Perowne. Let me add a few such flowers to these
richer garlands.
Archbishop Leighton, in his Charge of 1666, said to

278 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
his Clergy—' Of the Old Testament, read particularly
large portions of the Psalms, being both so excellently
instructive, and withal so Divine forms of prayer and
praises ; and therefore have been so much . used by the
Church in all ages, and always made so great a part of
their publick service.' ' The Archbishop's practice agreed
with his recommendation. He was particularly con- •
versant with the Book of Psalms, and sometimes spoke of
it as a ' bundle of myrrh, that ought to lie, day and
night, in the bosom.' 2 A letter of his nephew has been
preserved, in which he records of his saintly uncle,
' Scarce a line in that sacred Psalter that hath passed
without the stroke of his pencil.' 2
To the numerous instances recorded in which last
words have been taken from the Psalms, let me add one
other. The sentences which I proceed to read were de
livered by Dr. Whewell on May 6, 1855, and they refer to
Julius C. Hare. ' Such an affection he had for the 1 7th
Psalm. When the Psalm was read to him before his
spirit departed, he thanked those who had thus chosen the
words of Scriptures which he so especially delighted in.
With these sounds of glory ringing in his ears —
I will behold Thy presence in righteousness, '
And when I awake up after Thy likeness, I shall be satisfied
with it —
our dear friend fell into that sleep from which he was to
awake in the likeness of Christ.'

1 Leighton's Works, vol. ii. p. 439.
2 Pearson's Life of Archbishop Leighton.

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 279
A recent traveller in Spain visited in Cadiz the ' Casa
de Misericordia.' High up above the walls runs the in
scription — This is My rest :
Here will I dwell.
I will abundantly bless her provision :
I will satisfy her poor with bread.1
The eye and ear miss two words in the first line — ' for
ever.' A recent traveller mentions that, as he looked up,
the Superior, with a smile, explained the reason of the
omission. ' This Casa is the home of the poor — but not
for ever.'
In the late Franco-German war, an English writer
entered the Church at Bourget immediately after an
action. On the altar, which was dinted with a bullet-
hole, with a blood-stained book on its steps, lay the great
Psalter. The book was open at the 56th [57th] Psalm.
'Miserere mei, Deus . . . clamabo ad Deum altissimum.'
The great scholar, Casaubon, — whose life has recently
been made of such interest to Oxford men by a writer who
singularly combines industry with refinement — was going
to the Huguenot worship at Charenton in an open barge,
August 20, 1668. A heavy boat ran in astern. His wife
fell over into the Seine, but he pulled her in, — after almost
losing his own life. At the same time he dropped into the
river his Psalm-book, the gift of his wife, his constant
companion for twenty-two years, out of which they were
singing the 86th Psalm when the accident occurred. ' I
could not but remember,' says Casaubon, in his journal,
1 Psalm exxxii. 14, 15.

280 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
' that place of Ambrose where he says— This is the pecu
liarity of the Psalter, that every one can use its words
as if they were peculiarly and individually his own.'
In the midst of a London season; in the stir and
turmoil of a political crisis, 1819 ; William Wilberforce
writes in his Diary — ' Walked from Hyde Park Corner,
repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort.' Many such
notices occur, down to the last, when he was carried, a
dying man, to London in 1833. ' How differently time
appears,' he said to his son, while they halted at an inn,
* when yon look at it in the life of an individual, or in the
mass ! Now I seem to have gone through such a number
of various scenes, and such a lapse of time, and yet, when
you come to compare it with any great period of time —
fifty years — how little fifty years seem. Why, it is 3000
years since the Psalms which I delight in were written.
By the way, I have not my Psalter this morning. Do you
know where it is ? '
Time would fail us to dwell upon the wealth of associa
tions which belong to particular Psalms ; l especially to
those which, like the 25th Psalm in the Lutheran service
and the 71st Psalm in our own, are used in the Service for
-the Sick and Dying ; or like the 39th Psalm, ' the most
beautiful of all the elegies in the Psalter,' 2 and the 90th
Psalm, 'that ancient Psalm, that Hymn of Eternity,' are
repeated at funerals. It has been observed that the 90th
Psalm is the prayer which is read over the mortal dust of
some hundreds of the children of men, every week, in
London alone. Of the histories which illustrate it, let
1 See Appendix, Note A. * Ewald.

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 281
me select but one. When the pious and gallant young
Englishman, Hudson, was killed on the Matterhorn in
1865, it was suggested that a short Funeral Service
should be held. ' Poor Hudson's Prayer-book,' says the
officiating clergyman,1 ' was produced for the purpose. I
read out of it the 90th Psalm. Imagine us standing, with
our guides, in the centre of a snow-field, with that awful
mountain above us, under a cloudless sky, in the very
sight as it were of the Almighty. Try and catch the
so and of the words —
Lord, Thou hast been our refuge in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the
world were formed,
Prom everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.'
These are but a few samples of a great induction by
which it might be shown that the Psalter was constructed
under the superintendence of Him Who knew what was in
man, not only for the Church, but for each individual
soul. Scripture is not a book from which inspiration has
departed. It is inspired. ii.
The Psalms recognise the glorious promises — as yet
unfulfilled— which are part of the Church's heritage. Let
us look at certain great elements of unfulfilled Prophecy
to which they bear witness, and of which we declare our
belief in reciting them.
1. The Psalter bears witness to the full glory of the
Church by the gathering in of Israel. In that Gospel,
'- The Bev. Joseph McCormick.

282 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
which especially dwells upon true Judaism, transformed
and transfigured in Christ, the 118th Psalm is enlightened
by this hope. In St. Matthew, just before Jesus went out
and departed from the Temple, after His lamentation
'0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' He makes this application,
' Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say
unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.' •
Thus, the 118th Psalm is referred by our Lord Himself to
some day of future glory as yet far off in the calendar of
time. It contains words of triumphant thanksgiving. A
condition of depression has passed away. A great deliver
ance has been effected by a great Deliverer. A Temple is
approached, and the sound of a grand Processional strikes
upon the ear. The fabric itself, as it fronts the advancing
throng in the glory of its completed beauty, becomes the
subject of the strain. A stone once rejected is mentioned.
Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will go into them, and I
will praise the Lord.
I will praise Thee : for Thou hast heard me, and art become my
salvation.
The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of
the corner.2
It is a corner-stone ; therefore, with two fronts. And
the Psalm, in its widest scope, embraces a view of the
visible Church, extended to its utmost magnitude and con
summated in its perfect beauty. Easter after Easter the
Church chants —

1 St. Matthew xxiii. 37, 38, 39 ; cf. Psalm cxviii. 26.
2 Psalm cxviii. 19, 21, 22.

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 283
This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be
glad in it.1
Not yet has dawned that Easter-tide upon 'earth and sea,
when the Eesurrection of the Church shall be added to
the Eesurrection of her Lord.
2. The Psalms bear witness to the times of restitution
of all things, to the regeneration waited for by the
world. Thus in the 96th, 97th, and 98th Psalms, we have the
paeans of all creation. ' When He shall have brought
again the First-begotten into the world He saith, And
let all the angels of God worship Him.' 2 The reference
here is not exactly to Christmas, but to a future time,
to a second ushering of Messiah into the renovated uni
verse.3 In those Psalms, the Psalmists sing with their
lyre that which forms the subject of many a prophetic
descant. But the Prophets rather take up the blessed
ness of the dumb creatures, and hold it up ' to the tender
and merciful affection of man.' The Psalmists waken the
songs of the ocean and the mountains, the forest and the
field, the sky and the stars.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad :
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein :
Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord.4
3. Yet, again, in reading and interpreting the Psalms,
i Vm 24. junct. aor.) ; Psalm xcvii. 7.
2 orav Se vd\iv elcraydyri rhv irpu- s eh tV oiKovp.ev7)v, ibid.
tStokov.— Hebrews i. 6. (See Winer, 4 xevi. 11, 12.
§ 42, on the force of orav with con-

284 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
Christian faith receives the principle of intensity. Phrases
more ample and complete are before us than can appa
rently be justified by the immediate object. It is not for
nothing that the Spirit of God so stirs the spirit of those
divine singers. The words of the Psalmists are truest
when we pitch their significance highest. As the notes
float through the Church or chamber they awaken voices
higher up. So is it when the Psalms speak of victory, of
rest, of judgment, and of many other things. The enemies,
as we have seen, are not personal enemies of David and
the other Psalmists. The notes of victory which ever
and anon tremble from the strings thrill across no
earthly battlefield. When David sings —
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man ?
Thou lovest all devouring words,
O thou deceitful tongue.
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever ' —
when a later Psalmist asks —
Deliver my soul, 0 Lord,
From lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.
What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto
thee, thou false tongue ? 2 —
this principle of intensity leads us to the overthrow of
Satan. In the Psalter, Asaph complains to God of the ' ene
mies' conspiracies,' and prays ' against them that oppress
the Church ' :—
They have consulted together with one consent : they are confederate
against Thee :
1 Psalm Iii. 1-5. « psalm Cxx. 2, 3.

leci. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

2S5

The tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites. . . .
O my God ... as the fire burneth a wood, and as tlie llame setteth
the mountains on fire ; so persecute them with Thy tempest.1
The strain hangs suspended on the air of Prophecy,
and only finds its final fulfilment in the Apocalypse : —
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive
the nations . . .
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed
the camp of the Saints about . . . and fire came down from God
out of heaven and devoured them.2
In this way, the enemy and the judgment on the one
hand, the life and rest on the other, are taken in their
ultimate sense. The 8th Psalm is a prophecy of the New
Humanity, drawn from Adam as yet unfallen ; the promise,
where so much is wrapped up in three pregnant words,
moves on a parallel line, and takes in the great enemy.
That Thou mayst cause
To hush in Sabbath-rest the enemy,
And him who broods and breathes his own revenge.3
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies this
1 Psalmlxxxiii.5, 6, 14; cf. Apoc. pagans. We read these verses, no
xx. 7, 9. doubt, incorporating them with Chris-
2 "Without this, Psalm cxlix., for tian thought by what Delitzsch calls
instance, might be read simply as », ' a spiritual transmutation.' Only this
fierce cry for vengeance. The saiva- was intended for faith, and not in-
tion with which God 'abundantly wrctealbymodernrefinement.Probably
robes ' His people iv. 4) might be a 1 Corinth, vi. 2, 3 is the ' spiritual
bloody victory in some forgotten feud. transmutation ' of Psalm cxlix. 9.
The D^Tpq (eh'asiydhlym) (v. 5) s D^flOl 3tfK nWD^
might be the partizan patriots in a Psalm viii. 3.
warfare of Oriental guerillas — the N0te the force of the Hiph. and
3-1113 OBB'P (mishpat kathiibh) (v. Hithp. ; cf. for these remarks vii. 5-
9) a sanguinary application of the law 16; ix. 6-20; xxi. 9 ; xxvii. 12.
as it relates to the extirpation of

286 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
principle of intensity to the ' rest ' spoken of in the 95th
Psalm, which he shows to be the Best of Heaven.1
Here, then, in these utterances of unfulfilled Prophecy,
the Psalms perform one of their divinely appointed func
tions. Let us ask ourselves the use of such passages. Do they
merely form a dazzling haze of Oriental or poetical imagery,
a bright incrustation over some thin layer of truth, a
jewelled reliquary for some content of questionable value ?
Surely, there are very many who have moments of deep
depression. They are jaded and overwrought. Life
stretches before them with an arid monotony, which is at
once common-place and terrible. They are ready to cry,
' We are tired out ; let us lie down and die, and let the
sands roll over us.' Who can give effectual help to such as
these ? Some one who may have no material aid to bestow,
but who, with loving eye and ringing voice, can inspire
hope. Every man who lives to the ordinary term of
human existence ; every people in its history ; every
Church in its work ; every faithful minister in his service
— has such moments. If the preceptive part of Eeve-
1 Psalm xcv. 11 ; cf. Hebrews iv. 'The generation of the wilderness
3-11. 'The Talmudical writers in- have no part in the world to come.
terpreted this 11th verse of Ps. xcv., por jt js said (Num xiT] 35^ ln tUs
of the fruition of heaven, as appears wiUemess tk shM be comumed and
from the following extract irom the ,7 , „ ,. ,. _, , „ ,
Treatise, Sanhedrin, col. 274. (Ugo- ihtn sUU ** ** TkeH shdl be
lini Thes., vol. xxv.) :- consumed, in this world: and there
ill L shall they die, in the world to come.
dM pto »n!> p« won -m And thi:also is meanfc b what js
-yam ¦««¦? Tnjr? |*n pw ton said (P, XCT. n)> To wJm z swan
ion* -imo* de>i ion* nm -mco in my a)raMj if they shmM mUr int0
•KU? Tnu? miO» DK>1 -ntn D71JQ my rest.' (auoted by Mr. McCaul (p.
DN *SfcO 'HVaCJ "IPS IDIN Nin pi 41) on Hebrews iv.)
•»nm:o bu }isn'

lect. viii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 287
lation answers to charity, if fulfilled Prophecy demands
faith, unfulfilled Prophecy is the educator of hope. It
does this great service to believing humanity. Life often
seems an illusive progress, travelling on from deception
to deception, leading us from a cradle of tears to a
grave of worms. The bitter lines of the poet sound in
our ears: —
No more, no more, O never more on me
The freshness of the heart shall fall like dew.
But, in Prophecy the voice of Hope tells us that the fresh
ness shall be renewed, and that the dew shall fall again.
How many of these chants of Hope there are in the Psalms!
For the individual soul : —
I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.
I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.
For the Church : —
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of
God.
For the world : —
The Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice:
Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.1
Or that other strain, dearer and more marvellous still,
because, if we read the Psalm aright from which it is
taken, it is the voice of the Crucified Himself.
Let the heaveDS and earth praise Him,
The seas, and everything that moveth therein.2
The Christian, who enters into the spirit of the Psalter,
is enabled to say : — To that of which we read in all the
1 Psalm xvii. 15 ; xxiii. 6 ; xlvi. 4 ; xcvii. 1. 2 Psalm lxix. 34.

288 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS lect. viii.
Prophets ; to that which Jesus spake of the Eegeneration ;
which St. John told of the new Heavens and new Earth ;
the Psalms also bear witness. In them also we perceive,
at times, the softer light than ever yet has fallen upon
earth and sea. We hear the rippling of voices that are
very far away. As we think of those who sleep in Christ,
we catch an expression sweeter than Memory has ever
found, when it has looked upon those unforgotten faces
through the mist of its tenderest tears. It adds to the
Church's love for the Psalms, that they open before
her those depths of golden twilight, and leave her
hopes free to range through that 'infinite liberty of
shadows.' If one who has occupied your time so long may add
another word, it shall be this. The great scholar, Sal-
masius, in sight of death, exclaimed : ' Ah ! I have lost
an immensity of that most precious thing, time. If I
had but one year more, it should be spent in studying
the Psalms, and St. Paul's Epistles.' To him who now
addresses you such an opportunity has been given, as the
evening of his days draws on. Writing as he has done in
the broken hours of a busy life ; possessed of knowledge
which to students who have given long years to their
work must appear poor indeed; he cannot regret the
impulse which led him to undertake the task. The many
in this audience who know much of the Psalter will
pardon his deficiencies for the sake of his reverential
admiration of it.
For those who are younger, their interest in the Psalms

lect. vm. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 289
has been the preacher's greatest encouragement and best
reward. The sight of that gallery is one which he can
never forget.
My sons ! love and study the Psalter. You will dis
cover that it will indeed ' requite
Studious regard with opportune delight.'
In it you will find Him Whom it is best to know — Jesus,
your Lord and your God. And as time goes on — when
you bow down in penitence ; when you seek for pardon ;
when your head is bent in sorrow ; when you lie on a bed
of sickness ; when your lips turn white and quiver as you
kneel before your dead ; as the solemn hour comes, when
your spirit must pass into God's Presence — it has treasures
which will never fail you.
The Psalter is not like a picture on canvas, upon
whose surface only the light falls. It may rather be said
to resemble a picture on glass, where the radiance of each
day's sunshine is deeply interfused with the artist's work ;
where the design may be of remote antiquity, but the
light and glow are of the living Present.1
1 See Appendix. Note B.

APPENDIX. LECTURE I.
Note A, page 2.
The first hints for the preparation of the following list of pas
sages from the New Testament, in which portions of the Psalms
are either incorporated or referred to, were given by Dr. Kay's
work on the Psalms passim, and by Dr. Neale's Commentary on
the Psalms, vol. i. pp. 426-470 (Dissertation III., ' The Mystical
and Literal Interpretation of the Psalms '). I have since devoted
considerable care and thought to these references, and added very
many to those originally indicated. Where the references are of
a subtle and almost latent character, I have given the words in
full, either from the Hebrew or the LXX, as well as the pas
sage in the New Testament. Where the quotation is full and
direct, I have been contented to affix the numerals.
Psalms. New Testament.
i. 2, 1VSPI miT1 nijnS Rom. vii. 22, o-vvqbofiaiyapT<p v6fj.a>Tov Beov.
His delight is in the law I delight in the law of the Lord.
of the Lord.
i. 3, ro £vkov . . to (piWov Apoc. xxii. 2, ra cpvWa tov £v\ov.
avrov
ii. 1  Acts iv. 25, 26.
ii. 2-7 . . . . S. Matt. xxvi. 63 ; S. John i. 50 ; Acts
xiii. 33 ; Rom. i. 4 ; Coloss. i. 18 ;
Hebr. i. 2^5 ; v. 5.
ii. 8, ra irepara xf/r yJ/r . S. Matt. xii. 42 ; S. Luke xi. 31.
TI 2

292

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS afp., lect. i.

Psalms.
ii. 9 
ii. 11, iv (poBa . . . iv Tpo/ico
iv. 4, opylfaoSe Kal fir)
afiaprdvere
v. 9 
vi. 3
vi. 8, arroo-TtjTe an ifiov
ndvres ol epya£6fievoi ttjv
dvoplav (cl 4 ; cxix. 3) .
vii. 9
vii. 13, byy. tl'tftf? utfn 2
Sagittas suas ad com-
bwrendum operatus est.
— $. H-veron.
viii. 2, babes .
viii. 2 . . . .
viii. 4 3-6 .
ix. 3, iv ria d-rroo-rpacpTJvai
tov ex^pov fiov els to.
07T10"0)
ix. . . . xiv.4 .
x. 2, 8, 9, 6 wTa>xbs. . -irivrfs
(the poor, with the idea
of piety as ' poverty of
spirit' combined).
x. 27

New Testament.
Apoc ii. 27; xi. 15-17; xii. 5; xix. 15; v. 5.
Eph. vi. 5 ; Philipp. ii. 12, fiera <po8ov
Kal rpofiov.
Ephes. iv. 26. 1
Rom. iii. 13.
Apoc. vi. 10.
S. Matt. vii. 23, dnoxapeire an ifiov ol
ipya^Ofxevoi ttjv avofiiav.
S. Luke xiii. 27, dnoo-Tifre an ifiov, ndvres
oi ipydrai rr/s ddiKias.
Apoe. ii. 23.
Ephes. vi. 16, ra Bi\r) tov novrjpov rci
nenvpapeva.

S. Matt. xi. 25 ; S. Luke x. 21, babes.
S. Matt. xxi. 15, 16.
1 Cor. xv. 27, 28 ; Ephes. i. 22; Hebr. ii.
6-9.
S. John xviii. 6, dnrj\8ov els ra onia-ia.

Apoc. v.-xi., xv., xvi.
S. Matt. v. 3, &c.

Rom. iii. 14.

1 See Bishop Wordsworth's ex
haustive note.
2 It is to be noticed (1) that Psalm
vii. 13-18 most probably refers to the
enemy and his assaults ; (2) that
DspTV c'oes no* = ' k°t pursuers,'
'persecutors' (A. V.), but fiery
arrows, the prefix p having the force
of an accusative. — See Rosenm. in loc.
3 Note that the great title of our
Lord as the Ideal Man, vlbs avBpdnou
(v. 4, LXX.), came from this passage
as well as from Daniel.
* ' Psalm ix. is a vision of Judg

ment upon Nations rising against
God ; x. upon proud and prosperous
Atheism ; xi. on the violence of open
persecutors ; xii. on the hypocrisy of
deceivers ; xiii. on those who appear
to have crushed the truth ; xiv. on a
general apostasy in faith and morals.
Thus these seven Psalms [viii. being
included] may be compared with tho
seven seals, trumpets, and vials of the
Apocalypse. They are consummated
(as those septenary groups of the
Apocalypse are) in a vision of ascen
sion and glory (Psalm xv).' — Bishop
Wordsworth on Psalm ix.

app., lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

293

Psalms.
xi. 4
xi. 6
xi. 7, ioye -1T0* IK*
' The just with open eye
His face shall ever see.' —
Keble.
xiii. 1
xiv. 1-3 (LXX.) .
xv. 1, 2 .
xvi. 8'-ll
xvii. 14, Men of the world
. . who have their por
tion in this life.
xvii. 15 .
xvii. 15, x°FTao-8rf(jopai
xviii. 2 . .
xviii. 4 (cxvi. 3)
xviii. 49 .
xix. 2
xix. 4

New Testament.
S. Matt. v. 34 ; xxiii. 22.
S. Matt. xx. 22 ; xxvi. 39.
Apoc. xxii. 4, 6\jrovrai to npoa-airov airov.

Apoc. vi. 10.
Rom. iii. 10-18.
Coloss. iii. 1, 2.
Acts ii. 25-28, 31 ; xiii. 35.
S. Luke xvi. 25 ; xx. 34.

1 Or. xiii. 12 ; xv. 49 ; 2 Cor. iii. 18 ;
1 S. John iii. 2.
S. Matt. v. 6, xoPTao~8h°~OVTal-
S.Lukei. 69 ; Hebr. ii. 13.
Acts ii. 24. 2
Rom. xv. 9.
Rom. i. 19.
Rom. x. 18 3 ; (S. Mark xvi. 15).

1 ' The Messiah is described as God's
Holy One, "]TDn, Thy Holy One, in
Ps. xvi. 10, rbv Sai6v aov, LXX., and
applied by S. Peter, Acts ii. 27, to
our Lord Jesus Christ. For a very
satisfactory vindication of the read
ing 'I'T'Dn, instead of "pI'Dri, see
Phillips on the Psalms, vol. i. p. 98.
In Deut. xxxiii. 8, the term TDPI is
applied to Aaron in his pontifical ca
pacity, and in immediate connexion
with the Urim and Thummim, ^ab
"|*PDn> t$ avSpl -rip So-lcp, LXX., and
so it is explained in the Targums of
Onkelos, Palestine, and Jerusalem.
In Ps. xvi., the Messiah speaks (vv.
4, 5), in his capacity as a priest.
(See J. D. Michaelis and Gill). Dr.
M'Caul, on pp. 154-156 of his Mes
siahship of Jesus, gives a brief exposi
tion of the Psalm, and writes on verse
10  " -|TDrt singular, Thy Holy
One, as the great majority of Jews
and Christians, ancient and modern,

testify. De Eossi says, ' Lectio ipsa
communis puncta habetsingularis nu
meri, multique codd. et edd., cum
Hooghtiana, notant ad marg. redundat
jod; alii vero complures, sive MSS.,
siva edd. habent Keri "|TDn> lege
sanctum tuum ; paucissimi codices sis-
tunt puncta lectionis pluralis.' See
Pogers's beautiful and most instruc
tive edition of the Psalms." ' M'Caul,
Epistle to the Hebrews, on Hebr. vii. 26.
2 See Tregelles in Gesen., Lexic.
(cclvii.),on the double meaning of ?3n»
pang and rope. ]"|113 v3f1 is some
times rendered by the LXX., axoivia
(cxix. 61), sometimes aSives (xviii. 4),
because the Hebrew unites the two
meanings of cords and pangs of child
birth. In pure Greek aShes only =
pangs : in Hellenic the sense cords is
also taken in. In Acts Kieiv, Kpattlv,
points to bands or cords.
3 ' The custom of ushering bride
grooms in those times out of their

294

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. i.

Psalms.
xix. 7, o vofios . . if fiaprvpla
Kvpiov -nio-Trf, o-o<pi£ovo-a
vlfma
xix. 13 (cxix. 133) fir] pov
KaraKvpievo-aio-i
xix. 15, Kvpie, Xvrpard fiov
xxii. 1 . . . .
xxii. 2, keKpd^ofiai ; 24,
iv t<3 KCKpayevat. el&rfKOV-
<re fie
xxii. 7, 8
xxii. 16 .
xxii. 11, 20, 21, 22, 27,

New Testament.
2 Tim. iii. 15, dno Bpecpovs ra iepa ypdp-
para oiSaj, t<j Svvdpevd (re {ro(j)ia-ai k.t.\.
Rom. vi. 14. 'Afiaprla vpav oi Kvptevo-ei.
Acts vii. 35, toCtov . . \vrpaTr)v dneo-rei-
\ev.
S. Matt, xxvii. 46 ; S. Mark xv. 34.
Hebr. v. 7, perd Kpavyrjs . . . ela-aKovo-dels.

S. Matt, xxvii. 39, 44 ; and parallels.
S. Matt, xxvii. 35 ; and parallels.
2 Tim. iv. 16, 17 ; l (cf. 1 S. Peter v. 8),

chambers by lamps or torches in tho
night-time had a poetical decorum for
representing the manner of the sun's
recourse unto us after darkness ; the
morning-star or strained glimmerings
of the dawning being as his torch-
bearers. And as the bridegroom's
coming out of his chamber to fetch his
bride was a silent poem of the sun's
approach unto us ; so the Psalmist's
description of the sun in its rising and
course is a speaking picture of the
coming of the Sun of Bighteousness
into the world, after the light of pro
phecies or revelations, whether by Urim
or Thummim, or by voice from heaven,
had been far removed from the hemi
sphere of Judsea, until they began to
return in John Baptist and his father
Zacharias, who was as the day star or
dawning to usher in the Sun of Bight
eousness, who was to continue His
course with more indefatigablecourage,
and with more comfortable warmth,
than this visible sun. He was the Gebor,
unto whom the Psalmist compares the
sun in his strength, for Gebor is His
./proper title. And I make no ques
tion but the glory of His kingdom
begun here on earth, though descend
ing from heaven where it shall be ac
complished, was by the Holy Ghost

intended, according to the mysti
cal sense of that Psalm, which is not
a history only, but a true prophecy.
And our Apostle's allegation of this
Psalm (Bom. x. 18) was not allusive
only, but argumentative, and fulfilled
in the preaching of the Gospel by
the Apostles and their successors in
the mystical sense, as it had been be
fore those times daily verified in the
literal.' Jackson, book vii. chap. 18
(vol. vii. 143, 144). This seems to
. me not only much more beautiful, but
more true, than the current exposi
tion of modern critics, viz., that the
Apostle means that the hearing ofthe
Gospel had become so general that
the words of Psalm xix. describing
the testimony of Nature to God might
in one sense be applied to it. St.
Paul did not quote Scripture as we
might quote Bacon or Shakespeare.
To him Psalm xix. was an instance
of the spiritual transparency of Na
ture, of which I have spoken in re
ference to Psalm cxlvii.
1 S. Paul seems to find in his own
life of suffering and witness a reflec
tion ofthe suffering and witness of his
Lord, and therefore of the great Pas
sion Psalm. (See Dr. Kay on Psalm
xxii. 21.)

app., lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

295

Psalms.
o'ik eo-nv d BorfBav . . .
pvtrai . o-Oxrdv pe e<
a-Toparos \eovros . . . .
hufyrpropai to ovopa o~ov
. . imo-TpatyrfcrovTanrpbs
Kvpiov . .. al narpial tojv
idvav
xxii. 18 .
xxii. 22 .

New Testament
ovbels poi <rvpnapeyevero . . Iva hi ifiov
to Kqpvypa nKrfpo(poprf8fj , Kal aKovo-rj ndvra
to edvrf ' <al ippvab\jv eK (TToparos Xeovros.

xxii. 26 (lxix. 32) .
Xxii. 27 .
xxii. 31, aVayyeXoucrt rr)v
dtKatotTVVTfv aiirov K.r.X.

S. Matt. xxviL 35 ; S. John xix. 23, 24.
S. Matt, xxviii. 10; S. John xx. 17;
Hebr. ii. 11, 12 (cf . S. John xvii. 6).
S. John vi. 50, 51.
S. Luke xv. 18 ; Philipp. ii. 10.
Rom. iii. 25, 26, els evhei^iv ti)s Somuo-
(rvvrfs avroii K.r.X.
xxii. 31, Xaia too Tex8rfO-o- Ephes. ii. 10, airoO yap io-pev nolrjpa K.r.X.
peva, bv inoirfo-ev 6 Kvpios
xxii. 31, iWy S. John xix. 20, rfre'Xeo-rai. *
xxiii. . . ' . . S. John x. 2-4 ; xi 16 ; Hebr. xiii. 20;
1 S. Peter ii. 25.
xxiii. 1-3, Kvpios notpalvel Apoc. vii. 17, to apviov .
pe . . . inl vdaros ava-
nai<rea>s . . . a>6rfyr)o-ev
yxiv. 1 (cf. 1. 12) .
xxiv. 3-6

noipavei avrovs
Kal oSrfyrja-ei airoiis inl £a><ras nrjyds
vddrcov.
1 Cor. x. 26-28.
Hebr. vii. 26, oo-ios, aKaKos, dplavros,
KexaJpurpevos dn6 roiv dpapTwKwv.
S. Matt. V. 8, oi Kadapol rfj KapSiq.
Hebr. vii. 26, iijrrjXoTepos twv ovpavav
yevopevos.
xxiv. 7—10, 6 Bacrikeis Trjs 1 Cor. ii. 8,2 el yap eyvaarav, ovk &v tov
goArf Kvpiov Trjs §6£t]s io-ravpaxrav.
XXV. 3, ndvresol impevovres Rom. V. 4, 5, . . r) de vnopovr) 8oKipr)v . .
a-e oi pi) KaTaio-xwdSxrcv

xxiv. 4, Kcidapos rfj ko
xxiv. 7-10

xxv. 13 .
xxvi. 6
xxvii. l, nix nin*
Jehovah is my Light.
xxvii. 5, T\y") Dr?
In the day of evil. — iv
ffpipa kokSjv pov

if o'e eXn-is ov KaTatrrxvvei.
S. Matt. v. 5.
1 Tim. ii. 8.
S. John i. 4, 5 ; ix. 5 ; xii. 46.
Ephes. vi. 13, iv rfj r)pepq rfj novnpa.

1 See above, p. 24, note 1.
2 'They would not have crucified
Him, had they known Him to be the

Lord of Glory, unto Whose honour
David consecrated this hymn.' Jack
son, viii. 446.

296

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. i.

xxvii. 12 (xxxv. 11) .
xxviii. 2 .
xxviii. 4 .
xxix. 3, 4
xxix. 7, nvpbs (f>\6ya
xxx. 5
xxxi. 5
xxxi. 13 .
xxxii. 1, 2
xxxii. 2, ov&i ia-riv iv tb
o-Topari avrov oVXor
xxxiii. 3, and passim,
Enn -it,
A new song.
xxxiii. 6 .
xxxiv. 8, yeio-ao-6e . . . ort
Xprjo-rds 6 Kvpios
xxxiv. 12-16 2 (xxxvii. 27)
xxxiv. 14, fijrncrov elprjvrjv
Kal hlm^ov airrjv
xxxiv. 19, pva-erai
xxxiv. 20 (xxxv. 10)
xxxv. 8, c\8eTa> avrois
nayls
xxxv. 19 (lxix. 4) .
xxxv. 23, 24 (xxxviii. 15 ;
xl. 5), 6 Qeos fiou ical 6
Kvpios pov. . . . Kvpie, 6
Beds pov.
Xxxvi. 1 .

New Testament.
S. Matt. xxvi. 60, 61; S. Mark xiv.
57, 58.
1 Tim. ii. 8.
2 Tim. iv. 14 ; Apoc. xviii. 6.
Apoc. x. 3, 4 ; xvi. 1.
2 Thessal. i. 8, iv nvpl xpXoyos.
S. John xvi. 20.
S. Luke xxiii. 46 ; Acts vii. 59 ; IS.
Peter iv. 19.
S. Matt, xxvii. 1.
Rom. iv. 6-8.
S. John i. 47, iv <u SoXoj oiK eariv, 1 S.
Peter ii. 22, oiSe evpeOrj fio'Xoj iv rw
o-Topan avrov.
Apoc. v. 9, a8ovo-iv (pdrfv Kaivfjv.

S. John i. 1-3 ; Coloss. i. 16 ;l Hebr. xi.
3 ; 2 S. Peter iii. 5.
Heb. vi. 4, yevo-apivovs Trjs bajptds. . •
1 S. Peter ii. 3, Etnep iyevo-ao-Be, on
Xpio-rbs 6 Kvpios.
1 S. Peter iii. 10-13; (cf. S. James iii.
2-10).
Rom. xiv. 19, to rrjs eiprfvrfs bii>Ka>pev.
Hebr. xii. 34, Eiprjvrfv didxere.
2 Tim. iii. 11, ippvo-aro.
S. John xix. 36.
S. Luke xxi. 35, d>s nayls ineXeio-eTai.
S. John xv. 25.
S. John xx. 28, 'AneKpLBrf Goi/iSs Kal elnev
aira. 'O Kvpios pov Kal 6 Beos fiou.

Rom. iii. 18.

1 See Hammond, in loc.
2 DVD fsnri
d 6e\uv fa-r)v. LXX.
6 6e\wv Cuhv dyawdv, S. Peter,
id supra. (Cf. an old writer's great
lines upon Paradise :

' There is peace without ony strife,
And there is alle manner likynge of
life!
Richard Rolle (of Hampole), Priclee
of Conscience.)

app., lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

297

Psalms.
xxxvi. 6, 7 .
xxxvi. 91 (cf. Ivi. 13, iv
(pari £i>VTu>v)
xxxvii. 11 (also 9, 22, 29),
ot Sc npaeis Kkrfpovopr)-
a-ovo-i yrjv.
xxxviii. 11
xxxix. 12.
xl. 6, 7, 8 2
xl. 93
xii. 9
xiii. 2, tov Bebv tov £u>vra .
xiii. 6, ivari nepikvnos et,
V ^XV H-ov ;
xiii. 6, xal Jyari a-vvrapda--
(rets pe ;
xliv. 9 (lx. 1 ; Ixxxix. 38),
dnaxrai fipds .
xliv. 11, 22 . . .
xiv. 2 .
xiv. 3 . . . .
xiv. 6, 7 .
xiv. 13 ... .
xiv. 16 .
xlvi. 4 (xxxvi. 8 ; lxv. 9)
xlvii. 7 .
xlvii. 8 .
xlviii. 8, njjb* Cri'^N
6 Bebs idepeXlacrev avrrjv
xlix. 8. 9 .
xlix. 12, 13 . . .
xlix. 14,
-ip^ tw$\ D3 ¦'ni!
The upright shall have
dominion over them in
the morning.

1 Of how much of S. John's
theology is this verse the root ?
2 'In Hebrews xiii. 21, we have
vv. 6 and 8 of the Psalm combined.

New Testament.
Rom. xi. 33.
S. John i. 4 ; iv. 14 ; viii. 12 ; ix. 5 ; xii.
46.
S. Matt. v. 5, MaKapioi ol npaeis, ori avrol
KXrfpovoprfo-ovo-i Tr)v yrjv.
S. Luke xxiii. 49.
1 S. Peter ii. 11 ; Heb. xi. 13.
Hebr. x. 5, 6, 7.
S. Luke ii. 10.
S. John xiii. 18.
1 Thessal. i. 9, Bea t^aivri.
S. Matt. xxvi. 38; S. Mark xiv. 34,
nepikvnos io-riv r) i/'i'X'J f*00-
S. John xii. 27, 17 tyvxr) pov TerdpaKrai.
Rom. xi. 1, pr) dnaJcaTO 6 Bebs tov Xabv
avrov.
Rom. viii. 36.
S. Luke iv. 22.
Heb. iv. 12 ; Apoc. i. 16 ; xix. 7, 15.
Hebr. i. 8, 9 (S. Luke iv. 18 ; S. John iii.
34 ; Acts x. 38).
Ephes. v. 27 ; Apoc. xix. 7, 8.
1 S. Peter ii. 9 ; Apoc. i. 6 ; v. 10 ; xx. 6.
Apoc. xxii. 1.
1 Cor. xiv. 15.
Apoc. iv. 2 ; xi. 15-17 ; xix. 6.
S. Matt. xvi. 18, oiKo8opr)o-a> pov rrfv
iKKXrffrlav.
S. Matt. xvi. 26 ; S. Luke ix. 25.
S. Luke xii. 20; 2 S. Peter ii. 12; S.
Jude 10.
1 Cor. vi. 2, oi dyioi tov Koo-pov Kpi-
vovrriv.

" Perfect you-to do His Will.'
Kay on Ps. xl.
* See above, p. 245, note 3.

Dr.

298

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. i.

Psalms.
xlix. 18 .
1. 23, 8vo-la atveo-ews .
Ii. 4 ....
Ii. 10, E>3D }taj D-1"l,
ktIo-ov. . . . iyKalvio-ov
li. 15-19 (Hosea xiv. 3) .
lv. 6, 7 
lv. 13, vs-iy! B>hg!
avdpcone Icrotyvxe
lv. 22 .
Iviii. 8 . . . .
Ixii. 12 .
lxv. 3, raj dcreBeias rfpcov o-v
iXdfjrf ....
lxvi. 18, 19 . . .
lxvii. 1, 2, inidjdvai . . . iv
nacriv eBvecri to o-corrfpiov
o~ov
lxviii. 5, optpavav
lxviii. 18 ; (cf. 6, 7) .
lxviii. 27, "pyy (IJJ35
little Benjamin.
lxix. 9 (cxix. 139) .
lxix. 19, 20, tov dvei8io-pov
pov
lxix. 21 .
lxix. 22 .
lxix. 25 .
lxix. 28 (cf. lxxxvii. 6)
DVD "l|D
The Book of Life.
lxix. 29, nra>xbs . . . elpl
iym [Christ of Himself]
lxix. 33, y-|»DK
rovs nenehrfpevovs avrov
lxxi. 6 . . . .
lxxi. 16 .
lxxi. 21, 23
Ixxii. 15, fijcrerai

Ixxii. 18
lxxiii. 1

New Testament.
S. Luke xii. 19.
Hebr. xiii. 15, 8vo-iav alvea-eas.
Rom. iii. 4.
2 Cor. v. 17, Kaivr) kt'ktis, Tit. iii. 5, 8ia
dvaKaiv&o-eaJS.
Hebr. xiii. 15.
Apoc. xii. 14.
Philipp. ii. 20, lo-6\jroxov. '
1 S. Peter v. T.
1 Cor. xv. 8.
Rom. ii. 6 ; 1 Cor. iii. 8 ; Apoc. xxii. 12.
1 S. John ii. 2, avrbs ikao-pos icmnepl t&v
dpaprtoiv rjpav.
S. John ix. 31.
Tit. ii. 11, ine(pdvrj r) X"P'S T°v ®e0"
r) aarrfpios ndaiv dvOpwnois.
S. John xiv. 18, op(pdvovs.
Ephes. iv. 8. sqq.
Ephes. iii. 8, 'Euot rip eXaxio-rorepa.
S. John ii. 17 ; Rom. xv. 3.
Hebr. xiii. 13, tov oveihia-pbv ovtov.
S. Matt, xxvii. 34, 48, and parallels.
Rom. xi. 9, 10.
S. Matt, xxiii. 37, 38 ; Acts i. 20.
Luke x. 20 ; Philipp. iv. 3 ; Apoc. iii. 5 ;
xiii. 8 ; xx. L2 ; xxi. 27.
2 Cor. viii. 9, inTa>xeva-e.
[S. Paul of Christ].
1 S. Peter iii. 19, rois iv (pvXaKr/ nvevpaa-iv.
Galat. i. 15.
Philipp. iii. 9.
S. Luke i. 49.
S. Luke xxiv. 5, rbv fSi/ra ; Hebr. vii.
25 ; Apoc. i. 18, d £5>v. . . Kal Idov f5x
elpi els rovs aliijvas K.r.X.
S. Luke i. 68.
S. Matt. v. 8 ; Galat. vi. 16.

app., lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

299

Ixxiii. 28, D'rfpfc? ri3"1j?
rd npoo~KoXXdo-&ai ra> Beat
lxxv. 8, norifpiov . . . oivou
aKpdrov nXrjpes Kepda-pa-
tos . . . nlovrai
lxxvii. 19, rd ixvrf (rov oi
yvao-drjo-ovrai
lxxviii. 2 .
lxxviii. 24, 25, eBpet-ev ai-
Tois pdvva (payeiv, Kal.
aprov oipavov edaKev ai-
rois ' dprov dyyeXtav e(payev
dvBpconos
lxxix. 1 . . .
lxxxii. 5, iv (TKorei 8ta-
nopevovrai
lxxxii. 6 .
lxxxiii. 5-14 .
lxxxiv. 2, inmoBei . . r)
-tyvxr) pov k.t.X.
lxxxv. 9, rou Karao-Krjvwo-ai
86£av iv rfj yfj rfpcov
lxxxvi. 9 .
lxxxvii. 1, 3 .

Ixxxvii. 4.
lxxxvii. 5, avBpanos, Kal
(ivtipanos eyevrjBrj ev avrrj
lxxxvii. 5, Mrf-rrfp S,lu>v
lxxxviii. ii, fnaxa
Ixxxix. 28
•in;n>5 -im ^x-fix
Kayo) npatTOTOKov Brjo-opai
avrov. 1

New Testament.
1 Cor. vi. 17, 'O Se KoXXapevos ra Kvplco,
(cf. S. James iv. 8).
Apoc. xiv. 10, -nlerai . . . ix tov o'ivov . . .
tov Kexepaa-pevov aKpdrov iv tcS norr/pico,
Rom. xi. 33, dvei-ixvlao-Toi al 68ol aiTov.
S. Matt. xiii. 35.
S. John vi. 31-33.

Apoc. xi. 2 ; S. Luke xxi. 24. '
1 S. John ii. 11, iv rfj o-KOTiq nepinarei.
S. John x. 34-36.
Apoc. xx. 7-9.
2 Cor. v. 2, emnoBovvres.
S. John i. 14, io-Krfvcoa-ev iv rjfiiv, Kal iBea-
rrdpeBarTfv &6£av avrov, (S. Luke ii. 14).
Apoc. xv. 4.
S. Matt. v. 14 ; Ephes. ii. 19, 20 ; Philipp.
iii. 20 ; Hebr. xi. 16 ; xii. 22 ; Apoc.
iii. 12 ; xxi. 2, 10 sqq.
Acts ii. 9-11 ; Coloss. iii. 11.
S. John iii. 3, 5, idv pr) tis yevvrfBfj avioBev
. . . i£ vdaros- Kal n-vevparos k.t.X.
Galat. iv. 26, 'lepovo-aXrjp- . . . prjrrfp ndv-
- Twv rjpojv. °
Apoc. ix. 11, ovopa aira 'EBpciurri, 'A/3aS-
Sa)Z>.
Rom. viii. 29 ; Coloss. i. 15, 18 ; Hebr. i.
6 ; Apoc. i. 5. 7rp<uroroKor.

Ixxxix. 28

Apoc. xix. 16.

1 ' The word (nparSTOKos) has ano
ther link of connection with the past.
The Messianic reference of Ps. Ixxxix.
28 seems to have been generally
allowed. Hence the first-born, i irpa-

t6tokos (1133), most absolutely be
came a recognised title of Messiah.
The way had been paved for this by
its prior application to the Israelites
as the prerogative race, Exod. iv.

300

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. i.

Psalms.
xci. 11 -.
xci. 13 ...
xciii. 1 (xcvi. 10 ; xcvii. 1)
xciii. 4
xciv. 11
xciv. 21
xcv. 7
xcv. 8-11
xcvi. 13
xcvii. 7
xcvii. 10
xcix.1
cii. 18
cii. 25-27
cii. 27, o-v he 6 airbs ei

ciii. 20, 21, Xeirovpyoi
civ. 4
civ. 35, pr-l^p
cv. 8, 9 .
cv. 40
cvi. 20 .
cvii. 9
cvii. 10 .
cvii. 11 .
cvii. 28, 29, inhat-e
cvii. 30 .
cix. 8
cix. 27 .

New Testament.
S. Matt. iv. 6 ; S. Luke iv. 10, 11.
S. Mark xvi. 18 ; S. Luke x. 19 ; Rom.
xvi. 20.
Apoc. xi. 17 ; xix. 6.
Apoc. xix. 6 (i. 15 ; xiv. 2).
1 Cor. iii. 20.
S. Matt, xxvii. 1, 4.
S. John x. 28.
Hebr. iii. 7-18 ; iv. 3-11.
Apoc. xix. 11.
Hebr. i. 6.
Rom. xii. 9.
Apoc. iv. 8.
2 Cor. v. 17.
Hebr. i. 10-12; 2 S. Peter iii. 10.
Hebr. xiii. 8, 'Irjo-ovs Xpio-rbs ixBes Kal
(rrfpepov 6 airos.
Hebr. i. 14, XeirovpyiKa nveipara.
Hebr. i. 7.
Apoc. xix. 1, 3, 4, 6.
S. Luke i. 72, 73.
S. John vi. 31-33.
Rom. i. 23.
S. Luke i. 53.
S. Luke i. 79.
S. Luke vii. 30.
S. Matt. viii. 24-26 ; S. Mark iv. 37-39 ;
S. Luke viii. 23-25, invrdtro-ei,
S. John vi. 21.
Acts i. 20.
Acts iv. 28.

22 : cf. Psalm. Salom. xviii. 41 (r^ irai-
Seia (Xov ty' rfpas &>s vlbv Trpwr6-
tokov povoyevij); 4 Esdras vi.
58 (" Nos populus tuus, quern vo-
casti primogenitum, unigenitum"),
where the combination of the two
titles applied in the New Testament
to the Son is striking.' Prof. Light
foot On Colossians, i. 15.
1 Note the Trisagion in Psalm
xcix. ; (1) rip bvSfiari aov . . . brt
>po Sepoy KaX^ ayiiv iari (v. 3) ; (2)

vipovre YLiipiov tov &ehv rjfiwv . . , '6tl
dyi6s iari (v. 5) ; (3) npoaKvvelre els
ftpos ayiov avrov, bWi tiyios Kiipios 6
@ebs 7ifiwv (v. 9). ' (1) Majestatis se
ostensurse, (2) Justitise se ostendentis,
(3) Clementise ostensse, praeconium
tria resonant epiphonemata de Sanc-
titate.' See further remarks upon the
subtle coincidences of the Apoca
lyptic Trisagion with that of Psalm
xcix. in Bengel, Gnom., Apoc. iv. 8.

app., lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

301

Psalms.
ex. 1-3 .

ex. 3 (n'3T) ) l . .
ex. 3 (B^jr-n'iPia) 2
ex. 4
cxi. 9, Xvrpaonv dnea-retXe
r<3 Xaa> avrov
cxii. 9
cxiii. 7, 8
cxvi. 6
cxvi. 7
cxvi. 10 .
cxvi. 13, rd vffnia
cxvi. 16 .
cxvii. 1, 2
cxviii. 5, 6
cxviii. 18 .
cxviii. 20 .
cxviii. 22.

cxviii. 26
cxix. 32,5 ehpaaov

New Testament.
S. Matt. xxii. 41-46 ; xxvi. 64 ; xxviii.
18 ; S. Mark xii. 36-37 ; xiv. 62 ; xvi".
19 ; 8. Luke xx. 42-44 ; xxiv. 50, 51 ;
Acts ii. 33-35 ; iii. 21 ; vii. 56 ; Rom.
viii. 34 ; 1 Cor. xv. 25 ; Ephes. i. 20-
22 ; Philipp. ii. 7-9 ; Coloss. iii. 1 ;
Hebr. i. 3-13 ; x. 12, 13 ; xii. 2 ; 1 S.
Pet. iii. 22.
Rom. xii. 1; xv. 16.
S. John i. 13 ; S. James i. 17, 18 ; 1 S.
Pet. i. 3 ; Apoc. vii. 9 ; xix. 14.
Hebr. v. 6 ; vi. 17, 20 ; vii.
S. Luke i. 68, inoir/a-e Xvrpacriv ra Xaa
avrov.
2 Cor. ix. 9.
S. Luke i. 52.
S. Matt. xi. 25 ; 1 S. Peter ii. 2.
S. Matt. xi. 28.
2 Cor. iv. 13.
S. Matt. xxvi. 27 ; and parallels.
Titus i. 1 ; S. James i. 1 ; 2 S. Peter i. 1;
S. Jude 1 ; Apoc. i. 1.
Rom. xv. 8-11. 3
Hebr. xiii. 6.
2 Cor. vi. 9.4
Apoc. xxii. 14.
S. Matt. xxi. 42 ; S. Mark xii. 10 ; S.
Luke ii. 34 ; xx. 17 ; Acts iv. 11 ;
Ephes. ii. 20 ; IS. Peter ii. 4-7.
S. Matt. xxi. 9 ; xxiii. 39 ; and parallels.
1 Cor. ix. 24, rpexere.

1 The people are themselves free
will offerings. See the word in Exod.
xxxv. 29 ; Levit. xxii. 18, 21 ; Deut.
xii. 6 ; Amos iv. 5.
2 'In decoribus sanctitatis, i.e.,
pulcherrimo vestitu festoque ornatu.'
(Bosenm. in loc.) — beautiful and
priestly array.
3 That brief Psalm speaks of God's
mercy and truth. Note how these
two are brought out in Bom. xv. 8,
9, before the direct citation in v. 11.

See the observations of Dr. Kay, who
deserves the title of the Bengel of
The Psalter.
4 Compare ws iratiev6fievoi Kal fiij
BavaToipevoi (2 Cor. vi. 9) with
•TraiSevuv 4-KaiSeuo-e fie 6 Kvpios, tQ Se
davdrcp ouirapeScuKe fie (Ps. cxviii. 18).
See Dean Stanley on the passage.
5 The 119th Psalm has ever been
unpopular with those who read the
Psalter merely as literature. The
longest of the entire collection, it is

302

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. i.

Psalms.
cxix. 32, inXdrvvas rr)v Kap
Slav pov
cxix. 45 .
cxix. 46 .
cxix. 50, to \6yiov croi
efyfare pe
cxix. 62 .
cxix. 70
cxix. 89 .
cxix. 116 .
cxix. 142
cxix. 165, Vlt^D ioJ> P«
oiK eo~Tiv avrois o-KavdaXov

New Testament.
2 Cor. vi. 11, 17 KapSia rffiaiv nenXdrvvrai.
S. James i. 25.
S. Matt. x. 18, 19.
Acts vii. 38, Xoyia £S>vra.

Acts xvi. 25.
Rom. vii. 22.
S. Matt. xxiv. 35 ;
Rom. v. 5.
S. John xvii. 17.
1 S. John ii. 10,

1 S. Peter i. 23, 25.

o-KavSaXov iv aira oin

formed of twenty-two strophes, each
consisting of eight distichs, the whole
eight commencing with the same letter
in the order of the Hebrew alphabet.
The English satirical poet speaks
somewhat contemptuously of the di
rection of thought by rhyme.
' For rhymes the rudders are of
verses,
With which, like ships, they steer
their courses.'
The same determining power is
said to be exercised by the allitera
tion of initials in the Psalm — and so
it is stigmatised as 'not poetry, but
simply a Litany, a sort of Chaplet.'
The word min> loi", occurs twenty-
five times ; pn. statute, twenty-three
times, and so on with a succession
of synonyms, the word, -Q1, being
repeated some thirty times. Entire
phrases are reproduced again and
again, especially the prayer, ' quicken
me! Yet few Psalms are dearer to
the Church's heart. Thousands of
Christians repeat the greater portion
of it every day. (See Prayers 'for the
Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours, in
the Treasury of Devotion.) It contains
the shortest and most pregnant state
ments of the great principles of the
spiritual life. All that S. Paul says
of Peace and Liberty (Romans v. 1,

viii. 21, &c.) is but the expansion of
2") Di^E* (v. 165), and
narna no^ons!) (v. 45).
( =1 will walk in wideness;
' So fearless may , I walk at large.'
—Keble.)
It seems to stir the spirit of S.
James when he writes again and
again of 'the law,' 'the perfect law
of liberty' (i." 25 ; ii. 8, 11, 12). I
have spoken in one of these Lectures
of ' the long colourless distances of
the 119th Psalm.' ' Any one who
wishes to see how these distances may'
be made to become full of life and
colour — how these distichs are inter
linked by a higher connection than
that of logic — will do well to study
Dr. Pusey's Sermon on vv. 59-60
(Sermons during the Season from Ad
vent to Whitsuntide, pp. 156-170). I
will only add one other testimony —
that of Mr. Buskin in the Fors Clavi-
gera : ' It is strange that, of all the
pieces of the Bible which my mother
thus taught me, that which cost me
most to learn, and which was, to my
child's mind, chiefly repulsive — the;
119th Psalm — has now become of all
the most precious to me in its over
flowing and glorious passion of love
for the law of God.'

app., lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

303

Psalms.
cxix. 176
cxx. 3, 4
cxx. 4
cxx. 7
cxxv. 5 ; cxxviii. 6
cxxx. 41 .
cxxx. 8 .

cxxxi. cxxxii. 5 .
cxxxii. 7
cxxxii. 11
cxxxii. 17, i^avareXS)
cxxxiii. 1, ddeX(povs inl rd
airo
cxxxiv. 2
cxxxvii. 8, 9
cxxxviii. 8
cxxxix. 15
oxl. 3
cxli. 2 .
cxliii. 1 .
cxliii. 2 .
oxlv. 14 .
cxlv. 15 .
cxlv. 19 .
cxlvi. 5-9.
cxlvi. 10 .
cxlvii. 2 .
cxlvii. 3 .
cxlvii. 4, nda-iv airois dvo-
uara koXSjv
cxlvii. 9 .
nxlvii. 15, d dVoo-TEXXiBi' rd
koyiov avrov rr\ yjf, eas
Taxovs Spapeirai 6 Xoyos
avrov
cxlviii. 14, iahi? Dy
The nation of His near
ness, Xara iyyl^ovri avra
cxlix. 9 .
cxlix. 6, pop(paiai blo-ropoi

New Testament.
S. Luke xv. 4, sqq. ; 1 S. Peter ii. 25.
S. James iii. 6.
Ephes. vi. 16 ; S. Luke xi: 21, 22.
Ephes. ii. 14.
Galat. vi. 16.
1 S. John ii. 1, 2.
S. Matt. i. 21.
S. Matt, xviii. 2-4.
Acts vii. 46.
S. Luke ii. 8, 15, 16.
Acts ii. 30.
S. Luke i. 69, 78, oVaroXij, Hebr. vii. 14.
Acts ii. 1, rjirav anavres dfiou inl rd avrd.
1 Tim. ii. 8.
Apoc. xviii. 4, 6, 8.
Philipp. i. 6.
Ephes. iv. 9.
Rom. iii. 13.
1 Tim. ii. 8 ; Apoc. v. 8 ; viii. 3, 4.
1 S. John i. 9.
Rom. iii. 20.
S. Luke xiii. 13-16.
Acts xiv. 17.
S. John xv. 7.
S. Matt. xi. 1-6.
Apoc. xi. 15.
S. John xi. 52.
S. Luke iv. 18.
S. John X. 3, rd 181a npoBara (f>a>vei Kar'
ovopa.
S. Luke xii. 24.
2 Thessal. iii. i. ; '"a d Xoyos- tov Kvpiov
rpexn, 2 Tim. ii. 9.

Ephes. ii. 13-17, iyyvs iyevr)6rfre
eirfyyeXio-aro elprp/rfv rois iyyvs.
2 Cor. vi. 3-6.
Apoc. i. 16, pop(paia Slo-ropos.

nn^PD • ¦ ,ra')" <ro1 6 i\a<rp6s eariv.

304 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. I.
ISTote B, page 11.
I venture to extract some interesting pages from Mr. Plum-
mer's excellent translation of Dr. Dollinger's Prophecies and
the Prophetic Spirit in the Christian Era.
Beauregard's Prediction of the French devolution. — ' But on
the other hand, it is true that, thirteen years before the outbreak
of the Revolution, a celebrated preacher, Beauregard, declared
from the pulpit in Notre Dame : " The temples of God will be
plundered and destroyed, His festivals abolished, His name blas
phemed, His service proscribed. Tea, what hear I ? What see
I ? In place of hymns in praise of God, lewd and profane'songs
will be sung here ; and the heathen goddess Venus herself will
dare here to take the place of the living God, to set herself on the
altar, and to receive the homage of her true worshippers." All
this actually came to pass some years later, and that too in the
very churcli in which the prophetic words had been spoken. But
he who knows the condition of Paris at that time, he who con
siders what, for instance, Walpole says on the subject in his
letters, can easily imagine how a man like Beauregard, with a
deeper insight into the abyss of the corruption of the time, might
very easily announce events beforehand, just as they afterwards
came to light ; — manifestations of a spirit which had already for
a long period of time been working, although at first for the
most part only in silence.'
Instances of Persons Prophetically Summoned to appear be
fore the Tribunal of God. — ' This is a species of prophecy, of
which one or two famous instances occur in mediaeval history
respecting which one much desires more definite and more cer
tain evidence. It is difficult to decide in each instance, whether
the prophetic summons, or the death within the stated time, is a
fiction or not ; or again, supposing that both may be accepted as
facts, whether it is a case of mere coincidence, or whether the
prophecy itself has contributed to its own fulfilment, either by

app., lect. r. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 305
terrifying the subject of it to death or by inciting others to as
sassination; or lastly, whether the utterer of the summons, under
the influence of intensified feeling was really able to forecast the
future in a way which to persons in ordinary circumstances
seems supernatural. The present generation is not very ready
to accept the last as a probable or even possible alternative. But
psychological science has not yet reached the point where a dog
matic judgment on the question can be given with certainty ;
and probably those who have the best right to be heard on the
subject would be among the most unwilling to decide peremp
torily what the human mind can or cannot do under very extra
ordinary conditions. The phenomena are too rare and too unsa
tisfactorily recorded to render a conclusive induction possible.
' The case nf Jerome of Prague has been noticed already in
the text. Besides this, there is the still more celebrated instance
of Ferdinand IV., King of Castile, " the Summoned." The sum.
moners in this case were two twin brothers, Pedro and Juan,
Counts of Carvajal. Don Pedro and the Marquis of Benavides
were in love with the same lady, Leonora Mantiquez de Lara,
and she favoured Don Pedro. The result was a challenge from
the Marquis, which was accepted by the Count. In the duel
Pedro was assisted by his brother, the Marquis also by a relation.
The two brothers killed their opponents in honourable combat,
as the witnesses declared, and under strong provocation. The
duel delayed the marriage, and before it could take place an
other suitor appeared in the person of the Duke of Velasco,
favourite of Ferdinand IV. One day as the King was returning
from a banquet, the Duke accused the two brothers of having
assassinated the Marquis at Palencia by night, as he was leaving
the palace. The King in a fury ordered the Carvajals to be
thrown from the precipitous walls of the castle, without either
trial or examination. They protested their innocence in vain,
and at last in despair summoned their judge to appear before
the tribunal of God within thirty days. Ferdinand went on
x

306 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. r.
with his military occupations, and feeling somewhat unwell re
tired to Jaen. Here he received news of the successes of his
arms, at which he was greatly elated. After dinner he took a
siesta, and from this he never awoke. He was found dead in his
bed by his servants on the last of the thirty days from the death
of the Carvajals, September 1312. Hence his name, the Empla-
zado or Summoned.
1 Another scarcely less famous instance is that of Jacques dn
Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, burnt at Paris, March 18,
1313, to the eternal infamy of Clement V. and Philip the Fair.
Dean Milman thus writes : " The wonder and the pity of the
times which immediately followed arrayed Du Molay not only in
the robes of the martyr, but gave him the terrible language
of a prophet. ' Clement, iniquitous and cruel judge, I summon
thee within forty days to meet me before the throne of the Most
High.' According to some this fearful sentence included the
King, by whom, if uttered, it might have been heard. The
earliest allusion to this awful speech does not contain that
striking particularity, which, if part of it, would be fatal to its
credibility, the precise date of Clement's death. It was not till
the year after that Clement and King Philip passed to their
account. The poetic relation of Godfrey of Paris simply states
that God would revenge their death on their unrighteous judges.
The rapid rise of these two men during the, next year might
naturally so appal the popular imagination, as to approximate
more closely the prophecy and its accomplishment. At all events,
it betrayed the deep and general feeling of the cruel wrong in
flicted on the Order ; while the unlamented death of the Pope,
the disastrous close of Philip's reign, and the disgraceful crimes
which attainted the honour of his family, seemed as declarations
of Heaven as to the innocence of their noble victims." l
' Clement V. died at Boquemaure on the Rhine, April 20,
1314. His remains were treated with such neglect, that the
1 Latin Christianity, book XII. chap. v.

app., lect. i. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 807
catafalque caught fire, and his body was half burnt before anyone
attended to it.
' Philip survived him only a few months. He died at Fon-
tainebleau from the effects of a fall from his horse while hunting,
November 29, 1314. His minister, Enguerraud de Marigni,
was hanged in 1315.
'Another example, less well known, is reported in the annals
of the House of Brittany. John VI., Duke of Brittany, had
four children : Francis I. (grandfather of Anne, the wife of
Charles VIII. and Louis XII., Kings of France), Peter IL,
Giles, and Isabel. Giles was murdered by his brother Francis,
and shortly before he breathed his last he summoned the fratri
cide to appear before the judgment-seat of God within forty days.
Francis is said to have died on the fortieth day. Giles, after
having been kept a prisoner for four years, was put to death (by
suffocation, according to some) in the castle of La Haudinaiet in
1450. Francis received the news of his brother's death while
prosecuting the siege of Avranches. The summons was brought
by the friar who had confessed the murdered man. Francis cer
tainly died in the summer of that same year, but apparently more
than two months after the murder.' — Prophecies and the Pro
phetic Spirit in the Christian Era. P. 16 and pp. 213-217.
Note C, page 19.
' If He spoke the famous words on the cross, " My God, my
God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? " then He did lose faith
in Himself and His mission. It is possible, and I myself have
pointed out the possibility of the exclamation only being attri
buted to Him in order that a Psalm, considered by the earliest
Christianity as the programme of the Messianic agony, might
at its very commencement be applicable to Him ; but it certainly
is equally probable that He may really have uttered the signifi
cant words. If He rose afterwards, i.e., if He was the incarnate
suffering deity, then it is nowise prejudicial to Him ; then it only
x 2

308 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect, i.
marks the lowest degree of this agony, is the cry of anguish
wrung from weak mortality, which is compensated for by the
strength of His divine nature as immediately manifested in His
resuscitation. If, however, He is regarded as purely a human
hero, the words, if He uttered them, give rise to grave misgivings.
If so, then He had not calculated upon His death, then He had
to the very end nursed the illusion respecting the angelic hosts,
and at last, as still they came not, as they suffered Him to hang
languishing to death on the cross and to perish, then He had
died with blasted hope and broken heart. And however much,
even then, we should commiserate Him on account of the excel
lence of His heart and His aspirations, however much we depre
cate the punishment awarded Him as cruel and unjust, neverthe
less we could not fail to acknowledge that so enthusiastic an
expectation but receives its deserts when it is mocked by mis
carriage.' — Strauss, The Old Faith and the New, Blind's Trans
lation, pp. 89-90.
The words in this extract, printed in italics, show us that the
Christ of the Creeds is above the assaults which are fatal even to
the human perfection of the Christ of Rationalism. But the
pregnant sentence of Schenkel, quoted in the text, disposes of
the ' possibility ' of which Strauss speaks at tha beginning of
this sad extract. Note D, page 21.
' Ego dabo ei talentum, primus qui in crucem cxcucurrerit,
Sed ea lege, ut offigantur bis pedes, bis brachia.'
— Plautus, Mostellaria, Act ii. sc. 1, quoted by Bynssus, De Morte
J. C, lib. III. cap. iii. 291.
' Psalmus totam Christi continens passionem — Foderunt,
inquit, manus meas et pedes, quae propria est atrocitas crucis.' —
Tertullian (who lived before crucifixion was abolished), Adv.
Marc. iii. 19.
See Acta Sanctorum, Jun. Tom. iii. 571. Compare also the

app., lect. I. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 309
passage from the book, De Passione Christi, attributed to
Cyprian, — ' clavis sacros pedes terebrantibus ' — and other quota
tions in Bynams, ut sup., and in Neander, Life of Christ, pp. 473-
475. Notes. Note E, page 26.
Let it be observed that the Bossuet, who has interpreted for
us, is not the superb orator, in the moments when he charmed
a brilliant Court. He is dictating, in the intervals of pain,
thoughts upon a portion of Scripture which had long formed
the subject of his meditations, and which he looked upon as a
preparation for death. The weary hand might be unable to turn
over books for the elaboration of details. But the memory never
had more perfect command over its vast resources.1 The judg
ment never was in fuller possession of the method which is an
apt and luminous disposition of all the topics that may be
referred to a common centre. The unrivalled reasoning faculty
never cut more sharply. The opulent imagination was still
capable of that glorious image which Goldsmith, in his happiest
and loftiest inspiration, failed to transfuse with complete success,
because the exigencies of his poem compelled him to adapt it to
a lower subject.2
1 ' Je l'ai presse sur la Politique; il sont battues de l'orage et des tempetes
n'en veut plus entendre parler. Cet dans leurs parties basses, pendant
ouvrage est un ouvrage de detail. qu'au sommet elles jomssent d'un
C'est ce qu'il n'aime pas. II ne veut beau soleil, et de la serenite parfaite.'
que du raisonnement ; c'est pour lui — (Euvres de Bossuet, ii. 48. Com-
le plus aise et le plus court.' — Journal pare Goldsmith's lines : —
de I'Abbe de Dieu, p. 22, Novembre m , i_-i.ii.-i u-
' r ' 'To them his heart, his love, his
1703. • „ •
™ -n , /¦ -r j i j griels were given,
2 Bossuet says of our .Lord s aere- ° . . ,, , , , , .
, . . . _ , J . . , ,T , , But all his serious thoughts had rest
liction in Psalm xxu. : ' Nul homme .
, . . , in heaven:
na lamais eu un sentiment plus ex- .„ , ... . . .
. J „, . ., K. . As some tall cliff, that lilts its awtul
quis. Mais, pour cela, il ne faut pas
encore que l'agitation de ses passions g^"^ the val and midwk
turbulentes ait penetre la haute partie laTffl th(, storm
de son ame Les agonies n'ont pas ^^ .fg ^^ ^ ^
ete jusques-la, et le trouble meme n a ^^ ^
pas trouble cet endroit intime et im- ,i . . , , ,
F , , , ,, , , , Eternal sunshine seulei on its head.
perturbable ; il en a ete a peu pres
comme de ces hautes montagnes qui

310 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. ii
LECTDEE II.
Note A, page 34.
Let me here, once again, take a particular Psalm, the 120th,
and compare the latest Rationalist exposition with the Christian,
' To say the truth,' says Professor Reuss, ' it is one of the ob
scurest in the Psalms. The ideas are scarcely indicated, the
images wanting in transparency, the historical allusions so many
enigmas. Was not the author an Israelite chief, the victim of
the perfidy of his enemies ? Was he not one who laboured to
bring about a solid peace between them and his people, but whose
efforts failed ? We cannot help looking for the origin of these
strophes in the long quarrels of the Asmoneans with the Syrians.
The distinguished position of the author procured the admission
of this Psalm into the collection. The people must have shared
in the feelings of their hero, and must have repeated his complaints.
The Psalm remained at a later period, when the memory of these
events was effaced. But, since history furnishes no light, exegesis
must limit itself to understanding the Canticle as it must have
been understood by those who saw in it nothing but a national
chant, intended to keep up pious resignation in face of an oppres
sive Paganism. In this point of view, the " lying lip " and the "de
ceitful tongue " would be that spirit of hostility which animated
the Pagans to say all manner of evil of the Jews. Whatever in
terpretation of the second strophe be adopted, the meaning is
that they have before them a prospect of war and destruction, fire
and sword, instead of rest and peace. Kedar is an Arab tribe of
the desert. Mesek is, perhaps, the name of a neighbouring locality
— elsewhere, in Biblical geography, it designates a people of the
North, upon the Buxine ; in this sense the expression would bear
a more general application to the dispersion of the Jews. The
end seems to me mutilated ; but it is clear that it opposes
the peculiar disposition of an inoffensive people to oppressive
tendencies which leave them no peace.' '
' Beuss, in lue. pp. 304, 305.

app., lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 311
I do not enter upon any detailed examination of this inter
pretation which interprets, and this exposition which expounds
nothing, and which seems to me far inferior to the Scholia of
Rosenmiiller, if constructed upon the same platform. This
Psalm stands first of the fifteen mysterious ni?y.J?n *"W. Its
first word is a liturgical ' Sursum corda.' The oldest Jewish
expositors knew nothing of such an historical basis as that just
suggested. An ancient commentary says, ' Song on the Steps,
on which God leads the righteous up into the other world.' *
Every one of this collection is full of allegorical touches ; and
the views ordinarily taken of their historical occasion — the ascent
from Babylon to Canaan, or from the various parts of Israel to
Jerusalem, lend themselves perfectly to this conception. The most
literal translation ofthe closing lines ofthe 120th Psalm adds to
its Messianic force. D1?K>-',:3K. I (am of) Peace, ' I am all Peace.'
Let me now cite the simple, consistent, straightforward exposi
tion of an old writer, drawn from ancient sources : —
'All this Psalm fits the whole Chnrch — chiefly its Leader,
Jesus, so far and long as He was a pilgrim in the days of His
flesh. Truly He cried unto the Lord, when He continued all
night in prayer to God, and again in the garden, and on the
Cross. Truly He suffered from a lip of lying, and from a tongue
of guile. Truly He could say, " Alas ! for Me that incolatus
meus prolongatus est," seeing that He said, " 0 faithless and
perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer
you ? " Truly was He the Man of Peace with those who hated
peace.' — Bellarmin. Expos, in Psalm., in loc.
Note B, page 36.
With regard to the inspiration of the Psalmists, the notions
which have been handed down in the Schools of the Rabbis are
full of interest. Of the KethuUm or Hagiographa they hold that
they are rather a step towards prophecy than prophecy itself.
1 The Midrash Sifri, quoted by Delitzsch.

312 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. ii.
There were times when an individual servant of God felt that
some idea had penetrated him deeply. A strange and unwonted
force impelled him to speak. He pronounced maxims of wisdom,
or poured forth praises of God, or salutary warnings, and that in
a state of waking, while the senses remained in their normal con
dition. Of such an one it is said that he speaks ' by the Spirit.'
David, Solomon, Daniel, Job, the author of Chronicles, produced
writings which are classed among the KethuUm ; nor are they
considered to belong to the class of Nathan, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
the like. The Jews believe in four grades of prophetic inspiration.
(1) Of Prophecy verging towards its decline upon the horizon, in
which imagination is predominant, as in Zechariah, Ezekiel, Daniel.
(2) When imagination and intellect are equally balanced. (3)
When intellect preponderates. (4) The highest or Mosaic degree
of inspiration. The false prophet might have overpowering fan
cies, but there was no illustration of the reason. A Cambridge
Platonist, profoundly versed in these studies, beautifully ob
serves : ' The pseudo-prophetic spirit cannot be carried over the
low and obscure region of matter and sense, or be lifted into the
cloudless sky of Prophetic Light. The Prince of Darkness can
not enter the sphere of Light and Reason to rule over it ; it be
longs exclusively to the Father of lights. There is a serene and
lucid region in the human soul where Lucifer cannot abide, and
whence he is cast headlong when he would ascend hither.' J
Of all this, Ewald's life .of David, in his ' History of Israel,'
is like a translation into modern and Occidental language. He
bids us observe how David, in his youth, was a close spectator of
the prophetic spirit, charmed by it, and occasionally yielding to
its inspirations. In his maturity, amid the cares of war and
government, he never assumed the appearance, or grasped at the
reputation of a seer. In this respect he forms a most striking
contrast to Mohammed. With advancing years David becomes
a Prophet ; not by intentional effort, not with public display, but
1 Dissertatio de Prophetia, ii. iii. iv. By John Smith, of Cambridge.

app., lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 313
because his soul impelled him ; — not to procure power or
consolidate his dynasty, but because his spirit within, and
another Spirit without, directed him towards the future.1
Note C, page 39.
There are passages in the Psalms, not expressly quoted or
referred to by the Evangelists, which an instinctive Christian
feeling has always applied to incidents in our Lord's life — e.g.
Psalm xxxviii. 11 ; cf. St. Matt. xiii. 54-57 — Psalm xiii. 5-6 ;
cf. St. Matt. xxvi. 38, St. John xii. 27— Psalm lv. 7 ; cf . St. Matt.
xxi. 17, St. Luke xxi. 37— Psalm lxix. 1, 2, 3, 15-20 ; cf. St.
Matt. xxvi. 36-56, and parallels — Psalm cxx. 5, cf. St. Matt.
xvii. 17. One thing is certain. From the recorded words of
our Lord we know that He used the Psalms in devotion, in
temptation, in the wilderness, in Parables, in argumentative dis
course, in prophetic application, at the Passover, in the High
Priestly Prayer, from the Cross, on the Resurrection Morning.
Note D, page 45.
EiiaoEOTO!' tavrov noXirelav <5t(£n( diXuiv hplv, iv kavrio rahrr\v
trvnioa-cr, iinep tov utrfKeri 7ivdg eti^tpwc dnaraadai nap'a rov ixOpoii,
£Y,o>rae tviyypov npde katydXtiuv, rifv nap' avrov yevopiv-qv vnep
rfp&v Kara rov ?ia/3dXow v'ncrfv. Aia rovro yovv ov uovov iSlSa^ev,
aXXo Kal nenoirfKEv a idida^ev, 'iva eKaaroc aKovrj piv avrov XaXavvroQ,
<ic ev tiKovi oe fiXinwv Xapfidvrf nap' avrov rd napdSeiypa rov noietv ,
6\kovo)v ' MaSfTE an' I pov, orinpuvg el pi Kal raneivoc rrj
Kapo*iy. TeXewripav Si Kal eIq aperr)v SiSauKaXiav ovk av rig evpoi,
i)g 6 Kiiptog irinroiaev iv eavroi. Eire yap ave^tKaniav, lire <j>iXaidpw-
niav, ent ayuOorrjTa, eiredvSpiav, e'ire iXerfpoavrrfv, tire ZiKaioavvrfv,
ndvra iv avrio rig evprfaei yevopeva, ware prfhiv tig dpsrifv Xeinen-r(p
Karavoovvri rov dvdpwntvov fiiov roiirov. Tuvro yap d IlauXog eXZijig
iXeye ' M.ijjLrfrai pov yiveade, Kadivg Kayw Xpio-rov. Olpiv
nap' "EXXncri vopodsrai &XPL T°v Xiyeiv 'tyovai rr)v x"-Piv ' o hi Kv-
1 Ewald, History of Israel, Bk. III., s, i., David, iii. 4.

314 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. ii.
piog, we hXrfQSjg Kvpios ior rov navrbg, Kal Knloptvog b>v elpydo-aro,
ov povov vopodtrti, dXXa Kal rvnov kavrdv HSwkev, tig to tldivai
roiic /3ovXopivovg rr/v tov noie'iv Oviapiv. Aid tovto yovv Kal npd
rrjg tie hpdg avroii imdifpiag iirixrl<Te *•'"' tv ro'£ -fyaFhovei tovto, iv'
wo-ntp iv avrai rov iniytiov Kal ovpdvwv dvdpoinov rvrriijv ictiltv,
ovrto Kal e'k Ttov -tyaXpwv rd Kivifpara Kal rag SiaBiffttg riiv \jjvxtiv
6 fiovXopevog Karapadtiv Ivvrfrai, tvpicrKwv iv a'vrdlg Kal Tt)v tKaorov
Kivffparog Otpantiav rt Kal SiopOmo-iv.
Note E, page 54.
' " Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against tho
children of thy people : but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy
self " (Levit. xix. ] 8). Already the Book of the Covenant in Exo
dus enjoins the utmost consideration towards an enemy's beast
(Exodus xxxiii. 4, 5), and similar provisions, though more gene
ral in form, are made by the Deuteronomist (Deut. xxii. 1-4).
With regard to the enemy himself, a Proverb in the collection pre
pared in King Hezekiah's reign prescribes . . . (Proverbs xxv. 21,
22) ; and another proverb inculcates the lesson . . . (Proverbs
xxiv. 17, 18). We have, therefore, no reason to doubt that in the
command of one verse, " Thou shaltlove thy neighbour as thyself,"
the term " neighbour " comprises both kinsmen and strangers,
both Israelites and non-Israelites ; indeed, that same command is
in a later portion of this chapter expressly repeated with respect
to the stranger (Leviticus xix. 34). Jewish sages explained that
"avenging " (Dpi) means returning evil for evil; while "bearing
grudge " (1D3) implies remembering an offence received, though
good be returned for evil. They held that it is not permitted to
" hate any one, except only sinners, who, having been duly
warned and admonished, do not repent ; " and they ordained that,
" if a man finds both a friend and an enemy in distress, he shall
first assist his enemy," in order to subdue his evil inclination.
1 S. Athanas. Epist. ad Marcell. 13.

app., lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 315
m* nK Sp3^> na (comp. TaZm. Toma 23a ; Bab. Mets. 32b ; Erach
16b)' — Leviticus, Part II., by M. M. Kalisch, pp. 415^17.
To the passages cited here, and at pp. 53, 54, upon the duty
of forgiveness under the elder Dispensation, may be added Job
xxxi. 29, 30 : ' If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated
me, or lifted up myself when evil found him : Neither have
I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.'
Note F, page 70.
' A lady of my acquaintance appropriated 26L a year out of
her allowance for certain uses, which her woman received, and
was to pay to the lady, or her order, as it was called for. But,
after eight years, it appeared, upon the strictest calculation, that
the woman had paid but four pounds a year, and sunk two-and-
twenty for her own pocket. It is but supposing, instead of 26Z.,
26,000L ; and by that you may judge what the pretensions of
modern merit are, when it happens to be its own paymaster.'
— The Examiner, No. 16, November 23, 1710. In some editions
of Swift's works, to the words 'a lady of my acquaintance' is
added between brackets the conjecture [' supposed to be Queen
Anne']. By the recent publication of the Duchess of Marl
borough's Letters, the conjecture is changed into certainty.
Note G, page 75.
' Esseni, gens sola, in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla
femina, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. In dies ex aequo convena-
rum frurba renascitur large frequentantibus quos vita, fessos ad
mores eorum fluctus agitat. Ita per seeculorum millia (incredibile
dictu) gens seterna est in qua nemo nascitnr. Tarn foecunda illis
aliorum vitaa pcenitentia est.' — Plin. Nat. Hist. v. 15.
Dean Milman, in a beautiful passage, represents ' the Essene
in his monastic fraternity as looking to the reign of Messiah,
when the more peaceful images of Prophecy would be accom
plished ' (Hist, of Christ, ii. 79). But, against Gratz's state
ment that the Kingdom of Heaven was first preached by Essenes,

316 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. ii.
it has been shown that Philasterius (' the Essenes expect a man
as Messiah,' Hwres. 9) is the only authority for any Messianic
expectation among the Essenes. See Keim's argument, ' Jesus
of Nazara,' i. 385. Note H, page 79.
On the general subject of this Lecture, and especially the
interpretation of the 110th Psalm (pp. 61, 62), those who sneer
at the mysticism of the author of the Epistle to tbe Hebrews may,
perhaps, not unprofitably read the following passage from Ewald,
upon Melchizedek : —
1 And now only, the argument, having been brought back to
Melchizedek, under the dexterous guidance of the writer, can
be confirmed, with all calmness and distinctness, by a closer
comparison of the three personalities here treated : (1 ) That of
Melchizedek ; (2) That of Abraham, including his descendant Levi,
and the Levitic dignity of the High Priest, and (3) That of Christ —
who as Christ really was High Priest. Thus it is proved that
although Melchizedek — as compared with Abraham, Levi,
and the Levitic dignity of the High Priest; — was a totally
different High Priest from all the Levitical ones, far more
eternal, more sublime, more mysterious, and, therefore, more
divine, so his Antitype here compared to him,- — Christ, as High
Priest — must stand yet infinitely higher. This proof is, first,
contained in the exalted and mysterious sounding words of the
Psalm about Melchizedek, which the speaker had mentioned in
v. 6, and to which he led back the argument in vi. 20, and
which, after ample explanation here, he finally repeats iu vii.
17. But the author is fully conscious that, in order to attain
his purpose more easily, he must weave into the texture of the
words of the Psalm all that whioh in Genesis xiv. 18-20 is
told of Melchisedek. This short account about the Priest-King,
the contemporary of Abraham, who came into such close contact
with him, even in the simple words in which it is there told
sounds very extraordinary. [Note 1, p. 87. Why this should be

app., lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 317
so, can be fully estimated, historically, according to the explana
tions in The History of the People of Israel, vol. i., about the
origin of the whole account in Genesis xiv. J But long before
our author, the contents of this singular tale, told with such
marvellous brevity and significance, had attracted the attention
of sages and poets. [Note 2, p. 87. It is greatly to be regretted,
for the cause in question, that just the part about " the Jubilees,"
which, according to all probability, could give the most important
explanations, has been lost in the Ethiopian translation; according
to Dillmann's edition, s. 54, 19, it is now missing in every manu
script, and probably was missing already when the book was
translated into the Ethiopian language ; even in this, it is not
missing intentionally, nor as a solitary case, as some other details
preceding it are missing too. In the fragments of the " Genesis
Parva," which Ceriani published in the first part of " Monumenta
Sacra et Prof ana," this particular passage and its further de
velopment is not to be found.] There were many in those days
who examined with the utmost curiosity and care into these
isolated, and in themselves somewhat incomprehensible, names of
men and women in Genesis, and enquired after their birth and
parentage, making up by various devices of their own for what
seemed to be omitted. [Note 3, p. 87. As is most clearly de
monstrated in the Booh of Enoch and the Booh of the Jubilees.]
Many had thought it most remarkable that this Priest-King
should stand so utterly alone, without one's even being told whose
son he was, from what tribe and family, or even nation, he sprung.
A quantity of the most extraordinary and arbitrary suppositions
had been expressed about it, and even found their way into books.
TNote 4, pp. 87, 88. It was conjectured that Melchizedek was
the same person as Shem the son of Noah, or even Enoch, which
they intended to prove by the dates in Genesis xi. and v., according
to which either of them might have been alive. And yet are many
of these guesses quite innocent in comparison with many modern
ones. Some of our German critics put the most groundless as

318 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. n.
well as objectionable ideas into Genes, cb. xiv., and thereby pur
posely overlook the already sufficiently explained, the best and
surest truth.] Our author rejects all such gratuitous guesses, and
keeps strictly only to the comparison and connection of the words
Psalm ex. and Genes, xiv. 18-20. But from the words of that
Psalm he maintains all the more rigorously, that the ancient,
strange, mysteriously solitary Priest- King, must stand in the
closest relationship with Christ. After the fashion of many of
his contemporaries, he draws from a close comparison of these
two texts from the Bible, and by explanations of the possible
meaning of eacb single word, such consequences as seem to
him appropriate, to give the highly important proof, which
he intended to give, and to perfect it by this means. As S.
Paul had to go back to Moses, and the times of Abraham, and
all the accounts of the Bible about the primitive times, in order
to prove the higher necessity and truth of Christianity, thus,
our author, with his deep penetration, sees much in these times
which explains Melchizedek and his times, and he draws our
attention especially to three points. First, vii. 1—4, that by com
paring the contents of that account with the words of the
Psalmist, one could not possibly think of the Priest-King as of
one of the common men in ancient history, but must ascribe to
him eternity and similar attributes of a mysterious and divine
nature, as pious men had ascribed formerly in a somewhat similar
way a mysterious immortality to Enoch. In this we can especially
observe the fashion of former learned writers, who, by keeping
two very opposite and very separate texts closely together, and by
working them into each other, drew out a proof of some new,
hitherto unobserved, and often very startling fact. The author
begins simply with the words, "for this Melchizedek." He is
shortly designated, " King of Salem, Priest ofthe Most High God."
He goes to meet Abraham returning after the defeat of the
kings, and blesses him, and receives even a tenth of all which
had been gained in the battle, from no less a man than Abraham.
If we look at the meaning of both his names in the sacred,

.app., lect. ii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 319
old, and mysterious Hebrew language, he was first indeed
(if the name of Melchizedek is interpreted) King of Justice, but
then also King of Salem, that is, King of Peace, as if each of
these two titles on this account became so memorable by their
kingly or Messianic meaning, which, so visibly pointed to the true
Messiah, who has at first to bring justice into the world, but
afterwards, as a necessary consequence, peace. [Note 1, p. 89.
This is evidently the interpretation of the words. But in the
same way Philo, too, finds out secrets in the translation and
explanation of proper names in the Pentateuch : compare the
History of the People of Israel, vi. 272.] He appears in the
Bible fat h erless, motherless, that is, without human parents, with
out pedigree, without even being ascribed to any particular race
or nation, without having a particular time for the begin
ning or the end of his existence — for there is no mention of
either in the Bible, — but by the Psalmist He is unmistakably
compared to the Son of God, so that one can easily conclude who
he really must have been. He abides a Priest for ever. Thus,
according to the Psalmist and the other indications, he appears
as if he were Christ, or rather the Logos Himself, Who, for that
time only, manifested Himself to men in this likeness, but at
the same time was also their Priest, foreshadowing what He is
now to His own, though in quite a different way, as High Priest.
[Note 2, p. 89. The latter meaning of the words, although
merely hinted at, is plain enough. But the author could not
compare him with an angel, nor with any mortal man that
ever lived, such as Enoch. Hence we have no alternative but to
regard him as a momentary and mysterious revelation of the
Logos in bodily shape, vouchsafed in those earliest ages of anti
quity.]' — Ewald, Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 86-90. Gottingen,
1870.1 1 I owe this citation also to the brews, by the Eev. Joseph B. M'Caul.
Commentary on the Epistle to the He-

320 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS apjp., lect. hi.
LECTUEE III.
Note A, page 87.
The leading characteristics of two of the Psalmists, the dis
tinguishing human features of their style, may be well illustrated
from single Psalms of their composition.

The 31st Psalm has many characteristics of David's style,
and fits the circumstances of his life.
1. It contains warrior images. Hence many critics have
supposed that it refers to a siege. For instance nh-ISP JV3?
(l'bheyth m'tsudhoth),1 i.e. ' For a house of castled towers,' or 'a
castle of mountain-peaks.' It is such a word as an Osman might
be conceived to use, if he were also a great religious poet.
2. It is full of tender pathos, so that parts of it almost sound
subjectively Messianic, e.g., ' I am forgotten as a dead man out
of mind.' 2
3. It breathes perfect trust in God — a personal trust. The
5th verse contains the sentence breathed forth by Jesus, and by
His first Martyr, and used since by so many believers.
It contains also a king's -toyal or dynastic trust — how much
better than Napoleon's belief in his star or destiny ! ' It is in
Thy Hand that my destinies lie.'3
4. There is one characteristic of men of David's peculiar
experience, of .those especially whose days close in a station
greatly more elevated than that to which they have been born.
1 v- 2. as duration, but life as pervaded by
2 vv. 9-12 especially, ypft DIpS a Divine purpose, with the turns
and ' tides ' in its affairs. — iv rats

(k'meth millebh), ' Mortuus a corde,:
(v. 12), S. Hieron.
3 Tiny ?]T3 (b'yadh'kha vitto-
thay),«. 15 ; <nhj; in plural not = life

(v. 12), S. Hieron. XePffi aov oi KKVpol pov, LXX. Cf.
Tlhy TVS (b'yadh'kha vitto- ' the times that went 0Ter him>' x
Chron. xxix. 30.

app., lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 821
They see much of the worse and baser side of human nature.
They are ready to cry, 'All the human is deceiving.' ' Hence, as
years go on, a longing for quiet as the greatest of goods.
How beautifully characteristic of David, then, are vv. 19, 20 !
He would escape from the whisper of conspiracy and the noise
of controversy, from the knots of plotters 2 and the din of
debate, into the quiet of God's Presence.
5. There is another yet more interesting characteristic of
David in this Psalm. There are writers who are great by con
densation, who compress thought into a few powerful and
oracular words. Such writers grow with us. We only know
what manner of men they are after many days. Such was
Tacitus among historians ; such was Bacon among philosophers.
Now he who speaks to us in the 21st verse is one of this
stamp. The doctrine of grace is here described, with astonish
ing pregnancy, by its three chief qualities. It is (1) free,3 (2)
supernatural* (3) personal? David's style is distinguished by
depth and condensation, rather than by solemnity. He is the
Tacitus or Bacon of grace. ii.
The 73rd Psalm is as characteristic of Asaph as the 31st of
David. Every one has noticed the difference between the bio
graphies in the Bible and those of the modern stamp. The
Bible deals honestly with the subject of its narratives.
So it deals honestly with the problems of life. It gives us
not only the conclusion, but the process by which it was obtained ;
not only the triumphant evpriica, but the bewildering search. It
records the oscillation of the needle before it finds its repose ;
the clouds of battle before the hush of peace ; the wrestling in
darkness before the walk with God's sunshine upon the face ; the
1 213 DIKiT^S Psalm cxvi. 11. 3 "Ipn
2 e>iK 'CO-IS = knots of con- t ^btt ' He hath wrought His
spirators. < dark' and writhed ways of ^ .^^ rf Mndness_.
earth' (Keble). anp (meriybh) =»
cause at law, debate. T

1^) = ' to ',

322 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. hi.
trembling of doubt before the assurance of faith.. It lets us see
the Prophet, not only in the lighthouse, trimming the lamps
which guide so many ships, but outside, in the storm, clinging to
the slippery chains, and picking off the frozen foam-flakes, that
the windows may be clear for the transmission of the light.
Asaph grapples with such problems as these — solemnly,
sublimely, obscurely. In the 73rd Psalm we have the cause of
his doubts, and the means of their removal.
The cause of his doubts. For doubt he did — like one who
slips on wet rocks — his steps were all but gone.1
He had looked on the world : he had seen the cynical logic of
events — especially ' the peace of the wicked.' 2
Four means of his recovery are mentioned: (1) His own
past spiritual life, vv. 13, 14. (2) The spiritual life of the sons
of God, observed or recorded, v. 15. 3 (3) The revelation of the
sanctuary, vv. 16, 17. For there is a knowledge which science
cannot give. There is a world where falsity does not exist.
1 The sanctuary ' may be the secret of the heart, tbe shut closet,
the literal sanctuary, with its services and influences. Note,
too, the softened tone, the half-suppressed sigh, in vv. 17-20.
The sinful, who have to die, and lie in forgotten graves, are
wretched as well as guilty. (4) The thought of God's Presence,
and of the heavenly rest — ' with Thee,' in trial or sacrifice, even
when unconscious of it: — 'holden by Thy Hand,' in peril, in
darkness, in death — ' received to glory,' when life lies ' be
hind.' 4
To confront the problems of life, of death, of history ;—
to supply their answer in an oracular, enigmatic, contorted style;
— to rise to anticipations of eternal life and the heavenly rest,
which tremble on the verge of a premature unveiling of life and
immortality, without passing over it :— these are the character-
1 1-0$ nim J.'K3 v.l. Thy sons.'
2 D*yBh ti)b& v. 3. " nv. 23, 24. See M. Eug. Ber-
' . ' . sier's noble Sermon, 'Le Trouble
TJ3 TR The generation of d> Asaph,' iv. 67 sqq

app., lect. ni. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 323
istics of Asaph. He may almost be called the Persius, as we
have called David the Bacon, of grace.
Note T5,page 91.
' Cnm matris hortatu filiam Desiderii duxisset uxorem,
incertum qua de causa, post annum, repudiavit, et Hildegardam
in matrimonium accepit. Habuit et filias tres, duas de Fastiada
uxore, tertiam de concubina quadam. Defuncta Fastiada Luid-
gardim Alamannam duxit. Post cujns mortem quatuor habuit con-
cubinas.' (Eginhard, De Vita Caroli Magni, cap. xviii. pp. 91, 92.)
The pages to which this note refers were written long before
I met with the following passage in one of the commentators
upon Eginhard : ' Qusestio a Petavio proposita, an Carolns ante
baptismum vel creationem in Regem vocatus fuerit Davides ?
. . . Licet enim Petavius nomen ut verum et a parentibus
impositum Carolo nostro vindicet, potius tamen ex more supra
descripto ortum esse putem. Et sane convenientia inter Carolum
et Davidem maxima est. Institnit jamdum suo tempore talem
comparationem auctor Vitae Caroli, quisquis ille sit, quam
produxit Canishis ex Monasterio Sangallensi. . . Stephanus V,
Papa Ludovicum vocat secundum Davidem, qua propter merita in
Ecclesiam et Rempublicam, ut Davidem Deo dilectum Carolum
nostrum crederet. Hinc saapissime vim nominis David (quod
dilectum significat) Albinus per periphrasim explicat, vocando
Imperatorem nostrum Deo placabilem, dilectissimum regem in
Domino dominorum, amatum Deo . . ¦ Dubium non est Carolum
nunquam vere Davidem dictum, sed cognomen illud ex Alcuini
cerebro enatum esse.' (Scbminke, Eginhard, p. 118.) ' Artes
liberales studiosissime excomit, earumque doctores pmrimuni
veneratus magnis afficiebat honoribus. Tentabat scribere, tabu-
lasque et codicillos ad hoc in lectulo sub cervicalibus circmnferre
solebat, ut cum vacuum tempus esset, manum effingendis Uteris
assuefaceret.1 Sed parum prospere successit labor preeposterus ac
1 It would be out of place -to these words have excited. It has been
enter upon the controversy which proposed to read 'tentabat versus
Y 2

324 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. hi.
aero inchoatus. . . . Mortes filiorum ac filise pro magnanimi-
tate, qua excellebat, minus patienter tulit, pietate videlicet, qua
non minus insignis erat, compulsus ad lachrymas. Nuntiato etiam
sibi Adriani Roman. Pont, obitu, quern in amicis prascipuum habe-
bat, sic flevit ac si fratrem ant charissimum filium amisisset.'
(Eginhard, Cap. xix.). . . . ' Mira? pnlchritudinis Basilicam Aquis-
grani exstruxit ... ad cujus structuram cum columnas et mar-
mora aliunde habere non posset, Roma atque Ravenna devehenda
cnravit. . . . Legendi atque psallendi disciplinam diligen-
tissime emendavit.' See the edition of Eginhard, ' De V. Caroli
Magni,' with the ample notes of Bessell, Bolland, Goldast. and
Schminke. Of the tradition that Charlemagne composed the
' Veni Creator,' I can find no trace in this volume, nor do I know
from whence it has arisen. In the carefully and conscientiously
edited ' Presbyterian Hymnal, compiled by a Committee of the
United Presbyterian Church ' (Edinburgh, 1876), the Hymn
appears with — ' Author, Charlemagne ' — in the index. It is
singular that Eginhard makes no mention of the Council of
Frankfort, presided over by Charlemagne, or of his public con
demnation of images. Note C, page 92.
To the quotation in the text I must here add the beautiful
and profound summary of David's life and character in Dr.
Newman's once well-known poem —
THE CALL OF DAVID.
'And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.'
Latest born of Jesse's race,
Wonder lights thy bashful face,
scribere,' and, ' cum tempus esset did so much for the temporal power
vacuum, ernngendis metris se assue- of the Bapacy, stigmatize him as a
faceret.' Still less can it be my duty ' heavy German,' and un assai antipa-
to defend ' the great Karl ' against the tico puzzo di sacristia. — Comparetti,
new Italian Historical School, who, in Vergilio nel medio evo.
a mood of hatred against one who

app., lect. iii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 325
While the Prophet's gifted oil
Seals thee for a path of toil,
We, thy angels, circling round thee,
Ne'er shall find thee as we found thee,
When thy faith first brought us near
In thy lion-fight severe.
Go ! and 'mid thy flocks awhile
At thy doom of greatness smile ;
Bold to bear God's heaviest load,
Dimly guessing of the road, —
Rocky road, and scarce ascended,
Though thy feet be angel-tended.
Twofold praise thou shalt attain,
In royal court and battle plain ;
Then come heart-ache, care, distress,
Blighted hope, and loneliness ;
Wounds from friend and gifts from foe,.
Dizzied faith, and guilt, and woe ;
Loftiest aims by earth defiled,
Gleams of wisdom sin-beguiled,
Sated power's tyrannic mood,
Counsels shared with men of blood,
Sad success, parental tears,
And a dreary gift of years.
Strange, that guileless face and form
To lavish on the scarring storm !
Yet we take thee in thy blindness,
And we buffet thee in kindness ;
Little chary of thy fame,—
Dust unborn may bless or blame,—

326 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. iii.
But we mould thee for the root
Of man's promised healing Fruit,
And we mould thee hence to rise,
As our brother, to the skies.
Note D, page 100.
The doctrine of immortality in connection with Judaism has
lately been studied by three foreign scholars, Hahn, Saalchiitz,
and Schultz. Hahn, with whom Saalchiitz substantially agrees,
divides Judaism into six periods : (1) The Patriarchal, when
men had a simple, if confused, faith in immortality. (2) The
Mosaic period, when the law as such does not enter upon the
question. (3) The era of Job and the Psalmists, which may be
described as a time of scepticism, or even worse, ' futurarum
rerum desperatio.' (4) The ascendancy of the Prophets, under
which, as the figure of Messiah grew upon the canvas, the annihi
lation of death began to be expected. (5) The Exilic period,
when the Resurrection of the Body entered into the minds of
Ezekiel and Daniel. (6) The post-Exilic period, when the ideas
of immortality and of the Resurrection were expanded and de
veloped under Alexandrian influences.
Schultz does not arrange his conclusions chronologically, but in
four general propositions : (1) All the writers of the Old Testa
ment teach that man's personahty does not disappear with death.
(2) Their teaching is not clear or definite; but it asserts that the
destinies ofthe righteous and wicked will be essentially different.
(3) All the sacred authors agree in implying that the soul,
vitally united to God, is immortal. (4) From the doctrine of the
Spiritual Resurrection of Israel, the notion of the Resurrection
of the body was probably developed.

app., lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

327

LBCTUEE IV.
Note A, page 131.
Other instances will easily be found by students, e.g. —

Psalm v. 3 (above, p. 130) .
„ xviii. 28 (cxxxii. 17) .
„ xix. 4
,, xxxviii (title)

Psalm lxix. 31
,, xci. 4
„ xcii. 12 1 .
„ Ixxxix. 15 2
,, ex. 33

. Exod. xl. 23 ; Levit. i. 7, 8, 12 ;
vi. 5 (12); Numbers xxiii. 4.
. Exod. xxv. 37.
„ xl. 24, 25.
. Levit. ii. 2.
See also Exod. xxix. 1, &c.
„ xxxvii. 9 ; 1 Kings vi. 27.
1 Kings vi. 9-18, 29.
Levit. xxiii. 24 ; xxv. 9.
Exodus xxxv. 29; Levit. vii. 16,
&c. ; Deut. xii. 6, &c. ; Amos
iv. 5.

Note B, page 138.
' Blessed are the poor in spirit,' answers to ' I am poor and
needy.' ' Blessed are they that mourn.' Do we not hear in
the 35th Psalm a voice as of ' one that mourneth for his
mother ' ? Does not the exile ' weep by the waters of Babylon ' ?
'Blessed are the meek,' and the 131st Psalm is the song of the
meek, the preference which is so distinctively Christian of the
patient to the heroic character. ' Blessed are they which do

1 Note the association of cedar
and palm.
2 Those accomplished scholars,
Mr. Jennings and Mr. Lowe, doubt
the propriety of the reference. ' The
joyful sound is taken by most com
mentators to mean the festal shouts
and blasts of trumpets on the ap
pointed feast days. But, since there
is no mention whatever of any

feast days in this Bsalm, wo prefer
to understand the words nWiri *5/*T*
as meaning those " who are accus
tomed to shout for joy," i.e., are in
the habit of shouting joyfully unto
the Lord for all His goodness.' —
Psalms, bks. iii. and iv. p. 100. By
A. C. Jennings and "W. H. Lowe.
3 ra.ii

328 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. iv.
hunger and thirst after righteousness.' What else is the blessed
ness described in the 1st Psalm ? What else the 19th, that
lyric of the word ? or what else the 119th, the lyric of the law —
its sweetness and reasonableness — the perfect freedom of subju
gation to its easy yoke, its breadths and depths, level as life, and
deep as the soul ? ' Blessed are the merciful,' corresponds to
' Blessed is he that considereth the poor.' The blessing of the
' pure in heart ' has its place in the Psalter. ' Truly God is good
to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart : ' And He of
Whom alone it can be said that He ' hath clean hands and a pure
heart,' is crowned with the supreme ' blessing from the Lord.'
And if to any it seems that the blessing for the ' peace-makers '
is wanting, that there are in several Psalms peals of fierce male
diction, and that forgiveness is strangely interrupted, I hope
that we have seen that such passages are not without compen
sation. Morally, because they show us that true hatred of evil
as evil is a constituent of holiness — spiritually, because there is
a point on the scale at which such utterances pass from human
lips and blend with the trumpet notes of Divine Judgment. (See
above, pp. 44-58.) Note C, page 147.
The best commentary upon this Lecture will be supplied by
the following lengthened extracts from the golden Epistle of
Athanasius to Marcellinus : —
Koivr) fitv ovv TOiavrr) tov Hvtvparog X"l°(c tarut napd naai,
Kal iv EKdcrru) yivofxiv-q tvpio-Kto-du), Kal napd naffiv if avrr), wg idv if
\ptla dnairrf, Kal to Tivevpa jiovXrfTat. Ov diaajipti yap to nXiov
rai tXarrov tv ravrrf rij XP£'?> &S tKatrrog dvtvSorwg tijv ISiav
dnonXrjpoi Kal rtXtioT. SiaKOViav. 'H Si yt fllfiXog Tb>v tyaXpiiv Kal
ovrujg txti rivd ndXiv ^aptv \Ziav Kal naparifprfmv ifcalptrov' npbg
yap Tdig aXXoig, iv olg npbg rag dXXag filflXovg ix.u rr)v axiaiv Kal
Koivwviav, Xomov Kal 'ISlov txti tovto davpa, oti Kal rd tKaarrfg
}pu)(fji Kivripara, rag re rovrutv ptraf3oXdg Kal Siopdwaeig iyti Siaye-
ypappevag kui c'lartrvnwij.ivag iv iavry- &nrt riva rov povXo/itvov

app., lect. iv. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 329
<ic antipov iH, avrrjg Xapfidvtiv Kal Karavot'tv, ovtio to rvnovv tavrbv,
iKtl yiypanrat. 'Ef fitv yap raig aXXaig /3t/3Xotc povov Tig aKOvti
tov vopov npooTaTTOvra, d (pi)) Sti noitiv Kal pif Sti nparrtiv' npo-
iprfTtlag re KaraKovti, &o~rt ixovov ASivai rov ipxdptvov Eaj-ijpa- Kal
iffTopiatg Si npocixti, ii, £>v yivioaKtiv Sivarai rag twv paaiXitxiv Kal
rag twv dylwv rrpd^tig. 'Ev Si rrj /3i'/3Xa> twv "fyaXpwv, npbg rip
ravra. pavQavtiv tov aKOvovra, 'in Kal rd Kivifpara rrjg tavrov \jjvxyg
iv avrij Karavoti /cat SiSdcrKtrai' Kai Xoinbv npbg o naoyti Kal iv w
(rvvixtrai, Sivarai TraXir i/c ravrrjg ixto-dai rr)v t'iKova twv Xoywv'
wart pr) povov aKOixravra napipxto-dai, uXXa Kal Trait; Sti Xiyovra Kal
nowvvra dtpantvtiv to nddog, SiSdaKti . . .
Kai 6 aKoiwv rov dvayivwuKOvrog dig ntpl avrov Xtyofitvifv Trjv
<ocr)v KaraSixtrai' Kal >j iXtyxoptvog vnb tov avvtiSorog Kara-
vvytlg ptTavoifffti, ?i nepl rrjg tig Otbv iXniSog aKOVwv Kal rrjg tig
rovg martvovrag yivopiv-qg dvriXifiJjtwg, &>g tig avrov ytvopivrfg
TOiavTTfg -yupirog dyaXXidrai, Kal tvxaptirrtiv apxtrai tu) Qt<j>. 'Ort
yovv tov TpWov v\idXXti Tig tig rag ISiag OXLiptig avvopwv, wc avrov
sivai vofii^ti Ta iv ri} -fyaXfxw piffxara' Kal Tore rov ia Kal rov ig tic
Etc Tt)v ISiav ntno'Srfaiv Kal npontvyjfv iariv dirayyiXXoiv ' Kai rov
piv v \paXpbv aic avrdc ion rd 'iSia rrjg ptravoiag tavrov Xtywv
pif/iara- tov Si vy', Kal tov vt, Kal tov vg', Kal rov ppa , ort TpdXXti
rig, ovx dig dXXov SioiKopivov, aXX' iig wv o irdoxwv avvSiaridtrai, Kai
qSti rw Kvpiw ISiovg roiig Xoyovg rovrovg. Kat o'Xaic uiirwg tKaorog
\paXpbg napd tov Ylvtiiparog tiprfrai Tt Kal ovvriraKTai, iig iv aiiro'ig,
Ka6d nportpov tiprfrai, rd Kiviffiara rijg i/'i'X'Je vpwv Karavoeiodai, Kal
ndvrag avrovg wg ntpl i/fiwv tlprjffdai, Kal Aval ifpwv avrovg wc tct'ous
Xoyouc, tig avdpvrjOiv tSjv iv r/plv Kivifparwv Kal Siopdwotv rrjg ifpwv
noXirtiag. "A yap ol vjdXXovrtg tlpifKaol, ravra Kal ifpwv Svvavrat
Tvnoi Kal -xapaKrijpeg Avon.
Avr-n Si ndXiv tov "Swrijpog iariv if x«»<e ' afflpa/Troc yap St
ripdg ytvoptrog, to jiiv owpa to "iSiov vnip r)pwv npoaifvtyKtv tig
Qdvarov, "iva ndvrag anaXXdtrf rov davdroV
'AXX' ovSi, Tag twv npoynTwv rtg Xapftdvwv i>g "iSia prfpara,
ui/x\patTO Tig i) inaivioeit rovrotg rd Ofioia npdlavrag, olg ipip-
vliavro cat inyvtoav ktivoi- ovSi to, Zr] Kvpiog, th napiarnv

330 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. v.
ivwmov avroii oifptpov, piuiforfrai av rig tintiv wg \Siov Xoyov.
Kat yap /cat 6 ivrvyyavwv raig pifiXotg (bavtpog ion pn tic ISlovg,
dXXd rwv dylwv Kal twv Si avrwv SrfXov/iivwv Xtywv rovg Xoyouc.
Tovg Si yt tyaXfiovg, rb napdSo^ov, fitrd rag ntpl rov Swrrjpoe Kal
rwv idvwv npotbrfrtlag 6 Xtywv rd dXXa wg tota prfpara XaXd/v ton,
Kal wg ntpl avrov ypaajivrag avrovg tKaorog \pdXXti, Kal ovx <«/£ tTtpov
Xiyovrog r/ ntpl tripov orfpaivovTog Sixtrai, Kal Sie^epxtrai' aXV wg
aiirbg ntpl avrov XaXwv Siaridtrai' /cat old ion Ta Xeyoptva, ravra
wg avrbg 7rpa£ac Kal il, tavTOV XaXaii' ava(j)ipti rw Qtw. Ov yap
wg rd twv narpiapxwv prjpara, Kal ^Hwvoiwg, Kal twv aXXwv npoibrfTwv,
ivXaPrfdrfOtrai Kal ravra ' aXXa Kal pdXiora tic 'iSta Kal ntpl tavrov
ypacpivra Bapotl Xtywv 6 uvaXXwf ravra. Tbv yap (pvXd£avra rrfv
ivToXrfv, Kal napafidvra ravrrfv, TifV rt tKaripov npdi,iv ntpiiypvoiv
ol tyaX/ioi. Kai poi SokA t£> ipdXXovn yivtodai rovrovg wontp tioonrpov, tis
to Karavotiv Kal avrcv iv avrolg Kal rd rrjg tavrov ipv^s Ktvrjpara,
/cat oiirfc/c alodoptvov dnayyiXXttv avrovg.1

LECTURE V.
Note A, page 168.
I venture to quote the note of Mr. Jennings and Mr. Lowe on
this difficult verse, Psalm lxxxvii. 7 : —
' Rend. "And all my wellspri/ngs [of delight] are singing
aloud like instrument-players because of [lit. in] thee," i.e. all my
hopes are concentrated in thee, 0 Zion, and at the thought of the
glorious things of which thou shalt be the centre, all my inner
most feelings well forth and overflow : cf. Ps. xiv. 1, " My heart
overfloweth with a good matter." This rendering of v. 7 we
owe to the Rev. P. H. Mason. Del. contends that d^in, choVlim,
" instrument-players," must mean dancers, and rends, thus, "Aud
singing as well as dancing [they say], 'all my fountains are in
1 St. Athanas., Ep. ad Marcellinum.

app., lect. V. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

331

thee,' " i. e. the fountains of salvation (Is. xii. 3) are in thee, O
city of God. Aq. rends. aSovrtg wg xopol ; and Jer. " cantores
quasi in choris." But here chdlal in the Kal appears to have
the meaning which the Piel bears in 1 Kings i. 40, " to play
upon an instrument" (lit. "upon a , wind instrument"); cf.
Gesen. The LXX. (which the Vulg. follows-) seems to have mis
taken shdrim, " singing," or " making melody," for sdrim, princes,
and maydnay, " my fountains," for maon, a dwelling, and rends.
(6) Kvpwg Sirfylfotrat ev ypaijjrj Xawv Kal apxdvrwv roiirwv rwv yt-
ytvrjpivwv iv airy- AidipuXpa. (7) '£2e evajpaivopivwv ndvrwv »/
KaroiKia iv oo'i.' Note B,page 177.
De Wette lays it down as a canon that there were no Litur
gical Psalms before the Exile. But in Jeremiah a time is foretold
when shall be heard ' the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice
of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is
good, for His mercy endureth for ever.' 1 This, compared with
its parallel, shows that such Psalms were already familiar, and
wont to be sung in Israel, and that it would be nearly as un
reasonable to deny that sacrifices were offered before the Exile.

The following list contains the chief passages from the Psalms
quoted in Jeremiah : — Davidic.

Psalms.

Jeremiah.

vii. 9

xvii. 10.

xxvi. 4

. xv. 17.

xxxi. 9

. Lament, i. 20.

„ 10 . .
. Jer. xx. 18.
„ 13 . .
,, xx. 10.
Ibid.
. vi. 25 ; xx. 3 ; xlvi. 5 ;
29; Lament, ii. 2.
xlix.
xxxi. 17 .
Jer. xvii. 18.
xxxi. 22 .
. Lament, iii. 54.
Jcrem. xxxiii. 11 ; cf. Bsalm cxxxvi. 1.
332

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. v.

Psalms.

Jeremiah.

xxxv. 6

.

Jer.

xxiii. 12.

" .7 ¦

.

>>

xviii. 20, 22.

xxxvi. 10 .

.

>>

ii. 13; xvii. 13

;?
xx. 9.
Iii. 8
,, •
>>
xi. 16.
lv. 6-8 .
.
??
ix. 2.
„ 23
.
)>
xvii. 11.
lxiv. 3
.
T?
ix. 3.
„ 6
.
3)
xvii. 9.
lxxxvi. 8-.
,0 .
-n
x. 6, 7.
cix. 14, 15
.
J?
xviii. 23.
Lament, iii. 6.
Korahite.
xliv. 13
.
Jer.
xx. 8.
xlviii. 2
.
Lament, h. 15.
lxxix. 4-7
Asaphic.
Jer.
x. 25.
1 xxxiii. 4
))
xlviii. 2.
Anonymous.
i. 3 .
Jer.
xvii. 8.
ii. 3 .
)>
v. 5.
Lament, iii. 37.
cii. 12
....
„ v. 19.
cxxxv. 7
Jer
x. 13.
j?
xxxiii. 11.
I have here made large use of the labours of Kuper, Jeremias,
pp. 156 sqq. Note C, page 181.
[The following Note has been contributed by the Very Eev. John Gwynn, B.D.]
In assigning to the Song of Solomon the place immediately
before that of Hosea in the Canon, Bishop Wordsworth appa
rently follows the order as given by Origen (if we may trust the
version of Rufinus :), and by St. Hilary in Prolog, ad Pss. ; in
1 In the Greek text of the Canon of the ' Twelve Prophets ' being
of Origen (ap. Euseb. H. E. vi. 25) omitted. Eufinus, in his version,
only 21 books are named (though the inserts them between Canticles and
number is stated to be 22), the Book Isaiah.
app., lect. v. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

333

which the Twelve Minor Prophets come next after Canticles. The
arrangement given by the chief Jewish authorities differs widely
from this ; — Hosea being placed in the second division of the
Canon, the Prophets; while the Song is ranked in the third,
among the KethuUm.
On the inner connection between the two Books, the Bishop
writes : —
' The relation of Marriage, as a symbol of God's union with
His people, seems to connect the prophecies of Hosea with the
Song of Solomon; and the unfaithfulness of Israel to God is
displayed in striking contrast to the love of the Bride in that
Divine Book.' (Note on Hos. i. 2.)
Besides this general analogy, he notes the following particu
lars. (1) In both Books is shown the mission of the Chnrch of
Christ to the Jewish Church, figured as her ' mother.' In Hosea
(ii. 2), 'Plead with your mother, plead': — in Canticles (iii. 4),
' I held Him and would not let him go, until I had brought Him
to my mother's house ' ; (viii. 2), ' I would lead Thee, and bring
Thee into my mother's house.' (2) As the curse of spiritual
barrenness on the Jewish Chnrch is uttered by Hosea in the
words (ix. 14), ' Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts ' :
so Israel in her dwindled state, no longer ' mother,' is repre
sented in Canticles as the ' httle sister ' who ' hath no breasts '
(viii. 8). (3) The adulteress-wife of Hosea was once ' beloved
of her friend ' : ' the pure Bride ofthe Song addresses her Bride
groom by the same title, — ' My beloved, my friend.' (4) Israel's
restoration is promised in Hosea (ii. 15) in the Lord's words, ' I
will give her her vineyards from thence ' : in like manner as, in
Canticles, the ' vineyards of En-gedi ' (i. 14) ; and Solomon's
' vineyard at Baal-hamon ' (viii. 11), are figures of His Church.
(5) And His power, the same in recalling the penitent as in
confirming the faithful, is expressed in both Books by the same
1 Hos. iii. 1 VI : Cant. v. 16 iyi, A rare use of the word.

334 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. v.
verb. ' I drew them 1 with the cords of a man ' is God's gracious
word concerning Israel, in Hosea : — ' Draw me,'3 in the Song, is
the prayer of His Bride.
To the above coincidences of language and of thought; others
may be added. For example : — ¦
As in Hosea Israel is reminded of her early history, — ' I did
know thee in the wilderness ' (xiii. 5 ; cf. ii. 14, ix. 10) ; so in
Canticles the origin of the Chnrch of Christ is recalled in the
question, ' Who is this 3 that cometh out of the wilderness ? ' (iii.
6 ; cf. viii. 5). Again, the ' Love, strong as Death,' the ' Jealousy,
unyielding4 as the Grave,' of Canticles (viii. 6), are surely His
Who in Hosea (xiii. 14) triumphantly proclaims, — ' I will rescue
them from the power of the Grave, I will redeem them from
Death : 0 Death, I will be thy plagues, 0 Grave, I will be thy
destruction.' And in general it is to be observed that the same
or like natural objects and facts supply the allusions in both
Books. The simile of the vineyard (already mentioned) is alike
frequent in both (Hos. ix. 1 0 ; x. 1 ; xiv. 7 : Cant. i. 6 ; vii. 12 ;
viii. 12). In Hosea the ' east wind' makes the ' spring become
dry ' (xiii. 15) ; — the ' latter and former rain' (vi. 3), ' the dew '
(xiv. 5), revive the soil into fertility ; — and £ From Me is thy fruit
found (xiv. 8),' is the figure under which the Lord promises His
gifts. In Canticles, the ' north wind and the south ' (iv. 16) are
alike invoked to ' blow upon the garden ' of the Bride ; ' the
rain is over and gone' (ii. 11-13), and we see the earth quicken
ing into lavish beauty ; the Bride ' sits down under ' the Bride
groom's ' shadow,5 and His fruit is sweet to her taste' (ii. 3) ; she
calls Him to 'come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits '
(iv. 16). Further : — In these two Books alone is Lebanon spoken
of, not merely as the great mountain, the home of the cedar, but
1 xi. 4, tJJQK'N- which the Apostle was 'jealous over'
¦' i. 4, i]30E>. tne Church of Corinth, that he might
¦ The pronoun is fern. (ntftY ' f ^f hn6r " a °haSte virgin .lmt°
'Clearly to be understood in ChrlSt 2 Cor' »¦ 2') ^ =
bonam partem, as the Jealousy of true ' tenacious ' (not ' cruel,' as A. V.).
Love; (the 'godly jealousy' with 5 Cf. Hosea xiv. 7.

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 335
as the native soil of the vine and the spice. ' His smell shall be as
Lebanon,' — ' the scent thereof as the wine of Lebanon' says Hosea
(xiv. 6, 7); — echoing the words of the Song (iv. II),1 'The
smell of thy garments is like the smell of Leban'on.' And in these
two Books alone the comparison of the lily is found. ' He shall
grow as the lily ' (Hos. xiv. 5) ; ' I am . . . the lily of the val
leys. As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daugh
ters ' (Cant. ii. 1, 2 ; and passim). And thus, by the imagery of
the breezes and the showers, the fruits, the flowers and the
odours, we see the repentant adulteress of the Prophet recalled
by the love, as ready now to pardon as of old to seek, into
the scenes, the associations, the atmosphere, — and thus to the
thoughts, the feelings, and the faith, of those early days of first love
and bridal purity which find their record in the Song of Songs.

LECTURE VI.
Note A, page 203.
That such is the real force of Adonai is most clearly proved by
the objectively Messianic Psalms. In the 2nd Psalm (v. 4) it is
('adhonay yilyagh-lamo)
Adonai will mock at them.
In the 45th Psalm (v. 11) the King who is greatly to desire
the beauty of the Bride is tphg ('adhonayikh) ' thy Lord.' In
the 110th Psalm (v. 1) 'Jehovah said' \J'-It6 (ladhoniy) 'to My
Lord.' The first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews applies
the 97th Psalm to Christ ; that Psalm speaks of Him (v. 5) as
('adh5n kol-haarets)
Lord of the whole earth.
On the general subject of the preparation for the Worship of
1 Cf. vv. 8-10.

336 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
Christ in the Psalms, the following passage has an important
bearing : —
' What is the distinguishing character of Hebrew literature,
which separates it by so broad a line of demarcation from that
of every ancient people ? Undoubtedly the sentiment of erotic
devotion which pervades it. Their poets never represent the
Deity as an impassive principle ; a mere organising intellect,
removed at infinite distance from human hopes and fears. He is
for them a Being of like passions with themselves, requiring
heart for heart, and capable of inspiring affection, because capable
of feeling and returning it. Awful, indeed, are the thunders of
His utterance, and the clouds that surround His dwelling-place ;
very terrible is the vengeance He executes on the nations that
forget Him ; but to His chosen people, and especially to the men
" after His own heart," whom He anoints from the midst of them,
His " still, small voice " speaks in sympathy and lovingkindness.
Every Hebrew, while his breast glowed with patriotic enthusiasm
at those promises, which he shared as one of the favoured race,
had a yet deeper source of emotion, from which gushed perpetually
the aspirations of prayer and thanksgiving. He might consider
himself alone in the presence of his God ; the single being to
whom a great revelation had been made, and over whose head
" an exceeding weight of glory " was suspended. His personal
welfare was infinitely concerned with every event that had taken
place in the miraculous order of Providence. For him the rocks
of Horeb had trembled, and the waters of the Red Sea were
parted in their course. The word given on Sinai with such
solemn pomp of ministration, was given to his own individual
soul, and brought him into immediate communion with his
Creator. That awful Being could never be put away from him.
He was about his path, and about his feet, and knew all his
thoughts long before. Tet this tremendous, enclosing Presence,
was a presence of love. It was a manifold, everlasting manifes
tation of one deep feeling — a desire for human affection. Such

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 837
a belief, while it enlisted even pride and self-interest on the side
of piety, had a direct tendency to excite the best passions of our
nature. Love is not long asked in vain from generous disposi
tions. A Being, never absent, hut standing beside the life of
each man with ever-watchful tenderness, and recognised, though
invisible, in every blessing that befel them from youth to age,
became naturally the object of their warmest affections. Their
belief in Him could not exist without producing, as a necessary
effect, that profound impression of passionate individual attach
ment, which, in the Hebrew authors, always mingles with, and
vivifies their faith in, the Invisible. All the books in the Old
Testament are breathed upon by this breath of life. Especially
is it to be found in that beautiful collection, entitled the Psalms
of David, which remains, after some thousand years, perhaps the
most perfect form in which the religious sentiment of man has
been embodied.
' But what is true of Judaism is yet more true of Christianity,
" matre pulchrd filia pulchrior." In addition to all the characters
of Hebrew Monotheism, there exists in the doctrine of the Cross
a peculiar and inexhaustible treasure for the affectionate feelings.
The idea of the Qtdvdpwnog (God- Man), the God whose goings
forth have been from everlasting, yet visible to men for their
redemption as an earthly temporal creature, living, acting and
suffering among themselves, then (which is yet more important)
transferring to the unseen place of His spiritual agency the same
humanity He wore on earth, so that the lapse of generations can
in no way affect the conception of His identity ; this is the most
powerful thought that ever addressed itself to a human imagi
nation. It is the nov orw which alone was wanting to move the
world. Here was solved at once the great problem which so long
had distressed the teachers of mankind : how to make virtue the
object of passion, and to secure at once the warmest enthusiasm
in the heart with the clearest perception of right and wrong in
the understanding. The character of the blessed Founder of
Z

338 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
our faith became an abstract of morality to determine the judg
ment, while at the same time it remained personal and liable to
love. The written Word and established Church prevented, a
degeneration into nngoverned mysticism, but the predominant
principle of vital rehgion always remained that of self-sacrifice
to the Saviour. Not only the higher divisions of moral duties,
but the simple, primary impulses of benevolence, were subordi
nated to this new absorbing passion. The world was loved " in
Christ alone." The brethren were members of His mystical
body. All the other bonds that had fastened down the Spirit of
the Universe to our narrow round of earth were as nothing in
comparison to this golden chain of suffering and self-sacrifice,
which at once riveted the heart of man to One who, like himself,
was acquainted with grief. Pain is the deepest thing we have in
our nature, and union through pain has always seemed more holy
and more real than any other.' '
Note B, page 205.
The view to which I here advert has found an interesting, if
extreme, expositor, in the course of the present year (1876). I
refer to he Epopee Christologique. Psaumes d'apres les Po'etes
Francois, annotes et distribues en xxii Chants par le P. Champon,
S. J, Professeur d'Ecriture Sainte en Orient. I extract the Pro
logue and the Argument of the ' Chant Troisieme ' from Psalm
xviii to xxiii. [xix. to xxiv.] : —
' Vers la seconde moitie du XVIIP siecle, on sontenait en Sor
bonne la these suivante : II n'existe dans les Livres des Psaumes
ancun ordre : ni ordre de temps et de composition, ni ordre de
matiere et de sujet ; vainement les anciens Peres y cherchaient quel-
que chose de semblable : " Nullus in Psalmorum collectione qua3-
rendns est ordo, sive materiarum, sive tempornm. Frustra igitur
in Psalmorum hodierna dispositione materiarum ordinem qua3re-
bant sancti Hilarins, Augustinus," &c.
' Le Livre des Psaumes serait done nn recueil fait an hasard
1 Arthur Hallam, Remains, pp. 275-278.

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 339
du temps et de la main : nulle unite d'idee generate, point de
sujet principal, ancun plan suivi. Les pieces elles-memes ne
seraient le plus souvent qn'une mosaiqne irreguliere de pensees, de
sentiments, de figures, de mots, sans liaison suflisante et neces-
saire a toute oeuvre d'art. Quelques Psaumes, une dizaine envi
ron, doivent etre interpretes a la lettre de Jesus- Christ, mais en
quelques versets seulement ; tous se rapporteraient aux mille et
une circonstances et accidents de la vie des psalmistes et dn
penple d'Israel.
' Cette theorie d'nn disciple de dom Calmet etait acceptee
alors comme indeniable, et de nos jonrs encore elle constitue un
principe dans l'exegese vulgaire.
' Afnrmer qu'il se tronve dans le Livre des Psaumes, non point
un ordre chronologique et de composition, ce que les Peres et les
anciens Glossatenrs n'ont jamais pretendu, mais un ordre de
matieres, mais une unite de sujet principal et d'action, une action
qui se deroule et marche d'apres les lois constantes et harmo-
nieuses de tonte ceuvre d'art, semble une exageration mystique,
nn theorems brillant pent-etre, mais venf de verite,- une theorie
fantaisiste, et tout a. fait en dehors dn reel et meme du vraisem-
blable. ' Cependant nous ne craignons pas de nous insnrger, en plein
soleil, contre cette opinion, et de la combattre de toutes nos
forces, non sans esperance de la victoire,
'Pnisque, d'apres nos adversaires eux-memes, les Peres et les
Glossateurs cherchaient dans les Psaumes un ordre de matieres
et de sujet, ils croyaient done a, cet ordre. Oui, ils y croyaient, et
ils l'ont trouve.
' Pour enx le snjet constant, le heros de ce divin poSme, c'est
le Christ, le Christ tout entier, dit saint Augustin, sa personne
adorable et son eponse, la sainte Eglise. Pour eux, il y a unite
d'action dans les 150 hymnes de cette epopee christologique : c'est
la victoire du Christ et de l'Eglise sur I'enfer et le monde, snr le
vice et I'erreur, et I'ascension triomphante dans les splendeurs du
z 2

340 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
ciel de tous les enfants de Dien : action a, la fois divine et
humaine, que l'Eglise a resumee dans ces quatre vers :
Mors et vita duello
Conflixere mirando :
Dux vitaa mortuus
Regnat vivus.
' Les Peres et les Glossateurs voient cette grande et divine
action, cette action vraiment epiqne, se derouler et progresser
dans une magnifique et harmonieuse unite. Elle commence le
jour ou le Sauveur Jesus a leve son etendard dans le monde ; elle
se continue par tontes les paroles et toutes les actions, tous les
combats et tous les triomphes dn Heros-Dieu et de la sainte
Eglise ; elle s'acheve dans les alleluia et les splendeurs des cieux,
ou. retentissent les derniers chants dn divin poete.
' Pour comprendre cette grande these, il faut laisser derriere
soi les exegetes modernes, remonter an-dela de la Renaissance,
cette epoqne aux trop nombreuses diminutions de verites, entrer
dans l'ecole des Glossateurs du moyen-age et des SS. Peres.
' Or, dans le premier volume de cette ceuvre, il nous a ete facile
de pronver par les attestations de l'Ecriture, des anciens et de la
divine liturgie, par l'analyse litteraire elle-meme, c'est-a-dire par
tous les temoins qui rendent temoignage a la verite, que le nom
d-'Epopee donne au Livre des Psaumes est legitime. Inutile de
refaire cette demonstration ; cependant il est bon de la mentionner
ici pour ceux de nos lecteurs qui n'auraient pas le premier volume.
' Puisque le Livre des Psaumes renferme tout ce qui constitue
la plus grande et la plus merveilleuse des ceuvres poetiques, c'est-
a-dire :
' 1° Sublimits dn Heros ;
' 2° Unite d'action generale ;
' 3° Progression harmonieuse, regulier developpement de cette
action ;
' 4° Beante et grandiosite de la forme ;
' Le Livre des Psaumes est une veritable Epopee.

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 341
' On n'eleve plus d' objection contre la sureminente poesie de
David. Les anciens n'avaient ancun doute sur I'unite de Heros
et d'action en son divin poeme ; se demanderait-on encore
si la matiere on le sujet chante par le psalmiste est vraiment
epiqne ?
' Un mot de reponse, une affirmation, resultant de l'etade
generale snr cette question de premier ordre.
' Tonte cenvre epiqne doit-elle etre faite a grands coups d'epee,
et ne retentir que d'aventures bruyantes ? Dans le ciel profond
et immense de YIdee, dans les combats du bien et dn mal, de la
verite et de I'erreur, dans les vastes et mysterieuses regions de
l'ame, il ne se jone done aucnn drame, ne se verse pas une goutte
de sang on de larmes, il n'y a done rien d'assez emouvant, d'assez
beau, d'assez grandiose pour donner a, la lyre ses accents les plus
sublimes et ses plus magnifiques harmonies ? Des lors, le livre
de David n'est pas nne epopee ; ni la Divine Comedie de Dante,
ni le Paradis Perdu de Milton, ni la Messiade de Klop-
stock, &a.
' Toute oenvre epique doit-elle etre composee selon la formnle
de Vlliade et de VEneide ?— A ce compte, le Livre des Psaumes
ne merite pas ce nom glorieux ; mais il faudra le refuser de meme
anx Poemes Ossianiques, aux Niebelungen, an Mahdbhdrata, a la
Chanson de Roland, &c. Et M. Leon Gautier a vainement ecrit
son livre snr les Epopees frangaises du moyen-age.
' Mais il est impossible de refuser a tons ces chefs-d'oeuvre la
qualite, la forme et le nom epiques ; comment done et pourqnoi le
refuser an chef-d' cenvre dn khinnor de Sion, a cette epopee vrai
ment divine, laquelle, an temoignage d'un recent traduoteur des
Psaumes, domine les epopees humaines de tonte la hauteur du
ciel an-dessns de la terre ? (V. Rendu, Nouv. trad, des Ps.
Bruxelles, 1867.)— Prologue, pp. vi-ix.
' Apres sa grande victoire decrite au chant second, le Heros-
Dieu commence a promnlguer sa Loi. Cette loi est comme le
soleil dn firmament de la verite; les cieux en resplendissent
et la chantent ; le jour l'explique au jour et la nnit ; elle est l'axe

342 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
et la base dn monde ; I'humanite lui doit tonte sa lumiei'e et tout
son bonheur. — Ps. xviii.
' Mais nn nouvean combat se prepare, le plus grand de tous
et le plus decisif ; le poete se recueille et prie, et plein de con-
fiance il predit la victoire. — Ps. xix.-xx.
' Le combat du Calvaire : jamais plus effrayant n'a ete le peril,
ni les souffrances pins extremes ; jamais anssi de plus belle vic
toire, ni de plus magnifiqnes resultats. — Ps. xxi.
' L'agnean de Dieu a ete immole ; mais le voila plein de vie
et de gloire, autonr de lui se rangent les brebis fideles. II les
mene sur le bord des eanx de la consolation et dans les patnrages
de la vie. — Ps. xxii.
' Le meme jour, le premier jour de la semaine, le Heros-Dieu
fait son entree solennelle dans sa capitale, anx applandissements
du ciel et de la terre. II est le Roi de gloire, Bex glorice, — le
Seigneur fort et puissant, Dominus fortis et potens, — l'Elohi des
Tzebaoth, Dominus exercituum. — Ps. xxiii.
' Les quatre Psaumes suivants redisent avec de plus amples
details la memo victoire et le meme triomphe ; le dernier decrit
l'anatheme et la fuite honteuse des vaincus.' — Argument, pp.
45, 46. Note C, page 217.
In speaking of the Psalms as poetry, there are three general
divisions under which some remarks should be made : (i.) Upon
the nature of the metre in which they are cast ; (ii.) Upon the
use of parallelism in their exposition ; and (iii.) Upon transla
tions from them into English. (i-)
Are there metres in Scripture — especially in the Psalms ?
Philo and Josephus have" answered the question in the affir
mative ; while others have replied that, as far as the form is con
cerned, these compositions are not strictly verse, but are called
so loosely, as being grand or pathetic beyond the usual level of

APP., lect. VI. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 343
prose, and easily capable of being fitted to chants. On the other
hand, Josephus speaks of hexameters in Job,1 and St. Jerome of
trimeter and tetrameter Iambics. What the meaning of this is,
is stated by R. Azarias, to whose hints Lowth was so deeply in
debted. ' It is undeniable,' says Azarias, ' that there are fixed
measures and harmonised proportions in the sacred canticles.
But it is also certain that these do not consist in a defined num
ber of motions (i.e. syllables) ; or of feet, perfect and imperfect, as
in more modern poetry. They consist in the number of things,
and of parts of those things, i.e. of the subject, predicate, and
copula, in each sentence and proposition, or in each verse. Thus,
there is a form of verse consisting of two measures, or parts of a
proposition, to which, if a second be added, there are four con
stituent parts or measures. There is another form of verse
which consists of three measures, to which if another verse be
added, there are six measures or parts. For instance, in Exod.
xv. 6 : — ¦ nin; ^yo\
("Thy right hand, 0 God,")
is one verse, consisting of two terms : —
rjba n^;
(" is become glorious in power,")
is a similar verse ; and these joined make np four, i.e., a
tetrameter.' Azarias gives other instances of verses which
he calls tetrameter, or hexameter, because they consist of
four or six parts respectively, to which he gives the name of.
terms. 2
There can be no doubt that, under the tuition of his Hebrew
teachers, Jerome goes considerably beyond this careful position.
To Hebrew poetry he assigns a prosody, however partially and
1 iv k^apirpif t6vi? avvr'S-noiv. An- (fflium), in Mantissa Dissert, ad fin.
tian lib. ii. 16. libri Cozri. Cf. also. Patrum Bene-
2 B. Azarias, Meor Anaim, Part dictin. Prolegg. in Divinam S. Hieron^
III. cap. 60, ap. Joann. Buxtorf Bihliothecam IV., iv.

344 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vt.
almost capriciously regulative. ' What,' he asks, ' can be more
musical than the Psalter ? ' and he asserts that we may find in
it the rapidity of the Iambic, the consonances of the Alcaic, and
the swell of the Sapphic.1 In one of his Epistles he discusses
the point apparently with sorne inconsistency.2 In the Pre
face to the Book of Job, he discriminates the prose from the
poetical portion. The latter, he says, are sometimes hexameters,
running on with dactyls and spondees ; but on account of the
peculiar genius of the language, other syllables are frequently
introduced, not consisting of the same number of syllables, but
of the same times. Sometimes the verse breaks into a soft and
tinkling rhythm, confined by no ascertainable metrical re
straints. It might be well if later writers, before speaking con
temptuously of the venerable Father, whose Latinity (to use his
own expressive language), ' rusted and creaked ' from perpetual
study and thought in Hebrew, were to imitate the modesty with
which he spoke of these speculations. ' Pardon me, reader, on
account of the difficulty of the subject. We can look at it only
through windows, obliquely cut, reticulated, and perpetually
closed.' Unquestionably, Jerome had at least read Pindar,
Horace, and Virgil, and knew how Iambics, Alcaics, and Sapphics,
looked and sounded. The learned Hebrews with whom he con
versed and studied were nearer than we are to the living pro
nunciation of their language. He knew what he said when he
spoke of some sort of heroic, elegiac, and lyric measure in
Scripture. He certainly did not mean that they were constructed
according to that most artistic and delicate of instruments, clas
sical Prosody, but that they had certain analogies and distant
resemblances.3 1 ' Denique quid Psalterio canorius, 3 ' Habes et in Lamentationibus
quod in morem nostri Flacci et Pin- quatuorAlphabeta, equibus duo prima
dari Graeci, nunc Iambo currit, nunc quasi Sapphico metro scripta sunt.'
Alcaicopersonat.nuneSapphicotumet, Epist. Ad Paulam. On the force of
nunc semipede ingreditur ? ' — S. the quasi see the argument of the
Hieron. Prmfat. in Chronicon. Euseb. Benedictine editor, Prolegg. in Div.
2 Epist. XXX., Ad Paulam. S. Hieron. Bibl., IV. v. sqq.

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 345
(ii.)
The fundamental law of Hebrew poetry is, however, Paral
lelism. The impression made upon criticism, and indeed upon ge
neral literature, by the discovery (for such, in a sense, it was), of
Lowth, can never pass away. The ' general thinness ' 1 of which
a most competent judge has complained in those famous Proilec-
tiones, perhaps tended to secure their popularity and acceptance.2
They were drawn in bold and general outline, without the cnm-
brousness and hesitation of accumulated instances and carefully
noted exceptions. The Latin, sometimes sententious, sometimes
coloured and picturesque, always pointed and perspicuous, dis
penses the reader from painful attention, and flatters him by the
appearance of perpetual discovery. But he neither (1) attempted
to investigate profoundly the essential principles of parallelism,
as based upon the laws of the human mind ; nor (2) indicated
its bearing (a) upon doctrinal interpretation, or (b) upon the
structure of very much of the New Testament.
(1) Itis, no doubt, perfectly true thatthe character of Hebrew
poetry was profoundly influenced by religion. And in the alter
nate chorus 3 frequently referred to in the Old Testament, we
1 Bishop Jebb, Correspondence with mind. . . A more beautiful work, or
A. Knox, ii. p. 408. more useful aid for understanding
2 The effects of that volume may Scripture, never, I conceive, in any
be seen in the almost passionate pane- other instance, came from a human
gyrics of Lowth's editor, Michaelis. pen. I never met anything more in-
— A man of very different mind writes teresting, or more truly entertaining ;
in 1802, 'No one can do full justice nor can I believe that it was wholly
to the Sacred Volume, until he has sine numine.'—Mv. Alexander Knox
read that exquisite work. I do not to Bishop Jebb, Correspondence, i. pp.
mean to say that you would find ma- 40, 41.
terials in it. I rather think not. . . Nearly twenty years after, the
But you would, on perusing it, see the Bishop of Limerick, in his Sacred
Scriptures of the 0. T. in so new and Literature, applied Bishop Lowth's
so elevated a point of view, that you parallels— in some instances with
would be able to speak of them with singular success— to the New Testa-
a spirit and animation which nothing ment.
short of the rich light which he throws 3 Exod. xv. 20, 21; 1 Sam. xviii.
on them could, I think, raise in the 7 ; Ezra iii. 11; Isaiah vi. 3 ; Psalm

346 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
can see a cause at work which would give a special suitability to
distichs of parallel verses. But parallelism was not a merely
metrical, or a purely religious form, of poetry, however providen
tially fitted for the world-wide acceptance of the Psalter.
On the form of Egyptian sacred poetry M. de Vogue re
marks (' Chez les Pharaons,' Revue des Deux-Mondes, January 15,
1877):— ' Here I wish to state the capital fact which strikes me with
regard to all Egyptian literature that has come down to us : I
mean its intimate relationship in style with the productions of
the Hebraic caste. Take a chapter of Egyptian Ritual, or some
posterior works, the Hymn to the Nile (Xllth dynasty), the
poem of Pentaden, one of the numerous odes to the glory of
Thouthmes, or of Rameses ; yon will easily perceive the identity
of form, of diction, of rhythm, of images, which exists between
these compositions and the Jewish Psalms. The versification
has the same movements, the metaphors the same expression,
the thought the same obscurity. Such and such verses of a
Psalm seem literal translations of an Egyptian hymn. If we
consider the lengthened abode of Israel in the valley of the Nile,
the education of its chiefs in the schools of Memphis or Thebes,
and the complete initiation of Moses, whom Strabo calls an
Egyptian priest ; — if we reflect that his Exodus coincided with
the most brilliant period of Pharaonic civilisation, which had
long been in full possession of its own literature — it is impossible
not to look to it in part for the origin of the great works of the
Jews, and for the mould of the form which Semitic inspiration
preserved to a much later date. Moreover, we do no wrong to
the majesty of the Psalmist, or to the grace of the Canticle, by
seeking for their models in the venerable tombs of that old
Egypt, which we have shown so far to have been the first
teacher of humanity in all sciences.'
cxxxvi. . . In Ps. cxlvii. 7, jjjjj ('answer ye ') is used as = sing, — See G-esen.,
Lexic., s. v. ruy-

app., lect. VI. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

347

I need not add that this conjecture, if confirmed by the
strongest evidence, need not distress any believer in the divinity
of the Psalter.1
But it is not only in Oriental poetry that parallelism is em
ployed. We love to hang over a beautiful or impressive thought;
to smile or sigh over it, once and again, before we dismiss it.
It is sometimes soothing, interesting, elevating, to take a thought
essentially the same, to enlarge it with additional circumstances,
to colour it with fresh tints, to modify it if we have been too
vehement, or to set it alight if the wheels of the imagination have
caught fire. It has been said that ' the prosody of Greece sup
plies an artistic round, a fair coronal of words felicitously inter
laced; but that in the East the rows of pearls are not twined in
crowns, but simply suspended each by the other's side.'2 This is
only partially true — and the greatest poets have known how to
use the 'principle of theme and variation.'3

1 On a remarkable quotation,
where, in a single fragment of a
hieroglyphical inscription, four in
stances of synthetic and one of anti
thetic parallelism are given, see
Brugsch, Grammaire Hieroglyphique,
p. 94; and Canon Cook's remarks,
Speaker's Bible, vol. iv. Appendix to
Introduction to the Psalms.
2 Herder, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry,
Pt. I. Dial. i.
3 So it has been ingeniously called
by the ktely deceasd writer of a book
whose hStory is strangely tragic. Mr.
Henry appears to have been totally
unacquainted with the principle of
parallelism in Hebrew poetry, whose
essential features he describes with
much animation in Virgil and Pope.
His instances are : —
1.
His ego nee metas rerum, nee tem-

pora pono :

2.

Mneid. i. 278.)
1. Nos patriae fines et dulcia lin
quimus arva ;
2. Nospatriamfugimue.— Eclog. i. i.
Cf. Mneid. i. 31 ; ix. 98 ; xii. 10-31.
1.
Hope springs immortal in the human
breast ; 2.
Man never is, but always to be blest.
— (Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. i. 95, 96.)
— Mneidcea, by James Henry, vol. i.
pp. 745-750.
It is probable that most interesting
illustrations of the Psalms might be
derived from the Kovrdpia of the
Greek Church, lately made accessible
by Cardinal Pitra. Their religious
use ; their occasionally dramatic or
quasi-dramatic form ; their sacred
harmonies ; their simple musical ac
companiment ; their laxity of quantity
and measure, are full of suggestions.

Imperium sine fine dedi. — (Virgil,

348 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
(2), (a) In reading Bishop Lowth's Prcelectio xix, ' Poesin
propheticam esse sententiosam,' it will be well to compare through
out Michaelis, Epimetron ad Prce.l. xix, ' De usu parallelismi
Hebrceorum hermeneutico.' That Michaelis' tone of exposition is
low and nnspiritnal, I deeply feel. Yet I cannot help thinking
that the doctrinal use of parallelism suggested by him has not
been fully drawn out by succeeding critics.1 Let me cite a single
specimen from Michaelis. n$ vy. wi']
Psalm xxv. 13.
Now, for the soul to ' dwell ' or ' pass the night ' at ease,
embathed in an atmosphere of good, is a vague and uncertain
expression, if we neglect the poetical parallelism. It may mean
to sleep securely, or to overcome perils like those of darkness, or to
be steeped in good even in the hour of death, and blessed in the
grave. This last interpretation Michaelis prefers, ' solo paral-
lelismo hemistichiorum ductus.' For, that which follows about 'his
seed inheriting the land,' unquestionably belongs to the benefits
which God bestows upon His people after death, embracing the
children with the same love which He had bestowed on their
fathers. ' But these benefits — which show how great God's
favour was to those who have departed this life, and raise the hope
that those are yet living and have a lasting sense of satisfaction,
to whom God is so gracious that He deals well with their children
for their sakes — I find are often conjoined with future felicity.'2
One favourite sneer against ' the utter incapacity ' of the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, on account of his adopt-
1 The merely interpretative use of ing remark, that the same verb ap-
parallelism is adverted to, and illus- pears in Psalm xlix. 12 MI71-73Y But,
trated in Davies' Translation of Ge- in that psalm; M ; ^ing, the
semus Grammar, Note, On Charac- ^ a h gi ifies death . at
tensticsofHebrewPoetry.with special ., . . .7, • •»
reference to Ps. Ixxvi. 3, Job v. 15. *** "J°"^ (W 81Snlfies resur"
2 Michaelis appends the interest- rection. Read vv. 12, 14 together.

, lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

349
ing and arguing from 'a blunder ofthe LXX.' (Psalm xl. 6, 7;
cf. Hebrews x. 5 sqq.), is disposed of by simply arranging the
lines in parallels. 1. 2.
"b rjn? ta^tNs
3.
Rb$pxb---nb)y 4. 1.
Qvtriav Kai npooajopdv ovk r'fdiXrfoag,
2.
owfia Si Karrfpriow fioi.
3.
oXoKavrwpara . . . ovk iijTrfoag '
4.
rort ft;roj', Toot) ijKw. 1.
Sacrifice . . . Thou didst not desire,
2.
Mine ears hast Thou opened.
3.
Burnt offering . . . hast Thou not required :
4.
Then said I, Lo, I come.
Here we have a quatrain in which the ' thought-rhyme ' is
between lines 1 and 3, 2 and 4. The substantial inner meaning

350 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
of the pairs of lines is the same. But line 4 speaks unmistakeably
of obedience ; therefore line 2 must also speak of it. Thus we
have in Hebrew the idiom of * digging the ears,' to express
making and enabling to be obedient ; and in Greek we have an
idiom (probably Alexandrine), not without allusion to the slave
as a owpa, to indicate the means by which Messiah was made
and enabled to be obedient.1
(b) The application of Bishop Lowth's principle of parallel
ism to the structure of the New Testament does not seem to
occur in his Lectures. By Bishop Jebb it has generally been
thought to have been pushed too far. Yet St. John's Epistles more
especially, certainly abound with instances of a form of parallel
ism, not distinctly mentioned by Lowth, the climactic parallel,
and that cum accessione. Indeed, this is almost St. John's lead
ing peculiarity. The eagle of God may wheel round his favourite
thoughts ; but there is progress, advance in zigzags, and not
the mere monotonous rotation, and ceaseless tautology, with
which the expression of Hebrew thought is charged. Thus : —
A. 1.
Tag ivToXdg avrov pr) rrfpuiv K.r.X.
2.
Sc S' dv rrfprj avrov tov Xoyov k.t.X.
B. 1.
tyvwKa avrov. 2.
iv avrw iofiiv. 3.
iv avrw pivtiv. (1 St. John ii. 4, 5, 6.)
1 Herder happily says, ' There are who, from the depth of a thick
some obscure passages which we can forest, cries to us, " Here you are !
only divine by the aid of parallel- here are houses ! " ' — Herder, ut supra.
ism. It is like the voice of a friend

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

351

To ' observe His commandments ' (v. 4) as isolated precepts is
much ; to ' observe His word ' (v. 5) as one great whole, is more. To
'be in Him' (v. 5), is more than 'to have knowledge of Him'
(v. 4), while 'to abide in Him ' (v. 6), is more again than ' to be in
Him.' But perhaps the most beautiful instance in the Epistle
occurs a few verses further on : —
C. 1.
tv Tt) OKoria ioriv. 2.
iv ry oKoria ntpinarti. 3.
ovk otce 7rov vwayei. 4.
r] OKoria tTvajXwotv rovg 6(p6aXpovg avrov.
(1 St. John ii. 11.)
The advance here gives a solemn eloquence to the sentence.
The sinner's inward condition ' is in darkness,' his outward hfe
' walketh in darkness.' He has lost his point of orientation,
' he knoweth not whither he goeth,' to what unsnrmised guilt
and punishment, how far from Christ. Something follows worse
than darkness around, above, within — ' the darkness has, once
for all, blinded his eyes ' — he has lost the very faculty of seeing.
For other instances of the parallelismus cum aocessione, and cli-
macticus, see i. 6, 7 ; ii. 9, 10 ; 13, 14 ; 20, 27 ; 27, 28 ; v. 18, 19.
(iii.)
Upon translating the Psalms.
A most eloquent, but forgotten writer, has beautifully com
pared the characteristics of Arabic and Hebrew poetry. ' Ara
bian poetry is like a woman coloured with paint, and loaded
with jewelry — in whose garb and ornament there is much of
the splendid and glittering, even to the prejudice of native beauty.

352 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
But the objects thus displayed are not all of equal value, some
being imitation paste, others evidently borrowed, and giving an
air of poverty to luxury itself. But Hebrew poetry, like a
Heavenly Muse, walks in a vest starred with gems. Here is the
explanation of the fact, which all must have observed, who have
read even a Latin translation of any Arabic poems, and which
proves the superiority of the Hebrew singers, viz., that Arabic
compositions are intolerable, unless they be given in a metrical
version, or at best in a prose rendering, in which the obscurity or
ineptitude of the original is omitted or toned down. But
Hebrew poetry is so fair, that all its majesty and beauty does
not evaporate even in the dullest versions, while yet the best
even of metrical translations are far from reaching its native
excellence.' [
Eminent scholars have gone even further than this in relation
to prose translations of the Psalms. ' As the rhythm of Hebrew
poetry,' says M. Renan, 'consists only in the symmetrical cutting
of the metres of the phrase, I have always thought the true way
to translate Hebrew poetry was to preserve the parallelism which
onr processes of versification — founded upon rhyme, quantity,
and inexorably counted syllables — completely disfigure.' 2
A grave and religions writer makes excellent use of this
fact : —
' On the whole, therefore, it will appear that Bishop Lowth's
definition of this species of parallelism, ought to be corrected ;
and that the name also, should, at least, not be at variance with
the thing. The term, progressive parallelism, would apply, in
all cases where there is a climax in the sense ; but it may be
preferable to use a term that will include other varieties : the
anti-climax occasionally occurs, and with powerful effect ; some
times there is an ascent from species to genus, for the purpose of
generalisation ; sometimes a descent from genus to species, for
1 Seb. Fulc. Joa. Eavinus. De Lowth's Prielectiones, pp. 427-440.
poeseos Hebraicm prcestantid. See z Livre de Job, par Ernest Benan,
quotations in Michaelis's edition of Preface, p. xi.

A.ppv i,ect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

353

the purpose of particularisation : with these, and other varieties
in view, if I might suggest a name, it should be, the Cognate
Parallelism ; in all such cases, there is close relationship, though
by no means absolute identity.
' This is no mere disquisition about words : if things were not
intimately concerned, it should assuiedly be spared. But it is
no trifling object, to rescue the language of Scripture from the
imputation of gross tautology ; an imputation which could not
be repelled, if the Sacred Volume were admitted to abound in
consecutive pairs of lines, altogether synonymous. Another,
and not less important consideration, however, yet remains. It
is my firm persuasion, that one great object of this prevalent
duality of members, accompanied by a distinction, and commonly
either a progress or antithesis, in the sense of terms," clauses,
and periods, is to make inexhaustible provision for marking,
with the nicest philosophical precision, the moral differences
and relations of things. The Antithetic Parallelism seems to
mark the broad and palpable distinctions between truth and
falsehood, between good and evil : the Cognate Parallelism dis
charges the more difficult, and more critical function, of discri
minating between different degrees and shades, of truth and good
on the one hand, of falsehood, and of evil on the other. And it
is probable, that full justice will not be done to the language,
either of the Old Testament, or of the New, till interpreters,
qualified in all respects, and gifted, alike, with sagaciousness, and
sobriety of mind, shall accurately investigate these nice distinc
tions. ' Classical poetry is the poetry of one language and of one
people ; the words are, I will not say chosen (though this be
sometimes the case), but arranged, with a view, not primarily to
the sense, but to the sound ; in literal translation, therefore, espe
cially, if the order of the words be preserved, not only the
melody is lost, but the sense is irreparably injured. Hebrew
poetry, on the contrary, is universal poetry ; the poetry of all
A A

354 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. \ t \
languages and of all peoples : the collocation of the words (what
ever may have been the sound, for of that we are quite ignorant)
is, primarily, directed to secure the best possible announcement
and discrimination of the sense ; let, therefore, a translator
only be literal, and so far as the genius of his language will
admit, let him preserve the original order of the words, and he
will infallibly put the reader of his version in possession of all,
or nearly all, that the Hebrew text can give to the best Hebrew
scholar of the present day. Now had there been originally
metre in this poetry, the case, it is presumed, could hardly have
been such ; somewhat must have been sacrificed to the importu
nities of metrical necessity ; the sense could not have invariably
predominated over the sound ; and the poetry could not have
been, as it unquestionably and emphatically is, a poetry, not of
words or of sounds, but of things. Let not this last assertion,
however, be misinterpreted . I would be understood merely to
assert, that sounds and words, in subordination to sound, do not,
in Hebrew, as in classical poetry, enter into the essence of the
thing : but it is happily undeniable, that the words of the poetical
Scriptures are exquisitely fitted to convey the sense ; and it is
highly probable that, in the lifetime of the language, the sounds
were sufficiently harmonious : when I say sufficiently har
monious, I mean, so harmonious as to render the poetry grateful
to the ear in recitation, and suitable to musical accompaniment ;
for which purposes the cadence of well-modulated prose would
fully answer: a fact which will not be controverted by any
person, with a moderately good ear, that has ever heard a
chapter of Isaiah skilfully read from our Authorised translation ;
that has ever listened to one of Kent's Anthems well performed,
or to a song from the Messiah of Handel.' •
All this, as I have indicated in the Text of these Lectures,
adds to the contexture of marvellous adaptation and coincidences
which gather round the Psalms, and adds a sanction of a peculiar
1 Bishop Jebb, Correspondence with Mr. A. Knox, vol. iii., pp. 383, 389.

app., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 355
character to the Church's mode of using the Psalter. For the
Psalms, containing the expression and exposition of thought, and
their rhythinical and metrical properties being secondary and
unobtrusive, they can be transfused into other languages
without losing much of their native power and beauty.
Still there are two elements in the Psalms — their poetry and
their theology ; their words, which address the poetry latent in
all refined and cultivated natures, and their words, which express
the feelings and aspirations of those who kneel in the closet
or sing in the sanctuary. A prose, rich, stately, harmonious,
pathetic, will ever be the only true and adequate ecclesiastical
representative of the Psalter. But metrical versions and para
phrases may have their use. Some of them may find their way
into churches. But their true function is rather to serve as a
poetical microscope — to show the infinite grace, power, or deli
cacy, of minute touches — to act as a concentration of scattered
rays of beauty, as a vivid exposition for persons capable of ap
preciating such — to take some divine flowers from the hortus
siccus of lexicographers and commentators, and let us see
them for a moment steeped in sunshine and suffused with colour.
One such version the English Church possesses, but too little
estimates, in the Psalter of John Keble.1
1 It is difficult for anyone who has yp\ ashes] = ' turn it to ashes by fire.'
not gone through the Hebrew Psalms ' , 'In His rememlbranoe ev6r pur6
with Keble's version by his side, even Bjd eyery gift of thine endur6i
to conceive the conscientious study Bis fire upon thine altar dart?
and thought which have been be-  Keble.
stowed upon it. t,- Psalm xx. 5. The idea of
SlVTlBK Psalm v. 3. /J <S
'¦¦ i-r.-.n j 'shining,' ' being bright,' is ascribed
' I set my heart | In order and array. tQ thjs ^ by Muntingh; and otherS-
1»piBtp-?3 D^Pi? rK See Ges<-n. Lexic. s. v.
Psalm x. 4. ' Our banners to the light we raise.'
There is no God" is all his —Keble.
thought.'— Keble. &Q?2? Psalm xr"' 4'
"Non est Deus" complexus est co- ' Haters of the light.' — Keble.
gitationum suarum.' — Eosenmiiller. *$<£} ¦ ¦ ¦ PlbNFf^K Psalm xxvi. 9.
il^T ^nTIJJ Psalm xx. 3. , q giem not u-p my soul among
Accept it' [Kimchi connects it with The scorners of Thy way,
a A 2

< a

356 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
This note may fitly conclude with two of Mr. Keble's utter
ances upon the Psalms, worthy of much study.
On the subject of sacred poetry, he derives this lesson from
the Psalter.
' Such writers ' (such as cannot be simple on great subjects)
' do not sufficiently trust to the command which the simple
expression of their feelings would obtain over their readers.
They think it must be relieved with something, of more variety
and imagery, to which they work themselves up with laborious,
and therefore necessarily unsuccessful, efforts. The model for
correcting their error is to be found in the Inspired Volume.
We can, in general, be but incompetent judges of this, because
we have been used to it from our boyhood. But let us suppose
a person, whose ideas of poetry were entirely gathered from
modern compositions, taking up the Psalms for the first time.
Among many other remarkable differences, he would surely be
impressed with the sacred writers' total carelessness about
originality, and what is technically called effect. He would say,
"This is something better than merely attractive poetry; it ia
absolute and Divine truth." The same remark ought to be
suggested by all sacred hymns ; and it is, indeed, greatly to be
lamented, that such writers as we have just mentioned should
have ever lost sight of it — should have had so little confidence
My life amid the murderous throng, ' dark and writhed ways' — Keble.
In Thy great harvest day .'—Keble. p^,^-g>3 Psalm xl. 10.
1^-nitD^ Psalm xxvii. 4. 'Thy righteousness aloud,
And with the eyes of all my heart, G-ood tidings of great joy, I tell.'
Devoutly there to view, — Keble.
The glorious beauty of the Lord, Qjn, nyQ psalm xlix H>
And search His temple through. '¦' "T
 Keble ' Death ^ their shepherd now.'
JjjSy Psalm xxxi. 19. —Keble.
' c/plenteous is Thy treasured love.' ,See the whole of the wonderful trans-
 Keble latl0D> vv- 13 to 20 ; and Psalm lxxiii.
TOID Psalm xxxi. 20. 21™7'
_ ": '¦•" ' These are but a few instances out
Conjuratorum catervae = conspira- of very many . but they are Bllch as
cies, D5"l from an Arabic root, to ' knit fiu one with confidence in a guide so
or bind.' true and thorough.

APP., lect. vi. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 357
in the power of simplicity, and have condescended so largely to
the laborious refinement of the profane muse.'
He observes again that the feelings which the writer of
sacred poetry expresses ' should appear to be specimens of his
general tone of thought, not sudden hursts and mere flashes of
goodness. ' Some, perhaps* may object to this, as a dull and languid
strain of sentiment. But before we yield to their censures we
would inquire of them what style they consider, themselves, as
most appropriate to similar subjects in a kindred art. If grave,
simple, sustained melodies — if tones of deep, but subdued, emo
tion are what our minds naturally suggest to us upon the
mention of sacred music — why should there not be something
analogous, a kind of plain chant, in sacred poetry also ? fervent,
yet sober ; awful, but engaging ; neither wild and passionate,
nor light and airy ; but such as we may with submission pre
sume to be the most acceptable offering in its kind, as being
indeed the truest expression of the best state of the affections.
To many, perhaps to most, men, a tone of more violent emotion
may sound at first more attractive. But before we indulge such
a preference, we should do well to consider, whether it is quite
agreeable to that spirit which alone can make us worthy readers
of sacred poetry. "'Evdtov r) no'irioig, it is true : there must be
rapture and inspiration, but these will naturally differ in their
character as the powers do from whom they proceed. The
worshippers of Baal may be rnde and frantic in their cries and
gestures ; but the true Prophet, speaking to or of the true God,
is all dignity and calmness.'
Again ; on such translations as aim at making the Psalms
more evangelical and spiritual than they were framed by their
Divine author, the following thoughtful sentences should be
studied. ' It may be right here to say one word of that which will
perhaps be felt by some as a disappointment ; that the mystical

358 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vi.
and evangelical meaning of the Psalms is not so much brought
out as it might have been. It seemed the more dutiful and
correct, and therefore in the end surely the more edifying, way,
to represent in this respect also as nearly as possible the tenor of
the Hebrew Verity : to observe the rule, which He who spake by
the Prophets has (if it may be said) appointed for Himself in
all His communications to mankind; to disclose, rather than
exhibit, His dealings and His will ; to keep Himself, to the
generality, under a veil of reserve, through which the eyes of
men might see just so much and so clearly, as they were
purged by faith and purity and obedience. Considering the
Psalms especially as Divine poems, this surely is a quality which
we should expect to find in them : a certain combination of
reserve with openness being of the very essence of poetry : and
the Psalms being apparently ordained to leaven the poetry of the
whole world, as the history of the Old Testament to be " the Sun
of all other histories." Not to dwell on the obvious result, that
by trying to bring out the spiritual meaning, we do to a certain
degree limit it, in such a manner as would make a translation
unfaithful, though it may be allowed perhaps in a commentary.
For instance ; it is a known ancient rule of interpretation, " You
will hardly find a word in the Psalms but it is spoken in the
name of Christ and the Church, either both jointly, or one of the
two singly • and if of the Church, then of each one amongst
us." It cannot then be right to translate a passage, which, for
aught we know, may be capable of the double interpretation, so
as to confine it to the single one ; and yet this is what we should
be often doing, were we to express more fully the prophetical
allusions to our Lord, under the notion of spiritualising them.
" I laid me down and slept, and rose up again, for the Lord sus
tained me ; " is doubtless an allusion to our Saviour's death and
resurrection : but were a translator to express that allusion, he
would exclude what is surely intended also; the hint, that each
Christian's daily lying down and rising up is a token, or, as the

app., lect. vii. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

359

ancient Church would denominate it, " a sacrament," of the same
death and resurrection, and also of our own.' '

LECTURE VII.
Note A, page 253.
From the version of the Psalms by Marot, I extract the
following very useful and complete table. The copy before me
belonged to a Huguenot gentleman who escaped to Ireland at the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

table i>e l'usage
Actions de grdce pour —
convalescence, Ps. 30.
delivrance et merveilles gene
rates, Ps. 66, 78, 81, 85, 105,
106, 107, 114, 126, 129, 135
particulieres, Ps. 31, 34, 40,
116, 118
diverses graces envers FEglise,
Ps. 36, 37, 65, 84, 89, 92,
103, 111
le fidele, Ps. 23, 138
le roi, l'e'tat, Ps. 21
remission des peche's, Ps. 32,
103
victoires, Ps. 9, 18, 60, 68, 76,
108, 124. 144, 149
Descriptions de la beheaiction
promise aux personnes pieu-
ses et charitables, Ps. 37, 41,
112, 128
de la calomnie et de la nie'di-
sance, Ps. 10, 50, 52, 64,
109, 120, 140
du citoyen des cieux, Ps. 15, 24

DES PSAUMES.
de la confiance du fiddle
dans les dangers, Ps. 3, 11,
27, 29, 44, 46, 56, 91, 115,
118, 121, 125, 138
dans la mort, Ps. 23, 49
en tout temps, Ps. 62,
112
de la crainte et du service de
Dieu, Ps. 2, 4, 32, 34, 50,
95, 99, 100
du devoir —
des juges et des magistrats,
Ps. 82
des ministres du Seigneur, Ps.
134, 135
des princes et des grands, Ps.
2, 4, 75, 101
de l'Eglise a l'e'gard de son
e'tablissement, et de sa fer-
mete', Ps. 122, 125, 132
de son excellence et de sa re-
nomme'e, Ps. 48, 87
de sa felicite sous le rkgne du
Messie, Ps. 45, 72, 132

1 Preface to Oxford Psalter, pp. xi., xii.

360

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. vii.

TABLE DE L USAGE DES
de son union avec Jesus-Christ,
Ps. 45.
entre ses membres, Ps. 133
de l'entre'e de l'Arche, Ps. 24,
47,68
de ^excellence de la loi, Ps.
12, 19, 111, 119
de la felicite de l'homme,
Ps. 1, 32, 65, 73, 84, 112,
119, 128, 144
de l'humilite et de la mortifi
cation du fidele, Ps. 131
de l'hypocrisie, Ps. 5, 10, 12,
28, 35, 41, 50, 55, 62, 120
des idoles, Ps. 115, 135
de l'impiete, Ps. 10, 14, 36, 53
de l'ingratitude et de la rebel
lion des Israelites, Ps. 78,
81, 106
du jugement de Dieu, Ps. 50
des juges iniques, Ps. 58, 94
de la misere et de la vanite" de
la vie humaine, Ps. 39, 90,
144
de la mortalite", Ps. 91
de la necessite" du secours de la
benediction de Dieu dans
nos entreprises, Ps. 127
de la repentance, Ps. 51
des souffrances de l'Eglise en
tous ages, Ps. 129

psaumes — continued.
d'une tempete, Ps. 18, 20, 77
de la vanity des biens et des
avantages du siecle, Ps. 37,
49, 62, 73
Imprecations prophetiques con-
tre les ennemis et les perseeu-
teurs de l'Eglise, Ps. 13, 17,
28, 35, 40, 52, 55, 58, 59, 69,
70, 71, 83, 94, 109, 115, 137,
140, 141, 143
Lonange de Dieu —
pour l'alliance de sa grace avec
son Eglise, Ps. 89, 111
pour l'avenement du Eedemp-
teur, Ps. 8, 96, 97, 98, 118
pour l'entree de l'Arche, Ps.
24, 47, 68
pour la majeste et les vertus,
Ps. 93, 95, 96, 97, 117, 139,
145, 150
pour les oeuvres de la Creation
et de la Providence, Ps. 8, 19,
33, 36, 65, 75, 100, 104, 107,
111, 113, 136, 145, 146, 147,
148, 150
Predictions des jugements de
Dieu vers les impies et les
mediants, Ps. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7,
9, 11, 14, 21, 34, 37, 45, 49,
53, 54, 57, 62, 63, 73, 75, 92,
94, 112, 125, 129

PRIEEES PAETICULIKEES DU FIDELE.

Prieres generates de l'Eglise
pour la conservation et la
prosperite en tout temps, Ps.
28, 36, 67, 122

pour la consolation dans les in-
sultes de ses ennemis, Ps.
123
pour la deiivrance, lorsqu'elle

app., lect. veil TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

361

PEIEEES PAETICULIKEES
est persecutee, Ps. 10, 12,
44, 74, 79, 80, 85, 89, 102,
115, 137
pour la gloire de son Roi, ou de
i'Etat, Ps. 20, 21, 72
pour les ministres, Ps. 132, 134
pour sa victoire dans les com
bats, Ps. 60, 83, 108
particuiieres du fidfele —
afflige extraordinairement, Ps.
77,88
calomnie, Ps. 5, 7, 120
eioigne de la maison de Dieu,
Ps. 42, 43, 84, 120
environne de ses ennemis, Ps.
3, 13, 22, 27, 54, 55, 56, 57,
59, 69, 70, 141, 142, 143
malade, Ps. 6, 38, 39, 41
pecheur pour obtenir la remis
sion de ses peches, Ps. 6, 19,
25, 38, 39, 40, 51, 103, 143
persecute, Ps. 4, 7, 17, 25, 26,
28, 31, 39, 40, 63, 64, 86,
140, 144
roi ou prince qui demande a
Dieu sa grace et sa protec
tion, Ps. 61
scandalise de la prosperite
des mediants, Ps. 37, 39,

DU eidele — continued.
73
trahi par les faux amis, Ps. 41,
54,55
vieux et afflige, Ps. 71
zeie pour la connaissance et
pour la crainte de Dieu, Ps.
51, 119, 143
Propheties de Jesus-Christ k
lMgard de son ascension, Ps.
24, 47, 68
de son avenement et de son
regne, Ps. 2, 72, 96, 97, 98,
110, 118, 132
de son humilite, de sa gloire,
Ps. 8, 16, 22, 69 *,
de son sacerdoce, Ps. 110
de son sacrifice, Ps. 40, 65
de sa seance a la dextre de
Dieu, Ps. 110
de son union avec l'Eglise, Ps.
45
de Judas —
traitre, Ps. 41
puni, Ps. 109
de la vocation des Gentils, Ps.
87, 117
Vcmx du fidele, Ps. 4, 14, 19, 27,
50,53, 56, 66, 76,116, 119
137

LECTURE VIII.
Note A, page 280.
I am sorry to touch any discordant note of contradiction or
controversy. But I may not shrink from referring to one verse
of the 27th Psalm. The present motto of our University is from

362 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS app., lect. viii.
the first verse, Dominus illuminatio mea. It has been said by
one of note that Oxford, in the development of her intellectual
life, is sadly untrue to a glorious motto, given to her by the
Chnrch of Rome in ages when that Church was predominant. I
do not enter upon the truth or falsehood of the main allegation.
I do not ask whether Oxford has been true to the spirit of
Bacon's noble prayer, that 'human things may not prejudice
such as are Divine ; neither that from the unlocking of the gates
of sense, and the kindling of a greater natnral light, any thing
of incredulity, or intellectual night may arise in our minds
towards divine mysteries.' I only observe that in the atmo
sphere of a Chnrch, where history is ignored or falsified, the
sense of historical truth seems to have evaporated. The repre
sentatives of infallible power are too sublime to be accurate.
The fact is, that ' Dominus illuminatio mea ' first appears as the
motto of Oxford after the Restoration of Charles II. ' No device,
of whatever kind, appears on any of the known Oxford books
executed during the fifteenth century. We are not aware of any
one earlier than that which is here exhibited in a woodcut as
our first specimen ; which is found in a work by Walter Burley,
of the date of 1517. It is an engraving on wood, representing
the University arms in a shield supported by two angels ; but
instead of our present motto, " Dominus illuminatio mea," which
was introduced after the Restoration of Charles II., we here read
" Veritas liberabit, Bonitas regnabit." Our second specimen,
taken from books of the seventeenth century, presents a device
somewhat different, in which the two angels appear above and
two fiends below, with the appropriate motto on the open book
of seven seals, " Sapientia? et Felicitatis : " a motto which ap
pears in books printed by Joseph Barnes, 1585-1617, and which
was used till about the time of the Restoration.' Ingram,
Memorials of Oxford, vol. iii. p. 15.
It seems that the three mottoes of the Universityappear incom-
bination in an escutcheon representing the arms of the University

app., lect. vni. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

303

in the east window of the Bodleian. The substance of this note
I owe to the kindness of my honoured friend, the Rev. C. P.
Golightly, M.A., of Oriel College— as well as an illustration
which struck many of the hearers of these Lectures at the close
of Lecture II. Note B, page 289.
I have not quoted in these Lectures the magnificent enco
miums upon the Psalms of S. Basil and Hooker. I may be
pardoned for citing a passage scarcely less remarkable.
' Quid in his Psalmis non invenies, quod faciatad utilitatem et
ffidificationem, ad consolationem hnmani generis, sexus, setatis ?
Dominus Dens noster per David servum sunm confecit potionem,
qua dulcis esset gustu per cantationem et efficax ad curanda
vulnera peccatorum per suam virtntem. Suaviter enim Psalmus
anditur cum canitur, penetrat animnm cum delectat ; facile
Psalmi memoria retinentur, si frequenter psallantur, et quod
legis ansteritas ab hominibus extorquere non poterat, hi per
dulcedinem cantionis excludunt. Nam quidquid Propheta?,
qnidquid Evangelia ipsa prascipiunt, in his carminibus suavi
meditantium dulcedine continetur. Dens ostenditur ut timeatur,
simulacra ridentur, justitia ingeritnr, iniquitas prohibetnr, mise-
ricordia laudator, incredulitas abdicatur, Veritas reqniritur, men-
dacia damnantur, dolus accusatur, innocentia collaudatur,
superbia dejicitur, humilitas sublimatur, pcenitentia prasdicatur,
pax sequenda depromitur, contra inimicos protectio postulatur,
vindicta promittitnr, spes certa nutritur, et quod his est omnibus
exceUentius, in Psalmis Christi sacramenta cantantnr : nam et
generatio ejus exprimitur, et rejectio plebis impias, et gentium
hasreditas nominatnr : virtutes Domini cantantur, passio vene-
randa depingitur, resurrectio gloriosa demonstratur, sedes quoque
ad dexteram mirabiliter depingitur. Deinde igneus Domini
adventns manifestatur, terribile de vivis et mortnis judicium
panditur. Quid plnra ? — S. Nicet. Episc, De Psalmod. Bono,
Tract, in Spicilegio L. d'Achery, Par. 1723.

364 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS supp.
SUPPLEMENT.
[See Appendix, Note C. (iii.), on Lecture VI., at page 351.]
I venture to append tentative translations of three Psalms,
which are especially distinguished for poetical beauty. These
renderings aim altogether at the object of poetical interpretation,
apart from the spiritual and theological side of the pieces of
which they are such imperfect exponents. An attempt has been
made to give some notion, with such materials as our language
possesses, of the poetical effect which the three pre-eminently
metrical books ' of the Old Testament may have had for Hebrew
ears. And for this purpose, in two of these translations, a loose
and flexible measure has been chosen, not without something of
the flow and cadence of verse, but liberal in its allowance, and
scarcely hampered by any rule, but the subtle requirements of
the ear.2 The parallelism is by no means uniformly preserved
in these attempts. Psalm XCIII.
(1) 1.
The Lord is crowned ! 3
With splendour robed around,
Robed with strength His. Majesty is found.
' Psalms (Di?nri), Job (3VK)> dseorum doctrina et nostra aatatis in-
and Proverbs (*bw), are called terpretibus quam maxime probatur :
by the mnemonic word D"N]"), or sacrampoesin Hebrceorumjusti quidem
n"DX- The accentuation of these metri vincidis destitutam fuisse, atta-
books is peculiar, and different from men Uberiori aliquo rhythmo, sive
that of the other xxi. books. It is numero, ut vocant, poetico eandem con-
distinguished by the name of ' Metri- tineri existimant.' — Dank. Hist. Rev.
cal' (that is, poetical), accentuation. Div., iii. 285. In a part of the 68th
See S. Baer, Thorath Emeth ; also his Psalm I have, however, ventured to
RudimentaAccentuationis Metricce, pre- accentuate the richness and colouring
fixed to his learned and beautiful Ma- °f tlle original by recourse to rhyme.
soretic Textof the Psalms. Lips. 1861. 3 Allusion to the form of procla-
2 'Si quid in re admodum obscura mation at the beginning of a new
dicendum est, confitemur nobis arri- reign. 2 Sam. xv. 10 ; 1 Kings i.
dere illam opinionem, qua? etiam Ju- 11-13.

supp. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 365
2.
So the world may rest — it will not move, I trow,
Stayed upon the Throne that rests in the eternal Now, —
From the ancient days, everlasting Thou !
3.
Lifted up the floods, 0 Lord ! in anger,
Lifted up the floods the voice they have.
Yea, the floods will yet lift up a stranger,
More unearthly music with their wave.
Grand majestic voices of the manifold
Waters ! tumbling breakers of the sea !
Grander, more majestic, on those old
Eternal heights,1 the Lord, than even ye.
4.
Thy laws are made steadfast for ever,
The beauty of Holiness sits on Thy shrine,
0 Lord ! through the stretch of the days that are Thine.
[There seems to be in this Psalm a very distinguishable
variety of metrical structure. The opening, grave and brief,
is in strong short lines. rtba nirv
Itt j t :
j -r. r v -.
y'hovah malakh
geuth labhesh
The third stanza appears to be pervaded by an unmistakable
cadence. nas'u n'haroth y'hovah
nas'u n'haroth kolam
yisu n'haroth dokyam
1 G-randes fluctus maris 2 The oleveyored accent on this
Grandis in excelso Dominus. word denotes the close of the hemi-
— S. Hieron. stich.

366 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS supp.
mikkoloth mayim rabbiym
addiyriym mishb'rey-yam
addiyr bammarSm y'hovah.
The last stanza has a light- winged anapaestic run :
yedhotheykha neemnu m'odh
l'bheyth'kha na'avah-kodhesh
y'hovah l'orekh yamiym.J
(2.) Psalm LXVIII.
I.
Rise up, Lord,
And let thine enemies be scattered,
And let them that hate Thee flee before Thee !
As the dispersion of smoke-drift,
Thou wilt disperse them abroad ;
As the wax in its weakness melts off
Prom before the face of the fire ;
So our foes — the unrighteous — shall perish
From before the Face of our God,
But the just shall exult and be glad.
II.
Chant ye to God !
Sing Psalms of praise to His Name !
The awful Rider extol ye,
Who rides on the raven-black clouds,1
By His changeless immutable Name
1 nn"iy3, "• 4- This rendering en, rook, Sansk. hurawa. ' Sic veteres
seems to me not only more poeti- unanimi consensu, quibus refragati
cal than 'riding across the deserts,' sunt neoterici, campestria o. deserta
but philologieally preferable — n2"iy intelligenda rati, in quibus equitare
= a dark cloud, from yyg to "be Deus nusquam dicitur. LXX. t£
, , , . "T , eVi0ej3»)ic<STi &ri Suaa&v (auf Sonnen-
dark grow towards evening whence untergaDgen).. Fuerst "C(mcordi He.
2Ty (yorebh), cf. corv-v.B, rab-e, rav- braic^ p_ 860'

supp. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 367
Of Jah — and exalt ye before Him.
— A Father of orphans bereaved ;
A Judge that gives sentence of good
To the silent life of the widow,
Is God in His holy abode.
— God maketh the lonely ones
To sit in a home of their own ;
He bringeth the fetter'd ones forth,
To places happy and free :
Only the rebels must dwell
In a land blanched white by the sun.1
III. 1.
God ! when Thou wentest forth before Thy people,
Proceeding on Thy stately march
Across the desert steppes,
Trembled the earth and quaked :
Yea — the heavens dropped before the Face of God,
— This Sinai's self before the Face of God,
The God of Israel.
The free aspersions of a rain of gifts
Priestlike Thou wavedst to and fro,2 O God !
Thy heritage, forlorn and sick at heart
Thou didst establish. So in that lone land
The armies of Thy chosen dwelt long years.
Thou with Thy goodness for the needy ones
Didst so establish, God !
2.
Suddenly His signal gives the Lord.
Those who tell, in every coast,
, j^^y „. 6, derived from no* 2 *f ^ TVni3 QfS (geshem
to glow, to be white and shining with n'dhabhoth taniyph), v. 1 0.
the sun's heat.

368 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS supp.
Tidings of great joy, and high
Annunciation of good things,
Multiply, a countless host —
Of women, full of glorious boast ; '
Kings of armies fly — they fly
Like the birds with fluttered wings.
She who kept the house that day
For her lord, at war away,
Shares the spoils of victory.
— Ha ! ye warriors, once so bold,
Ye lie down by the cattle-fold ;
And ye see in your homes beside ye a sheen,
Like the wings of a dove in the sunshine glint,
That are covered o'er with a silver tint ;
Her feathers all lit with a manifold
Vibration and shooting of yellow gold,
That passes, the woof of the plumes between,
To a colour of strange and paling green.2
¦ — When, from many a field of war,
Kings the Almighty scatters far,
Through our dark estate of woe
As o'er Salmon's forest line,
Night-black where the shadows are,
Shows that silver gleam divine —
1 2T H2"i TVn'K'apr! (ham'bhas- . . . porri succum referens sed decli-
s'roth tkbharabh),'-!). il. 'Dominus nans in aurum.' Plin. Nat. Hist.
fecit, ut vox audiretur feminarum, xxxvii 36. (' Mi xto colore auri cum
heta nunciantium magno numero.'- ™dl = Preme d'enieraude.' Note,
Eosenm. Edlt- Brotier/]. p-||} the poetic
2 f-l~in plpT'3 -"• 13. & XA»- word for g°W> fr°m its yellow splen-
poTrjri xP""''"", LXX. : ' in virore dour> is from the disused verb pn
auri ' (al. ' gemmse '). S. Hieron. to glitter, with a vibratory and vary-
P^P/V. (y'rakrak) is connected with ing play of colours. Taking away
p1\' PPP*; an<^ signifies yellowing the prepositional prefix (VTI"|) we
green, as of corn [for the colour, com- find the root to be Indo-germanic :
pare xfivtri-npaooi, a precious stone of Sanscr. rush, Pers. rush-en; Gr. %-pvo.
a. golden green colour: ' Chrysoprasius Fuerst, Cone. Heb., p. 438.

TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

369

Comes a sudden intense glow,
Like the gleam of new-fallen snow.1

3.
Mountain of God ! Mountain of Bashan !
Mountain of summits ! Mountain of Bashan !
Why watch ye, with a scowl2 upon your foreheads,
Ye mountains, with your summits arching grand ?
Here the mountain which our God hath chosen,
For a habitation in the land,
Yea — to dwell there while the ages stand !
Chariots of our God are twice ten thousand,
Thousands told again and yet again :
And the Lord's Great Presence is among them
Here in Sion, as in Sinai then.

1 v. 14. The interpretation of the
comparison with which this division
of the strophe closes, must be guided
by two considerations : (1) The poem
is not a strain of war (see strophe II.).
And the references to bleaching bones,
or corpses whitening on the plain, in
dustriously collected from Homer and
Virgil, down to the description of the
Battle of Aughrim,* are out of place.
(2) The extreme brevity of the de
scription (ibpB) is most favour
able to the simple fact of snow being
contemplated. (3) The brightness,

coolness, and beauty of snow, are
always used in Scripture as types of
joy and refreshment. ' It shines as
snow in darkness.' — Kimchi (quoted
by Gesenius, Lexic. s. v.).
2 ' Hanc esse verbi lyi. hoc
tantummodo loco exstantis, significa-
tionem, observarunt jam doctiores
Rabbinorum.' — Eosenm. ina. 16. Mr.
Perowne's treatment of the whole
passage seems to me to be one of the
most admirable in his learned work,
The Psalms, vol. i. pp. 507-509.

[* ' The aspect of a battle-field, im
mediately after the slaughter, is pro
bably much the same all the world
over, and in all times. And the
words in which Macaulay describes
the scene of the battle of Aghrim,
occur to me as appropriate to such a
ghastly illustration. " One who was
there," he says, " tells us that, from
the top of the hill on which the
Celtic camp had been pitched, he saw
the country, to the distance of near
four miles, white with the naked bodies

of the slain. The plain looked, he
said, like an immense pasture covered
by flocks of sheep." This aspect of
whiteness, occasioned by the naked
condition of the slain, must have been
a more constant feature of a recent
battle-field amongst people who wore
little clothing at any time, and were
likely to cast that little away in a
headlong flight.' ' Exsurgat Deus.'
Comm. on the 68M Psalm, by Mr.
Burgess, p, 14.]

B B

370 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS supp.
Thon hast gone up on high,
Thou hast captive led captivity,
Thon hast received gifts for men ;
Yea — for rebels, who allegiance owed,
That the Lord God may have meet abode.
IV.
Bless'd be the Lord,
Day after day !
Whoever loads us with sorrow,
God is our Saviour for aye.1
This God is to us the God
Of Salvation — and of Him the Lord
Out of death are manifold issues :
Surely He will bruise
The very head of His foes,
And the hairy scalp of such an one
As walketh on still in his sin.
Saith the Lord, ' I will bring thee from Bashan ;
I will bring thee again
From the dark, voiceful, depths of the sea ;
That thon thy footsteps mayst dash,
Red-wetshod,2 in blood of the foe,
And the tongne of thy dogs in the same.'
V.
They are seen — Thy goings, 0 God ! —
Thy goings, my God and my King !
In the place which is holy to Thee.
First, went the song-men in front,
Behind, those who strook the strings,
• In the midst the choir of the maidens,
1 v. 19, ' Qu'on nous opprime, in this place seems to be trans-
Di6u est notre aide.' Eeuss ; so also posed from V'On ' to make of a
Gesenius, s. v. DD1). 1.1 j ^ ¦, , tt- , ¦ -^
2 ,,_„¦- F- \~. -, '„„ blood-red colour.' — Kimchi,ap.Fuer
V0D&, (timchats) v. 23 ; JTJD Conc. Hebr., e.y.

supp. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 371
Who skill the tabrets to beat.
In the full assemblies, 0 bless ye,
God the Lord, ye souls
That well forth in living waves,
From Israel's fountain-head !
Benjamin's tribe is there ;
Small, but his chief at his head.1
The Princes of Judah are there,
With their goodly company ;
The Princes of Zebulun,
And the Princes of Naphtali.
VI.
Thy God assureth thee strength,
Strengthen, O God ! Thy decree,
The things Thon workest for us,
Because of Thy Palace, which hangs
Dominant over 2 Jerusalem.
So shall kings bring presents to Thee !
Rebuke the thronging mass
Of the men who hold the lance — 3
The swarming horde of the bisons,
The young steers among the herds
That are nations of mighty men —
Till they move themselves restlessly forward,
With tribute of silver bars.4
He has scattered the hordes of nations
Whose will is the onset of war.
1 v. 27, Of Benjamin the Psalmist n*n is constr. of n»rj> one of whose
simply says, Q"l'l "VJ7X- significations is, 'amass of men col-
, lected,' one meaning of nln being
2 Sy v. 29, rhv vaov ooo rbv * T . .
* 'to collect. The word is so used in this
inavuTrjs'Upovo-aK-iip.— Symm. 'Quod verypsaim) „. io. n:p= 'reed-lance.'
imminet Hierosolymis.' Schnurrer. ¦'•'.'
i ii 4 v. 30, Eeuss gives a different
8 ni\> n»n (such is the true and striking translation : ' Tout ce
reading of the Masoretic text : see qui se met en mouvement pour des
Baer's Liber Ps. Hebraicus, p. 55), v. 30 ; pieces d' argent.'
be2

372 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS bupp.
—Nobles ' shall come out of Egypt,
And Cnsh — his hands in haste
Shall yet be uplifted to God.
VII.
Sing ye to God,
Earth's kingdoms ! — sing Psalms to the Lord !
To Him who rides forth
On the heaven of heavens eterne.
Behold ! He gives forth His voice,
And that a voice of strength.
Ascribe ye strength to God,
His loftiness is over Israel,
His strength abides above.
Where the thin clouds fleck the sky.
Terrible art Thou, 0 God !
From Thy sanctuaries — Israel's God ! —
Giving strength and strong defences
To the nation. Blessed be God !
When we consider the bold metaphors, the magnificent pro
sopopoeias, and the rare words which occur in this grand Ode,
with their antique cast, we are naturally surprised at the taste-
lessness which brings it down to a period after the Captivity. To
ascribe the Mosaic writings to Ezra, or these superb productions
of antiquity to comparatively modern versifiers, is surely a tour
de force, which savours of the frigid and tasteless audacity of
P. Hardonin ! Struck by the noble features of the Psalm,
Ewald admits that the form in which they appear is recent,
but the separate pieces very ancient. The passages themselves,
are splendid gems, inimitabilia mendacio vitri, but they are taken
at random, and clasped by some inferior workman. The Chris
tian interpretation supplies the true principle of cohesion.
' D»3OB>0 (chashmanniym). Maccabees, came from this passage.
The name Hasmonean, adopted by the

supp. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 373
Let me briefly explain the point of view from which it ap
pears to me that this dark and sublime Psalm is to be understood.
The author in it — possibly upon the removal of the Ark to
Mount Sion — takes two silver threads of association, which are
interlaced with the texture of the Psalm. One is the thought of
the ' passages of God from mountain to mountain, from victory
to victory.' 1 The other is the celebration of the various sanctu
aries of God. So we have Mount Sinai made God's habitation,
Basan itself in a sense consecrated to Him, Sion preferred be
fore all others, another more august and heavenly sanctuary,
with its hosts of angels. All these are comprised in the 36th
verse : ' Terrible art Thou, O God ! out of Thy sanctuaries.' 2
On this ground- work the poet elevates a strain, whose high
est notes celebrate God's greatest and most victorious passage —
the Saviour's going np to the Mount of Ascension, and His
entrance into the holiest and most august sanctuary. The
poem is not a ' lyric of battle ' so much as a strain for Temple
solemnities. The division into seven strophes is marked with considerable
distinctness. The first,3 taking its start from the old strain of
the Desert, speaks of the power of God over all His enemies and
those of His people.
The second strophe 4 proves most distinctly that war is not up
permost in the singer's mind. ' God dealt very motherly with
me,' was the simple and touching saying of one in sorrow. In
such a spirit God's benefits are here spoken of.
In the third strophe, by a process of thought very common
with the Hebrew ; Seers and Psalmists, the poet turns to the
Sacred history of his race. The Past of the Chnrch bears the
Future in its womb ; its essential principles recur again under a
varied investiture of circumstances. Three historical pictures
are boldly painted, the object of which is to provide the living
1 Herder, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, S^e Michaelis' edition of Lowth, De
Pt. II. ch. 3. I S. P. Hebr., Epimetron ad Prcel. xxvii.
2 TB^PP? (mimmikdasheykha). 3 vv. 1, 2, 3. 4 vv. i, 5, 6.

374 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS supp.
Church, out of the records of the dead Church, sustenance, victory,
and protecting presence.
1. The first subdivision ' is a pledge to the Church of suste
nance. It speaks of the free largesses shaken out in showers by
God — of the Church's sustenance in the wilderness.
2. The second subdivision2 is the pledge of the Church's
victory. Broken and obscure as some distichs appear to be, the
passage is one of the most animated, picturesque, and richly
coloured in Hebrew poetry. The writer describes the conquest
of Canaan with astonishing rapidity. One messenger of victory
after another brings in glorious tidings. The song of Deborah
and Barak supplies some of the colours (Judges v. 30). At the
close comes the peacefulness of Israel, in quiet possession after
the conquest. The Israelites' couch beside the cattle-stalls, en
grossed with the least toilsome occupations of agriculture. The
women — clad in the vestments, the reward of their husbands'
valour, or their own opulent industry — remind a poetical eye of
the dove, whose wings reflect the sunlight, silver and gold shoot
ing into pale metallic green. The Church's victory is a gleam
of light upon her stormy and darkened course, like the gleam
of snow above the black forests of Salmon.
3. The third subdivision 3 represents 'the last act of the sacred
epopceia of Israel,' 4 and assures the Church of God's favour and
presence. Sinai is, as it were, transferred to Sion. Two mag
nificent prosopopmias are introduced. The gigantic mountain of
Bashan, Hermon and its snow-clad heights — themselves in the
natnral sense God's mountains for grandeur and glory — are asked
why they scowl at the humbler hills which stand round about
Jerusalem. Then the Lord, surrounded by the heavenly host,
occupies Sion on His way to the heavenly places.
The fourth strophe B draws a consolatory lesson of the future
conquests and restoration of the Church.
' vv. 7, 8, 9, 10. * Eeuss. p. 235.
2 w. 11, 12, 13, 14. » vv. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.
3 vv. 15, 16, 17, 18.

supp. TO CHRIST 4ND CHRISTIANITY. 375
The fifth strophe ' exhibits to us the ' presence of God,' 2 no
longer from mountain to mountain, but in the services of His
Church. The peaceful ritual is drawn with a loving hand. The
people are gathered in the Temple : the representatives of the
tribes are there.
The sixth strophe3 turns to the peaceful conquests ofthe Faith,
and shows us princely and warlike forms prostrate before God.4
The seventh strophe 5 ' rounds off this beautiful poetry with a
doxology, at once simple and energetic.' 6 The words next to
those which close the Psalm are an abridgment of one of its
leading ideas : ' Thon art terrible out of Thy holy places.'
So much for the Psalm merely as Poetry. Looked upon as a
strain of the Sanctuary, destined to pass into the Christian
Chnrch, it is full of meaning, latent, indeed, but in accordance
with principles which pervade the Christian significance of the
Psalter. It brings before us, with unsurpassed fulness and di
rectness, the Fatherly Love of God (vv. 4-6). It celebrates
God's care and sustenance of His Chnrch, the exuberant shower
of graces and blessings which He shakes out upon her in her pil
grimage through the wilderness of earth (vv. 7-10). It gives
us a strain of surpassing beauty to describe the glories of the
Pentecostal and Primitive Church — a strain wliich, perhaps,
may find a yet more ample fulfilment (vv. 11-14). It leads ns
from victory to victory, from mountain to mountain, until our
thoughts rest upon the Mount of the Ascension — the source of
the Church's gifts (vv. 15-18). The whole concludes with a mag
nificent picture of the Kingdom of Messiah.
i w. 24, 25, 26, 27. which Christ is King. The dark
* V 24 'hnS« TlTl'ia^n Ethiopians, the mouarchs of Tarshish,
' '¦ ••- *' " ' \ the distant isles, the deserts, recog-
<Thy walkings, 0 God. nise and adore mm.'— Epopee Chris-
' vv- 28> 29> 30> 31, , toloqique : Psaumes d'apres les Po'etes
'There was a glorious Church p ^ par ^ p champon) p_
in Egypt, when St. Athanasius was Jg2
Bishop. The Ethiopian treasurer '
was converted at Jerusalem.'-Arndt. »'- 32> 33- 3i' 3S-
* ' Contemplate the present im- 6 Eeuss.
mense extension of the empire of

376 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS supp.
Psalm CIV.1
' Alleluia de la Nature an Christ victorieux.' — P. Champon.
I.
Bless the Lord, O my soul !
O Lord, my God !
Very great hast Thon been.
Splendour and majesty
Thon hast put on as a robe,
Thou hast arrayed Thee with light
For Thy lucent vesture of wear,
Outspreading the heavens on heavens,
As the tremulous veil of a curtain.2
— He who archeth and layeth the beams
Of his lofty chamber of Presence
On the floor of the waters above.
—Who setteth the clouds
Thick-encompassing, dense,
For the battle-car of His march.
— Who walketh on wings of the wind,
Who maketh His angels
As swift as the sweep of the storm-winds,
As strong as the flame of the fire.3
1 'This beautiful Psalm is at ,-vj7>T from yy ' to wave and flutter.'
once felt to be a poetical imitation of
the 1st chapter of Genesis. But the 3 "• 4> 'Facis «t angeli, ministri
writer does not propose to give a bare ^'lu> habeant velocitatem spirituum
recital of facts. He wishes to found (ventorum) et efficaciam ignis urentis,
upon them the praise of the Creator. atque ita sint velut quidam venti spi-
As Moses divides the work of God rituales in diseurrendo et veluti qui-
mto six days, the poet traces six pic- dam ignes Divini in operando.. Bel.
tures. The first corresponds to the ,„  ¦ , t ,, . „ „,
First Day's work. God made the ^ ^ loc, fdllo^n^ Thorn. Aq.
Light. But the poet speaks, not of ,n Hebr" caP' '- and The°d°™t- So
the physical creation of the light, but the Chaldee Paraphrast, 'Qui facit
of light considered as a symbol of nuncios Suos veloces sicut ventum;
the Divine Majesty.' — Eeuss, in loc. ministros Suos fortes sicut ignem
2 fipH*3 (kay'rlyyah) v. 2,— flammantem.'

st/pp. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 377
II.
Thou hast built np the marvellous building
Of earth on foundations that shall not
Be shaken for ever and aye :
Thon didst mantle it once with the deep,
Sheer np o'er the hills stood the waters,
— They recoil'd because Thou didst chide them.
From the crashing voice of Thy thunder
They trembled and hasted away ;
Ascended the mountains,
Descended the valleys,
To the place Thon hadst founded for them :
The line of their border Thou settest
Which their proud waves must never pass o'er ;
Must never return in their anger,
To mantle the wide earth again.
III.
Thou sendest in freedom away
The bright springs into the river ;
In the glens, the mountains between,
They walk for ever and aye.1
They give drink to each beast of the field ;
The wild asses quench the fierce fire
Of the thirst that is on them therein.
Beside them the fowl of the heaven
Abide ; and out from among
The Apriling green of the branches 2
They give earth the gift of a voice.
From Thy lofty chamber of Presence
i mj^IT (y'hallekhun), v. 10, ,131/ to be luxuriantly covered with
' they will walk.' leaves and flowers (Aram, fray, Arab.
2 WtiBV I'SP (mibbeyn jj'opho- ,sy. cf. April. See Fuerst, Concord.
lym) v. 12, — '55? leafage, from a root Hebr., p. 852).

378 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS stop.
Thon makest the mountain to drink.
By the fruitful issue that comes
Of Thy works, the earth shall be filled.
He canseth the sprouting of grass,
Green herb for the service of man.
To bring forth bread from the earth,
And wine shall give gleams of its gladness '
To man's hearts, and brighten his face
Beyond all the richness of oil,
And man's heart the bread will uphold.
The happy trees of the Lord
Stand satisfied, even the cedars
Lebanonian, planted by Him ;
There the chirping birds build their nests ;
But the good and home-loving stork — 2
Her house the cypresses are.
The mountains, earth's high ones, uplifted
Are there for the wild goats to climb,
And the crags are a refuge for conies. 3
IV.
He made the wan yellow moon
To mark the vespers for aye
Of the times as they come in their order.4
1 Bread and wine appear as the from the multitude of rabbits on its
natural and mystical crown of the ve- coast. Fuerst, s. v.
getable creation. ' This delightful picture of nature,
¦ *. 17. For an interesting illus- ^St *wice the lenSth , the Previous
tration of the force of n«T»pn 0>tor*) f°Phe' . 1S m,™ dee^ 1°tefe8^
T • because it is almost unique in the 0.1.
to Hebrews, see the play upon the Oriental poetry in general, and even
word in Job xxxix. 13. classical poetry, are not in the habit
3 D^BtJ^ (lash'phanniym) v. 18. of drinking deeply from this inex-
mi_ u T: ¦ 1.x j-i- aiu. , hanstible source of beauty.' — Eeuss,
The old Jewish tradition that the JBJ>> . , • J
i t r m loc.
(shaphan), is the rabbit is confirmed * To a religious Hebrew it was
by the fact that the Phoenician |QK> rather the moon than the sun which
must have had that meaning — Spain marked the seasons, as the Calendar
having been named by the Phoenicians of the Church was regulated by it.

stop. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 879
And the bright sun, that knoweth so well
His unfailing succession of sunsets :
Thou settest the darkness. Comes night,
And in it will creep
All the teeming life of the thicket.
The young lions roar for their prey,
And seek for their food from their God.
Breaks forth at his bright birth the sun.
They gather and muster themselves,
And in their lairs they crouch down.
Man goes forth to his work,
To his service until the evening.
V.
How many Thy works — O Jehovah !
In wisdom all of them made.
The earth is full to the utmost
Of an ample possession of Thine :
And yonder, the sea that is grand
And wide with its infinite spaces.
There are moving things without number,
The little lives and the vast.
There the stately ships walk on,
And there the whale Thou hast fashioned
To take his pastime therein.
VI.
Hush'd in expectance all these
Look forth and wait npon Thee,
To give them their food in its season ;
And ever Thou givest it freely :
Thon openest Divinely Thy Hand —
They are satisfied fully with good !
But when Thon hidest Thy face,
They are troubled, and restlessly shudder.

380 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS stop.
Their spirits Thou gatherest in,
They breathe out the breath of their life,
And unto their dust will return.
— Thou wilt send forth
In solemn procession Thy Spirit,
And the work of creation will grow,
And Thou wilt make yonng and renew !
The sorrow-worn face of the earth.
VII.2
His glory shall be through the ages,
The Lord shall be glad in His works.
If He do but look on the earth,
It trembles exceedingly sore.
If He touch the mountains, they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord in my life.
I will lift up Psalms to my God
While my soul can call itself I.3
My thought shall be sweet in His sight.4
I will be glad in the Lord.
From this fair earth the sinner shall cease,
And yet in the space of the years 5
The wicked shall not be there.
Bless the Lord, O my soul !
Hallelujah.6
1 Literally, of the abiding continu- during me.
ance, the immortality of species ; spi- 4 ^vvBdri avr^, LXX.
ritually, of the resurrection of dead , . . , .
souls, and of the great renovation . ' The *salmlst stralna forward 1Q
ever in progress. sPmt to the Sreat regeneration, the
• ' As the author did not wish to fw Heavens and New Earth, wherein
stop with the idea of the Sabbath-rest, dwelleth righteousness.-' Ita ut vel
the 7th strophe is consecrated to a c°?versl ad Dominum non sint am-
poetic peroration. It is linked to Pllus . P<*<ft°res, vel si converti
the last verse of the 1st chapter of ™l™nat' dejiciantur infra terrain, et
Genesis, which says that God saw ultra non compareant.'-Bellarm. m
that everything He had made was "'
very good.' — Eeuss. 6 No Hallelujahtic Psalm is ever
" v. 33. lYiy? (b'yodhly), lit. attributed to David.

stop. TO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. 381
The writers upon the metrical element of Hebrew Poetry
form a library by themselves. The following are the chief: very
many of which, however, I have not had the opportunity of con
sulting : —
C. R. Bellarm., Instil. Ling. Hebr. (Colon. 1580). Pp. 127
et sqq. F. R. Gomar, Lyra Davidis ; seu Nova Hebrcem S. Scriptural
Ars Poetica, 1637. In which Gomar found rhyme and metre in
the Psalms.1
J. G. Drechsler, Manuduct. ad Poet. Hebr.
Idem. Cithara Davidica.
A. Calmet, De Poesi Vet. Hebr. Dissert. V. T. I. 231.2
A. Flenry, Discours sur la Poesie (part, sur celle des Hebreux),
in Calmet, V. T. II. 140, et sqq.
A. Pfeiffer, Man. ad Accent. V. T.
Ch. Weisse, System. Psalm. Metr. This treatise is a special
examination of Bishop Hare's bulky Octavo, Psalmorum Liber,
1736. That volume contains an examination of Gomar, Le
Clerc, and the wild philological speculations of Marc. Meibo-
mins. Weisse shows that Hare's system involves the whole
text of Scripture in uncertainty.
J. Wernsdorf, De Arte Poet. Hebr.
Sir W. Jones, Poes. Asiat. Comment. (Edit. J. G. Eichhorn.
Lips. 1777.)3
C. G. Anton, Conj. de Metr. Hebr. Antiq.
C. D. Ilgen, Job.
Bishop Lowth, De Sacra Poesi Hebr. (Edit, of J. D.
Michaelis.) 1 This work was fiercely criticised Preface to Horace, 1709.
by L. Capellus, Animadvers. in Novam s Sir W. Jones (and E. J. Greve, '
Lvram- as also bv Danhauer, Critici in his edition ofthe last chapters of
g^i " Job, and entitled Metr. Prophet. Na-
2 Calmet specially opposes Le hum et Hab. Amst. 1793), attempted
Clerc's theory of bpoiorix^ra, or an Art of Hebrew Poetry mainly by
rhymes, in the Psalter.- Comment, in the assistance of Arabic.
Prophet, pp. 621-630. Also, Dacier,

382 THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS ETC. stop.
J. G. Herder, Geist der Hebraischen Poesie.
J. J. Bellermann, Metrik der Hebraer, 1813.
J. G. Eichhorn, De Proph. Poesi Hebrozorum.
Kaiser, De Parallel, in Poes. Hebr. Naturd.
J. L. Saalschiitz, Form der Hebr. Poesie.
F. Delitzsch, Geschichte der jildischen Poesie.
J. G. Wenrich, De Poeseos Hebraica} atque Arab. Origine.
E. Meier, Form der Hebr. Poesie. (Tiib. 1858.)
Fr. Bottcher, Ausf. Lehrbuch der Heb. Sprache. (Leips. 1866.) •
1 See Dank. Hist. Rev. Div. III. pp. 285, 286. Bishop Jebb, Sacred
Literature, pp. 9-14.

INDEX. OF PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE
QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

GENESIS. 1.3
II. 1-3
9
III. 15 22
IV. 17
V. 24
XI. 32
XIV. 18-20
XIX. 15
XXV. 8
XXXV. 29
XLIX. 10
33
EXODUS. IV. 22
XII. 46
XV. 620, 21
XIX. 5 6
XXVIII. 36
XXLX. 6
7
XXX. 18-21
XXXII. 32
XXXIH. 4, 5
XXXV. 29
XXXIX. 30
XL. 22, 23

PAGB
150 ra.2
150 n.'
, 100
. 176
. 100
86 ra.2
. 100
. 100
. 316
42 n.'
. 100
. 100
200 ra.2
. 100

62 k.1
. 69
. 343
. 345
244 ra.1
131, 144
133 ra.6
133 n?
199 b.1
. 131
102 »."
. 314
301 ra.1
133 m.5
. 131

IjHiVlTiOUS.

PAGS

IV. 5

199 ra.1

VIII. 12, 30 .

199 ».'

XIX. 17, 18 .

54, 314

34

. 314

XXII. 18, 21 .

301 ra.1

NUMBEES.

VI. 22

. 233

IX. 12

. 69

XX. 24, 28 .

. 100

XXIII. 9

. 168

DEUTEEONOMY.

XII. 6

301 ra.1

XVIII. 11

. 101

XXII. 1-4 ,

. 314

XXVIU. 2, 15, 46 .

42 ra.2

XXXI. 16

. 100

XXXII. 50

. 100

XXXIII. 8

293 m.1

XXXIV. 5, 6 .

. 100

1 SAMUEL.

XV. 22

243 ra.2, 244 ra.1

XVI. 1-3, 13

. 59

XVIII. 7

. 345

XXIII. 26

87 «.2

XXX. 6-8 .

141 ra.2

384

INDEX OF PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE

2 SAMUEL.

PAGE

PSALMS— continued.

PAGE

1.17,18.

. 82

III. 5

. 358

II. 1-4 .

. 59

IV.

. 141, 142

XH. 1, &c. .

. 85

4

. 136

XV. 10

364 ra.3

V. 3

130, 355 ra.1

13, &c.

. 141

VI.

15 ra.1, 42 ra.3
XVI. 14
. 141
1,2,7
. 126
XVII. 22
. 141
6
. 103
XIX. 4-7 ,
. 90
8
. 48
XXIV. 1, &e. .
. 85
10
VII. 5-16
. 52
285 ra.2
1 EJNGS.
13-18
292 ra.2
I. 11-13 .
364 ra.3
VIII.
153, 204 ra.1, 285,
40
. 331
292 ra.4
2
. 66
2 KINGS.
3
153 ra.2, 156, 285
II. 3, 5 .
110 ra.1
4
292ra.a
IX.
15 ra.1, 204 ra.1, 292 ra.4
1 CHEONICLES
6-20
285 ra."
XVI. 7-33 .
. 82
X.
. 204 ra.1, 292 ra.4
XXIX. 23
. 199
4
. 125 ra.4, 355 ra.'
30
. 320
XI.
. 204 ra.1, 292 ra.4
XIL
15 ra.1, 204 ra.1, 292 ra.4
2 CHEONICLES.
XIII.
15 b.1, 17, 204ra.»
XXVI. 16-21 .
. 61
292 ra.4
XXXVL 5-9 .
84 ra.2
XIV.
204 ra.1, 206, 292 ra.4
XV.
63 ra.1, 119, 204 ra.1
EZEA.
^
206, 231, 292 ra."
III. 11
. 345
1
87 ra.2
NEHEMIAH.
XVI.
32, 34, 108, 224
XII. 27
. 160
4,5 .
10
133, 293 ra.1
108, 293 ra.1
JOB.
11
. 108
V. 15
348 ra.1
XVII.
15 ra.1
XXXI. 39, 30 .
. 315
3 14
. 136
. 109
PSALMS.
15
94, 109, 278, 287
I.
. 211
XVIII.
63 ra.1, 153,206, 2171ra.1
1
. 126, 328
4
293 ra.2
1-3 .
63 ra.1
XIX.
153, 206, 217 ra.1
3
. 154
232, 293 ra.3, 328, 341
II.
. 58, 79, 217 ra.1
11
125 b.1
2
. 59
14
228, 247 ra.3
4
. 335
XX.
63 ra.1, 342
7
76, 232 ra.1
3, 5
355 ra.1
9
. 47
XXI.
63 ra.1, 206, 342
12
126 ra.2
5,6,7
206 ra.1
III.
. 141, 142
9
285 ra.2
QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

385

PSALMS — continued.

PAGE

PSALMS— continued.

Ptnn

XXII. . 11 and sqq., 15 ra.1,

XXIX. 5 ... 16l'ra.'2

30, 34, 56 ra.2, 63 ra.1, 206, 224,

7 . . 151, 161 ra.2

243, 257, 262, 267, 307, 342

8, 9 . . . .151

1 . . . 20, 24 ra.1

11

. 152

6

20

XXX. .

34, 101

7, 8 .

24 ra.2

1

123 ra.2

9, 10 . • .

65

9

87 ».2

12,13

20

XXXI. . 15 ra.', 87 ra.2, 213 ra.1,

15

1, 20, 24 ra.1

320

16

20, 308

2 202 ra.1, 320

17, 18

. 22

3 ... 87 ra.2

21

31 ra.1, 294 ra.1

5 18, 24 ra.1, 112, 320

22

25 ra.1

9-12 . . . .320

26

23, 248
12 . 87 ra.2, 155 ra.5
27, 28
22
13 . .87 ra.2, 177 ra.3
29
23, 248
15 . . .320
30
. 146
19 . . 321, 355 ra1
31
24 ra.1, 146, 252 ra.2
20 . 321, 355 ra.1
XXIII.
15 ra.1, 16, 34, 206,
21 190ra.?, 321
249, 342
22 87 ra.2
1
. Ill
XXXII. . . . 42 ra.3, 85, 126
2
. 154
1 . 127 ra.1, 247 ra.3
4
. 100
1,2 . 128, 246, 252 ra.2
5
. 131
2 .... 245
6
. 287
XXXIV. 8 .
. 249
XXIV.
63
n.1, 206, 224. 342
19, 20 .
63 ra.1, 69
3, 8, 1(
) ,
87 ra.2
XXXV. .
. 34
4
. 328
13,14.
. 53
7-10
295 ra.2
14
. 327
XXV.
. 15
18
. 190
6
. 15
19
. 66
7
17
20
. 137
12
87 ra.2
XXXVI. .
120, 152
13
. 348
1
. 136
XXVI. 4
125 ra.4, 355 ra.1
4 . . .136
6
. 131
7 .... 94
8
. 130
8 94, 152, 276
9
355 ra.1
9 . . 153, 297 ra.1
XXVII. 1
. 362
XXXVIII. . . 15 ra.1, 42 ra.3
4
130 ra.2, 355 ra.1
11 . 313
8
121 ra.2
XXXIX  15 ra.1
10
65 ra.2
5, 6, 7 . . . 102 ra.4
12
285 ra.2
13 . . .94
XXVIH.
. 34, 38 ra.2
XL. . . 15 ra.1, 34, 41, 243
6, 7, 8
38 ra.2
6 133, 244, 297 ra.2, 349
XXIX. .
. 150, 161
7 133, 232 ra.1, 243, 244 ra.',
4
161 ra.2
245, 349
c c
380

INDEX OF PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE

PSALMS —continued.

PAGE

PSALMS — continued. page

XL. 8

244, 297 ra.2

LL 15 . . . • 202

9

245 ra.3, 355 ra.1

16

. 133

10, 11 .

41 ra.2

17

. 132, 133, 137

12

41 ra.2, 42 ra.2

18

. 86

17

. 327

LII. 1-5

. 284

XLI. 1

64, 328

LV. 5

110 ra,4

3

. 95

6

. 94

9

64, 66

7

. 313

XLII. .

. 84

9-11

. 167

1-4 .

. 130

12,14

110 ra.4

3

. 136

17

. 209

4

. 123

LVI. .

. 87

5,6 .

. 313

LVII. .

87, 279

7

. 154

8

. 88

8

. 136

LVIII. 6-9

155 ra.5

XLIII. 3

. 130

LIX. .

. 87

XLIV. .

. 117

LX. 9

. 167

XLV. .

59, 80, 171

LXII. 11, 12

. 227

1 . 34

is.3, ra.4, 60 ra.1, ra.2

LXIII. 1

. 100

2

. 60 ra.5, 64

1,2

. 130

3, 4, 5 .

60 ra.3

8

. 247

6 60, 61

is1., 181, 198,224

LXV. 5

. 161

7

60 ra.3, 61 ra.1,

7

67 ra.1

9

. 181

12,13

. 162

10

.'.60.».3> 181

LXVIII. . 63 ra.1, 115, 178, 217 ra.',

11

. 335

263, 254 ra.1, 366

12,13, 16

. 60 n?

4 . . . 366 ra.1

XLVI. .

166, 171, 192

6

367 ra.1

1

. 120

9

. 178

4

. 154, 287

10

. 116 ra.1, 371 ra.3

6

. 154

11

368 ra.1

XLVII. .

. 171

13

155, 368 ra.2

XLVIII. . . 1

66,171,192,206

14

155, 369 ra.1

1, 8 .

. 190

16

155, 369 ra.2

XLIX. .

. 101, 206

21, 27,

30,31 . . 116

2

121 ra.2

23

370 ra.2

4

. 109

30

371 ra.9

12

348 ra.2

LXIX. 15, 32 ra.1, 34, 47, 56 m.2

14

109, 355 ra.1

63 ra.1

15

. 109

1,2,3. . . .313

L. 13

. 133

4

. 56 ra.2, 66

LI. . 42 ra.3,

84, 127, 128, 132

9

. 56 ra.2, 64

Title

. 83

10

. 53

4

. 86

15-20

. 313

5

81, 239

20

. 69

6, 10 .

. 137

21

24 ra.1, 56 ra.2, 69

14

. 86

22, 23,

26 . . 56 ra.2

QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

387

PSALMS — continued.
LXIX. 2528
34
LXXI. .
6
LXXII. .
14
15
LXXIII. .
1
2,3 1313-2016,17
23
23-26 24
25,26
28
LXXIV. .
LXXVI. .

LXXVII. 2-615
LXXVIII. 2,3,49,67 69
LXXIX. 1
LXXX. 1,2 8
LXXXI. 5
LXXXII. 1-8
LXXXIII. Heading (A.V/
5, 6, 14
LXXXIV. .
1-10
2
LXXXVI.
LXXXVII. 1,3

4,5,67
LXXXVIII.

34

101,

165, 170

167

page
. 56
102 ra.4
. 287
s.1, Ill
65 ra.2
172, 204 ra.1
112
224321
. 328
. 322
. 131
. 322
. 130
. 322
. 198
110,322 . 110
. 125
. 117
. 117
. 348
. 136
140 ra.2
66, 174
. 273
140 ra.2
. 222
. 117
171 ra.1
140 ra.2
165 ra.1
140 ra.2
232 ra.1
. 117
. 284
. 284
84, 249
. 130
. 131
. 279
ra.1, 204 ra.1
. 164
-..*, 187, 192
167, 248
. 330 101 c c

PSALMS— continued.
LXXXVIII. (Heading)
110
10-1311
12 18
LXXXIX. 9
15
28
XC. .
1,2
9
XCI. 13
XCII. 12
XCIII. .
3,4
XCIV. .
XCV. .
11
XCVI. .
11, 12
XCVII. 1
5 7
XCVIII. .
5
XCIX. 3, 5, 9
CI. .
CII. .
Title .
18
25-27
CHI. .
8, 12,
CIV. .
2, 31
24
CV. .
CVI. .
CVII. 28, 29
CVIII. .
10
CIX. 5 6-19
2

PAGE
. 114
. 122
. 81
. 115
103 ra.2
. 81
. 122
. 67
327 ra.1
299 ra.1
150, 268, 280
. 281
155 ra.5
217 ra.'
. 176
327 ra.1
162, 364
. 154
. 232
82, 232 ra.1
. 286
. 82
. 283
. 287
. 335
. 283
. 283
. 257
300 ra.1
. 139
42 ra.3 , 159
. 83
118, 146
. 200
110 ra.4
227
232, 376
150 ra.2
159174 174
67 ra.1 87
167
47, 50 53 54

150

34, 43

«88

INDEX OF PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE

PSALMS — continued

PAGE

PSALMS — continued

PAGE

CIX. 22

58

CXXXIII. 3 .

. 155

CX. 47, 48 ra.3,

61, 62 ra.1, 63 ra.',

CXXXIV.

. 183

80, 133

224, 232 ra.1, 316

exxxv. .

. 232

1

. 335

CXXXVI.

345 ra.3

3 . 61

, 131, 301 ra.2, ra.3

1

• 331

4

61, 176

CXXXVII. 1 .

. 327

6

49

5, 7 .

171 ra.1

CXI. .

. 206

8

50

5

. 249

CXXXIX.

. 101,140,232

CXII. .

. 119, 206, 231

9 • .

. 156

CXIV. .

. 177

13-17

. 239

CXV. 17

. 103

16

243 ra.2

CXVI. .

. 87 ra.1

23 .

. 137

11

87 ra.2 , 321

CXLI. 2

. 131

12, 13

. 132, 250

CXLII. .

34

15

. 112

CXLIII. .

42 ra.3 , 127

CXVH. .

301 ra.3

2

. 247

CXVIII. .

68, 282

CXLV. 1

. 102

18

301 ra.4

13

. 193, 242

19,21,22, 2

6 . .282

14

67 ra.2

24

. 283

15

67 ».2 , 250

27 .

. 133

CXLVI. .

. 233

CXIX. . 117,

127, 301 m.5 , 328

5,7, 8

. 67 ra.2

45

301 ra.5

CXLVII. .

. 160

52

. 136

1

. 160

61

293 ra.2

7

345 ra.3

122

. 127

13 .

. 274

158 .

65

15 .

160 ra.2

164 .

. 210

CXLVIH. 8

. 162

165 .

301 n?

CXLIX. 4, 5, 9

285 ra.2

CXX. .

34, 310

CL. .

. 221, 249

2, 3 .

. 284

6

. 221

5 7
CXXII. .
1
2

. 313
. 311
. 192
123, 130, 187
. 187

PEOVEEBS XXI. 4
XXIV. 17, 18 . -
XXV. 21, 22 .

42 ra.1
. 54, 314
. 54, 314

3

. 187, 190

CANTICLES

CXXX. .

42 ra.3, 106, 127

I. 4, 6 .

. 334

1,2, 6

. 106

13

. 278

4

. 106, 247

14

. 333

CXXXI. .

. 137, 327

II. 1, 2 .

. 335

CXXXII. .

. 63 ra.1, 65, 182

3, 11-13

. 334

1

91

III. 4

. 333

14, 15

. 279

6

. ¦ . .334

18

. 133

IV. 16

. 334

CXXXIII.

. 182, 192

8-11 .

. 335

QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

389

CANTICLES— continued.
V. 16

PAGE
. 333

HOSEA 1.2

PAGE
. 333

VII. 12

. 334

II. 2

/

. 333

VIII. 2, 8, 11

. 333

14

. 334
5, 6, 12
. 334
15
. 333
ISAIAH
III. 1
. 333
II. 2, 3 .
. 169
VI. 3
. 334
IV. 3
102 ra.1
IX. 10
. 334
V. 18
42 ra.1
14
. 333
VI. 3
. 345
X. 1
. 334
VII. 14
65 ra.2
13
42 ra.1
XII. 3 . .
. 331
XI. 4
. 334
XXIV. 10
. 167
XIII. 5, 14, 15
. 334
XXV. 2
. 167
XIV. 5
. 334, 335
XXVI. 5
. 167
6
. 335
XXVII. 1
. 116
7
334, 335
XXXVIII. 9 .
. 82
8
. 334
XLH.l
62 ra.1
XLIV. 28, XLV. 1
236 ra.2
AMOS
XLVIII. 8
244 ra.1
IV. 5 ... 301 ra.1
XLIX. 1
. 235
VI. 5 .... 82
L. 5
244 ra.1
LIT. 13
62 ra.1
JONAH
LIII.
. 32
II. ... 95, 96 ra.'
LIV. 5
. 181
1, 2 . . . .82
LXII. 4, 5 .
. 181
2,5,8 . . 96 ra.1
JEEEMIAH
MICAH
I. 5, 6 .
. 236
IV. 1 ... 65 ra.2
II. 2, III. 4 .
17 ra.3
V. 2 . . . .169
III. 1-20 .
. 1S1
VII. 23
244 ra.1
ZECHAEIAH
XX. 3 . . .
177 ra.3
VI. 9, 15 . . . .61
XXII. 18, 19, 24-30 .
84 ra.2
XII. 8 . 232 ra,1
XXXHI. 11
. 331
XIV. 9 ... 42 ra.1
EZEKIEL VI.
. 181
WISDOM
XIII. 9
102 ra.4
III. 1 .... 104
XVI.
181
ST. MATTHEW
22,60.
17 ra.3
IV. 13 . . . . 116
XXIII.
. 181
V. 3-9 .
. 327
XXIX. 3 . . .
. 116
17
245 ra.1
XXXVIII.
. 171
VII. 23
. 48
XXXIX.
. 171
VIII. 26, 27 .
. 67
DANIEL
28
. 45
VII. 13
62 ra.1
IX. 15
. 181
IX. 25
. 59
X. 34, 35 .
49 n.\ 245 ra.1
XII. 1 sqq. .
102 ra.4
XI. 3
49 ra.1
390

INDEX OF PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE

ST. MATTHEW-

—continued. page

ST. LUKE— continued.

PAGE

XL 4-6 . . . .67

IX. 55 47 ra.1

29

. 47

56

245 ra.1
XII. 20
47 ra.1
59-62 .
. 46
XIII. 35
. 66
X. 30
102 ra.4
54-57 -
. 313
XII. 49
245 ra.1
XVII. 17
311, 313
XIX. 10
245 ra.1
XVIH. 11
245 ra.1
27
. 47
XX. 28
245 ra.1
XXI. 5, 6
159
XXI. 5
47 ra.1
37
313
16
. 66
XXII. 32
139
17
. 313
43, 44
41
19
. 46
' XXIII. 46
24 ra
.', 112
33
. 168
XXIV. 25-27
108
41
48 ra.2
39
21
42
68 ra.1
44
33
XXII.-XXVII. .
69 ra.1
45, 46 .
108
XXII. 1, 2
. 181
7-13 .
48 ra.2
ST. JOHN
29
. 99
I. 14 . . . 160
29-32
. 102
14-16
199 ra.1
XXHI. 15
. 169
18
. 202
37-39
. 282
49
. 76
39
. 68
II. 17
6
4 ra.4, 56 ra.2
XXV. 24
119 ra.2
III. 3, 5
169, 248
41
. 48
10
. 254
XXVI. 36-56
. 313
29
. 181
63
. 76
IV. 25
33, 49 ra.1
XXVII. 25
. 50
V. 43
49 k.1
34
56 ra.2, 69
VI. 14, 15
. 67
39,43
24 ra.2
36
130 ra.3
46
24 ra.1
38
245 ra.1
XXVIII. 10
. 25
40
130 ra.3
50, 51
. 249
ST. MAEK I. 1
38
III. 5
V. 10
XV. 34
. 207
245 ra.1
. 58
. 58
24 k.1
IX. 4
39
X. 3
8 1018
28, 29
. 103
245 ra.1
. 160
49 ra.1
245 ra.1
245 ra.2
247
ST. LUKE
34, 35
XI. 33
. 3, 232 ra.1
. 38
IL 15 65 ra.3
XII. 24
. 162
V. 32
VI. 12
VII. 19, 20
IX. 51
245 ra.1
. 311
49 ra.1
. 37
27 46
XIII. 18
XV. 25
. 49 ra.1, 313
245 ra.1
. 64 ra.', 66
. 56 n.3, 66
QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

391

ST. JOHN — continued. page

2 COEINTHIANS

PAGE

XVII.

. 37

II. 15

199 ra.1

20, 21 .

. 188

IV. 17

167 ra.4

XVIII. 37

245 ra.1

V. 2

131 ra.5

XIX. 30

24 ra.1

13

. 129

36

. 69

21

26, 40

XX. 17

. 25

VI. 9

301 ra.1

IX. 9

119 ra.2

ACTS

XI. 2

181, 334 ra.2

I. 16-20 .

. 56

4

49 m.1

II. 3

161 ra.1, ra.2

9
. 170
GALATIANS
14, sqq.
. 207
III. 8
. 225, 251
24-32 .
108, 293 ra.2
13
. 40
29
90
III. 26-41 .
108 ra.', 142 ra.2
EPHESIANS
IV. 25, 26 .
59, 82
II.
. 179
VII. 59
. 112
III. 10
187 ra.'
VIII. 27, 40 .
. 170
IV. 8-10 .
. 178
IX. 32, 43 .
. 170
9
104, 240 ra.1
XIII. 32-35, 37
. 108
33
59, 79, 232 ra.1
PHILIPPIANS
XXI. 3, 7 .
. 170
IV. 3
102 ra.1
XXVI. 23
. 75
COLOSSIANS
EOMANS
1.15
299 ra.1
I. 1, 16 .
. 207
4
. 79
1 THESSALONIANS
III. 29
. 22
I. 5
161 ra.1
IV. 4-8 .
. 247
6,7 .
. 127
2 THESSALONIANS
V. 1
301 ra.5
I. 8, 9 .
161 ra.'
VII.
. 14
II. 3
. 50
VHI. 21
301 ra."
III. 1
. 160
35
. 247
X. 18
293 ra.3
1 TIMOTHY
XI. 7-10 .
. 56
I. 15
245 ra.'
XV. 3
. 56 ra.2 64
8,9 .
301 ra.3
2 TIMOTHY
IV. 16,17
294 ra.1
1 COEINTHIANS
17
31 ra.1
II. 4, 5
161 ra.1
8
295 ra.2
HEBEEWS
VI. 2, 3
285 ra.2
1.5
59, 79
X.
178 ra.2
6
. 283, 335
XV. 1 sqq. .
. 207
8
61, 198
4
. 108
9
.61,199 m.1
36, 37 .
. 162
10
. 200
3952

INDEX OF PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE ETC.

HEBREWS— continued.

II.

11-14 11, 12

IV

3-11 7

V

5 6

VI

20

VII
2, 5 .
26
28
X
3
5-105 7
244
XI.
17-19
XII.
22 23
XIII.
21
ST. JAMES
I.
25; II. 8, 11, 12
1 ST. PETEE
I.
11
II.
24
III.
19
2 ST. PETEE
II.
10
1 ST. JOHN
I
1, 2 .
6, 7 .
56 ra.2
25, 182 ra.1
. 285
82, 232 m.1
. 79
. 316
. 316
. 316
61 ra.1
293 ra.1
232 ra.1
232 ra.' 41
. 349
i< , 245 ra.1 99
. 171
102 ».4
297 ra.2
301 ra.5
108 26
104
187
130 ra.3
. 351
1 ST. JOHN — continued. page
II. 4-6 . . . . 350
9,10,11,13,14,20,27,28 351
18 .... 49
V. 18, 19 351
ST. JUDE
APOCALYPSE 11.27
III. 5
IV. 5 8
VI. 16, 17
VIII. 5
X. 3, 4,
XII. 5
XIII. 8
XIV. 1
XVI. 9 18
XVII. .
8
XVIII. .
2-6
XIX. 6
7
15
XX. 7-9
12-15
XXI. 2 27
XXII. 1719
187
59
102 ra."
161 ra.'
300 ra.1 48
161 ra.'
161 ra." 59
102 ra.4
. 171
. 167
161 re.'
. 167
102 ra.4
. 167 50
161 ra.1
. 181 59
. 285
102 ra.4
. 181
102 ra."
. 181
102 ra.4
GENEEAL INDEX.

AAEONIC
AAEONIC Priesthood, in two Psalms,
133
Aaron's crown, in Ps. cxxxii., 133
Ahen-Ezra, quoted, xi., 86 ra.2, 171, 199,
239
Adaptation of Psalms to Christian use,
144, 202 sqq., 354
' Adonaic style ' in Psalms, 202, 335
Advent, Psalms suitable for, 204 ra.1
iEschylus, quoted, 241
Agellius, quoted, 155 ra.5
Allegory, illustration from, of Colliga
tion of Coincidences, 70
Ambrose, St., quoted, 280
Anthropological ideas of Psalms, 233
Anthropomorphism, apparent, not real,
in Psalms, 202
Antiphons, 34 ra.1, Ill, 211
Apocalypse, septenary groups of, similar
to those of Psalms, 204 ra.1, 292 ra.4
Aristotle, quoted, 76, 124 ra.1
Armfield, on Gradual Psalms, 83 ra.2
Arndt, quoted, 375 ra.3
Arnold,. Matthew, quoted, 104, 231
Arnold, Dr. Thos., referred to, 51, 186
Arques, battle of, illustration from,
253
Asaph, his Psalms, and their character
istics, 82, 140 ra.2, 174 ra.2, 321
Ascension, Proper Psalms for, 204, 224
Ash Wednesday, Proper Psalms for,
42 ra.3
Asseman, quoted, 66 ra.3

BEIDE
Athanasius, St., quoted, 45, 242, 260,
313, 328
Atonement, doctrine of, in Psalms, 243
Aughrim, battle of, illustration from,
369 ra.1
Augustine, St., quoted, 44 ra.1, 87, 102,
112, 125 ra.2, 138, 143, 165, 192, 201,
227 ra.', 250, 260, 269, 274, 275 ra.1
Authorship of Psalms, 82 sqq., 84, 87
Azarias, Eabbi, quoted, 215, 343

BACON, Lord, quoted, 44, 49, 125,
362
Baer, S., quoted, 364 ra.1, 371 ra.3
Baptism, Jewish; 254 ; Christian, in
Psalms, 169, 248
Basil, St., quoted, 193, 252
Beatitudes, The, anticipated in Psalms,
138, 327
Beauregard, his prediction, 11, 304
Bellarmine, quoted, 17 ra.2, 38 ra.2 65 n.2,
161 ra.2, 187 ra.1, 217 ».', 252 ra.2, 311,
376 ra.3, 380 ra.5 ; his dying words, 253
Bengel, quoted, 37, 119 ra.2, 232 «.',
245 ra.2, 300 ra.1
Bentley, Dr., saying of, 214
Bernard, St., quoted, 38 ra.1, 245
Bertholdt, quoted, 76
Bingham, referred to, 249 ra.5
Bossuet, quoted, 18 sqq., 32, 309 ra.*- ;
his genius, 309
Bride, the Church a, in Psalms, 180

394

GENERAL INDEX.

BROWNE
Browne, Archbishop, quoted, 11
Bull, Bishop, quoted, 102 ra.4
Burgess on Ps. lxviii., quoted, 369 ra.1
Butler, Bishop, quoted, 6, 97, 123
Butler, Samuel, quoted, 301 ra.5
Bynseus, quoted, 21, 308
Byron, Lord, quoted, 287

CABBALISTS, the, referred to, 248,
255
Calvin, quoted, 48 ra.3, 55, 171
Canon of 0. T., 332
Canonical Hours, origin of, in Ps. cxix.,
210, 301 ra.5
Canticles, Book of, image of Bride in,
181, 333 ; relation to Book of Hosea,
181, 333 ; place in Canon, 181m.6,
332
Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 92, 254 ra.1
Carvajal, Counts of, prophetic sum
mons uttered by, 305
Casa de Misericordia, inscription on, 279
Casaubon, anecdote of, 279
Catacombs, the inference from inscrip
tion in, 55
Cathedrals, the Psalms in relation to
our, 220
Champon, Pere, quoted, 338, 375 ra.4
Character of Christ, helps to explain
certain passages in Psalms, 44, 57
Character, the Christian, foreshown in
Psalms (Lect. IV.), 118 sqq.; crowning
traits of its ideal in Psalms, 137
Charlemagne, compared with David,
89, 323
Christ, witness of Psalms to, (Lectt. I. ,
IL), 5 sqq.
Christ-Ideal, the, question of its use or
misuse, 26 sqq.
Christianity, witness of Psalms to,
(Lectt. IV.-VIL), 118-254; consti
tutes a prophecy, 4, 118, 146, 190,
203, 251, 259
Christmas, proper Psalms for, 65, 204
Christological analysis of Psalms ii.,
xiv., ex., 79

DAVID
Christological ideas of Psalms (Lectt. I.,
IL), 5 sqq., 242
Chrysostom, St., quoted, 43, 260 ra.3
Church, the Christian, predelineated in
Psalms (Lect. V.), 164 sqq., as a City,
165; in her missionary aspect, 168 ;
a Kingdom, 172; a Bride, 180; dif
ferent theories of, 184; its ideal
needful for appreciation of Psalms,
191 ; Catholic (not sectarian) ideal
of, implied in Psalms, 209
Church, Dean, quoted, 120, 195
Cicero, quoted, 157, 235
City, the Church a, in Psalms, 165
Clement V, Pope, prophetically sum
moned, 306
Coleridge, S. T., quoted, 6, 9, 24 re.1, 78,
152, 172, 177, 218, 265
Colligation of Coincidences, principle
of, 64 sqq.
Condescension in language of Psalms
about God, 180, 201
Constitutions, Apostolic, referred to,
249 ra.4
Cony, the, = shaphan, 378 ra.3
Cook, Canon, quoted, 347 ra.1
Cowley, anecdote of, 236 re.2
Creationism, doctrine of, 238 ; taught in
Ps. exxxix., 239
Cyprian, St., quoted, 309
Cyril, St., referred to, 249 ra.4

DAMASCUS, Cathedral of, inscription
in, 193
Dank, J., quoted, 3, 116, 364 ra.2
Dante, quoted, 178
Darnley, read Psalms on eve of his
murder, 110 ra.4
Darwin, Dr. O, quoted, 196, 220
David, his character not vindictive, 53 ;
moral blots on, alleged as objection to
Psalms, 88 ; only make Psalms more
wonderful, 93; compared with Charle
magne, 89 ; four periods of his life,
139 ; a Prophet, 36, 312; his Psalms,
authorship of, questioned, 82 sqq.,

GENERAL INDEX.

395

DAVIES
characteristics of, 87, 320 ; provide
for all phases of Christian life, 140 ;
restrained from the mere local and
personal, 140
Davies, Dr., quoted, 348 ra.1
Davison, On Prophecy, quoted and re
ferred to, 9, 98, 227 ra.1
Dead, Book of the, 97
Death, aspect of, in certain Psalms, 103
Delitzsch, Dr., quoted, 41 ra.2, 65 ra.2,
87, 131 ra.3, 152, 217 re.1, 239, 246,
249, 285 ra.2, 311
Design, argument from, in nature, 234 ;
in history, 235
Dispensation, the elder, its spirit, 53,
314
Dollinger, Dr., quoted, 304
Donne, Dr., quoted, 210, 226, 260
Dramatic element in certain Psalms,
53, 217 re.1
Dunbar, Battle of, illustration from, 254

EASTEE, Proper Psalms for, 204,
224; Psalm xvi. suitable to, 108
Eginhardt, quoted, 323
Egyptian poetry, its form, 346
Elijah, his translation, 101, 110 ra.1,
198 re.4
End of morality, in Psalms, 125
Enoch, Book of, 317
Enoch,histranslation,100,110ra.',198ra.4 Epic character in Psalms, 205, 217 ra.1,
338
Epiphany, Psalms suitable for, 204 ra.1
Epopceia, the Psalms a Christological,
205, 338
Esdras, 4th Book of, 299 ra.1
Essenes, their mode of life, 75, 315;
devoid of Messianic hopes, 75, 316
Ethan, Psalm assigned to, 82 ra.3
Etymologies of sundry words, 7 ra.2,
366 ra.1, 368 re.2, 372 ra.', 377 n.3
Eucharist, The, in Psalms, 248
Evangelical Alliance, the, 185
Ewald, H., quoted, 7, 36, 97, 217, 312,
316, 372

HASMONEANS
FATHEE, human, of Messiah, none
mentioned in Psalms, 65
Feet pierced in crucifixion, 21, 308
Eerdinand IV. of Castile, ' the Sum
moned,' 305
Form, poetic, of Psalms, unique to fit
them for Christian use, 213 ; non-
metrical, 214, 343
Francis of Brittany, prophetically sum
moned, 307
Froude, J. A., quoted, 110 re.4
Fuerst (Lex. and Cone), quoted, 7 ra.2,
42 ra.1, 83 ra.2, 130 ra.5, 366 ra.1, 368 ra.2,
377 re.2, 378 re.3
Funerals, Psalms used at, 106, 161, 280
G1ATHEEING of Israel, witness of
T Psalms to, 281
' Gathered to his fathers,' the phrase
implies Future State, 100
Gesenius (Lex. and Gr.), quoted and
referred to, 181 ra.2, 190 ra.3, 198 ra.4,
199, 348 ra.1
Gibbon, quoted, 9, 55 ra.1
Giles of Brittany, prophetic summons
uttered by, 307
Godet's Commentaire, quoted, 232 ra.1
Goldsmith, quoted, 309 ra.2
Good Friday, Proper Psalms for, 25,
204, 224
Goodwin, Thomas, quoted, 199 ra.1
Gospel, The, what? 207 ; not only pro
phesied but sung in Psalms, 209
Griitz referred to, 315
Gregory of Nyssa, St., quoted, 221
Grotius, referred to, 77
Guizot, quoted, 172
H ABINGTON, quoted, 122
Hahn, referred to, 326
Hallam, Arthur, quoted, 336
Hallam, Henry, quoted, 185
Hallelujahtic Psalms, none assigned to
David, 380 ra."
Hare, Julius O, his last words, 278
Hasmoneans, derivation of name, 372 ra.1

306

GENERAL INDEX.

HAYDN
Haydn, saying of, 126
Hebrew Language, rich in words of re
ligion, 127 ; pronunciation of , 214, 344
Heine, H., quoted, 94
Heman, Psalms ascribed to, 82 ra.3
Hengstenberg, Dr., quoted, 30, 202 ra.1
Henry, James, quoted, 347 ra.3
Hensler, referred to, 87 ra.2
Herder, quoted, 50, 120, 178, 214, 217,
347, 350 ra.1, 373
Hilary, St., quoted, 26, 332
Hitzig, referred to, 127, 177 n.s
Homer, quoted, 120 ra.4, 157
Hope, the Christian, in Psalms, 286
Home, Bishop, quoted, 44
Horsley, Bishop, quoted, 8
Hosea, Book of, spousal image in, 181,
333; its relation to Canticles, 181,
333 ; its place in Canon, 181 ra.6, 332
Humboldt, A. von, quoted, 148
Hurd, Bishop, referred to, 71 ra.2
Hymns inadequate to replace Psalms,
268

IDEALLY Messianic Psalms, 62
Imitation of Christ, quoted, 41
Immortality, Hope of in Pentateuch,
97 sqq., in Psalms, 96, 101 sqq., uses
of passages in, dwelling on sadder
side, 102; periods of Judaism in
relation to, 326
Imprecatory passages in Psalms, 43 ;
explanation offered, 44 sqq. ; others
discussed, 51
Individual Christianity, Witness of
Psalms to, 277
Ingram's Memorials of Oxford, quoted,
362
Inspiration, degrees of, 36, 311
Intensity, principle of, in interpreting
Psalms, 284
Irving, Edward, quoted, 59, 63 ra.2, 167,
177, 277 ; his dying words, 111
Isaac, Eabbi, quoted, 244 ra.1
Israel personified, the subject of cer
tain Psalms, 14

KUPER
JACKSON, Dr. Thomas, quoted, 48 ra.4,
68, 195, 293 ra.3, 295 ra.2
Jarchi, E., quoted, 15, 88, 163 ra.1,
244 ra.1
Jasher, Book of, 243 ra.1
Jebb, Bishop, quoted, 345, 352
Jeremiah, Psalms quoted by, 177 ra.3,
331
Jerome, -St., quoted, 112, 143, 201, 215,
270, 343
John Damascene, St., quoted, 201
John, St., parallelisms in his 1st Epistle,
350
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted, 121 ra.2,
236 ra.2
Jonah, his use of Psalms, 95
Josephus, quoted, 215 ra.1, 342, 343
• Joshua ben-Levi, story of, 206
Jowett, Dr., quoted, 182 ra.1
Jubilees, Book of, 317
Judaism, its best elements retained in
Psalms, 179
Justification, doctrine of, in Psalms, 246
Justin Martyr, referred to, 21

KALISCH, E., quoted, 314
Kay, Dr. quoted, 59, 112, 240 ra.1,
294 re.1, 297 re.2, 301 re.s
Keble, John, his Psalter, 219, 355 re.1,
quoted, 95b.1, 109 re.3, 110 re.1, 123 ra.2,
125 k.1, re.2, 130 re.3, re.5, 137re.4? 155 re.5,
245 ra.3, 247 ».4, 293, 301 re.s, 321 ra.2;
other writings quoted, 127 re3, 137,
246, 356
Ken, Bishop, quoted, 122
Kimchi, E., quoted, xi., 16, 163 ra.1,
171, 244 ra.1, 369 ra.1, 370 ra.2.
King, Lord, Lifeof Locke, quoted, 110 ra.4
Kingdom, the Church a, in Psalms, 172
Klosterman, referred to, 101
Knox, Alexander, quoted, 136, 179, 276,
345 ra.2
Korah, Sons of, Psalms, assigned to, 82
characteristics of, 87 ra.2, 130
Koran, the, quoted, 148
Kuper, referred to, 332

GENERAL INDEX.

397

LANGE
LANGE'S Life of Christ, quoted, 165
' Last words ' of Jesus, 19, 24
Law, God's, the supreme End in Psalms,
125
Lecky, W. H., quoted, 55
Leibnitz, quoted, 228
Leighton, Archbishop, quoted and re
ferred to, 278
Lightfoot, Dr. J. B., quoted and referred
to, 40, 75, 102 re.4, 299 re.1
Locke, John, listened to Psalms on his
deathbed, 110 re.'1
Lockhart's Life of Scott quoted, 151
Lowth, Bishop, quoted, xvii., 61, 172,
177, 180 ra.2, 215, 217 ra.2, 345
Lurenae, Archbishop, quoted, 254
Luther, quoted, 87 re.2, 127, 252
Lyric character of certain Psalms, 217,
372
Lyttleton, Lord, 114
MACAULAY, Lord, quoted, 98, 188,
369 ra.1
Maccabean Psalms, theory of, 113 ra.1,
117
McCaul, Dr. Alexander, quoted, 244 ra.1,
293 ra.1
McCaul, Joseph, quoted, 61 ra.5, 72,
199 re.1, 200 ra.1, 244 re.1, 286 re.1,
293 re.1, 319
Maimonides, referred to, 36, 74, 255
Maistre, Joseph De,quoted, 128, 136, 170
Marot's Version of Psalms, 253, 359
Martensen, Bishop, quoted, 104, 122,
174, 227, 236 re.2
Martineau, James, quoted, 235 re.1
Mary, the B. V., her use of Psalms, 96
Medid Vita, the Sequence, 144
Melchizedek, who and what? 61 ra.5, 316
Messiah, The, Psalms prefigure His
Character, 64 ; His Life, 65 ; various
expectations of, 74 ; none among Es
senes, 75, 316 ; titles of, 299 ra.1
Messianic Priesthood, Aaronie in two
Psalms, 133
Messianic Prophecy in Psalms, 8, 33;
objections against, 73 ; answered, 74

NIGHT
Messianic Psalms (see Ideally, Objec
tively, Subjectively)
Metres in Psalms, question of, 216, 342,
365 ; writers on, 381
Michaelis, J. D., quoted and referred
to, 84ra.'-,98, 178 ra.5, 216 ra.\345ra.2,
348, 373
Mill, J. S. referred to, 123
Milman, Dean, quoted, 118, 230, 237, 315
Milton, quoted, 135
Moehler, J. A., quoted, 238
Molay, Jacques du, prophetic summons
uttered by, 306
Monica, St., Psalm sung after her death,
112
Moon, seasons regulated by, for He
brew, 378 ra.4
Moses, had reasons for reserve as to
Future State, 97 ; Psalm assigned to,
82 ra.3
Mother of Messiah, mentioned in
Psalms, 65
Motto of Son of God, 245
Motto of University of Oxford, 362
Muis, quoted, 163 re.1
Murchison, Sir E., his love for Psalms,
156
NABHI ( = prophet), etymology of,
7 ra.2
Natural Prophecy, 196 ; its record in
Psalms, 197
Natural Eeligion, proofs of, expressed
in Psalms, 229
Nature, contemplation of, in Psalms,
148 sqq. ; in Classical writers, 157;
new significance imparted to, by Christ,
throws light on certain Psalms, 161
Neale, Dr., referred to, 73, 210, 291
Necromancers, inference from prohibi
tion of, 101
Newman, Dr. J. H, quoted, 229, 324
New Testament, references to Psalms
in, 2, 291 sqq. ; parallelisms in, 350
Nicetius, St., quoted, 363
Night, as a spiritual test in Psalms,
136

398

GENERAL INDEX.

OBJECTIVELY
OBJECTIVELY Messianic Psalms,
58, 335 ; Christology of, 79
Old Testament, order of Books of, 181,
332
Order of Psalms, Christian thought
expressed in, 204; P. Champon's
view of, 338
Origen [ap. Euseb.J, quoted, 332 ra.1
Oxenham, Ore the Atonement, quoted,
39 ra.1

PALEY, Archdeacon, quoted, 2, 45,
135
Parallelism, in Hebrew Poetry, 215,
345, 352 ; referred to race character
istics, 216; similes for, 217; facili
tates translation, 218 ; use in exege
sis, 348 ; in other literatures, 346 ;
in N. T., 350 ; origin in general laws
of mind, 347
Paula and Eustoehium, their Epistle,
270
Paula, Psalms sung in obsequies of,
112
Pearson, Bishop, quoted, 164, 184, 239
Perowne, Dr. J. J. S., On the Psalms,
quoted and referred to, 54 ra.2, 133,
369 ra.2
Philasterius, quoted, 316
Philip the Fair, his death, 306
Philipps, Dr., his Commentary on
Psalms, quoted, 62 ra.1, 293 re.1
Philo, referred to, 318, 342
Pitra, Cardinal, referred to, 66 re.3,
347 ».3
Plautus, quoted, 21, 308
Pliny, Nat. Hist, quoted, 75, 315,
368 re.2
Poetry, the Psalms viewed as, 342;
Hebrew (see Parallelism), compared
with Arabic, 351 ; with Classical, 353
Polybius, referred to, 10
Prediction, essential element of Pro
phecy, 5 ; general principle of inter
preting, 77 ; non-supernatural, in
stances of, 10, 304 sqq.

QUINET
Prophecy, its predictive element, 5 ;
Davison's Criteria of, 9 ; additional
do., 10 ; applied by Christ to Him
self, 30 ; to be taken into account
in constructing Life of Christ, 76 ;
natural, 196; (see also under Mes
sianic).
Prototokos, a, title of Messiah, 299 ra.1
Psalmists, characteristics of several (see
under Asaph, David, Korah), 87, 320
Psalms, The, Christianity responsible
for, 3 ; contain clearest Messianic
prophecy, 8 ; reflect human soul of
Christ, 37; and of individual Chris
tian, 119; some are of Christ's
Miracles, 67 ; Messianic character
essential, 78 ; (see under Messianic,
Ideally, Objectively, Subjectively) ;
moral objection against, 88 ; spi
ritual, 96 ; their ideal of character,
119 ; a Prophetic Manual of Prayer,
142 ; Historical Psalms riot out of
date, 1 74 ; use of Psalms, a spiritual
test of souls, 147 ; of Churches, 265 ;
can be really used only as in our
Church, 266 ; not to be supplanted by
Hymns, 269 ; love for them in early
times, 270 ; how revive it ? 271 ; by
due teaching, 273 ; benefits to Church
from such revival, 276 ; Psalms re
tain the best of Judaism, 179; their
relation to Jewish Eitual, 131, 327 ;
to Christian worship, 203 sqq.
Proper Psalms for Christian festivals,
25, 42 re.3, 178, 204, 224; use of
Psalms in N. T., 2, 291 sqq. ; certain
passages applied by Christian instinct
to Christ, 313; poetic character of,
217, 342; model of simplicity in
great theme, 357. (See Poetry, Wit
ness, &c.)
Pusey, Dr. E. B., quoted, 81 re.1, 95,
301 ra.5

Q

UINET, Mons., quoted, 217

GENERAL INDEX.

.'!9<i

RAVINUS
RAVINUS, S. F., quoted, 351
Eedemption, Scheme of, in Psalms,
226, 243
Eeligion, in Psalms, u present joy,
120; Eitual in character, 129;
but also Evangelical, 132; proofs of
Natural, expressed in Psalms, 229
Eenan, E., quoted, 19, 45, 352
Eestitution of all things, Witness of
Psalms to, 283
Eesurrection of Christ, in Ps. xvi., 108 ;
of His people in other Psalms, 109
Eeuss, Prof. E, quoted, 11 sqq., 17,
38 ra.2, 66 ra.3, 84, 85, 109 ra.3, 116,
127, 133, 142, 151, 165, 310, 374,
375, 376 re.1, 378 re.3, 380 re.2
Eoversion, principle of, in Psalms, 175
Eeville, quoted, 216
Eichardson, Dr. B. W., quoted, 238 re.2
Eichter, quoted, 220
Eitual, Jewish, Psalms relating to, 131,
327; Christian, Psalms adapted to,
203 sqq.
Eolle, Eichard, quoted, 296 re.2
Eosenmiiller, quoted, 15, 16, 20 ra.4, 21,
34 ra,3 38 ra.2, 66 ra.3, 68 ra.1, 84 ra.2,
87 re.2, 141 ra.5, 162 ra.1, 166 ra.2, 167,
181 ra.2, 199, 206 ra.1, 239 ra.2, 369 ra.2
Eossi, De, quoted, 293 ra.1
Eousseau, J. J., quoted, 87
Buskin, J. quoted, 301 ra.5

SAALSCHtlTZ, referred to, 326
Sacraments, foreshown in Psalms,
248 sqq.
Sadler, M. F., quoted, 208
Saisset, E., quoted, 93 ra.1
Salmasius, saying of, 288
Sanderson, Bishop, his use of Psalms,
110 ra.4
Satire, illustration from, of Colligation
of Coincidences, 70, 315
Sclienkel, quoted, 19, 308
Schniirrer, referred to, 116
Sehottgen, referred to, 60 ra.5, 61 ra.5,
199 re.1

THEME
Schultz, referred to, 326
Science, modern, the Future it promises,
48
Seasons, the Christian, provided for in
Psalms, 203
Shakespeare, quoted, 121, 159
Shelley, P. B., quoted, 158
Sh'ol, implies Future State, 101 ; how
spoken of in O. T., 105
Sidonius Apollinaris, quoted, 270
Sin, spoken of in Psalms in connection
with Messiah, 40
Sinfulness, deep sense of, in Psalms,
126
Smith, John, quoted, 312
Solferino, battle of, illustration from,
191
Solomon, Psalms ascribed to, 82 re.3;
his Psalter, 299ra.!
Spain, name of, its derivation, 378
re.3
Speaker's Commentary, quoted, 181,
347 ra.1
Spencer, Herbert, quoted, 220
Spenser, Edmund, quoted, 71
Spiritual World, Witness of Psalms to,
194
Stanley, Dean, quoted, 101, 151
Strauss, quoted, 307
Subjectively Messianic Psalms, 33 sqq.
Summum Bonum, the, of the Psalms,
125
Swift, Dean, quoted, 70, 218, 315

'•rACLTUS, quoted, 122

T

Talmud, &c, quoted and referred
to, 36 ra.2, 248, 254, 286 ra.1, 311
Targums, &c, quoted, 60, 200 ra.',
206 ra.1, 244 ra.1, 293 ra.1, 376 re.3
Tate, N, his Version of Psalms, 218
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, referred to, 5
Te Deum, the, 144, 209
Tennyson, A., quoted, 32, 192, 220
Tertullian, quoted, 21, 55 ra.1, 308
Theistic ideas of Psalms, 226
Theme and Variation, principle of, 347

400

GENERAL INDEX.

THEOLOGY
Theology, Christian, foreshown in
Psalms (Lect. VII.), 225 sqq., 250 ;
special doctrines, 243 sqq. ; of Psalms
as real as their morality, 232
Thompson, Dr. H. M., referred to, 186
Thought-Metre, in Psalms, 215 sqq., 343
Thoughts, regulation of, taught in
Psalms, 135
Tindal, Matth., quoted, 43
Titles of Psalms, authority of and evi
dence from, 82; in LXX., 65 ra.2, 83,
87 ra.2
Translations of Psalms, 218 sqq., 351 ;
their true function, 355 ; their limit,
357 ; tentative specimens of, 364 sqq.
(See Keble, Marot, Tate.)
Tregelles, Dr., referred to, 293 ra.2
Trinitarian anticipations in Psalms, 233
UNFULFILLED Prophecy, Witness
of Psalms to, 281
Utrecht Psalter, illustration from, 270
YAEEO, quoted, 125 ra.2
Virgil, parallelisms in, 347 ra.3
Vogue, De, quoted, 346
Voltaire, quoted, 41
Vulgate, the, its Version of Psalms,219
WALTON, Izaak, quoted, 110 ra.4
Warburton, Bishop, referred to,
77,98

YIGHDAL
Waterland, Dr. referred to, 43, 52 re.2'
Wette, De, quoted, 331
Whewell, Dr., quoted, 278
Whitsunday, Proper Psalms for, 1 78
Wilberforce, William, quoted, 264 re.',
280
Williams, Prof. Monier, quoted, 170
Williams, Dr. Eowland, quoted, 54 ra.2
Witch of Endor, inference from story
of, 101
Witness of Psalms to Christ (Lectt. I.,
II.), 5 sqq. ; to Christian character
(Lect. IV.), 119 sqq.; to Church
(Lect. V.), 164 sqq. ; Worship (Lect.
VI.), \9isqq.; Theology (Lect. VII.),
225 sqq. ; its value, 261 ; witness to
individual Christianity, 277 ; to un
fulfilled prophecy, 281
Wordsworth, Bp. Christopher, quoted,
169, 170 ra.1, 181 ra.6, 211, 292 re.4, 332
Wordsworth, William, quoted, 105,
124 k.1, 155, 208
Worship, Christian, foreshown in
Psalms (Lect. VI.), 194 sqq. ; general
preparation for, 201, 336 ; special
do., 202 ; in its distinctive forms,
203, 335 ; their fitness for it, a pro
phetic fact, 212, 354 ; their unique
form adapted for it, 213 ; Jewish, its
language used in Psalms, 130, 327

Y

IGHDAL, the, 74

[This Index, and that which precedes it, are due to the kindness and industry of
the Dean of Saphde. I have also to thank the Rev. J. D. Collis, D.D., Vicar of
Stratford-on-Avon, for a list of errata in Hebrew in the First Edition, and an
unknown American friend for considerable materials for an Index locorum.]

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UNDESIGNED SCRIPTURAL COINCIDENCES in the OLD
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THE CONTINUITY of SCRIPTURE, as declared by the
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THE TEMPLES of the JEWS, and the other Buildings in the
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