ones, and five others much below the average.' He may refuse to believe, and rush away to some cunning woman who can read the stars,' and solve, as he believes, his problem. But it were wiser of him to listen to what science, with her inexorable figures, her law of averages, so forcibly prophesies. Science is the prophet of the nineteenth century, but unlike the prophets of old she works with eternal facts, while they filled up the void of ignorance with idle fancies.

Before us lies the undrained city; the courts are ill ventilated, and the homes of the inhabitants are dirty, badly lighted, and fetid. The scientific man marches through it, crying aloud so that all may hear, 'This city wil 'be smitten by fever! this people will die!' Who are they that shall dare to dispute the truth of his proclamation? It is admitted that he weareth not the garments of the ancient prophets; that he does not preface his statement with the saying, 'Thus saith the Lord!' and yet in every sense he is a Prophet from God, who speaketh forth truth for the good of mankind quite as clearly as, and far more truly than any of those who spake in the olden times. Then, men spake as they were moved by hope and fancy-now, as they are instructed by nature and fact. And instead of devoting their lives to the study of Hebrew prophecies, instead of filling the minds of the people with this dust of the dead gathered out of ancient charnal houses, it would be better and more in harmony with their duty if our modern preachers were to apply their minds to a study of the actual verities of life, for then they would become qualified to speak with authority unto those who hail them as teachers, and could show their followers how to avoid the beginning of evils which are destructive in their courses,

as

There is, however, another form of prophecy, but few are they who attain to the power of its utterance. It is not supernatural, but depends upon spiritual, mental, and moral intuition. They who enter within the circle of its seers, are men who devote themselves wholly to the study of man, both seen in history, and as he lives and moves around them. They have the courage to trample the prejudices and mere creeds of men beneath their feet, having but truth as their aim, and the good of mankind as their object. These men are the mocked, and jibed, and persecuted of all the countries and ages. But now and then they issue forth laden with a new truth, which, with deep and heartfelt conviction, they prophesy will prove an incalculable blessing to the human race. These men ponder the records of the past, seeking not the mere amusement of an hour, but to discover the deeper threads by which events are bound together; they labour to trace events through various stages up to their unsuspected causes, and, by careful comparisons, to discover the laws of God which operate to save or to destroy nations. They are the real prophets of modern ages. They give their lives for light, and abandon all the ordinary pleasures of life in order to win knowledge. They are the real guides of the nations among whom they live, and while such men continue in the land, we shall neither lack wisdom nor truth. But they cannot make things to be as they wish, and cannot redeem those who are lost. They are authorized to predict what will be, and can show us how we may secure fulfilment to their prophecies, but it is beyond their power to raise us up unless we co-operate to make their hopes and aims effectual.

The Hebrew waited for a Redeemer, and still waits, having fallen into the error of believing that great men make great nations, whereas the truth is that it is great nations which furnish all the possibilities of great men. Shakespere would be lost among the Bosjesmen, and Cromwell would be

valueless to the North American Indians. They were great men who fought with Oliver at Naseby, and until we all make ourselves relatively great there is no redemption possible. The Messiah will find a world worth redeeming before he moves to redeem it. Why should a great soul rise up to redeem those who have not, as far as was possible unto them, redeemed themselves? We can, however, all see that the Jews have been in error, in waiting instead of working; in praying to be redeemed, instead of nobly working to redeem themselves; we can all perceive that, but the lesson lying in it we do not so readily see! We do not redeem ourselves from the slavery of fashion, and the cant of sectarianism; we do not redeem ourselves from the love of bankingprosperity, the flattery of the wealthy, and many other evils equally great.

To all who live thus we prophesy that unless they change they will rot. Thousands who walk the streets of London with pride of purse and place have had all the manhood rotted out of them. They are beyond cure in this world, and while they live in it will be but digesting and counting machines. What may be possible for them in another sphere we would rather not undertake to say, farther than that we hope they may yet realise a fearless and manly life. When the potato is shrivelled and gone beyond the art of the cook to make it good for the table, the planter hides it in the ground, and behold! it renews its life in another form. It may be so with the men whose souls are shrivelled; and we will hope it, but still we doubt.

But unto those who still have hope and strength we say, Work and win your victory-be your own Messiah, and you will thus show forth gratitude for the powers with which the Highest has dowered you. And of such we may safely prophesy that they will succeed. Victory comes unto those who have deservedly battled. The band of patriots may for a time be trodden underfoot; but the hour is sure to come when the seed sown will produce its appointed harvest, and they who persevere with the right shall not ultimately fail. Such is the inevitable law. And he who will carefully read the everlasting laws stamped upon matter and man needs no higher inspiration. The truth lies above, below, and around; let us open our eyes and read this 'He is the truest prophet who patiently studies and honestly translates the 'actual meanings of nature! he shall not err, and shall never be put to 'shame.' P. W. P.

SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL, SUNDAY EVENING LECTURES. BY P. W. PERFITT, PH. D.

PROPERLY speaking, the Book of Psalms is a collection of poems varying in their age, nature, aim, and authorship. There are one hundred and fifty poems of unequal length, from only two verses, as in the one hundred and seventeenth, to nearly two hundred verses, as in the one hundred and nineteenth. Some are repetitions, as the fifty-third and the fourteenth, which are copies. Others are made up out of longer ones given in other parts of the collection, and the seventieth is nothing more than the last five verses of the fortieth. Their styles are as varied as their ages, some have all the sententiousness of the earliest date, with the rugged and half-expressed ideas peculiar to all early poesy; while others are full-toned and elaborately wrought. The earlier strike us dumb, the latter woo us to silence. Some of them are sermons, evidently intended to be used by persons who were

engaged in teaching; they are reasonings in verse, and are constructed with a close attention to logic; while others, on the contrary, spurn all laws and rules, alike of art and reasoning, and strike out into the great Sea of the Unknown, as though the author had been commissioned to illumine the darkness. There is great force and beauty in many of these. Instance, the twenty-ninth :

"The voice of Jehovah is heard above the waters,

For the God of glory speaks in thunder,
Jehovah above the great waters.

The voice of Jehovah is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty ;
The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars,
Yea, breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
Yea, He maketh them to skip like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion like the young unicorn.

The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire;
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness,

The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord rendeth the oaks,

And layeth bare the forests,

And in His temple doth every one speak of His glory.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood,

Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.

The Lord will give strength unto His people,

The Lord will bless His people with peace."

The collections may be fairly spoken of as composed of five sets put together, and never originally intended to be called the Psalms of any particular person. These five books are distinct even now, and some end with an order to the singer,

Singer go back." Others end with what we now call the doxology. The first division ends with the forty-first, the second division with the seventy-second, where we find the words "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doeth "wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious name for ever; and let the whole "earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. The prayers of David, the son "of Jesse, are ended." The third book contains from the seventy-second to the eighty-ninth, terminating with "Blessed be the Lord for evermore, Amen and Amen." The fourth division includes the one hundred and first, and ends "Blessed be the "Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting; and let all the people say Amen. Praise ye the Lord." The fifth division terminates with "Praise ye the "Lord." Surely these marks indicate that the collections are not to be understood as emanating from one man, and, speaking critically, from a careful reading both of the Psalms and what has been written upon them by Ewald, Hitzig, and others, I do not hesitate to say that the several books were collected at various times by persons now unknown, and that not until the time of Ezra were they all spoken of as "The Psalms of David." And even then, as Davidson observes, "they were "not accepted as the productions of David's pen." Like all other nations, the Hebrews used certain names as representative of fixed forms and ideas. For instance, the name of Moses was identical with law, just as in Greece the name of Solon, and in Anglo-Saxon England the name of King Alfred. Every new law in the course of time came to be spoken of as Mosaic, or as a law of Solon or Lycurgus. In the national mind these were the sacred legal authorities, and nothing would have been tolerated unless it were Mosaical or Solonical; and precisely the same took place with David and the Psalms. When dark days had come over Israel, when despotism, exile, and insult, had co-operated to destroy their nationality, happiness, and individual independence, then they looked back mournfully to the boasted days of David, who had written Psalms, and with him they blended the idea of song. Every poem was Davidical, and as with years their literature declined, instead of rising higher, the precious fragments came at last to be spoken of as the veritable productions of David, although the fact is that he could not have done more than compose a few himself and patronise other composers.

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This is proved, too, by the titles attached to the several Psalms. There are thirtyfour Psalms which have no title, and are, in consequence, called by the Jews "The "Orphan Psalias." The remaining one hundred and sixteen have titles, and bear the supposed authors' names. Now, if we look to these in the several collections, we shall discover that not one of the five books is wholly attributed to David. In the first two books are several Psalms which are ascribed to the sons of Korah, and one to Asaph, yet these two books are generally ascribed to David. In the third book there are but seventeen Psalms, and of these only one is ascribed to David. the fourth book, out of the seventeen, three only have inscriptions, and two out of the three are assigned to David; but in the last book fifteen are ascribed to him. In all the books a great variety of authors are named, as Moses, Solomon, Asaph, and others, but curiously enough not one is assigned to any of the greater or lesser prophets. But, as De Wette and others have suggested, it is impossible to believe that they wrote no lyrical pieces which became popular enough to be received into a national collection, for with them, more than with any other, lay the bardic power of Israel. They were the real singers and thinkers of great thoughts, and hence it is with pleasure we look upon the results of modern criticism, which, by minute analysis, has arrived at the conclusion that at least thirty were written by Jeremiah, and many others by known prophets. It is demonstrable that several of those which have titles ascribing them to David, were not written till long after his death, and were penned by Jeremiah. or some poet of his age, and hence the question arises, how many ascribed to David were really written by him. In all, there are seventy-four bearing his name, and although it has been asserted by many Hebrews and Christians that the nameless ones should he brought to his account, the general tone of criticism has been against such a proceeding, and therefore I need not take up your time in discussing it. Any one who wishes to study the matter out for himself, will easily discover the impossibility of David having written them, for it is a fact that they allude to events which did not occur until many years after his death-ranging from fifty to sixhundred years after. Thus, all that are not ascribed to him may be fairly passed over, in order that we may look unto those which bear his name, and which, in truth, are more or less objectionable. Of course, I can only now give an example, and cannot examine the whole of the seventy-four, yet the one I select is a fair specimen, and if it cannot, from internal reasons, be assigned to David, then the same must be said of nine out of every ten of those I leave unexamined.

I select the sixty-ninth, which modern criticism has assigned to Jeremiah, while the title ascribes it to David. The internal evidence is against David's claim.

"Save me O God! For the waters press in to my very life!

I sink in deep mire, where is so secure standing,

Into deep waters have I come, and the waves roll over me.
I am weary of crying; my throat is parched;

Mine eyes are wasted, while I wait for

my

God,

More numerous than the hairs of my head are they
Who hate me without having a reason.

Mighty are they who seek to destroy me→

Who without cause are mine enemies.

They make me give what I took not away,

Oh God, thou knowest my offences,

And from thee my sins are not hidden,

Let not them who trust in thee be put to shame,

Oh Lord, Jehovah, God of Hosts,

Let not them be confounded who through me have sought thee

O God of Israel.

For on account of thee do I suffer reproach,

And shame covereth my face!

I am become a stranger to my brethren;

Yea, an alien to my mother's sons,

Through zeal for thy temple was I consumed

And the reproaches of them who reproached thee fell upon me.
When I weep and fast, that is made my reproach;

When I clothe myself in sackcloth, then I become their by-word;
They who sit in the gate speak against me,

And I am become the song of the drunkards."

Personally, this is not true of David. It has been argued that it relates to the time when Absolom was in revolt againt him, and he was compelled to fly from Jerusalem; but if so, why should he ascribe his suffering to the wickedness of men who hated him because of his zeal for God? It was not through that his son rose against him. He suffered no reproach because of Jehovah, but solely because of his own wickedness. The whole of what I have read relates to the sufferings of one who has been called upon to endure because of his religious ideas, and David was never placed in danger of becoming a martyr for the cause of religion.

The outlines of the condition of Israel worked into this poem, are equally untrue of the age of David. In the latter part there is a distinct recognition of the captivity and a promise of release.

"But I am poor, and sorrowful;

May thine aid, oh God, set me on high!

Then will I praise the name of God in a song;
I will give glory to Him with thanksgiving,
More pleasing shall this be to Jehovah
Than a full-horned, and full-hoofed bullock.
The afflicted shall see and rejoice;

The hearts of them that fear God shall be revived,

For Jehovah heareth the poor

And despiseth not His people in their bonds,
Let the heaven and the earth praise Him;

The sea and all that move therein!

For God will save Zion, and rebuild the cities of Judah,
That they may dwell therein and possess it,
Yea, the posterity of His servants shall possess it,
And they that love Him shall dwell therein."

It is impossible that David could have written thus. They who have just founded a nation do not presuppose its slavery and redemption, but look with oertainty to the continuance of that which they have established. The Davidic theme was that Jerusalem should endure for ever: that his family should continue to hold the sceptre, and that their glory should never pass away. But when this poem was written the glory had waned, and the cities of Judah had been ruined. Jerusalem had become the property of the spoiler, and they who stood up in defence of the ancient order of things were subjected to persecution. If we turn to the life and times of Jeremiah, we come at once upon a man and a series of facts which meet all the critical requirements which determine the authorship. In those unhappy days Zion had fallen, and the cities of Judah lay in ruinous heaps; the people were in captivity, and there was great indisposition on the part of the dwellers in Jerusalem to bow to the old theory, or to the prophet's theory of Jehovah. In his book of poems and narratives, we find abundant evidence to establish that he was hated, that the powerful men of the city sought his life, and that it was his apparent zeal in the cause of Jehovah and the temple which brought him into disgrace and danger. There is not a single line in the poem that fails in regard to the prophet and his times, and scarcely one which can be properly applied to David and the events in his career, and hence the fair conclusion is, that it should be called a Psalm of Jeremiah-not a Psalm of David.

That some of these Psalms may have been written by David is not to be denied, but that he wrote the best of them is not even assumed in the Bible, if we go by the authors' names attached, for they give the honour of the finest to Asaph and