who hath found Him, can want nothing. Faith, hope, charity, temperance, purity, patience, and contentment, are the true riches; and the lack of them, the poverty to be most dreaded; since to a Christian, persecution, loss, sickness, nay, death itself, is gain. In the mean time, God is never wanting to provide for his servants what he seeth needful and best, in matters temporal; while tyrants and oppressors, who are, in the world, what 'lions' are in a forest, are often, by the just judgment of heaven, reduced to want that which they have ravished from others.

11. Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.'

They who, by contemplating the advantages described above, which attend the fear of the Lord, are become desirous of obtaining that fear, must hearken to their heavenly Father, who by his prophet 'speaketh unto them as unto children,' offering to teach them the good and right way.

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12. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?'

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Every Christian professeth to desire,' not only an animal, but a spiritual life;' to love, not an old age in time, but an eternal duration; that he may see those good things' which God hath prepared, not on earth, but in heaven, for them that love him. Let us observe, therefore, on what terms such blessines are offered.

13. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.'

The tongue is an instrument of much good, or much evil. Life and death are in its power; he that keepeth it, keepeth his soul; and he who offendeth not therewith is a perfect man: it is an unruly member, and the first work of the fear of God must be to bridle it, that no profane, unclean, slanderous, deceitful, or idle words, proceed out of the mouth. And as the heart is to the tongue, what the fountain is to the stream, that must first be purified.

14. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.' Div.

No. XXII.

R

Not the tongue only, but the whole man is to be corrected and regulated by the fear of God operating unto repentance from dead works, and, through faith, unto obedience of life. And he who hath thus obtained peace with God, must ever remember to follow peace with men, reconciling his brethren, if at variance; himself, if it be possible, being at variance with no one.

15. The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.' 16. The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.'

The righteous may be afflicted, like David, and like a greater than David; and their oppressors may, for a time, be triumphant: but, in the end, the former will be delivered and exalted; the latter will either cease to be remembered, or they will be remembered with infamy.

17. The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.'

This great and comforting truth is attested by the history of the deliverances of Israel from Egypt, Babylon, &c.; of Jonah from the whale; of the three children from the flames, &c. wrought at the supplications of the respective parties in distress; but above all, by the salvation of the world, through the intercession of Jesus Christ. The death of martyrs is their deliverance ; and the greatest of all deliverances.

18. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.'

We are apt to overlook men, in proportion as they are humbled beneath us; God regards them in that proportion. Vessels of honor are made of that clay which is 'broken' into the smallest parts.

19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.'

Afflictions all must suffer; but those of the righteous end in victory and glory. What soldier would not cheerfully undergo the hardships of a campaign on this condition? In the world,' saith the Captain of our salvation, 'ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world:' John xvi. 33.

20. He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.'

It is God who preserveth to man the strength of his body, which lieth in the bones; and that vigor of his spirit, which consisteth in firm and well-established principles of faith and holiness. The bones of the true Paschal Lamb continued whole during the passion; and those of the saints shall be raised whole at the last day, when the mystical body of Christ shall come out of its sufferings no less perfect and entire, than did the natural. 21. Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.'

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The evil of punishment springs from the evil of sin; and no sin works such desolation,' as a malicious 'hatred' and persecution of the true sons and servants of God. Whoso doubts the truth of this, let him only survey and consider attentively the desolation of the once highly favored nation, for their enmity against the King of righteousness, and his faithful subjects.

22. 'The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.'

The frequent prosperity of the wicked, and the troubles of the righteous in this world, strike powerfully on the sense, and are, for that reason, too apt to efface from our minds the notices given us by faith, of that future inversion of circumstances which is to take place after death. To renew, therefore, the impression of such an interesting truth, the redemption of the afflicted righteous is so often insisted on in the course of this Psalm. Enable us, O Lord, to walk by faith, and not by sight,' until we come to thy heavenly kingdom; where, with all thy saints, made perfect through sufferings, we shall bless and magnify thee at all times,' and thy praise will continually be in our mouth,' for evermore.

SEVENTH DAY.-MORNING PRAYER.

PSALM XXXV.

ARGUMENT.

[The Prophet, in this Psalm, as in the 22nd, which it resembles, personating Messiah, in his state of humiliation and suffering, 1-3. beseecheth Jehovah to interpose in his behalf; 4-8. predicteth the confusion of his

enemies, and 9, 10. his own triumph; 11-16. describeth the malice of his persecutors against him, and his love towards them; 17-25. repeateth his supplications for deliverance, and enlargeth on the cruel insults he met with 26. he again foretelleth the destruction of the adversary, and, 27, 28. the exultation of the faithful.]

1. Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.'

David, in his afflictions; Christ, in his passion; the church, under persecution; and the Christian, in the hour of temptation, supplicate the Almighty to appear in their behalf, and to vindicate their cause.

2. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.' 3. 'Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.'

Jehovah is here described, as a 'man of war,' going forth to the battle against the enemies of Messiah, and his church the protection afforded by his mercy is figured by the shield of the warrior, covering his body from the darts of the enemy; and the vengeance of his uplifted arm, is represented by the offensive weapons used among men, such as the spear and the sword. "If God be for us, who can be against us?' If he speaketh salvation, who shall threaten destruction? See Deut. xxxii. 41. Wisdom v. 20.

4. Let them be confounded,' or they shall be confounded, and put to shame, that seek after my soul: let them be,' or they shall be, 'turned back and brought to confusion, that devise my hurt.'

The consequence of the Omnipotent appearing in arms against his adversaries is here foretold. And the prediction has long since been verified in the 'confusion' of Saul, and of the Jews, as it will be finally fulfilled in that of Satan, and all his adherents, at the last day; for the manifestation of which day the church now waiteth, in faith and patience.

5. 'Let them be,' or they shall be, as chaff before the wind; and let the angel of the LORD,' or the angel of the LORD shall, 'chase them.'

The Jews, separated from the church and people of

Christ, become useless and unprofitable to any good work, possessing only the empty ceremonies and husks of their religion, and by the breath of the divine displeasure dispersed over the face of the earth, afford a striking comment on this verse, and as striking an admonition to every opposer of the holy Jesus. See Psalm i. 4.

6. Let their way,' or their way shall, 'be dark and slippery and let the angel of the LORD,' or the angel of the LORD shall, 'persecute them.'

A traveller, benighted in a bad road, is an expressive emblem of a sinner walking in his slippery and dangerous ways of temptation, without knowlege to direct his steps, to show him the danger, or to extricate him from it; while an enemy is in pursuit of him, whom he can neither resist nor avoid. Deliver us, O Lord, from all blindness, but, above all, from that which is judicial!

7. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.' 8. Let destruction,' or destruction shall, come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid,' or his net that he hath hid shall, catch himself: into that very destruction let him,' or he shall, ‘fall.'

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The causeless persecution raised against David by Saul, and against our Lord by the Jews, reverted, through the righteous judgment of God, on the heads of the persecutors. The innocent birds escaped; and they who set the toils, were themselves taken therein. Saul lost the kingdom which he thought to have secured, and his life also; and the Jews, who crucified Christ, lest the Romans should take away their place and nation,' had their place and nation taken away by those Romans, for that In these histories, all impenitent persecuvery reason. tors of the faith, the church, and the servants of God, may read their doom.

9. And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.' 10. All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?"

These verses, as they describe the joy which the soul and body of Christ were to experience after the resurrec