their inmost recesses; to sound forth for ever there that Name which is above every name; to re-echo, faintly it may be, yet constantly, Thine own voice of unknown, unspoken, unfathomable love; the love of Heaven to guilty sinners,-the love which spared not the Son,—the love which brought Thee down to suffer our sorrows, our penalty, our curse, the love which enabled Thee to bear not only This our burden, but the taunts and revilings of those Thou didst die to redeem; a love which has borne so long with our coldness, our ingratitude, our waywardness: a love which bears with us still-for we are sinners: the disease of our hearts is that we cannot worthily love or magnify Thee;-our ingratitude magnifies Thy mercy; our coldness Thy surpassing grace; our silence speaks Thy marvellous love; our want of love the exuberance of Thine; it shows for whom Thou didst suffer all this; for whom Thy holy, sacred breast was pierced. My Lord, my Saviour, my imperfect utterance, my wavering affections, my uncertain walk, my faltering tongue, proclaim Thine unspeakable, Thine infinite compassions: my nothingness shews Thy condescension; my unworthiness Thy grace; my vileness commends Thy goodness. Yet, Holy Jesus, when Thou comest in Thy Glory; when Thou dost take up

the worms Thy blood has purchased to the home Thy love is preparing for them; in the new song which shall then be sung by Thy redeemed, give us hearts to feel, understandings to apprehend, and tongues to utter, "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height," of Thy love, "which passeth knowledge."

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ep. iii. 20, 21.)

"Of all the gifts Thy hand bestows,

Thou giver of all good,
Not heav'n itself a richer knows,
Than my Redeemer's blood.

"Faith, too, the blood receiving grace,
From the same hand we gain;

Else sweetly as it suits our case,
That gift had been in vain.

"Till Thou Thy teaching power apply,
Our hearts refuse to see,
And, weak as a distemper'd eye,
Shut out the view of Thee,

"Blind to the merits of Thy Son,
What misery we endure!

Yet fly that hand, from which alone
We could expect a cure.

“We praise Thee, and would praise Thee more, To Thee our all we owe;

The precious Saviour, and the pow'r,

That makes Him precious too."

COWPER.

VI.

“THE Lord preserveth the simple, I was brought low: and He helped me."-Ver. 6.

"BLESSED are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven;" but where did the Psalmist learn this truth? Nature does not teach it; nature says, "I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing." (Rev. iii. 17.) Here is probably another of the fruits of sanctified affliction; that sorrow had been sanctified to the man after God's own heart we find in Psalm cxix., verses 67 and 71: "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes." Whether David was the writer of the Psalm we are considering or not, seems uncertain, though I think there seems strong internal evidence that this was his composition; but we may in any case take his recorded character as exemplifying the simplicity here spoken of. It was not that lack of wisdom reprobated in the twenty-seventh chapter of Proverbs, and there contrasted with prudence. Examine the history of David's early life; hear him described

by one of Saul's servants as "prudent in matters." (1 Sam. xvi. 18.) Listen to the inspired testimony to his character: "And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him." (1 Sam. xviii. 14.) "David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was much set by." (1 Sam. xviii. 30.) Attend to his expressed resolve in a later part of his course; "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way" (Ps. ci. 2); and to his declaration in Psalm cxix. 99, "I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts." We may believe that in David was that union of wisdom and humility which is enforced in Proverbs (xvi. 18-23) and also by the Apostle to the Romans (xvi. 19): "I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil." David could say, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child." (Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2.) Let us seek for grace to have this lowly opinion of ourselves, remembering the apostolic