the Lord, govern our tongues by the laws of truth and love.

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

"Depart from evil, and do good." Another part of the fear of the Lord is a ceasing to do evil, and a learning to do well. He whose soul is filled with the fear of the Lord, loving him as his Father, and fearing him as his God, will not be satisfied with the merely negative character of doing no harm in the world. He will aim and labour to do good, and to leave the world better and happier for his having been in it. "Seek peace, and pursue it." He, whose soul is filled with the fear of the Lord, will have his heart set on peace. He will seek it, he will pursue it with an energy that never abates, and a patience that never tires. The sentiment of his heart and the words of his lips are, "On earth peace: good will toward men." As much as it lieth in him, he will live peaceably with all men, and do all he can to persuade all men to live peaceably with each other. This is what David calls the fear of the Lord: "keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from guile: depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it." And now come his reasons for our fearing the Lord in this way.

VERSE 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

The righteous then should not hesitate to undertake to "keep the tongue from evil, and the lips from speaking guile; to depart from evil, and do good; to seek pursue it." While thus endeavour peace, and ing to serve him in holiness and pureness of living, God is all eye to watch over them, and all ear to

hear their cry to him for help. He regards with lively sympathy their struggles to overcome sin in themselves and its spread over the earth. How much should this fact encourage us never to despair of perfecting ourselves in any virtue required of us by our religion!

VERSE 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

God's eyes are on evil-doers as fixedly as they are on the righteous, but for a very different purpose; not to deliver them, but to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. It is as impossible for God not to hate and punish sin, as it is for him not to love and favour holiness. His nature, therefore, impels him as strongly to overwhelm and destroy the wicked, as it does to deliver and save the righteous. This is a fact full of hope to the righteous, but one that should be full of fear to those who persevere in their wickedness. The same eye that beams upon one in light and love, flashes down upon the other as a consuming fire.

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

It matters not how many troubles the righteous may have, the Lord delivereth them out of all. He may not deliver them at once, but, for a time, only give them grace to bear their troubles, until they have wrought out for them all the spiritual good they can work, and then the final deliverance comes. St. Paul besought the Lord many times to remove his thorn in. the flesh; and if it would have been for his spiritual good, no doubt it would have been removed at once: but it was needful to the perfecting of his Christian character. The Lord, there

fore instead of removing it, gave him grace still to bear it. 2 Cor. xii. 7-9. In this way God often makes the troubles of the righteous man his most precious blessings.

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

God regards the penitent soul with tenderest sympathy. The sighs of its contrition go direct to his heart. Its broken moanings over its sinfulness move him as nothing else can. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa. lvii. 15. What a balm should such words as these be to the heart of all those who are truly grieving over their sins, to whom the remembrance of them is grievous, the burden of them intolerable.

VERSES 19, 20. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.

It is only entire ultimate deliverance from all his afflictions that God promises the righteous man. He necessarily suffers so long as he sins; and the most thoroughly righteous man will sin, more or less, to the last. The most thoroughly righteous man, then, will suffer more or less to the last. Sin, even in the righteous man, is indissolubly connected with suffering. God, however, will take care that none of hist sufferings shall overcome him; he will deliver him before they reach that point. "He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken." He thus kept his own Son; not one of his bones was broken. No

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evil can befall those who trust in God, except as he permits or directs. The smallest thing connected with the believer is under His perpetual care. has numbered the very hairs of his head, and not a hair can perish without his consent. Matt. x. 30. Who would be without such a Guardian, Protector, and God as this? and who, having such a Guardian, Protector, and God, should ever allow his heart to be oppressed by a single anxious care?

VERSE 21. Evil shall slay the wicked; and they that hate the ighteous shall be desolate.

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"The wicked, and they that hate the righteous, are the same-the same ungodly characters. Their doom is that they "shall be desolate," that evil shall slay them. God allows no evil befalling the righteous ultimately to injure them, but, on the contrary, in the end overrules it for their good. It is otherwise with the ills of life which befall the wicked; these do them only harm. There being in the ills they suffer no hand of God to lighten, and, at last, to remove them, their trials come upon the wicked with a force that overwhelms them. They are slain by them, and perish without hope, as they have lived without happiness. There is no other fate for those who make not the Lord their trust.

VERSE 22. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them that trust in him shall be decolate.

This last verse contains substantially the teaching of the whole psalm; that is, God's never-failing care of those who endeavour to serve him in holiness and righteousness. He guides them by his wisdom, strengthens them by his grace, protects them by his power, and redeems their soul from death. Such is the God of the believer as he revealed himself to

David. How like the God who afterwards revealed himself to the world in the man Christ Jesus! He is not another, but the same God! Let us all then place ourselves under his protection by trusting in his mercy and obeying his laws. Doing this, let none of us fear that he will ever leave us or forsake us; for "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32.

LECTURE ON PSALM XXXV.

VERSES 1, 2. Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help.

THIS psalm was composed by David while suffering every kind of persecution at the hands of Saul and of his servants. They were not only seeking to take away his life, but left no slander unuttered that could cover his name and memory with infamy. Thus situated, and speaking not merely as an individual, but as the representative of persecuted righteousness, he prays for deliverance for himself, and for confusion to his enemies. In fact, the contest here waged between David and his enemies, represents the contest that has ever been going on in the world between truth and error, holiness and sin. Portions of the psalm, therefore, carry the mind beyond David to David's Son-to him who was Righteousness itself. "Plead thou my cause, O Lord." The man persecuted for righteousness' sake can never call in vain