A RISEN AND PRECIOUS CHRIST. "And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."-Luke xxiv. 36. WHAT an eventful day! what choice moments, rich in blessing, that first Sabbath brought to the church! Before such scenes all earthly good sinks into the shade. In this verse we are introduced into a company of believers just brought to the faith of Christ's resurrection, in all the freshness of new converts. Cleophas and his friend are just arrived to tell the eleven of their wondrous walk, rich in deepest interest; how a stranger won their hearts, and expounded to them, as they had never heard before, the things the prophets had foretold of Messiah. And how, when arrived at their destination, they prevail on Him to stay; and then they found it was their dearest Lord. But ere they tell their glowing tale, they find their friends rejoicing in a risen Saviour; they, too, have a tale of love to tell. Peter has seen him, and then these add their rich experience; "They told what things were done in the way," &c. "And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst." That is just His way; they talk of Him; and, lo, He appears! as if He thought, "Such had my bride's inviting frame, E'en in my absence been ; And now they are happy. A minute's Observe the delight Jesus takes in His people. On that day He showed Himself to Mary; He smiled on Peter, and bound up his penitent, broken heart. He went with the two to Emmaus, and now He meets the infant Church, and enriches it by His grace. Could He not say, "All my delight is in the saints," &c. And, blessed be His name, He pours His love in the heart, so that it is in a degree mutual. The bride says, "My best beloved to whom the wing Of my affections flee, Is sweeter than the sweetest thing, "In vineyards fair of Engedi, Are camphor clusters sweet; In whom I am complete. Still fresh in view I may design, "By faith I eat the clusters prest, And drink the blood He spilt; "To me this bleeding love of His And when the believer speaks, thus "What! is thy heart a bed of rest; AN EXTRACT, My soul, thou art now as a bird in forsake it, and swim to the shore of the shell; in a shell of flesh, which will eternity. Therefore, O everlasting creashortly break and let thee go. This ture, see, and be sure, thou content not feeble vessel of the body will certainly, thyself with a transitory portion!-ere long, be split on the rock of death; Arrowsmith. and then must thou, its present pilot, "THE PSALMS OF DAVID THE LANGUAGE OF CHRIST.” To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine. DEAR BROTHER IN THE LORD,-I do for, grievous sin-sin culminating in not often commence a controversy; "blood-guiltiness" (ver. 14). And the though, indeed, I have not of late been title tells us that it was written by able to keep out of controversy in your David, after he had himself fallen into pages. But in the present instance I most grievous sin; the most aggravated feel constrained to make a few remarks feature in his sin being the treacherous upon the letter of the REV. R. H. RY- murder of a faithful servant. Is it not LAND, which appears in the current the natural, yea, the inevitable conclunumber of the Magazine; remarks sion, that the repentance of the Psalm is written, I trust, in the spirit of Chris- repentance for the sin alluded to in the tian love, and with due respect for your title? If not, is not the title strangely venerable correspondent. calculated to mislead the reader? Does I had not now to learn for the first it not, in point of fact, mislead ninetytime the nature of Mr. RYLAND's theory nine out of every hundred readers? of the Messianic interpretation of the Where is the simple-minded child of Psalms, having long been acquainted God, unacquainted with commentators, with his interesting book, "The Psalms and having no favourite theory to suprestored to Messiah;" in which, as in port, who doubts that the experience of his present communication, that theory this Psalm is David's own experience; is, I cannot help thinking, carried some- that it is, as Dr. ANDREW BONAR obwhat too far. As regards the letter-to serves, as if God had printed the diary which I shall strictly confine my remarks of David, and, in order to humble him, -the attempt "to show that the lan-handed it to the chief musician, that all guage of the 51st Psalm can strictly be Israel might know his bitter repentapplied only to Christ," is certainly, to ance ?" use a somewhat vulgar expression, "to take the bull by the horns;" for in truth, if this can be proved, no other Psalm will give us much trouble. I must express my conviction, however, that Mr. RYLAND has not proved his point, and that the language of the 51st Psalm cannot possibly be applied to Christ at all. Let us, first, look for a moment at the title, "A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba." This," says Mr. RYLAND, "simply tells us when DAVID wrote it." Here it is admitted (1.) That David was the writer of the Psalm; and (2) That he wrote it under the very peculiar circumstances alluded to in the title. These admissions involve a good deal. Why, we would ask, were those circumstances mentioned at all, unless they throw light upon the character of the Psalm? And if the speaker is not David, but Christ, what possible light does the mention of David's sin afford us? Again, the Psalm is the fourth of those called "penitential;" it expresses in the strongest possible language the speaker's consciousness of, and sorrow' But, according to Mr. RYLAND, the internal evidence of the Psalm is against this opinion. In the first place, "The speaker while he pleads guilty in the fullest sense to the first division of the decalogue, asserts his entire freedom from all offences against his fellow-man; ver. 4, Against thee only have I sinned.'" And hence the language of this verse "is singularly inappropriate to David's case.' This objection arises, I apprehend, solely from the fact that Mr. RYLAND Overlooks the very necessary distinction between sin," and crime or injury. "Sin," the apostle John tells us, "is the transgression of the law" (1 John iii. 4). As such it is committed against the Lawgiver. But the law of which sin is the transgression, is not man's law (the breach of which would be crime only) but God's law; and therefore sin is really only committed against God. A trespass against God's law is sin; a trespass against the law of the land is crime; and a trespass against our neighbour, individually considered, is injury. The same acts may indeed be, and very fre quently are, both sins and injuries. The acts of David, which we are speaking of, be reconciled to us. Who can venture were so; deeply and grievously had he to open his mouth in God's presence injured Urial, as indeed he seems to unless he be assured of His fatherly acknowledge in the 14th verse; but still, favour? And pardon being the first his sin was committed only against God. thing we should pray for, it is plain "He felt," to quote the words of there is no inconsistency in having a CALVIN, "that God was the Judge with persuasion of the grace of God, and yet whom he had to do, that conscience hailed proceeding to supplicate His forgivehim to His bar, and that the voice of man ness. In proof of this, I might refer to could administer no relief to him, how- the Lord's Prayer, in which we are ever much he might be disposed to for- taught to begin by addressing God as give, or to excuse, or to flatter. His our Father, and yet afterwards to pray eyes and his whole soul were directed to for the remission of our sins. God's God, regardless of what man might pardon is full and complete; but our think or say concerning him." The faith cannot take in His overflowing mere fact that David says, Against goodness, and it is necessary that it thee only have I sinned," does not there- should distil to us drop by drop. It is fore warrant the inference even that he owing to this infirmity of our faith, that held himself entirely free from all we are often found repeating and reoffences against his fellow-man, and peating again the same petition, not certainly he nowhere "asserts" this. with theview, surely, of gradually softening the heart of God to compassion, but because we advance by slow and difficult steps to the requisite fulness of assurance." I think, therefore, that there is little weight in this objection to the Davidical interpretation of the 51st Psalm. But, secondly, it is objected, that though David was a sinner, he was a pardoned sinner, and therefore had no need to seek anew for pardon. "The prophet Nathan, speaking by the voice of God, pronounced that the sins connected with Bath-sheba were put away." But "the language throughout the Psalm contemplates unpardoned sin sin bearing down upon, and crushing the guilty with its weight." To this I answer; true, Nathan had pronounced the Divine absolution of David's sins, but we are not told that David's faith was in such lively exercise that he could immediately apprehend that absolution. As old KEACH says, "A man may be forgiven his sins in the court of heaven, and yet not be forgiven in the court of his own conscience. And yet the court of God is the superior court; what does it matter if it is not ratified by the lower? As some truly believe and yet know it not, so they may be forgiven all their sins and yet know it not." This is, mainly, the view taken of David's case by CALVIN. On the 7th verse of this Psalm the great Reformer says, "Our faith_is_weak, and we cannot at once apprehend the full extent of the divine mercy; so that there is no reason to be surprised that David should have once and again renewed his prayers for pardon, the more to confirm his belief in it. The truth is, that we cannot properly pray for the pardon of sin, until we have come to a persuasion that God will But, once more, Mr. RYLAND says, The living bird went free; Express'd the sinner's plea ; At all events it is to be observed, that in est reasons for dissenting from the this case, as also in that of the institu- exclusive Messianic interpretation of the tion of the Passover (Exod. xii. 22), Psalms is, that it virtually deprives the which may also be alluded to by the church of all part and lot in this most Psalmist, the use of the hyssop was blessed book. If I were asked wherein simply to sprinkle the blood of the sacri- I considered the prime excellency and fice-blood which, as we may learn from peculiar value of the Psalms to consist, Heb. ix. 13, 14, and 18-22, was typical I should at once reply, in the language of the blood of the great Surety Himself, of one who had drank deeply into their and the application of which is accord- spirit; in the fact that they "contain ingly spoken of by St. Peter, as "the the words of God's Spirit taught to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" souls of His servants, when they were (1 Pet. i. 2). The language of the 7th exercised with the most intense expeverse of this Psalm does not therefore riences, whether of conviction, peniignore, but, as in the opinion of the most tence, and sorrow, or faith, love, and eminent commentators, makes express joy; and are fit, therefore, not only to reference to that great Sacrifice by which express the same most vital moods of alone sin is atoned for. Having thus every renewed soul, but also powerful examined, and, may I add, disposed of, to produce those broad awakenings of Mr. RYLAND's objections to the Davidi- spirit, to create those overpowering cal interpretation of the Psalm, I shall emotions, and propagate that energy of not follow him in his remarks on the spiritual life in which they had their general tenor of it. I have simply to birth." But, if the experience of the say that, to my own mind, the applica- Psalms is exclusively the experience of tion of the language of the 5th verse, Christ personal, and not also of Christ "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and mystical; then, indeed "the Psalmist's in sin did my mother conceive me ;" and language" cannot be yours or mine. If of the 14th verse, "Deliver me from we are to seek for "Christ alone," and blood-guiltiness, O God;" to Christ, not for "Christ and His Church," in seems little short of blasphemy. I could this book of Psalms, then do its rich not, I dare not, so apply it. I feel the and varied treasures of spiritual expemost perfect conviction that, as Dr. rience become to us practically a dead BONAR observes, "no such circum-letter; something to be admired and stances as these could ever have in them aught that corresponded in the remotest manner to any circumstances in the life of the Surety, David's Son. On the contrary, so far is this Psalm from being fitted to express the work of the Surety, that it seems introduced at this point in order to lead us to look back on the former songs of David, and to say of what was set forth therein, 'Surely this David, who here appears as a leper all over, with a heart as vile as the worst action of his life, cannot be the David of whom such glorious things were formerly spoken.' I will only add, that one of my great wondered at, as we admire and wonder Liverpool. THE NEW BIRTH. WHEN our heavenly oculist opens | the purity and the spirituality of the our eyes, what do we see? We see our law of God; and we cast ourselves upon state by nature, we see our sin, we see His clemency, His mercy, and His our danger; and then it is we also see grace.-Smithers. DR. M'NEILE ON REVIVAL PRAYER MEETINGS. THE number of communicants in Dr. M'Neile's congregation is so great, that he has felt it necessary for some years to shorten the morning service on the first Sunday of every month. He has done so by substituting a short address for the sermon. After the reading of the Nicene Creed he goes into the pulpit without changing his surplice, and delivers an address, varying from five to fifteen minutes in length, and then proceeds with the Communion Service. This has been his custom for five or six years. Last Communion Sunday he said : "Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has commanded us to preach. There fore we preach. He has promised that His Word shall not go forth void. Therefore we preach in hope. He has commanded us to pray. Therefore we pray. He has promised answers to prayer. Therefore we pray in hope. By answers given, graciously and largely given, in America and in Ireland, He has now animated our hope, and quickened our petitions, that, as it is with others, in all that is true and genuine, so it may be with us. "I am willing, more than willing, that we should have opportunities more than ordinary for uniting in such prayers. Hence our meeting last week. Hence the announcement of a similar meeting next week. But there is another thing I am anxious about, and that is, that our stated services in this house should become more than ever prayer-meetings; that there should be more fervour, more deep and solemn earnestness, more inward wrestling with God, more heartwork thrown into our church service. paraphrase of self-application, and then he said: "Avail yourselves of this-here are the cries for mercy, and pardon, and holiness, of which you hear in these revivals, only in more chaste and chastened language. Now, this is the time. There cannot be a more appropriate season for such united prayer than when we draw near to have our souls strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by bread and wine. "Another object of our prayer-meetings is to entreat our gracious Father to bestow the best blessings upon others, on the whole church in this land, and in all lands. Here, again, let us avail ourselves of our services in this house, and cry in good earnest for all estates and conditions of men, for kings—especially our own gracious Queen-for magistrates, for Jews, Turk, infidels, and heretics, for all who call and profess themselves Christians. Imagine a prayer-meeting in which the officiating minister, while deprecating a list of evils in this evil world, was interrupted by the whole assembly lifting up their voice with one accord, and saying, 'Good Lord, deliver us,' and again and again, 'Good Lord, deliver us.' And when he proceeded to enumerate and entreat blessing after blessing, imagine the whole assembly breaking in upon his petitions, and reiterating We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.' "Let no man say that, having such services in our church, we require no other meetings for prayer. Oh yes we "One great object at our prayer- do. For think for a moment how our meetings is to promote humble and services are treated. The words are earnest confession of sin, to implore there, indeed-words of truth, and Almighty God for Christ's sake to grant faith, and love, and power-but where us forgiveness, and, by this and all His other goodnesses and lovingkindnesses, so to constrain us in love that we may serve Him truly all the days of our life. Now, just attend to this, which forms a part of the services we are about to engage in." is the spirit-where is the life? "They have well said all that they have spoken! Oh! that there was such a heart in them! An altar is duly raised, the wood is cut and laid upon the altar, and a bullock upon the wood, but, alas! there is no fire under.' What we want Here the rev. doctor read the General is fire under. The coldness is felt. AtConfession in the Communion Service, tempts are made to banish it, and to giving a very brief, but very solemn, kindle up our sacrifices by sighs and |