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and the undevout. The grand subject of the whole is the moral degeneracy of his age.

THI

HIS moral degeneracy appears in this Psalm in three aspects.

I. AS A FACT FOR DEVOUT LAMENTATION. Lord ""Save, Jehovah," &c.

"Help,

Three things seem to impress the writer with the corruption of his times.

First: The absence of the true. "The godly man ceaseth, the faithful fail." Phrases these which represent men of true spiritual worth, but these men were gone from Judea. They had been; David had seen and known them, but they were not, they were gone. Gone! How? There are three ways in which good men depart from a country. Sometimes by emigration; they go to other lands. Sometimes by death; they pass into the higher world. And sometimes by apostacy. Through yielding to temptations they lose their spiritual worth and fall into corruption and crime. In all these ways good men no doubt departed from Israel, and in all these ways good men are constantly departing from amongst us. Thus "the godly cease and the faithful fail from among the children of men.'

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Secondly: The presence of the false. The false-the men of "vanity," of "flattering lips," of "double hearts"— were teeming around him. From the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth verses the characteristics of these morally false men are discoverable (1.) They were vain. They speak vanity." They were hollow-hearted men, and there was no reality in their utterances. (2.) They were obsequious. They had "flattering lips." To gain their selfish ends they administered to the vanity of their neighbours. (3.) They were insincere. "A double heart." They spoke one thing and meant another. (4.) They were proud. With their tongue they spoke "proud things." And they haughtily boasted of the power of their speech. "With our tongue we will prevail: our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" (5.) They were cruel. This is implied in the fifth verse. "For the oppression of the poor,' &c. In all morally false men you will find such characteristics as these; wickedness has many phases. Men with

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See the Leading Homily.

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these grim attributes of depravity David saw everywhere about him. What a spectacle for a devout eye!

Thirdly: The exaltation of the vile. "The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted." Wicked men not only abounded, but they occupied positions of eminence and influence. Such were the corrupt times over which David now pours his devout lamentation. And what, in truth, could be more lamentable than to see a whole people sailing down on the black and swelling sea of depravity under the gathering storm of Divine justice? This moral degeneracy appears—

II. AS A REASON FOR DIVINE INTERPOSITION. Divine interposition is

This

First: Prayed for. The breath of the writer's prayer comes out in the first and in the third verses. 66 Help, Lord"-save, Jehovah, "The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips"-may the Lord cut off all flattering lips, &c. Where else could David look but to heaven? Who but Jehovah could arrest the rushing and ever accumulating stream of depravity? What arm but his could bear up the tottering nation? What word but his could reform a corrupt people? This man looked where all should look in such circumstances-to heaven, whence alone help can come.

Secondly Divinely promised. "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." This comes as an answer to the prayer. "Before they call I will answer." Sooner or later the Father of infinite mercy will interpose for his oppressed people. He will crush the oppressor and save the oppressed. "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows." Not always will moral corruption reign and revel on this globe.

Thirdly: Heartily expected. "Thou shalt keep them, O Lord; thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. After his prayer came the promise, and after the promise came this assurance-that God would take care of his children. "Thou shalt keep them" from falling into the corruptions of the age, and from falling into the miseries of perdition. The good are ever secure. Omnipotence is

their guardian. God Himself is their refuge and strength. This moral degeneracy appears—

III. AS SUGGESTING BY CONTRAST THE EXCELLENCY OF GOD'S WORD. "The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." The words of the corrupt persons referred to in the second, third, and fourth verses suggested, no doubt, to the writer's mind, by the law of contrast, the transcendent excellency of God's utterances. Their words were empty and in every way unreliable, but God's words are trustworthy. All his sayings are true and faithful.

First: His words are unmixed with falsehood. They are "pure words." They express truth, and nothing but truth. There is not a particle of falsehood or error in them. This could not be predicated of any human utterances. The words of the best men are more or less mixed. Mixed with the errors of ignorance, if not with the errors of intentional deceitfulness. He knows all things, and it is not possible for Him to lie, therefore his words are unmixed truth. "As

Secondly: His words have been thoroughly tested. silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times." The word seven in the Scriptures denotes perfection. The truth of his words have been sufficiently tested. "The word of the Lord is tried." Ah, how thoroughly it has been tried during six thousand years! Tried by the fires of persecution, tried in the furnace of hostile criticism, tried in the profoundest experiences of the good in all ages. What a blessing to know that amidst all the false words of men that load our atmosphere, and stream from our press, there are "pure words "words of unmixed truth. Let us trust them and try by them all human words. The Bible, and the Bible only, contains God's "pure words." These are the words not only to renovate corrupt individuals but corrupt nations too. Let rulers make them their guide in all the measures they propose and in all the laws they enact. They teach better far

"The solid rules of civil government,

In their majestic, unaffected style,

Than all the oratory of Greece or Rome.
In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt
What makes a nation happy and keeps it so,
What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat—

These only, with our law, best form a king."-MILTON.

A Homiletic Glance at the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.

The student is requested to keep in mind the following things, which will throw much light upon the Epistle. First: The circumstances of the writer when he wrote. He was a prisoner in Rome, During his residence there, in "his own hired house" (Acts xxviii. 30, 31), from the spring A.D. 61 to 63, he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, and to the Ephesians. It is generally supposed that this Epistle to the Ephesians was the first he wrote during his imprisonment. Secondly: The circumstances of the persons addressed. They lived, it is thought, in Ephesus, an illustrious city in the district of Iona, nearly opposite the island of Samos, and about the middle of the western coast of the peninsula commonly called Asia Minor. It had attained in Paul's day such a distinction as in popular estimation to be identified with the whole of the Roman province of Asia. It was the centre of the worship of the great goddess Diana. Paul resided here on two different occasions. The first, A.D. 54, for a very short period (Acts xviii. 19-21); the second, for a period of more than two years. The persons therefore addressed in this letter are those whom he had converted from paganism, and in whom he felt all the interest of a spiritual father. Thirdly: The purpose of the letter. The aim of the Epistle seems to be to set forth the origin and development of the Church of Christ, and to impress those Ephesian Christians, who lived under the shadow of the great temple of Diana, with the unity and beauty of a temple transcendently more glorious. For the minute critical exegesis of this apostolic encyclical, we direct our readers to the commentaries of Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Jowett, Harless, Stier, Eadie, Hodge, and, last though not least, Ellicott. Our aim will be to draw out, classify, and set in homiletic order, the Divine ideas reached by the critical aid of such distinguished scholars.

SUBJECT: Intercessory Prayer.

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." -Ephes. iii. 14-19.

ANNOTATIONS.- —“For this cause." Toúrov xápw. This seems to have been repeated from the first verse. What is the cause? What is the special reason which now prompts him to pray for the Ephesians? It will be found in the preceding verses, and in the preceding verses there are two things, either of which, or both, might form the cause: (1) Common Christian fellowship-"They were with him builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." (2) His trials as their minister. These are referred to in the verse immediately preceding this passage, "Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory." He may mean, therefore, either "Because we

are fellow members of the same spiritual system, I pray for you," or "Lest you should be discouraged at my tribulations as an apostle I pray for you." Both might have been elements in the cause. "I bow my knees." This seems to have been the common posture of prayer. (2 Chron. vi. 13; Dan. vi. 10; Luke xxii. 21; Acts vii. 60, ix. 40, xx. 26, xxi. 5.) It seems to us also to be a natural and a becoming posture. It indicates reverence, humility, and entreaty of soul.

"Unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are not supported by the best authorities, and interrupt the connection of the passage, which contains (if we may so speak on a very deep and solemn subject) a kind of play upon the Greek words for father and family, pater and patria. It is not possible to express this simply and directly in English. "I bend my knees to the Father, from whom every earthly and heavenly relationship, every fatherhood and fatherland, has its name and support." "It is from pater that every patria derives its appellation: οὐκ ἀφ ημῶν ἀνῆλθεν ἄνω, ἀλλ ἀνωθεν nλOev eis nuâs.” (Dr. Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta.)

"Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Of whom that is, of the Father. Whether Tâσα maтρiá should be rendered "every family,” or the “whole family,” is a disputed point. The best modern critics, however, are inclined to the former. Ellicott renders it, "every race in heaven and on earth." The word "race," however, must be restricted to the intelligent creation. Paul would scarcely call God the Father of brutes and of reptiles. He is the Father of all souls. It is suggested by some biblical students that the phrase, heaven and earth, here stands for the two great sections into which the human race was then divided-Jew and Gentile.

"According to the riches of his glory." IIAoûтov TŶs dóns stands for the fulness of the divine perfections. The glory of God is his goodness. The apostle prays that God would deal with the Ephesians according to the abundance of his goodness.

“Το be strengthened with might” Δυνάμει κραταιωθῆναι. Δυνάμει may be rendered adverbially, "powerfully strengthened"; or it may be rendered " as to power," indicating the principle which was to be confirmed or strengthened; or "with power," as expressing the gift to be communicated through the Holy Spirit." (Hodge.)

"In the inner man." "Eis Tóv čow äveрwπov-into the inner man." (Ellicott.) The "inner man "here is the rational, moral-ego, that without which man would be no moral personality, without responsibility; an animal, nothing more.

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." Such expressions as these are of frequent occurrence in the New Testament. The soul of the Christian is represented as the residence of God, sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as the Holy Ghost. Without figure, he dwells in us whom we love most. But love for a being requires faith in Him; faith not only in his existence, but in his goodness and transcendent moral beauty.

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