SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10037, 25 January 1896, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE SONG OP A HAPPY HEART. [BY REV. JAMES STALKER, D.D.] PSALM XCII.

In one of the cantos of the "Divine Comedy" Dante introduces a sweet female figure gathering flowers; her face is gleaming with inuer gladness; and, when she is asked why she is so happy, she replies that it is because with the 92nd Psalm she is feasting ou the glory of the works of God. This is a Psalm which might be sung on the plains of heaven, and yet it is very full of earthly experience. Let us call it " The Song of a Happy Heart." I. INTRODUCTION—VERSES 1-3. " It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord"— it quietly begius. Our lives would be brighter if there were in them more thanksgiving; we rob ourselves of the sunshine of life when we rob God of praise.. It is a good thing, someone has said, to have something to give thanks for; and this every one has. Who can say I have nothing to be thankful for? But further, it is a good thing to have the principle of gratitude. Some have plenty to be thankful for, and yet there is no gratitude in their hearts. Can anyone affirm that we give thanks enough? Still further, it is good to have the means of giving thanks. David was a poet, and, besides, lie had taught himself to play on the harp—"upon an instrument of ten strings," this Psalm says, "and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound." We may not be so gifted, but we should train the gifts we have, and train them in our children. It is a great pity to be dumb when the praise of God is being celebrated. Lastly, it is a good thing to have set times for praise. The sacred poet says that he "will show forth God's loving kindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night." But, unless we make a practice of doing this, and covenant: a certain part of the day to it, the time will pass and this delightful exercise will be neglected. Especially ought we to look forward to the Sabbath as the great opportunity for the praise of God. In the superscription this is called a Psalm for the Sabbath Day. It was used in the second temple as the regular Psalm for Sabbath morning; and no canticle could be more appropriate for awakening our hearts to the services of the blessed day.

11. SHORT-LIVED PLEASURE— 4-9. What is it which has filled this singer's heart so completely with the spirit of praise? It is the contemplation of the works of God. "Thou hast made me glad," he says, " through Thy work; I will triumph in the works of Thy hand." Dante's paradisaical singer understood this to refer to God's works in creation ; but probably it refers more directly to His works in providence. It is as he contemplates the unfolding of history that the inspired singer exclaims, " 0 Lord, how 'great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very deep. History is both the enfolding and the unfolding of the thoughts of God. He first wraps up His thoughts iu events as these are forming in the darkness, and then when they come forth as actual occurrences they bear the impress of the Divine mind, and we can read it off. It is the happiness of deep thinking which is here celebrated. The hitman mind can never be so nobly occupied as when it is rethinking the thoughts of the Divine mind. _ And the thinker hero knows that he is tasting a joy of which many are incapable. " A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this." _ Religion has an intellectual side, and it is inaccessible to those who will not think. Perhaps this is one of the chief obstacles to the progress of religion. There are multitudes who are unfit for deep and serious thought. They may havo made themselves bo by vice or by worldliness. They may even have made themselves so by an excess of trifling reading. The mind may be fed so much on fun aud frivolity that it loses all relish for big subjects. let how can you save men if they will not think on subjects as big as sin, salvation, and eternity? The special aspect of providence which had laid hold of this poet's mind was the transiency of the happiness of the wicked. To other Old Testament thinkers the success of the wicked was a great perplexity; some of them confess that it had almost made them atheists, but this Psalmist was happier. He may have been perplexed at onetime; but he had lived long enough to see that the prosperity of the evil man was only for a moment; it spraug up like grass, or the flower of the field, but as quickly withered. He saw Jehovah exalted on His high throne, and the efforts of men to oppose His will appeared to him only impotent folly: they could only dash themselves in pieces against the throne which they hud attempted to overturn.

111. LASTING PROSPERITf— 10-15.

Apparently the Psalmist had come through some experiences which he does not particularise, illustrative of the truth which is here enforced; and thedecline of the fortunes of his enemies hud raised him to the height of good fortune. Once his eyes had been filled with tears, as they saw the prosperity of the wicked, but now be was gazing with astonishment and praise on what God had wrought. But he soon breaks away from his own affairs to apply the truth generally to all the righteous ; a and the Psalm resolves itself at the close into an incomparable picture of religious old age. The prosperity of the wicked he had compared to grass, quicklv springing up but as quickly withered. The prosperity of the righteous, on the contrary, is like that of the palm or the cedar, which endures for hundreds of years. The palm is the tree of the plains, growing in the oasis; the cedar is the tree of the mountains, growing on Lebanon. The two together form a perfect imige of grace, strength, and fruitfulness.

It is, however, of the enduring character of the prosperity of the righteous that he is thinking. Certainly this is one of the most striking characteristics of godliness. It may have to wait long for its justification, but it receives it at last. Dives gets his good things to begin with, but Lazarus is carried in the end to Abraham's bosom. Even in this world ain ends in disaster, but godliness outlives persecution and comes into its kingdom. There is a wonderful beauty often in an aged Christian; the hoary head has an incalculable influence; and, after all, this is only a beginning:• the best is ever in front; and heaven will be immortal youth,

DEFINITENEBS IN PRAYER. " Much of our prayer is vague and pointless," says Rev. Andrew Murray. "Some pray for God's blessing 011 those around them- for the outpouring of God's Spirit on their laud, or the world, aiid yet have no special held where they wait and expect to see the answer. To all the Lord says, " What is it you really want and expect Me to do. Every Christian has but limited powers, and as he must have his own special field of labour 111 which he works, so with his prayers also. Each believer has his own circle, his family, his friends, his neighbours, If he were to take one or mine of these by name, he would find "that this really brings him into the training of faith, and leads . to personal pointed dealing with his God.; ■ , ,

. We all know with what surprise the whole civilised world heard of the way in which trained troops were rlpulsed by the Transvaal Boers at Majuba. And to what did these owe their success? In the armies of Europe the soldier fires upon the enemy standing in laroje masses,' and never thinks of seeking an aim for every bullet. In limiting game the Boer had learned a different

lesson; his practised eye I each bullet on its special messaw tot Stl I find its man. 6ee k atl j 1 Such aim is wanted to-day in n , 1 against sin. _By some of the Lord s .. St 1 children it is being done. In M iroi ? ,:e »l 1 warship was commissioned at i>„, l!! » }■ for foreign service. Amongst it, 1 sailor lad filled with the Spirit of ,k » 1 So far as he knew there was not iUKIt i e 6 upon that ship like-minded with T r r "m | By a clean, clear Christian life |, e '"Hi. ; S dence to all in his " mess" that lie i'!' ft i- 5 to the Lord. He interceded f nr 11 "'?M I mates daily one by one, and with;,' "H- f months sixteen have been brought to»' Ulrt ' f knowledge of the truth as it is j„ '."S I Writing a fortnight after lie left Hi- i g —"It is with « heart full of liia'ukf V T ' : that I ask you to unite in praising r S p answered prayer in the salvation ~ ' 0; ' sister before I left home, and f or |,|„J 1 ' this ship." _ ' ln oj | Persistent, believing grayer i 8 ~ i answered. Its history to-day !ls j,, 4 li | generations is a memorial of Divine ~ i,: ' It is indefiniteuess, inconstancy, ln j' riCt - | belief that hinder the extension of (j' h .'" 1 !■ kingdom. The work given by onr M,'l every disciple has been by a tiicV,"/ 1 . I '' I" enemy appropriated to the few. iv j). | promise for needed power is not \viil„j r - V|nt * the Divine commission is not abru^te/h'' I the links of prayer and faith in tin j"", 1 | appointed order are missing. ' 4- I The mighty revival which eoiniiu.,,^. I New York in 1857 supplies striking evi.i, '' P that when specific individuals are inters,i' ! ; § for in God's appointed way they ate saw t Hundreds of wonderful and blessed i,t" 5 have been put on record, coming not T' | from churches, meetings, ami homes, |"! 1 from the streets, workshops, stores',' 6 ; | markets; reaching not only the rdijj,',,, ¥ but all classes of people—lawyers, meruit' seamen, and others, men a.i well as \ Volll 1 | and children—who were saved in aii«n,",' 1 definite prayer. Wives cried unto ) their husbands and they were saved, q 1 f dren cried unto God for parents ami ti,-. | ' were saved. Parents prayed ami i H '.j 1 others to pray for childrcu and cracioiu I answers were given. Its history is a iti-in o -i i ; of Divine grace. Thomas Hi", hex, | Portsmouth. '

THINGS THAT DID NUT HAPPEN'. " Anoint the shield."—lsaiah xxi. !>.

What is a shield? It is a very peculiar p ar of God's armour. It is not a strength « calamity; it is something which prevents cai» mity from coming. My strength is my po« er! . bear; but my shield is my escape from U,,. ing. My strength lifts me when the bio* falls; my shield catches the blow hefo r( . lt falls. My strength supports what is ; „„ shield wards off what might have been, i have often praised God for the strength; i,, j; I have seldom anointed the shield. 1 | la ,i recognised a thousand times His songs in i|,| night; but I have not sufficiently thanked Him that the night itself has not l„. Pri deeper. We are told that there are " 5i,,., that pass in the night"—golden opportunity that have been lost in the darkness, a,,,] doubtless there have been such. Hut, 1 thii.k the large majority of the ships that pass i a ' the night are not ships of gold. lam con. vinced that the vast proportion of the op[ W tunities that escape us in the darkness ar , opportunities not of gain, but of loss. Then js not one sea, however troubled, in which I havo not discovered a ship that passed in it,, night— ship that was bearing trouble greats still. I have read that in Gethseinane tne Son of Man received strength at the ond yes, but he received a shield at the beginning "The cup which My father hath given Ml shall I" not drink it?" In the midst of Hi' sea He saw a ship of trouble that had passed in the night. This cup might have com. without His Father; it might have been an accident, a chance, a contingency. He had been shielded from that, and He anointed the shield. He forgot the thought of th. present sea in the thought of the ship that h.id passed by. He accepted the night for th« sake of its one star; Ho took the cup front Hia Father.

0 Thou Divine Man, let mo anoint th* shield with Thee. Let me mark the blowj that have not fallen; let me count the ships that have not come. When lam oppressed and weary I would always hear a voice saying, " You have not yet resisted unto blood." I am always forgetting the manm when I review my wilderness; I see not tin bright light in the cloud, nor the shade that might have been deeper. Teach me to anoint my shield. Tell me of the arrows that were broken before they fell. Show me the pitfalls that my feet passed by. Light met; the darkness which my eye did not meet. Let me see the disappearing sail of the sorrow that has missed me. Guide me tc the path of dangers unborn, of tears unshed, of cries unspoken. Let me gaze on the uo winged lightning; let me hear the unutterd thunder; let me read the page that was not suffered to bo written. When I am in ftt plexity lead me to the valley that is lorn; than I. I shall worship Thee ii. my sorroj when I can worship behind the shield. George Matheson, M.A., D.D.

A DAILY DESIRE. "Bo thou in the feat of the Lord all the du long."— xxiii. 17. In the sweet fear of Jesus, May I begin the day, Fearful lest I should grieve Him, Fearful lest I should stray; Fearful lest earthly longings Ever my heart should share, Taking the throne of Jesus, Placing an idol there. In the sweet fear of Josus, Tenderly, gently led, Never disquieting terror, Never tormenting dread: Only the fear which, cherished, vieldeth for weary days Harrest of restful confidence, Harvest of gladsome praise. In the sweet fear of Jesus, Then may I live this day; Serving or resting, always Under its gentle sway. All that I say directed, All that I plan conceived, With the remembrance present, "Jesus must not be grieved." In the sweet fear of Jesus, Dwelling the whole long, Promptly yielding obedience, Patiently suffering wrong, Kept till the evening closes, Still by this strange, sweet fear, Blent with the blessed knowledge "Jesus is ever noar,"